Thursday Evening

Lynn,
I haven't received the snail mail yet - probably tomorrow. I am thoroughly enjoying the discussion board in our class! Occasionally, I see a question that I think you should answer, but mostly I am just enjoying the interaction and meeting these new students. I am glad you like the idea of creating a space for students to get feedback. That peer-editing concept is just what I had in mind. I'm going to give some thought to whether we should use a forum or a blog site; I'll get back to you tomorrow on that one.
Off to the store. More later,
Suzanne

Faculty Expectations

Hi Suzanne!
You won't get this probably until you return home but I thought it might be a good idea to have something like this to guide students through the course. Check it out and let me know what you think - then we can complete it.... we also should think about a grading expectations document, attendance or anything else we feel is important to add to our documents file. I'll try giving you a call on Sunday.

Faculty Expectations Lynn Silvestro and Suzanne Purcell

NOTE: Read, reply to, and then print this faculty expectations message for frequent future reference!

Welcome to EDU- 2045 – Curriculum Development for Early Childhood Education. This is a long note, but it contains information about this course and what is expected of you that you will want to know. Our goals as facilitators of this course are to help you learn about curriculum development for early childhood education and apply that learning as you create your own curriculum as the final project for this course. You will gain experience learning through our textbook, shared discussions in the forum, feedback from instructors, working on assignments and through other sources. The text is designed for the beginning student but can also be used by experienced teachers looking for current early childhood philosophies, curriculum resources, fresh ideas, or insights.

The requirements are somewhat aggressive for this course. You have a lot of reading, a lot of writing, and a lot of due dates. The key to performing successfully in this course is carefully reading all of the instructions provided for the discussion postings, assignments and study activities before you attempt to complete them. There are expectations built into nearly every week through discussion postings, assignments and critical reflection.

Because of the aggressive schedule for this course, it is important that you not fall behind. It will be difficult to catch up, especially with the postings. For this reason, we ask that you have your initial responses posted by Friday and responses to other students completed by Sunday. Learners who save their work until the weekend are not able to keep up with the aggressive schedule. If you anticipate that you will be absent from the forum for an entire week, try to post assignments early, ahead of time. Always contact your instructors if you know you will be out or have other problems. We can make adjustments as needed – we realize that life happens.

Your final project will consist of a curriculum that you create. Each week you will be tasked with a piece or pieces of the curriculum to complete so that by the end of the course your project will be complete. Each assignments can be tweaked before submitting your final curriculum and you will receive feedback on each piece as they are submitted.

We can add the weekly assignments that can work into their curriculum - I'll work on a curriculum model to put under documents for them to use as a possible template....
Lynn

Below is a schedule of assignments towards completion of your curriculum.

An Update...Finally!

Lynn,
I know you are in Italy and not thinking about work at all, which is as it should be! I really do hope you are having a wonderful time. I thought I would write to give you an update on my progress with the revision, as well as some aspects of my crazy life.
First, I'm sorry that I dropped the ball over the past few weeks. I was feeling a lot of stress over my father. etc. Today I finally had time and energy to attend to it, and I did some revising on our discussion board assignments, only to realize that I would have to redo many of the changes because I haven't had good luck saving formatting when I copy and paste to Blackboard. So I decided to post the discussion boards and revise as I went along. It really was much easier and far less time consuming. I hope that decision was okay with you. There are still things I want to change and many additions (such as relevant links for each chapter), but it helps me to have it all in there. I cleaned up a lot of little typos and other glitches - mostly in the assignments I wrote. I will keep tweaking it until I hear from you. It's fun to see it all up and running.
I also want to tell you that my uncle did arrive from Maryland and stayed for three days. He was not successful in getting my dad to go see the doctor, but I really feel that his visit was good for my father. He seems to have more energy than he has for a long time, and tonight he is actually cooking - for the first time in over two months! His terrible cough has subsided too. I think I feel like I can actually make plans to go back to Vermont soon. I am really anxious to get back.
I am going to continue to work on our class assignments, and also get my other classes fully set up for summer. My goal is to be completely ready for summer before this semester is over; I really need a few weeks of time off.
I will send this via email too, but I doubt you will be checking any of this until you get back. Have a wonderful time in Italy!
Suzanne

Note upcoming email

Hey Suzanne!
I am emailing you an attachment of the completed syllabus I have at this time. I have made a few changes to my own forums and you may want to make changes as well. Feel free to change anything in mine as well. However, viewing this document in this way will help us to be consistent from week to week. We still need to develop a weekly curriculum assignment and I will also send along what I create as I do it. So look for my email and if you don't get it let me know - it's a long document!
Lynn

Lynn,
Lest you think I'm really organized and on top of things, let me explain that I only got this second assignment done because I'm procrastinating about getting my literature assignments written! It's a crazy system, but it sometimes works for me. Like the sensory center assignment, this is only a first draft. Feel free to provide copious constructive criticism!
Suzanne

Chapter 10: Music and Movement:
Reading Assignment: Pg. 299-324

Discussion Board by midnight on Friday:
Part 1: Choose one of your previous assignments for this course in which you created a lesson plan for one of the learning domains. Develop a music and movement lesson to incorporate into that lesson plan. Present your plan using the following format:
• Age and/or developmental level of your students:
• Learning domain of original lesson plan: (Copy and paste the original lesson plan into this week’s submission for our reference)
• Materials to be used:
• Procedure for activity:
• Describe how this music/movement lesson will enhance your original plan.

Part 2: Research local resources and identify a guest you will invite into the classroom as part of this lesson. Write a mock letter to this guest inviting him/her to your classroom. Explain how this person’s participation in your classroom will enhance the goals of your lesson(s). Remember that your actual audience is your peers in this class, so include relevant information for those of us who will likely be unfamiliar with your guest, and describe a bit about this person’s work in the world of music or movement. You could choose a local musician or dancer, or branch out into regional or even national personalities. As always, it is a good idea to use your creativity and imagination in this lesson plan!

Discussion Board by midnight on Sunday: Respond to at least 3 of your peers’ posts.

One Down, One To Go...

(Lynn,
This is a first draft, probably subject to further revision...)

Chapter 9: Sensory Centers
Reading assignment: Pg. 269-298

Discussion Board by midnight on Friday:
Submit a post to the discussion board in which you address 1 of the 2 assignments below:

1. Compose a philosophy statement about the importance of incorporating censor activities into the classroom. Identify the age group you have in mind, and explain the developmental milestones affected by the use of sensory activities in the classroom. Include at least three ideas encountered in the chapter to support your statement, and properly cite these within your statement.
   
2. Develop two lesson plans for using sensory centers in your classroom. Use the following format:

• Age and/or developmental level of your students:
• Sensory centers to be used:
• Materials to be used:
• Procedure for activity:
• Tie these lessons into one of the previous chapters. Which learning domains are represented and explored through your lessons?

Either assignment should be at least 400 words in length, and include at least two ideas encountered in the chapter, (citations must be documented within your submission).
In addition, choose at least one of the resources listed in References (pg. 297-298) that you believe will be useful in your lesson planning for the classroom, and research it online. Give a brief annotation of the book – in your own words.

Discussion Board by midnight on Sunday: Respond to at least 3 of your peers’ posts.