Practica Group

Challenges:

· Non-traditional and traditional students are many times employed (full-time) by school districts, Head Start or own home-care that have bosses that refuse to release them for Practica. This makes it difficult to require the majority of practicum assignments to be carried out in formal settings, especially for institutions that do not have pre-school on campus.

· Finding great “examples” of all ages, especially infant/toddler settings.

· Accountability – how do we ensure that all programs include what is generally accepted as standard by our Task Force? (For example institutions that do not attend and/or with the ECED Task Force.

Possible Solutions:

· Students switch jobs for particular assignments (substitute for each other). Problem though, because directors/employers do not always allow.

· Take advantage of their own setting to explore and grow in won area, but still require student to complete at least some observation of other levels.

· Look at facilities with after-school hours.

· Bring children into classroom, during curriculum class, for students to observe and interact with children. This allows a group experience/discussion. (Plus parents love the free babysitter!)

· Use videos to supplements

· Encourage use of lunch of hours for observations/practicum assignments.

· Consensus seems to be that we have to allow institutions to have a mixture of formal and informal settings, yet encourage assignments to cover entire age-range B-Grads in diverse settings

Effective Practices:

· Use our practicum students to model DAP to our local area providers.

· Even at AA level, provide and require a broad range of diverse experiences B-8, and not limit to preschool and younger. This allows students to make personal decisions regarding the age group they want to work with in future careers – exposure.

· Students create activity plans, carry out in practicums, reflect, and adjust.

· Tie Practicum experiences to text used in curriculum courses

· Faculty needs to observe their students during practicum, at least require a mentor to observe, and give feedback.

· Leadership Checklists

· Running records with carbon copy for students

· Tie to competencies

· Evaluation should come early (mid-term) and at end of term.

· Self-Assessment – Guide students into mid-term and end of term.

· Individual conferences with students regarding their self-reflections. Focus on positives, not criticisms.

· Journaling – Give students specific questions to respond to in their journals. They can also “blog” and respond to others “blogs”. If they blog on one particular child, they could give parents access to the blog.

· Give specific lists of what to observe, based on competencies. Students need to ECED don’t know what’s important. We should be sure they understand they can focus on one child, not necessarily whole group.

Resources and Opportunities:

· We all agree we need a continual “feed” of valuable resources including valuable resources including video, through NM Kids. Could we have fluid list that we continually add strategies, ideas, and resources. (As a Task Force Group?)

· We especially need good (free!) video and video clips.

· Janet Gonzales Mesa materials and DVD’s. Examples – Infant, Toddler, and Caregivers. Innovative Infant Environments.

· TTAP many resources available.

· Zero to Three

· Becky Bailey services

· We are Explorers

· NAEYC – Lullabies to Literature