Interview (Module 1)

            My name is Megan Gulley I recently received a Lead Teacher Position. I am know a teacher in the Toddler Room. The kids in the classroom range from fifteen months to thirty months. Since I am working in a Toddler Room full time I have chose to write my research paper on this age group.

            For this interview interviewed a teacher and the director of the center. When discussing my papers with each of them, they said there is so much to learn and to talk about when it comes to this age group. They asked why I picked this age group and I told them I did because I work with them everyday and each day you learn new things about them. When it comes to the classroom there is not a dull moment and you are constantly learning new things about each child. Since we are a daycare we get new kids all of the time so there is always a change within the classroom.

            Some of the topics that I thought would be interesting to base my topic on was child abuse, special needs children, and there literacy skills. I think this is a wide range of material but all of these topics are common within this age group. When I spoke to the director she said some good topics would be special needs children, assessment, and the care of children. What kind of environment is it safe, high quality? When I talked to the teacher she said some topics could be parent involvement, assesment, and developmental needs. These are all very good topics, but the main question is, which ones refer to the toddlers more often.

Based on the interviews there is all kinds of discussions you can have with colleagues. When discussing children there is so much stuff you can discuss. I think its neat how different people come up with different discussions. This not only helps others but it gives them ideas and solutions to problems.

            Throughout the interview I had asked them what advocacy efforts are currently under way in your area of interest. They both basically said the same thing. They are trying to provide care for low income families. They want to be the ones who help families even if they are low income because everyone deserves the best care and education for there children. Another thing they both said was trying to educate the legislators to help the low income families. Over a period of time they are trying to pull childcare away and trying to get programs to quit helping them. The director stated that” This center is an on campus facility and we have a lot of students, which are low income families. We need the legislator tor realize that these families need help.”

            Some of the concerns they had about advocacy was people loosing the quality of care they deserve. Low income people can’t afford childcare well if they can’t get help with childcare then no job. Right know in the work force there is not that many job opportunities, no factories with large number of people, they are mostly small businesses. The people who are low income, at risk children, special needs, and abused children are the ones who need it most.  When people can’t afford childcare then there children miss out on a lot of things.

Its amazing to see what other people think is good topics for this age group. I think the list could go on and on. The director I interviewed and some very good interesting points. When you think of advocacy your kind of up in the air about different topics. After talking to the teacher and the director I understand the concept of advocacy especially in my age group.

Questions:

            What do you think would be good topics for Toddler age children?

            Is anyone else going to do there research paper on toddler age children?