Are you an early childhood education (ECE) major? Are you trying to find resources to not only help you in your studies, but also in your future career? This article will give you the resources, such as books, documents and websites, that will help you find what you need for school and for your future teaching career.
Literary Resources for Early Childhood Education
There are hundreds of books that can be helpful to someone pursuing a career in ECE. One of these books is “Resources for Creative Teaching in Early Childhood Education,” by Darlene Softley Hamilton. Whether you are a teacher, future teacher, or parent, you can use this text to plan and develop a curriculum where children can learn through a wide spectrum of experiences. This book is geared towards both individual children and children in group settings.
Another great book resource for ECE is “Reading and Learning to Read,” by Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart and McKeon. This book is very helpful, in that it offers the reader knowledge about how to teach children in different stages to read, as well as helping to identify problems children are having within their reading. Additionally provided are many web resources and strategies for better helping a child to learn to read.
“Child & Adolescent Development: An Integrated Approach,” written by Karen B. Owens is yet another great resource that provides more information about child development. This book offers a look at child development from birth through adolescence, and is a wonderful guide for helping both the educator and the parent to better understand young children.
Website Resources for Early Childhood Education
The first website resource is http://www.readwritethink.org/. This is a wonderful website that contains hundreds of lesson plans, projects, activities, games, tips and strategy guides. This website mostly focuses on writing, but incorporates every other subject into the writing process. Another great site is http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/ect/. This site can help inform you of ways in which you should set up your classroom for your students. It provides you with many activities in various areas that will help your students learn and think outside the box. There are also many wonderful resources related to behavior and development in this site. As a current or future teacher, these are things that are very important to know.
One very good and indispensable resource that any teacher should never be without is http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/index.html. This website allows you to search by grade level, book title, and even author name to find the reading level of a book. “Time for Kid” is another wonderful resource, and can be found at http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/news. This source will allow you and your students to access news sources specifically for elementary students. It is a wonderful way to get your students involved with important events happening around the world.
No matter what age you are teaching, you will always need activities for your students. Here are a few of the many activity resources that are available. Math games are always needed and can be found at http://www.fun4thebrain.com/. A great way to help teach your children or students about fractions can be found here, at http://www.mathplayground.com/math_manipulatives.html. PBS kids also offers a wonderful array of learning games for your students, and can be found at http://pbskids.org/. Science is a favorite subject among students, and a great place to start teaching your students about science and water can start here at http://www.waterplanetchallenge.org/wpc/.
Documents for Early Childhood Education
There are a few documents that you, as a current or future teacher, need to be familiar with. One of these documents is “No Child Left Behind.” You need to understand what it is and what it means for your classroom. You will also need to have a copy of and be familiar with your state’s learning standards. These standards are items within each subject that you must teach every school year.
Studies for Early Childhood Education
There are many courses that you will have to take in order to become an early childhood educator. You will need to know how to teach in an inclusive classroom, and you will need to know how to teach students to read and write. Teaching reading is a very delicate process and must not be taken lightly by the educator. You will also need to learn about teaching math, science, social studies, and how to give and interpret assessments. Lastly, you will need to know how to understand what difficulties your students are having in the classroom and how to help those same students work through those problems.