Maintaining Daily Attendance in the Classroom

Maintaining accurate daily attendance is important and necessary to keep the children safe. The last thing that any parent wants to hear from a teacher is that “they do not” or “did not know” where their child was for any period throughout the day.

The teacher or assistant in each classroom should always know the correct number of children present in the classroom, at all times. The best way to ensure that the teacher and assistant know how many children are present in the classroom is to have an adult greet each child when they arrive and check them into the classroom. This is especially important when the class starts at a designated time and children arrive late, or the class is in a different location such as the gym or outside on the playground when a child arrives.

The same would apply when a child is picked-up from the classroom. A child should not be allowed to leave the classroom without an adult acknowledging that they are exiting and the child is checked out of the classroom. A name-to-face should be conducted regularly throughout the day to ensure that you have an accurate number of children in the classroom. A name-to- ace is when you look at the child’s face and acknowledge them on the daily attendance. Maintaining accurate attendance should not be the responsibility of one person if there are more caregivers working in the classroom.  This is leaving room for an error to occur when the person responsible for maintaining attendance is absent from the classroom.

Maintaining accurate daily attendance is important especially in the event of an emergency. With accurate use of daily attendance, all children can be easily accounted for based on the attendance.  This should have each child’s first and last names with their arrival and departure times. If electronic attendance is utilized, the center must plan for maintaining attendance if the system is not working or you are not able the retrieve the attendance.

One thing to remember is if a child’s attendance is called into question for any reason having accurate attendance will support if the child was at the center on the day in question or not.

If the caregivers are not maintaining accurate daily attendance and a child is left outside or in the classroom, they will not know this until they notice that the child is not present for some reason or if the parent arrives to pick the child up from the center. At that point, everyone, including the parents, realize that the child is missing and no one knows where the child is. This is a scary situation for the parents and the caregiver, a situation that neither party wants to be a part of. The parents are not happy of course because no one knows where their child is and the caregivers are upset because they just cannot believe that they don’t know where the child is. Recognize this situation can be eliminated completely by maintaining and monitoring regularly the daily attendance and by completing a name-to-face.

Maintaining accurate attendance in the classroom must be a priority for everyone caring for children to ensure the safety of the children.

FREE Shape Guessing Handout

Patterns and shapes are great things to learn in early education. With this two page free downloadable resource, it takes away the work you have to do to provide a fun and educational game for children.

Here’s how it works. Print off the page and have children guess which shape goes into the space with the black line. After the first sheet, talk to the kids and explain why each is a pattern. Once they have the first sheet down, move onto the second page that is more difficult.

For more resources, take a look at the Apple Numbers handout on this page as well.

Feel free and download the resource here:

Shapes handout

FREE Apple Number Math Education Resource

Learning numbers is a fundamental part of education as a child and how children learn numbers can impact their relationship with math as they grow up. Help children start that relationship on a positive note by showing them the Apple Numbers math game sheets.

Here’s how it works. Print out both the Apple Numbers PDF and the Apple Numbers Answers PDF. Laminate them and have kids count how many apples are on the sheets. For big numbers, have them break up the apples into small groups and then add the groups together. Afterwards, show them the answer number to get the association to build.

Help kids learn their numbers and begin their relationship with math in a fun and positive way. Click the links below to download the sheets.

Apple Numbers

Apple Numbers Answers

 

 

A Visionary Leader

A visionary leader works in tandem with their employees to achieve the goal and vision of the organization. A visionary leader has the desire to see change come to the organization through new and ingenious ideas. Kotter (1996) describes the need for leaders to have vision and the ability to motivate and inspire others to follow their lead.

Hoyle (2007), outlines how complex leaders function and the need for them to reveal their weakness to their team. Displaying emotions is essential for leaders to connect, because teammates need to be able to relate with their leaders. Leadership does not come natural for everyone, and neither does showing compassion and empathy especially in the work place. However, these are necessary tools for success.

Organizations need a clear vision and strong leadership to succeed (Kotter, 1996). A strong visionary leader should look at the larger picture of the company to best accomplish the goals of the organization. Without a strong vision, employees often become disinterested and complacent (Kotter, 1996).

Leaders evaluate ideas based on the knowledge that they gain from all sides of the issues. They should not be eager to incorporate a quick fix into their scenario. They should recognize that the issues that created the problems are part of the equation and should know that a quick fix will not eradicate the problem. Visionary leaders are open to change and explore new methods of operations. They empower employees to have the desire to create new and innovative strategies. The key words for learning organizations are flexibility and open-mindedness.

Leaders have the desire to see change come to the organization through new and ingenious ideas. A strong learning organization should encourage the communication of ideas to flow in both directions between management and employees. These parties can work together and display their mutual respect for the goals and visions of the organization through collaboration. A visionary leader incorporates new ideas, wherever they may come from, and institute them in different ways within the organization. Therefore, management and employees are consistently learning and re-inventing themselves and the company to meet the ever-changing work environment.

References

Hoyle, J. R. (2007). Leadership and futuring. Making visions happen. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press

Bullies

According to dictionary.com, a bully is “a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people”. Bullies come in all shapes and sizes, as well as any age range. Bullies frequently harass, abuse, and intimidate those they see as inferior, less able, or just for no reason at all.

Bullies are not only hurting and impacting their victims, they are also causing problems for themselves. Bullies tend to have low self-esteem, emotional problems, or developmental issues. One way that parents can prevent their children from becoming bullies is to communicate with them about positive interaction, maintain a positive relationship with them, and know their friends.

Early childhood education professionals should recognize that hurting people tend to hurt others. Children that have unaddressed emotional and developmental issues in the early years can become bullies out of frustration. Reaching children through early intervention programs can provide the needed resources to prevent the child from becoming a bully. If an early childhood teacher observes behavior of a child that represents bullying, knowing the possible reasons behind their actions will help the teacher to address the problem and possibly prevent the child from continuing to bully in the future.