Download Reflection in Action: Curriculum Planning and more Thesis Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! ECD 315 Week 4 – Reflection in Action: Curriculum Planning ECD 315: Curriculum Planning & Design for Early Learners This reflective journal is going to cover three significant things that I have gained from this course, to include self-awareness and understanding, a deeper comprehension of the work that goes into curriculum planning, and furthermore, the extreme importance of family and community involvement with individualized student lesson planning. I will discuss my preparation and mindset on the week five final project. Finally, I will discuss the connection I have made between intentional curriculum planning and fostering each child’s development and joy for learning, and a personal achievement that I have made in this course and how it will affect my ability to work with my students and their families in the future. Three significant things that I have gained from this course are my own self-awareness and understanding of how I plan on teaching and creating curriculum that will keep my students engaged and inspired to learn. I have realized during this course that creating a curriculum plan, while district or state mandated is easy because it is already regulated, what is required for my students to learn and know by the end of the school year, is quite difficult when I try to tailor that same curriculum to my own personality and the personality and needs of my students. Now what I mean by this is that per the school district and state regulations I am required to teach certain things that help my students reach their educational milestones like writing, reading, spelling, vocabulary, math, and science. However, each year I will be assigned approximately 15-20 different personalities, with different milestones that they have already accomplished and some milestones that they are struggling with. It is my responsibility and my determination to keep my 15-20 students engaged, motivated, and inspired to come to class and learn every single day. That is something that cannot be taught. However, through this course I have learned that having family and community involvement in my curriculum planning immensely increases my success at keeping my students engaged, motivated, and inspired to learn. That is why it is so vital for me to make an immediate connection with my students’ families, our community, and especially with my students so I can have firsthand knowledge on how to help my students succeed. Now concerning the week five final project, I am still quite nervous, because although I understand what is required to create a curriculum, I am still learning as a future educator how to be creative and engaging with my students. A few resources that have certainly helped me in grasping how to enhance my knowledge and understanding of curriculum planning has not only been our course book, but also reading other classmates discussion and how they view and understand curriculum planning. I also feel that the research that I have put into and will continue to put into the week 5 final project will really help me to produce an acceptable curriculum planning project. My favorite resource thus far to use is the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). This has really helped me to be successful not only in this course but in other courses because I admire and follow the values that it holds in promoting a high-quality learning environment for our students. I believe for my week five final project and for my future course, and even when I do become and Early Childhood Educator, I will continue to reference these NAEYC resources. The connection that I have made between intentional curriculum planning and fostering each child’s development and joy for learning, I believe go hand in hand. Both are vital to the success for my students learning because I am making an intentional effort to create a curriculum that will not only meet the standards and requirements of the state and district policies for my curriculum, but more importantly my curriculum will be creative and engaging enough to motivate, inspire, and bring joyful learning to my students. I fully believe that to ensure the success of high-quality learning for my students I must first ensure that I create a curriculum that not only engages my entire class but also is creative enough to inspire and excite each individual
