Supervised Field Experience 2 - ECME 108 (2 credit hours)

Instructor

Ann Sullivan
e-mail annece@gallup.unm.edu
Calvin Hall 124 (W) 863 -7745 (H) 863 - 7944

Office Hours

Tuesday 12:30-3:30 Wednesday 1:00 - 4:00 Thursday 1:00 - 5:00

Class Meetings

Students will meet with the instructor at agreed upon intervals throughout the semester to turn in assignments, discuss their placement and schedule
an observation time. Students must be engaged with children for a minimum of 50 hours over the course of the semester and finish a range of assignments for a
minimum of 10 hours. In total, this course requires 60 hours of student involvement.

Recommended Text

none

Open Access Policy

UNM-GalIup is committed to providing an open and accessible educational environment to all individuals regardless of special needs.
Any student who requires special accommodations to successfully participate in and complete this course should contact Jeanne Knight, 863-7520, in Student Services.

Intent of the Course

This course is considered a practicum course, not an observation course. Students must be actively engaged working with children in a specific age group for the purpose of completing the course successfully. Over the duration of teacher preparation each student will spend time working with young infants and toddlers; preschool aged children; or children in the early primary school years. This practicum should take place with a different group of children and in a different setting from the one the student uses for the 110 practicum. Students are expected to arrange for and document onsite time for the purpose of completing the course assignments. If a student is observing children in an early care and education program, the expectation is that the highest levels of professional
conduct will be the exhibited. Professional conduct includes, and is not limited to, respecting the confidentiality of children, parents and staff at the observation site; acting responsibly in regard to arranging and showing up for observations; and writing up observations in an objective and confidential manner. Students will maintain a log of their observations which will be collected and graded by the instructor at the midpoint and end of the semester.

Student Conduct Policy

Students are expected to act respectfully and responsibly in their interactions with me and their colleagues. It is important that each
one of us respects the exchange of ideas that will occur as part of class discussions and activities and that we all practice professional behavior regarding information
shared in this setting. Breaches of confidentiality, cheating, plagiarizing or other irresponsible actions will be dealt with in accordance with the policies outlined in the
Student Handbook.

Grading Policy

Grades will be based upon documentation of time with children, active engagement with children when instructor comes to observe on site and
completion of assignments. Work is due on the assigned dates and items handed in late will automatically lose points. Materials submitted by email must be submitted by 4:00 of the due date in order to be considered on time.

Course Requirements and Assignments

Letter Grades

Grading for Individual Activities

Work Log/Diary (50 points) - The grade for this will be based on both a clear documentation of the time spent working with children and the writeup of those activities. This is a weekly account of the amount of time you spend in your work site with an overview of the activities and events that occurred during your time with the children. This log/diary should clearly indicate the dates and times when you wereonsite and a short (1 to 2 paragraph) account of how the time was spent. You should indicate which activities you observed and those in which you were involved or the lead person in conducting. You can send these reports to me weekly over e-mail using the address at the top of this course outline. You can also go to the website for this course and click on my email address to send these reports. If you do not send the reports by email then you need to meet with me on the designated dates and turn in your log reports and assignments.

Observation (90 points) - In order to get an A in this course a student must make arrangements to be observed, and be observed before April 24, 2003. Any student who schedules an observation after April. 24 can receive no more than a CR grade in the course. If a student schedules an observation before April 24 and then misses or cancels that observation, it is the student's responsibility to arrange another appointment before April 24 if I have time available. If the instructor needs to reschedule the observation due to bad weather or other issues, the April 24th rule for an A can be modified. If the instructor arrives for an observation and the student is not there, the student will lose 10 - 25 points from the final observation score. The student needs to contact the instructor personally either in the office or at home by 7:00 a.m. on the day of the observation, to avoid this penalty. Messages left on an answering machine will not protect you from this penalty!

Assignments (4x15 points) - All assignments need to be turned in on time in order to receive full credit. Assignments that are more than 3 weeks past the due date will not be graded. You can submit your assignments over email as long as they are sent by the due dates listed on this outline. Each assignment needs to be neatly prepared. If you are doing handwritten work, you must double-space on lined paper and write in pen. When you use a computer or typewriter you should double space, use at least a size 12, clear font, and maintain margins of 1 inch on all four sides of the paper. I would prefer that you do your work on a computer or typewriter. Some of these assignments are going to take some time to prepare - please edit your work before handing it in.

Assignments will be graded as follows

Late work (- 5 points)
Clear and legible 5 pts (neat, with correct grammar and spelling)
Content 10 pts

Assignment 1

Write an organizational and environmental description of the site where you are doing your practicum. Include with your description this information:
1. What kind of setting is this? (For example is this a Head Start classroom, public school classroom, private child care center, or family day care home?)
2. How many children are in this setting (both in the specific room where you are volunteering and overall in the program)? How many adults are employed to work with the group of children? How many volunteers are present on a regular or irregular basis?
3. Describe the basic routine of the children's day in this setting. How many meals are served; how much time is scheduled for outside time; are the children allowed to make choices or are they kept together in adult directed groups; how do the children access the restroom (can they go as
needed or must they be accompanied by adults?)?
4. Describe the physical space around the children. What kinds of materials are available to them; can they easily access supplies and materials or do they need to ask adults for help; is the area divided into center or interest areas or not; does each child have some kind of personal space for storing their belongings? You can include a diagram of the space (nolarger than an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper), but you still need to give a written description.

Each of these numbered questions should take about .5 to 1 full page to write-up. The whole paper should not be more than 8 pages handwritten or 5 pages on a typewriter/word processor.

Assignment 2

Describe the rules and organizational structure in the setting where you are volunteering. You should answer the following questions through observations you have made or from talking with someone at the site. Please be tactful and explain why you are interested in this information.
1. What kinds of rules are in place that govern the children's activities? How much or how little choice do they have about what they are able to do?
2. What kinds of rules exist regarding safety or health issues?
3. What kinds of rules do the adults have to follow in regard to their own behavior and how they work with the children?
4. Who has developed the rules that are in place?
5. In your opinion, do people follow the rules that are in place? Are there any rules that are regularly disregarded? Are there any rules that you think need
to be changed?
6. Who is "in charge" of the classroom and of the program? Is there a clear line of authority or are matters handled collaboratively among individuals?

These questions should be answered in full sentences and paragraphs. The entire assignment should take no more than 6 pages if handwritten and no more than 4 pages if done on a word processor or typewriter.

Assignment 3

For this assignment you need to interview at least two people at the site where you are volunteering. The purpose of the interviews is to find out why these people have chosen to work with young children. Because this is the purpose, you need to talk to people who are actually working with children - the secretary in the public school office would not be a logical candidate for this interview. Please be tactful and courteous to the person you are interviewing. This is not an
inquisition - you are wanting to know why people get involved in working with young children - there are no wrong answers. At a minimum ask how long the person has been in this job; what kind of training s/he had prior to taking this job and what kind of training has s/he had since coming to the job; what does s/he think is important about the work; and what has s/he learned from working with young children? This interview can be written up in a question and response style or as a summary narrative of the conversation. When directly stating someone's words be careful to use quotation marks appropriately. This assignment may take from 2-6 pages to write-up.

Assignment 4

For this assignment you are going to think back on what you have done and learned from the experience of this practicum. You should spend some time reviewing your work log and think about the information you have learned from doing
the other 3 assignments. Use these sentence starters to begin your reflection:
1. When I first walked into this space I thought.. . .
2. One experience that was meaningful to me was when . . .
3. As a result of being with this group of children I learned . . .
4. One thing that I would do differently would be ...
5. As a result of meeting and interacting with the adults in this program I realized. . .
6. This experience will help me in the future because. . .

You can go beyond these six statements to include other ideas or impressions of the practcum experience, but you must respond to all of these. This paper should take between 4 and 8 handwritten pages and 3 to 6 pages on a computer or typewriter. After observing you, the instructor may have some specific prompts that you should reflect upon in this final paper. If that occurs you must include those ideas.