Early Childhood Education Assignment
1. Students will write a short paper, of about 1000 words, reflecting on one of their placement
experiences in early childhood studies. Each paper will address the following:
a)
Describe your placement context, including your own role and responsibilities as well as
those of your Field Educator, Faculty Advisor and anyone else closely involved with your
placement experience.
b)
What did you learn as a result of the placement? (About yourself, children or families you
worked with, colleagues and administrators, policies and practices, ‘the system’ as whole)
c)
What helped you learn the above? What was not helpful?
d)
What would you do differently if you were to repeat the experience? What should others
(future students, supervisors etc.) do differently?
e)
Concluding thoughts
As a Direct-Entry student, I had my most placement in George Brown College. I
remember I took my first placement in 2018. I was new to the field and curious about everything
in the field. The most important thing that I learned from that placement experiences was the
basic concept of the role and responsibility of being an educator.
Placement Context
On the first day of being the student educator, I was curious but also nervous as I had
never gotten into the field before. However, I understood that placement is an opportunity for me
to practice the skills that I learned from the classroom in an early childhood setting and also to
develop my own teaching philosophy. On the first day of the placement, I need to introduce
myself to the children and post my biography with pictures on the wall. My responsibility at the
very beginning was to build relationships with all children and follow the routine every day.
While doing that, I will need my field notebook, which is important in every field placement,
especially the first one, as it is a professorial tool to take anecdotal observations and reflections.
Besides that, this notebook will also be used to examine my role and responsibility within the
daily routine, self-evaluation, and reflection as well. The notebook is the first step for me to
establish thoughts about children’s behaviours and their interests. It helped me in designing the
activities based on their interests and then to guide me in the reflection part in daily curriculum
records (DCR). I was also required to establish and maintain an inclusive early learning
environment and contribute to the diversity within the classroom. Communicating and
cooperating with families and colleagues to build positive, responsive relationships is another
thing an educator should take charge of. At the end of the placement, I need to write down my
goals for the next placements that demonstrate where I want myself to improve and take action
on changing that. In George Brown College, we had to cooperate ECE and Field Liaison as well.
Cooperating ECE is responsible for orienting students to the facilities and sharing information
about the policies within the child care, and introducing me to all children, guidelines, and
expectations with my placement. They are also responsible for modeling appropriate practices,
giving feedback on behaviour guidance and curriculum planning. Field liaison will be visiting
and observing me in the field placement setting and taking notes on what I did, and arranging
meetings with me and the cooperating ECE in the mid and at the end of the placement to review
the evaluation form, identifying my strengths, weakness, and goals.
Learning within the Placement
The first placement was tough for me because I took a lot of time to be familiar with the
daily routine, struggled with how to write the DCR, and was also too shy to talk to the families.
However, the great things I found out are that I build positive and caring relationships with
children, and they really participated and engaged in my activities. The first placement
experiences provided me a chance to practice the theories I learned from the class, such as
problem-solving, inclusion and diversity, self-reflection, documentation. From the midterm
meeting with the field liaison, I realized that the families are important in children’s development
and their thoughts or ideas are significant, and they are the “resource” where I could get to know
more about children. I had practiced my communication skills, collaboration skills, and
professional skills during the placement. I established a basic concept on how to be an educator
and how to enrich my activities and support children (behavioural guidance) in each domain
(social, cognitive, physical, emotional). This experience helped me to set up my first focus of
teaching philosophy, which is to create a positive and caring relationship with children and set up
an inclusive and diverse environment.
The cooperating ECE are knowledgeable as they worked in this field for almost ten years
or even 20 years. They had their teaching methods and teaching philosophy when guiding
children and supporting the families. The field liaison had given me feedback on where I could
improve and helped me in establishing goals. Additionally, children are also my teacher.
Sometimes, they inspired me with their understanding of the world and things that happened
around them. They are always passionate and love to explore new things, which is what I should
learn from — keep studying and always be passionate. As I discussed at first, at the beginning of
the first placement, I was struggling, but I never had any negative attitude towards placement
because that is not helpful at all. As I stood in the field, I knew that as being an educator, I have
to adjust myself and aim to guide children and offer support. A negative attitude is not beneficial
for the whole atmosphere in a childcare setting and for children as well.
If I had the chance to repeat this experience, I would change the way that communicates
with families and cooperating ECE. In the first placement, I am too shy to communicate with
family member at the beginning, and I rarely talk to families even at the end of the placement.
Now, I am confident enough to communicate with families about their children’s behaviour
(children’s development) and anything interesting that happened today. I would also ask my
cooperating ECE frequently for guidance and support. I will directly tell them about my
weakness and ask how I could improve.
To conclude, the first placement was memorable and is challenging for me, but it is a
chance that I could practice and develop my skills. The cooperating ECE, field liaison, all
children, my peers helped me during this process. They led my thinking of how to be a
professional educator and made me realize my role and responsibility.

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