Activities and Observation

  • Timeline Creation (9;00- 10;00-AM): Creating personal timelines including photos with the terms extending to the distant past, termed as the long long ago.  
  • Ancient Cooking Experience, Food-series (10:30-11:30 AM): Western Hand-dye Wanderer made damper bread in ancient ways  
  • Artifact Creation (1:30-2:30 PM): The children will create some clay pots and clay tools to make artifacts that can be buried as future artifacts   
  • Evidence Detective Games (2:45-3:30 PM): Clues were used to find out what happened in mystery situations 

Professional Practice Elements Engaged 

Trust building: Delivered on promises, delivered consistent expectation 

Respectful Relationships and Responsive Engagement: Construction of trusting relationships demands responsiveness to emotional needs of children (Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2018):  

Complex Social Situation: Halima started crying when she looked at baby photos in the process of completing a timeline task and stated: "I do not want to be small again!"  

Me:  I know it, it seems being bigger is important to you  

Discussed interests: "What do you like about having the age you are and at which you have reached now?"  

Related to learning: "Your chronicle lists all the wonderful things that you have learned!"   

Empowered choice: Would you like to make some addition on what you are eager to learn next?  

Outcome: Child was actively involved and included in timeline new elements of the future goals and assisted younger children in their timelines.   

 

Relationship Building Strategies: Good relationships form the fundament in the learning and wellbeing of children (Pianta & Stuhlman, 2004):  

  • Personal relationships: Remembered what every child was interested in and referred to it during the activities  
  • Emotional attunement: Perceived and acted upon a variety of emotional states throughout the day  
  • Communication adaptation: Employed new styles of communication with different children according to their requirements

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and Cultures 

Indigenous worldviews must be embedded respectfully, and learners must keep learning (Harrison & Greenfield, 2021): Cultural Respect and Learning:  

  •  Damper making: recognised this as Aboriginal traditional food, spoke about cultural importance in a dignified manner  
  • Traditional knowledge: Described the way Aboriginal people are using native seeds to make bread thousands of years ago  
  • Cultural protocol: Requested authorization prior to exchanging information about culture, appreciated a source of their knowledge  
  • Connection to country: Explained the role the traditional cooking plays to people and their connection to the land and the seasons  

Preparation: Elder Surfing: Doing so involves ultimate consideration and adherence to procedures of engaging with Indigenous people (Price, 2012):   

  • Readied reverent inquiries to kids concerning classic tools and cooking  
  • Engaged the community and made welcome signs in local Aboriginal language  
  • Structured gifts of honor (service-produced indigenous plants) 

National Quality Standards - Quality Area 7 (Governance and Leadership) 

This aspect of educational leadership implies the ability to model the ideal practice and support the ongoing independence (Rodd, 2019): 7.1 - Educational Leadership:  

  • Pedagogical leadership skills as evidenced in making connections between the concepts of the history and the level of the children developmental stage  
  • Promoting staff discussion regarding how to entrench cultural views genuinely  
  • Promoted reflective practice through writing about and reflection on teaching choices  
  • Accommodated service by contributing to constant service improvement by providing innovative ideas of programming  

Quality Enhancement:   

  • Recommended changes in outdoor learning space depending upon children interests in excavation   
  • Exchanged effective tips on documentation with other student teachers  
  • Attended a meeting on policy review relating to the cultural inclusion practices  
  • Gave a response to evaluation instruments and how useful they were

Educational Program and Practice 

Integrated Curriculum Approach: With the help of integrated strategies, it is possible to connect the learning domains in a meaningful way (Katz & Chard, 2014):   

  • Mathematics: Timelines sequencing, measurement in cooking, counting archaeological material   
  • Science: The chemistry of bread making, ideas of preservation, analysis of evidence  
  • Literacy: Creation of stories about the old people, reading recipes, detective thinking  
  • Arts: Clay modeling, age line design, figurative expression of the past ideas  
  • Social Studies: cultural awareness, role in the community and the thinking process of history  

Programming Documentation: Good coding demands that learning intentions and outcomes be well documented (ACECQA, 2020):  

  • Learning goals: These are clearly stated per experience together with links to EYLF outcomes  
  • Resource planning: Determined what needed and what are the learning purposes of the materials identified  
  • Assessment integration: Integrated observation opportunities and means of documentation Built in observation opportunities and means of documentation  
  • Possibilities of extension: Future organized activities according to interests forecasted 

Learning Environment Provision 

he element of environmental design has serious effects on children learning opportunities (Curtis & Carter, 2020): Flexible Space Utilisation:  

  • Indoors archeology museum: Items and finds that turn around  
  • Outdoor cooking area: Safer damper making a fire pit alternative  
  • Investigation station: There are tools, magnifies, always recording materials  
  • Measured reflection room: To facilitate digestion by way of complicated historical ideas  

 Resource Management:  

  • Manmade resources: Natural clay, vintage cookware preserved in log cabins & ancient antiques replicas  
  • Safety precautions: Adapted equipment that is suitable to small children  
  • Practices of sustainability: Utilization of local clay, food scrap composting, reuse of materials  
  • Cultural sensitivity: all the resources portray cultures in a respectful way 

Observing, Documenting, Assessing, and Planning 

Comprehensive Assessment Approach: The assessment has to give meaningful feedback on the learning and development of the children (Pyle et al., 2018):   

Emma Assessment Example:   

  • Observation: When playing detective game, used logical approach to reviewing potential evidence, before drawing conclusion  
  • Analysis: Showed good logical thinking, was patient and detail oriented   

Connection EYLF: Outcome 4 - assertive and engaged learner who demonstrates skills in inquiry (Department of Education and Training, 2022)  

  • Future Directions: Offer more difficult problems solving and promote peer instruction   

Documentation Quality Indicators:  

  • Objectivity: What was reported was just what was objective without interpretation  
  • Specificity: It contained a direct quotation and the description   
  • Learning Focus: Made observations related to curriculum outcomes and child development  
  • Family Communication: Translated observations (in meaningful learning stories) to the family