Proposal Paper

Proposal Paper- Play is Important for Children

    In the field of education, there are very great things occurring, but then again, there are some not so great things. There are things that need to be reinforced, and things that need to be changed. I believe that play is an important part of growth in the early stages of education and learning. I believe that play is something that should always be allowed and required in the classroom. The overall theme of my paper will be how and why play is so important for the growth of children. There are a lot of teachers and researchers that are advocating for the importance of play. Play in the classroom varies throughout schools and teachers, but it should not vary because it is very beneficial. Simply put, play is important.

    As I stated before, I believe that the use of play in schools is crucial for a student's development. In the past several decades, schools are beginning to get more and more focused on getting the children to pass tests, rather than their overall growth and learning development. This even goes for students at the ages of five and six. In my opinion, five and six year olds should not be stuck sitting in a desk all day long. Yes they do need to learn basic things and complete their schoolwork, but on top of that, these youngsters need to be able to learn through play. They will develop social skills and other crucial things necessary for their age. Due to the need to pass tests, many schools are cutting down play time, or even eliminating it completely. Several elementary schools do not even have recess anymore. It is important to keep recess and other times of play in schools, while continuing on the path of successful learning. Often, school officials think that students will have time for play once the school day is over. But that is incorrect, students are often plagued with homework, and have other extracurricular activities to complete, instead of simply having time to play freely. This semester, I remember learning about the Summerhill School. A.S. Niell discussed how play was always a part of a student's schooling, and if they wanted to play, then they should. In my opinion, schools do not need to see play in the same way as the Summerhill School, but the importance of play should be known.

My mom is currently a preschool teacher and I was discussing this topic with her, and she said that she tries to incorporate daily activities where students are playing and learning. I became interested in this topic through those discussions with my mother. As I began researching how play is beneficial to students, I became even more interested with the topic, and I found that I agreed with what I was reading. Play is important for children to learn and it should not be eliminated from the school day.

    For this paper, my question will focus on play. I want to know and show why play is so important, and how we can increase the amount of play in teaching and the school day. I think that learning about the importance of play, will allow me to know what my students need more of when I become a teacher. From my research thus far, I do believe that play is important, and it is not something that should be eliminated from the school system.

BlogPost10- Summary

I think that by writing these blogs, I have come to a better understanding of the field of education. Also, with my observations, I have learned that teaching is what I am meant to do and my desire to be the best teacher possible has only grown. I was also very much in-between Early Childhood Education and Middle Education, but now I am sure that Early Childhood is where I would like to be. I really hate it when people tell me that people only become teachers because it is easy or they have nothing else to be because for a lot of people that is not the case. I have always known that I want to be a teacher and it is really not easy if you are trying to learn to be the best future educator that you can be. I do think that there are some people that are in the field of education that are just not meant to be teachers, and that might have a bad representation on their classroom or overall teaching. I think that I have discovered that I want to be a very impactful teacher, and maybe with experience under my belt, I can influence other teachers, and even figure out someway I can make the field of education a better place. I think that so far this course, I have learned what it means to be a good teacher and how to have a good and positive environment for my classroom. I have obtained all this knowledge about the best teachers and the best classrooms! But the best thing is, I got to see all of this in real life. I found Bryden Elementary to be the perfect example of a great classroom, and I was able to observe great teachers!

FieldBlog8: FINAL VISIT AT BRYDEN :'(

I can honestly say that I have loved all of the time that I had the opportunity to spend at Bryden. The experience that I had there was definitely a great beginning to see what it is like to become a teacher and to know that I am headed in the right direction. I did the usual things that I do when I visit. First I went to the science classroom, and the students were learning about the water cycle. Their teacher did an activity that represented the water cycle with a mug, hot water, and aluminum foil. I found this activity to be very interesting and when the kids were looking at it, you could see how this activity helped them to understand. After science, the students did their silent reading and ate a snack. After that they worked on their Bison work for about twenty minutes. Because it was my last day observing, Ms. Mock decided to let the students have some fun, and they played this math game called Bear Cave. It was basically just a game that helped them to remember their math facts, but they were all having fun and really getting into the game. And then finally it was time for me to leave, and honestly I was actually really sad that I would not be able to come back to Bryden. It really got to me when all the kids came up and gave me a hug. They were all so cute, and they showed me that I am on track for what I want to do with my life.

FieldBlog7: Gearity Professional Development School

I was going into Gearity with my expectations fairly high, but in all honesty I can say that I was pretty disappointed. I am really looking forward to the time when I will be an Early Childhood Education teacher, but I could not say that I would want to teach at Gearity. I feel like maybe if I spent more time there, or in a different classroom I would have liked it much better. Of course, I did find the children to be absolutely adorable, as I was in Kindergarten, but that was about it. During this observation, I was wondering how Gearity would be different than Bryden Elementary, where I am doing my field work. The classroom was kind of white and boring, except for some of the artwork that was displayed. At Bryden, all of the classrooms are big and decorated, which I find much more inviting. The students were doing their morning seatwork and good morning songs, which consisted of counting and the letters. This was cute!, but the teacher seemed to have a had time keeping the kids on task. At Bryden, I have noticed that the kids do seem to get out of hand ever once and a while, but it was not as much as it was happening at Gearity. I did notice that the Kindergarten teacher was very passionate and enthusiastic about her students and what she was teaching. I think it was interesting to be able to observe the difference between these two elementary schools, but in my opinion, I love Bryden much better.

This I Believe Annotated Bibliography

This I Believe Annotated Bibliography

Engel, Maria. "The Importance Of Free Play In The Early Childhood Classroom: Perspectives From A Teacher." Childhood Education 91.5 (2015): 323-324. Education Research Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

This journal by Maria Engel provides information about how free play is an important part of learning especially for early childhood students. Engel goes on to describe her personal experience as a Kindergarten and First grade teacher. She discusses how sitting at desks and learning basic things like reading, writing, and math are important, but there is also learning through play which is just as important. Students are able to solve problems, role play, create real life situations, and sharing. They learn how to be social and make friends. These are all important factors at such a young age, and the students are happy! This journal will be helpful to my essay because it will allow me to discuss how in the classroom teachers believe that free play is important. This source also provides many examples with different classroom structures. It also provides examples of free play, and all of the reasons that it is beneficial.

Bekoff, Marc, and William Crain. "A Crime Against Children." Encounter 24.4 (2011): 12-14. Education Research Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

This academic journal discusses how free play is a basic human right and that it is important to provide more time in schools for this play. The article goes on to discuss the difference between child-initiated play and adult-directed play. The difference is very real and it is something that not many education officials seem to notice. This source backs up its claims about how free play is important through historical and political facts like the Declaration of Independence and information from the United Nations. Not only does this source support free play for children, but it provides statistical and factual evidence as to why it is important. This source will be useful for providing information for my essay because it shows a supporting argument for why free play is so important. This source will also be especially helpful because of the statistics that it provides. It is not only stating that free play is important, but is a provider of the actual numbers to back the theory up.

Lillemyr, Ole, et al. "A Multicultural Perspective On Play And Learning In Primary School." International Journal Of Early Childhood 43.1 (2011): 43-65. Education Research Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

This source expresses how play is essential to child development. It discusses how play contributes to language development and conceptual meaning, sometimes these things can not just be understood while sitting at a desk. This source brings up the point that play can allow for a change in environment, making it a place students want to be. According to this source, play allows for the creation of relationships, which is crucial to the development of a person because building relationships will always be a part of life. This source will be essential to my essay because it allows for a more conceptual understanding of how play is important. It describes how play is important to a child’s development, which will be a main point in my essay. Overall, this source has a plethora of information that will allow me to state what I believe in a way that others will be able to see and hopefully agree with me.

"Experiences With An Outdoor Prop Box." YC: Young Children 65.1 (2010): 30-33. Education Research Complete. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

This academic journal supports the claim that free play is an important factor of learning, and they go on to provide evidence as to why learning through play is so very important. Through play, students can learn things without anyone telling them to. This source discusses how a lot of schools are shortening play time, or even eliminating it altogether. This source also provides the example of an outdoor prop box. With these props, kindergarteners are playing with and drawing insects. They are discovering this on their own, and learning what they would be learning just the same in the classroom due to mandated science standards. But by playing, they were learning, working with other students, and having fun. This source will help me because it will allow me to have supportive evidence that free play is crucial. It also allows me to understand how free play is essentially used in classrooms.

FieldBlog6- Bryden Elementary: Visit 4

For this visit, I was able to have more private time with Miss Mock to discuss what I have been observing, and she answered any questions that I had. I really enjoyed this time because I feel like talking to teachers and learning from them, not only by observing them, is really important in the process of becoming a teacher. I asked her questions about her class, and how she discovers the best methods to teach them. I also asked her how she manages working with students that have more needs than others. In my opinion, Miss Mock is a truly incredible teacher. Also on my visit, Miss Mock allowed me to help her grade the students science tests. This may be nerdy, but I was totally excited about doing this! I also helped Miss Mock set up her new bulletin board for the month of November. Recently, the students have been learning about the subject and predicate of a sentence. During Bison time, I was able to help one student that was struggling with this topic. It was really cool to see him understand it, and then be able to complete the worksheet with out any help. I think for me, this visit was definitely a learning experience.

BlogPost 9- What do good schools look like?

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rD1IHR5Fi8wqKzgBNO5KhMaOpzioNMnRuNW41mdWAuM/edit?usp=sharinghttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rD1IHR5Fi8wqKzgBNO5KhMaOpzioNMnRuNW41mdWAuM/edit?usp=sharing