My Journey as a Future Educator Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

My Journey as a Future Educator - Essay Example As my first day as a teacher’s assistant approached, my self-confidence took a huge dip. I felt so nervous, as I watched children in a playground in the school I’ve passed on my way home one day. The children I’ve estimated to be in the age group I will be working with seemed so intimidating all of a sudden. The older ones would climb to the highest point of the tower in the play equipment, flailing their arms ignoring the adults’ warnings way below them on the ground. I thought these children were fearless! I was afraid for myself. I guess it won’t be a piece of cake after all. My initial observation inspired me to turn to more studying about children at this age and how I should deal with them. I read several theories about this stage. I learned that working with all children regardless of age involves many considerations. One is to see each child at his or her own developmental level and create activities and opportunities appropriate to their pa rticular levels. The child needs to develop holistically, meaning each developmental area is given attention to so growth and development as a whole person ensues. The teacher needs careful planning and implementation of activities so that children under their care grow in all areas.The process of growth and maturity of an individual entails development in physical, cognitive, social, emotional and moral areas. Development in one area affects another. In children, this is very obvious, as they are at a stage in life when development occurs rapidly.... Physically, a child’s body grows in accordance to the genetic structure he was born with. Logically, children grow bigger and taller and every year, their growth is obviously apparent in the clothes that don’t fit them anymore from a few months before, and the height and weight that drastically increased from their last doctor’s check-up. Physically, young children develop more strength as their bodies’ proportions become more adult-like. Beginnings of athletic skills such as running, jumping and hopping are manifested. Fine motors skills, such as writing and drawing, develop slowly Their motor skills also develop in accordance to their developmental needs. This means, the older they get, the more things they are expected to do, so they develop physical skills to be able to do such tasks. Intelligence is another area where one grows over time. I learned that by the time a child steps into the early childhood stage, his brain has attained 90% of its adult w eight by age 5 (Developmental Stages, 2011). This develops faster than any other body part. Jean Piaget, among others, has outlined a remarkable framework in the cognitive development of a person and describes each stage. Five to seven year old children belong to Piaget’s Preoperational Period. This marks the time when a child becomes able to represent objects and knowledge through imitation, symbolic play, drawing, mental images and spoken language. Lack of conservation skills is also characteristic of this stage. â€Å"Conservation is defined as the knowledge that the number, mass, area, length, weight, and volume of objects are not changed by physically rearranging the objects.† (Brewer, 2001, p. 58). The seven year olds are actually in transition to the next cognitive stage which is the Concrete