Descriptions of the Resources Provided Here for the Enhancement of Children's Lives

Resource	What each is about...
Standards for Early Childhood Teacher Education	Linked here is a .pdf document containing Tom Drummond's set competencies for teachers of young children ages 3 to 6. It is his attempt to describe in detail the outcomes of a quality teacher preparation program---one that meets the needs of children and families as well as informs the discussion of how teachers learn to teach. It challenges programs to truly achieve quality, both in demonstrating performance and in adopting practices that promote reflective growth. This vision incorporates documentation to make learning visible, best practices in curriculum, components of being with children, and close and enhancing ties with diverse families. A dialog about these standards is essential for us all to move forward in our practices of teacher education, keeping in mind that the goal we all seek is fostering the abilities to enable each and every child on the planet to make the most of being human and being alive.
Enterprise Talk: A Handrail to Authenticity and Integrity	Enterprise Talk is a guide to talking to children in a way that enhances their development as responsible, energetic individuals. It avoids pushing, allows one to be more fully present, and guides self-development.
Best Practices in College Teaching	For all college and university teachers, not just Early Childhood Educators, here is a list Tom Drummond has compiled outlining the Best Practices in teaching. Taken together they represent professional excellence and constitute a challenge for faculty development and tenure acquision. They represent the broad range of effective actions teachers take, and requisite conditions teachers establish, to facilitate learning in adults. Availble in .pdf form for ease in printing here.
Social Indicators Motor Indicators Cognitive Indicators Expressive Indicators	Outcomes? Developmental Checklists? Kindergarten "Readiness" Pressures? Are you clear about what you intend five-year-old children to learn? Are all of them able to do what you intend? Do the parents know what you are trying to do? Having the skills clearly in mind makes all the difference in enabling that lower one/third of your children to succeed. With a list of indicators of the skills you desire you can learn about all of your children, develop ways to reach everyone, and communicate well with other staff and parents. Here are tables that Tom Drummond uses to check off all his children. Feel free to modify as you wish. What is important is being systematic about deciding and checking upon the actions of children that represent the outcomes you desire. Makes parent conferences truly professional. These are in .pdf format. You will have to use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. The pdf format requires this software. The advanatage is that it enables you to print them directly and start today.
Counting Cards 0 Counting Cards 1	Here are two .pdf files for you to use. These are masters of counting cards, one with the numerals and one without the numerals. These can be printed on cardstock (stock often fed one page at a time on most copy machines), laminated, and cut into sets. The children can make up their own games with these. Concentration: find the pair with them all face down. Sherlock: name the card that is missing from your set that the person to the left or right has taken. Fours and fives usually are quite good at inventing other uses. If teachers watch and record their games, the joy spreads. No "teachy adult" needed.
Green Beans	Here is a .pdf file of the game board. You spray paint lima beans green by laying them out on newspaper and spraying one side with green paint. The children put 9 beans in a cup and throw them out on a flat surface. (If it isn't nine, who cares?) They count the number of green ones and trace that numeral on this sheet. They practice counting and writing (and having fun cheating--that is a joke--you and I know that cheating is fun), whatever. It is their chance to play with throwing and counting and writing in whatever way they want. If they discover probability, then they are forever in our hearts.
Course Forms	Participants in the ECE program at North Seattle can go here to find copies of report forms they need.
Art for Young Children	Beginning a page to share how we teach Art for Young Children at North Seattle Community College.
Goals for a Cooperative, Democratic, Inclusive School	Is your vision clear as to what a school is supposed to be? Here is a simple listing of Goals for Children, Goals for the Adults, and Goals for a School. We can get there if we share the same dream.
Physical Games for Cooperative Play	Here is a list of outdoor games that have everyone laughing and exercised.
Story Writing and Enactment	Have you done one of the most successful, child-responsive activities a preschool can do to foster cognitive, social, and expressive development? Turn your young children into artists, writers, and actors by following these guides.
Pretzels	Here is an example of a simple, elegant, scientific, creative, delicious, linguistic, and literary activity. It models a structure of a child-sensitive school where children learn to think and become verbally self-confident.
Books for Group Times	Here is a list of books that build a classroom community, bring children closer together, and foster language skills. Buying books for a school? Order these. Books for Large Group Time--for the whole class at once that teach the values we desire for a democratic community of emotionally healthy people. Books for Small Group Time--for group sizes up to 6 children that foster language and cognition.
Observational Study	Here is a five page form for looking closely at a single child, gathering important information in play, communication, social, motor and self-help areas without formal testing. We use it to focus attention on those children that we are either concerned about or rarely notice. Please feel free to duplicate as needed. This is in .pdf format. You will have to use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. The pdf format requires this software but it enables you to print it without modifications.
Responsive Techniques	One of the aims of NSCC's Early Childhood Education Program is to help teachers acquire specific skills they need to be effective with children. Here is an example: responsiveness. If you want children to take the initiative, then you must be careful to follow that iniative in ways that effectively build upon it. If you want to create conversations that are deep and significant for yourself and the children, use the convention for responding.
Book Binding	Here is a process chart for demonstrating to children ages 5 and up a way to bind their own hard-cover books using only scissors, stapler and glue. With this chart on display at the front of the room, the teacher demonstrates each step in the sequence. Then the children work collaborataively to complete their own books. This is a pdf file and for best results use a color printer. You will have to use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. The pdf format requires this software but it enables you to print the pages directly in a useable form to post on the wall for the children to refer to.
Discoverable Tutorial Questions	Here is a list of tutorial questions (questions teachers know the answers to) that have discoverable answers. That is, children can be led to finding their own answers when they have trouble answering at first. The use of these in group times offers opportunities for all children to gain confidence in participating verbally to convey their thinking, not just those who come with habits of this kind of exchange in their homes. This paves the way for co-contruction of understanding when children talk and think together and for the disposition to participate when teachers inquire into children's understanding as a basis for a Pedagogy of Listening.
Active Listening and Emotion Vocabulary Chart	We can help children understand their emotions as well as validate their existence by offering words that may represent what they are feeling. We can't really say for sure how anyone else feels, but we can say how we would feel if we were in his or her shoes. Active listening is a step by step strategy for helping. Linked from this page is a pdf list of emotion vocabulary words that offers alternatives to the words Angry, Mad, and Sad. You can post this in your classroom or on the refrigerator to enable you to scan for just the right word, at the right level of intensity, that might fit the immediate, unique circumstance. For example, "If that happened to me, I would feel mistreated." (Add your appropriate word.)
Facilitating Social Development	A brief summary of the scope of facilitative actions to ensure that all children gain the social competence to make friends, lose friends, regain friends, and solve interpersonal problems as members of a classroom community, for ages three to six. Each of the ideas is a portion of a course taught by Tom Drummond. It is listed here to organize the pieces in one place.

Resource

What each is about...

Standards for Early Childhood Teacher Education

Linked here is a .pdf document containing Tom Drummond's set competencies for teachers of young children ages 3 to 6. It is his attempt to describe in detail the outcomes of a quality teacher preparation program---one that meets the needs of children and families as well as informs the discussion of how teachers learn to teach. It challenges programs to truly achieve quality, both in demonstrating performance and in adopting practices that promote reflective growth. This vision incorporates documentation to make learning visible, best practices in curriculum, components of being with children, and close and enhancing ties with diverse families. A dialog about these standards is essential for us all to move forward in our practices of teacher education, keeping in mind that the goal we all seek is fostering the abilities to enable each and every child on the planet to make the most of being human and being alive.

Enterprise Talk:

A Handrail to Authenticity and Integrity

Enterprise Talk is a guide to talking to children in a way that enhances their development as responsible, energetic individuals. It avoids pushing, allows one to be more fully present, and guides self-development.

Best Practices in College Teaching

For all college and university teachers, not just Early Childhood Educators, here is a list Tom Drummond has compiled outlining the Best Practices in teaching. Taken together they represent professional excellence and constitute a challenge for faculty development and tenure acquision. They represent the broad range of effective actions teachers take, and requisite conditions teachers establish, to facilitate learning in adults.
Availble in .pdf form for ease in printing

Expressive Indicators

Outcomes? Developmental Checklists? Kindergarten "Readiness" Pressures?

Are you clear about what you intend five-year-old children to learn? Are all of them able to do what you intend? Do the parents know what you are trying to do? Having the skills clearly in mind makes all the difference in enabling that lower one/third of your children to succeed. With a list of indicators of the skills you desire you can learn about all of your children, develop ways to reach everyone, and communicate well with other staff and parents.

Here are tables that Tom Drummond uses to check off all his children. Feel free to modify as you wish. What is important is being systematic about deciding and checking upon the actions of children that represent the outcomes you desire. Makes parent conferences truly professional.

These are in .pdf format. You will have to use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. The pdf format requires this software. The advanatage is that it enables you to print them directly and start today.

Counting Cards 0

Counting Cards 1

Here are two .pdf files

for you to use. These are masters of counting cards, one with the numerals and one without the numerals. These can be printed on cardstock (stock often fed one page at a time on most copy machines), laminated, and cut into sets. The children can make up their own games with these. Concentration: find the pair with them all face down. Sherlock: name the card that is missing from your set that the person to the left or right has taken. Fours and fives usually are quite good at inventing other uses. If teachers watch and record their games, the joy spreads. No "teachy adult" needed.

Green Beans

Here is a .pdf file

of the game board. You spray paint lima beans green by laying them out on newspaper and spraying one side with green paint. The children put 9 beans in a cup and throw them out on a flat surface. (If it isn't nine, who cares?) They count the number of green ones and trace that numeral on this sheet. They practice counting and writing (and having fun cheating--that is a joke--you and I know that cheating is fun), whatever. It is their chance to play with throwing and counting and writing in whatever way they want. If they discover probability, then they are forever in our hearts.

Course Forms

Participants in the ECE program at North Seattle can go here to find copies of report forms they need.

Art for Young Children

Beginning a page to share how we teach Art for Young Children at North Seattle Community College.

Goals for a Cooperative, Democratic, Inclusive School

Is your vision clear as to what a school is supposed to be? Here is a simple listing of Goals for Children, Goals for the Adults, and Goals for a School. We can get there if we share the same dream.

Physical Games for Cooperative Play

Here is a list of outdoor games that have everyone laughing and exercised.

Story Writing and Enactment

Have you done one of the most successful, child-responsive activities a preschool can do to foster cognitive, social, and expressive development? Turn your young children into artists, writers, and actors by following these guides.

Pretzels

Here is an example of a simple, elegant, scientific, creative, delicious, linguistic, and literary activity. It models a structure of a child-sensitive school where children learn to think and become verbally self-confident.

Books for Group Times

Here is a list of books that build a classroom community, bring children closer together, and foster language skills. Buying books for a school? Order these.

Books for Large Group Time--for the whole class at once that teach the values we desire for a democratic community of emotionally healthy people.
Books for Small Group Time--for group sizes up to 6 children that foster language and cognition.

Observational Study

Here is a five page form for looking closely at a single child, gathering important information in play, communication, social, motor and self-help areas without formal testing. We use it to focus attention on those children that we are either concerned about or rarely notice. Please feel free to duplicate as needed.

This is in .pdf format. You will have to use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. The pdf format requires this software but it enables you to print it without modifications.

Responsive Techniques

One of the aims of NSCC's Early Childhood Education Program is to help teachers acquire specific skills they need to be effective with children. Here is an example: responsiveness. If you want children to take the initiative, then you must be careful to follow that iniative in ways that effectively build upon it. If you want to create conversations that are deep and significant for yourself and the children, use the convention for responding.

Book Binding

Here is a process chart for demonstrating to children ages 5 and up a way to bind their own hard-cover books using only scissors, stapler and glue. With this chart on display at the front of the room, the teacher demonstrates each step in the sequence. Then the children work collaborataively to complete their own books.

This is a pdf file and for best results use a color printer. You will have to use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. The pdf format requires this software but it enables you to print the pages directly in a useable form to post on the wall for the children to refer to.

Discoverable Tutorial Questions

Here is a list of tutorial questions (questions teachers know the answers to) that have discoverable answers. That is, children can be led to finding their own answers when they have trouble answering at first. The use of these in group times offers opportunities for all children to gain confidence in participating verbally to convey their thinking, not just those who come with habits of this kind of exchange in their homes. This paves the way for co-contruction of understanding when children talk and think together and for the disposition to participate when teachers inquire into children's understanding as a basis for a Pedagogy of Listening.

Active Listening and Emotion Vocabulary Chart

We can help children understand their emotions as well as validate their existence by offering words that may represent what they are feeling. We can't really say for sure how anyone else feels, but we can say how we would feel if we were in his or her shoes. Active listening is a step by step strategy for helping.

Linked from this page is a pdf list of emotion vocabulary words that offers alternatives to the words Angry, Mad, and Sad. You can post this in your classroom or on the refrigerator to enable you to scan for just the right word, at the right level of intensity, that might fit the immediate, unique circumstance. For example, "If that happened to me, I would feel mistreated." (Add your appropriate word.)

Facilitating Social Development

A brief summary of the scope of facilitative actions to ensure that all children gain the social competence to make friends, lose friends, regain friends, and solve interpersonal problems as members of a classroom community, for ages three to six. Each of the ideas is a portion of a course taught by Tom Drummond. It is listed here to organize the pieces in one place.