Outcome 2.3

Sources further information; developing &/or collecting resources for literary & numerical teaching & learning

As educators we should constantly be looking for new and interesting resources for teaching young children. We should avoid using the same ideas over and over again. This is due to a number of reasons, mostly centred on the idea that ‘all children are different.’ The children you have in your class or kindergarten or childcare centre will all be different from one another, and they will be different from the children you had the term, semester, or year before. So activities that worked really well one year, may not work as well the next year, or they may not work with certain children, or they may work so well that you want to continue that theme or type of activity with the children in new ways. Without researching and finding new sources of inspiration you are limited to your own creativity and imagination, which will never be extensive enough to cater for all children and interest levels. This is why educators should constantly be looking for new sources of inspiration and ideas, to be the best teachers they can be, to have as many ideas, themes, and activities at their disposal as possible to create rich, exiting, interesting, and child appropriate learning opportunities as they can.

These resources can be found in a number of styles and formats, including internet related activities and information, books, YouTube clips, videos, government documentation, peer-reviewed articles, television shows, music, and many more. One other way to find new resources for teaching is through peer-inspiration, to ask and read about and experience what other teachers and educators are doing, and I believe that peer-inspiration is a very important method of finding new resources and ideas.

Which is why creating a blog for this topic was a good idea, because through each other’s blogs we can find new ideas, activities, and ways of thinking to help inspire our future educational careers. For example Sarah Maywald’s post about Outcome 2.3 is a very good resource for teaching literacy and numeracy using bottle caps. Kate Watters’ week 9 reading blog features a short but easily expandable idea about incorporating mathematics into other projects. Chelsea Rodda, in her Outcome 2.3 post used the code-breaking activity we participated in during class and explained how it could be turned into an activity for young children. Anna Roberts hasresearched and outlined the benefits of the ‘Play is the Way’ website and program. By searching other students’ blogs we have a myriad of peer-inspired resources at our fingertips, as well as an easy way to communicate with each other about these ideas, activities, and resources.