Plan, Observe, Tinker, and Teach with Infants and Toddlers

Becky Sughrim: Hi, and welcome to Teacher Time. Thank you so much for joining us today for an episode on Plan, Observe, Tinker, and Teach with Infants and Toddlers. My name is Becky Sughrim. I am so excited to be here today with the fabulous ...

Michael Browne: Mike Browne who is actually calling in a location in San Francisco. I'm super excited to be here.

Becky: Let's start with our time together, with a moment of joy by watching this video. As you're watching the interaction, we invite you to type in the chat what do you notice about the environment, what do you notice about how the educator is engaging with the children, and what's happening in a routine. For some context in this video, we're watching the teacher in the black shirt and the child in the gray and blue printed top. Let's check this video out. 

[Video begins] 

Teacher 1: [Speaking Spanish] Do you want more cookie? You have your cookie here.

Teacher 2: [Speaking Spanish] A fly. Shoo fly. Say shoo. Bye.

Child: Bye.

[Laughter]  

Teacher 2: [Speaking Spanish] Bye, fly! It’s gone now.

Teacher 1: [Speaking Spanish] It’s gone now.

Teacher 2: Where is it? [Laughs] 

Teacher 1: [Speaking Spanish] Do you want more?

Teacher 2: [Speaking Spanish] Where is the fly?

Teacher 1: [Speaking Spanish] You have more here. 

[Video ends] 

Becky: I love that video so much when the toddler is supposed to say goodbye to the fly and then the educators both laugh together. Some of the things that I noticed was, first, how slow - paced and calm the snack felt. What was something that you noticed, Mike?

Michael: Something that stood out to me was that the educator was extremely present. I know there's so many things that go wrong in our world, in our days, and we want to capture it all but the educator was just present to notice the child, to noticing the fly, for example.

Becky: They have that moment and that pause. I was just checking the Q&A. I want to make sure I'm keeping up with anything. Lots of people are introducing themselves. Thank you for being here and we hope you enjoyed the moment of joy as well. This video is such a great way to start us off today as we embark upon discussing the power of being present in the moment and building off of children's natural curiosity.

Michael: During our time together, we're going to look at a variety of different things. We're going to look at the framework for effective practice and then how planning and how observing, and tinkering fit into this second pillar of our house. We're then going to talk about what planning, what observing, what tinkering means. Then the importance of our educators that see themselves as researchers. There's always going to be a ton of practical strategies and tools for engaging in documentation during our teacher toolbox segment. We're going to talk about how do we partner with families around observation and documentation. We're going to discuss ways to modify the learning setting, individualized teaching, and learning for children in our small change, big impact. 

We will check in with our Teacher Time librarian, Emily Small. In our BookCASE, we're going to learn about some great books that you can share with children and families, and we're going to put a nice bow on it and we're going to wrap up our time together with some ways to promote your wellness in All About You. I'd love to call your attention to the Viewer's Guide. You're going to find that in the resource widget and it's full of resources, some colored bookplates, and notetaking spaces. 

You can download this guide and you can use it throughout our time together for taking notes, for selecting, for planning how to use Teacher Time practices in your settings. If you're super new to Teacher Time, or you just have to refresh some, the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning (NCECDTL), it's a long acronym, we love it, uses a house to represent six integral elements of quality teaching and learning for children ages first all the way up to five in all program options. These six elements of the framework for effective practice includes our foundation because what would we be without our foundations? 

Where we're providing nurturing, responsive, and effective interactions and engaging environments. On the left - hand side, we're going to talk about implementing research - based curriculum and teaching practices. On the right side of that, we're having using screening and ongoing assessments of children's skills. On the roof, we're going to have embedded, highly individualized teaching and learning. At the center, because that's the center of what we always do, we're always talking about how do we engage and partner with parents, caregivers, and families. 

Our framing and/or citing, whatever you like to call it, depending on where you come from the United States, we're talking about strengthening equity - focused practices. While these elements are definitely connected; they form a single structure that reflects effective teaching and learning and surrounds the family in the center. The family is at the heart of the framework because each element is implemented in partnership, in relationship with families within their cultural and community contexts. 

We as staff use the framework for effective practice to really foster children's development and learning. Fun thing since you haven't noticed, deciding if I kind of knew. Have you noticed that? That's because equity - focused practices, not only surround the house as our sixth element, as you see represented in the slide here, but we also have to remember that it's embedded throughout each of the five elements to ensure equitable access, belonging, high - quality nurturing, and joyful experiences, and positive outcomes for all of our children and families. 

Today, we're going to focus on planning; we're going to focus on observing, and tinkering with our teaching practices, our screening, and ongoing assessments. Two of our most important pieces are strengthening equity - focused practices. We're going to really explore the concept of our role as teachers, as researchers, and how we can share our perspective around our daily teaching practices to really draw upon the curiosity of children to foster joyful teaching and learning.

Becky: We want to think about teacher as researcher. We'd love to hear from you. Please fill up that chatbox with your responses to in what ways is being a teacher like a researcher. We want you to think about how you act as a researcher in the learning environment. I'm going to check the chat. We've got some comments about the dinging, so hopefully, that helps. Mike, as we're waiting for people to type in the chat how they are a researcher in the environment, what are your first thoughts?

Michael: Just thinking about how we call our children, especially toddlers, little scientists, I'm always thinking about how do I become more toddler - like in my role. How do I need to notice things? How do I slow down? You know that first time that they're noticing a butterfly, it's such a marvelous moment just because they're staying in the moment, and they're realizing growth and patterns and STEM. To really sit and listen to the stories of children, and you listen to them, then we can become more like researchers. What about you?

Becky: I love that being more like the toddler, being that present in the moment. We've got lots of comments in the chat here. You're always looking for new ideas and methods, you're observing the children to draw conclusions, listening and learning. Always observing. Trying different methods and then change them based off the results you see. Being curious. You're learning about children's behavior and development. Investigating, observing, and questioning. I don't know if I can keep up with all of these wonderful comments in here.

We love this and thank you so much for engaging. Keep putting your thoughts and ideas in the chat. Let's see these ideas and your comments in the chat come to life. Let's watch an example from an infant and toddler classroom learning environment. As you're watching the video, we encourage you to share in the chat how you see this particular teacher in the role of researcher. By intentionally, responding based on the observation she's taking. As a reminder, you can also use the reaction buttons to let us know what you think and feel about the video. 

[Video begins] 

Teacher: Oh, you're choosing the shaker with the bells. Come on, Mia. You want to come? You want to come see her toys? You're still waking up, huh? OK. Let me help your friend Mia. I think she's feeling a little shy. Here's Larcy. Can I trade you? Mia, come here. How are you? Huh. Good to see your friends in the classroom. Yeah, yeah. We have new friends in here, huh? Do you want to play? What do you want to play with? Look what we have here. Let's see.

[Video ends] 

Becky: One of the first things I noticed from this video is that the educator, again, was present like we saw in the moment of joy. She was present with the infant on the floor, as they're playing on the play mat. The teacher was listening carefully to the infant through observation. Narrating what the infant was doing and choosing to play with. Then we see the educator shift their attention to another infant. They again listened and observed carefully and noticed that the infant was feeling hesitant or shy. 

And realize a change can be made in the environment, I can switch out with this teacher because I know that this child and I have a connection, a different connection than the other teacher. They're thinking, they're observing, and they're making adjustments to the interactions in the environment to fit the child's need. I also just want to say that this clip was less than a minute, so these moments of observation were so quick, as we saw. Intentional and valuable in helping support the educator to make a decision on how best to respond to the child and what to do next. What are some things that you're seeing in the chat, Mike?

Michael: One person added and it just touched my heart because I was like, “yes, someone noticed it” and someone said it. And it was she's so in tune with the baby and the toddler. In tune that takes so much skill and passion, and energy, and the positive energy was very calming for the child. As we just heard from your responses in the chat and all the responses we heard up until this part, educators are already engaging in these practices daily. Give yourself a round of applause. 

You're engaging in these practices daily. Awareness and attention toward what we are already doing could really help us shift our practices and our perspectives in ways that allow us to do so much, including gaining a deeper understanding of the child as a human being. Centering the humanity of children. When we do that, it can lead to our greater capacity to engage in a responsive relationship with the child. We can learn so much about children and we can individualize our care and our curriculum, which includes our interactions, which includes our teaching practices and learning experiences in our routines, and even our schedules. 

We can ask and really understand and follow children's progress in acquiring these skills and concepts over time as part of our ongoing assessment cycle. I think that was the right side of that framework, to call back to that. We can always explore our own curiosity and wonderment. Because that's an important part of being in the classroom and being educators and being researchers as well. Teachers as researchers, we really recognize that the relationship between caring and trust as adults to the infants and toddlers that we care for really provide that secure base, that is the foundation for learning. 

When infants and toddlers can feel safe, all the way down to the bone, they're connected to and they're supported by the adults around them, they are so much more likely to explore and to experiment and to learn and to play. When we view ourselves as researchers, our role includes that of observing and documenting learning processes to understand where to go next and how we become responsible with our curriculum and teaching to best support the child in these higher learning community development and growth across all of our domains. When we have this perspective shift, it can really support our understanding of children's progress and their ongoing effective cycle.

When children are constantly showing us what and how they know, when we take a step back and we look and we listen, we can really understand more about where a child is, where they were, and where they're going to progress to, which sometimes that might actually mean, we need to actually have a little bit more support in these areas. That's just another piece of data collection. If our researchers collect data, which I know it sounds like a scary thing but it's not when we lean into it. We can really understand what's going on, we can collect ongoing data with children in the learning environment which includes anecdotal notes, it includes video recordings, photography, just to name a few. 

We'll be discussing a little bit more of those types of data in the Teacher Toolbox segment so stay tuned, stay with us as well as we're sharing practical strategies for data collection in the classroom. To zoom back out because this work is fun and joyful. A big part of that joy of teaching and learning is staying curious, it's staying present, it's being open to what's happening in the moment, and it kind of makes us wonder sometimes. 

Where can I actually go next with this child as well as with this learning community? Then we can experience, see what happens next. We can think how well our questions and conversations be engaging with children and then we can think about and put our researcher hat on and be like, “Oh, it can give me more information about each individual child and a group across a certain domain.” Finally, teachers as researchers supports our equity mindset. Why? How? It keeps children and our families at the center, it helps us become more aware of our own biases and assumptions through objective observation and that tinkering process. 

And it helps us understand how bias and assumption leads to the attitudes, the beliefs, and the actions toward children and families, particularly those who are Black, who are Latina, Latino, Latinx, who are indigenous, who are Asian, are the children and families of color, children with disabilities, and their families, families who are members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and so on and so forth.

Becky: Thank you, Mike. Let’s think about now that we've talked about teacher as researcher and what that means and all the things that come along with it and the things that we do, let's talk about how we can engage in this process. We're going to think through this with a graphic on the slide that highlights three important steps, plan, observe, and tinker. As we go through each step, we encourage you to think about how that step invites you to increase our intentionality and how that strengthens equity - focused practices that ultimately lead to all children and families in our care being seen, heard, and valued. The first part we're going to start with is plan. This step includes planning times to observe a child. To capture the depth and breadth of a child's skills, abilities, and interests, it's important to observe at different times of the day and in different settings. 

That might include observing a child across settings like indoor and outdoor, and at different times of days, in the morning or in the afternoon. It could be observing a child during different routines like mealtimes, diapering and toileting, nap time, arrival and departure. And observing a child as they engage in play experiences. And move from one play experience to another. And how they interact with other children and adults. It's important to plan for spontaneous observations and spontaneous observation opportunities. We all know that infants and toddlers often do and say things that are new and unexpected. These behaviors may occur during unplanned observation times. 

It's important that we're ready and prepared for those moments so we can capture those things happening. This might include, putting note - taking material, like writing tools, index cards, sticky notes, or mailing labels, notepads, clipboards, and paper in different strategic places around the learning environment. If you wear an apron or a smock, maybe it's got some big pockets for those things or in a home visitor bag. And making sure that your cameras and audio and video recording devices are in working order and fully charged and easily accessible. 

Now, let's think about the next step, which is observe. In this step, we want to gather data. The data collection process supports objective observation in the learning environment. When we are focused on noticing exactly what is happening in the moment, we are likely to be more objective and gain a better understanding of what a child is communicating. This practice supports us becoming aware of our own biases and assumptions where we can take a moment and say, “Oh this is a judgment versus exactly what's happening in front of me” and noticing that in our own mind and getting that self - awareness. 

We want to say how important families are as a partner in gathering data, that one way to support gathering data from families could be to include a journal for each child where the families can add notes or their observation of what's happening at home. Then after we gather the data, we need to organize it in some way. It could be a system that we set up that is aligned with the assessment tool that is already being used so that it's complementing what you're already doing. It's also a good time to talk about and decide how observations will be organized and stored. There are many different ways that this could be done It’s really important that we choose what works best for us.

For example, you could have a folder for each child kept in a hanging file cabinet or a large box, or a crate, or maybe you use index cards in a filing box with the section for each child, or you have a three - ring binder notebook for each child, or an accordion folder. Maybe you have one of those hanging shoe organizers with the big pockets and it's labeled for each child. Or maybe you choose to use an online child assessment system. It can also be really helpful to plan for time throughout the day to file observations and all the rich data that you've collected. 

This might be something you do as a part of your planning time or at the beginning or ending of your day, or at the end of each week. It's just important not to wait too long because observations can pile up really quickly, and then it can feel very overwhelming. Let's see. We're going to go to the next step. I see there's lots of great things coming into the chat. Journals are a great idea; it's important to have items to write around, thank you so much for sharing your ideas in the chat. OK. 

Our next step here is tinker. In this process, we want to decide first how often we want to review our observations. And the more frequently we review observations, daily, weekly, or bimonthly, the sooner we can have the information we need to respond appropriately to each infant and toddler and plan accordingly. As you all know, very young children develop very quickly. We may need to review observations more often. It's important to think about who are you going to review the observations with. This could be a teaching team, this could be a coach, maybe it's family. 

We want to think about who can be a part of the tinkering team and will support us and each other in checking in with their biases and really thinking about these observations and are they truly objective. This is a time where we're going to interpret the data. Based on the data that we've collected what we've observed, what we've recorded, what we've collected that has actually happened, we want to think about and ask ourselves and the tinkering team what do we make of what's happening. What questions do we have about that? These questions are important - they're an important part of the process as we move into the next step in the tinkering process. This is when we start to tinker or adjust the learning environment and our interactions so that we can deepen a child's learning.

Michael: Such great ideas, Becky. Thank you. I learn a little bit differently, but I want to talk about and walk through what a plan, observe, tinker might actually look like in practice in our toddler learning environments. Once again, that first step is to plan. We see in this picture, you can see Teacher Jeremy, he works in a classroom with older toddlers, about 18 months, about three years old, and he has set up a dispensary table with green sand, large clean and messy, of course, food containers, clear cups, and some balls. 

When setting up this learning experience, he actually thought about, “How do I connect it to the goals, and he chose the infant-toddler approaches to learning, which is also goal - setting.” Child shows interest in and curiosity around and about objects, materials, and events. We're actually going to see this in practice. Let's engage in the observation step together by using that proper Q&A widget to write down your thoughts. We're going to watch a video of Teacher Jeremy at the dispensary table with the group of toddlers. 

Using the typing in the chat or using your observational section on your Viewer Guide to take additional notes to keep for later. There is an anecdotal record notecard available to you to record your observations on the Viewer's Guide. As you observe, objectively record what you see is happening and how the children are engaging in the learning experience. And you can observe one child or you can observe the entire group. 

[Video begins] 

Jeremy: That was harder than I thought. Should we do it again? Are you going to put it in my hand? Do you want me to take that? What next? What's the idea now, Emma? Do you want to put some more in there? Are you trying to tell him to stop? You can tell him to stop. I don't think he realizes he's hitting you with the bucket. Here. You can bang it right here like this. We just don't want to get hit with it. Bonk. Yay. You'll take the xylophone for a walk. Oh, here, remember. Let's keep this thing in here. Here you go, I'm ready. Got it. Do you want some? You want some? Prop them over. Here, I've got more. 

[Video ends] 

Michael: Such a great video. What have you observed? You can write it down on the anecdotal notecards or you can type it into the chat. As you do that, I also want to encourage us to think about just the next steps, the tinker phase. Share your answers in the chat as well. How do you think Teacher Jeremy might tinker with the environment, the materials, or perhaps with interactions to help support, once again, the learning ELOF goal that he identified, goal number seven? The child shows interest and curiosity about objects, materials, and events.

My, first thought was with the materials on the sensory table. I think tinkering with the materials in the sensory table. I guess, thinking about my own practice and what I might include or what if I was a coach I might tinker, or if I was Teacher Jeremy, I might include some more novel or new materials like scoops, or funnels to really hold and sustain the toddlers' interest at the table just a little bit longer. What about you?

Becky: I'm thinking about something along the same lines as one comment that was shared in the chat, it was not as many kids at one time so maybe switching out some of those bigger materials for smaller containers so it doesn't feel as like squished and that toddlers have a little bit more room to dump and fill and bang. Of course, this won't stop them from bumping into each other, but it might give everyone just a little bit more space to explore.

Michael: As I just look at the chat, I'm thinking, I'm seeing - oh, Teacher Jeremy uses descriptive vocabulary to add interest to the child. That's a great observation. I'm thinking about, how can we tinker with the vocabulary? Yes, we use scoop a lot but I'm also thinking, hm, what are the synonyms that maybe children haven't been exposed to? What about unearthing? I know that's a big word, right? What about shoveling? I just think about what are some other words and vocabularies. Emptying out, dipping, stooling, streaming that we can add to tinker sort of our vocabulary. Let's see, what others? We see wonderful ideas. 

Teachers engage with their children, different materials, smaller cups, measuring cups, which you can always tie in literacy, you can tie it to numbers. There's so many different ways in which we can get to, not just the ELOF goal that he identified but we can tie it into so many other things. Just in the tinkering phase, I think it's also important to know that we can also tinker with our expectations. Maybe this is adjusting our expectations of what showing interest in and curiosity looks like for each child.

Interest in and curiosity can look different for each child. It can also mean offering the learning experience with a completely different goal in mind. Maybe teacher Jeremy opens up the dispensary table again later in the week, and decides, I'm going to focus on a different ELOF goal this time. Maybe he considers the goal within the social - emotional domain to support the toddlers in learning and how to be at the sensory table. We saw that a little bit earlier in it when he was like, “Oh, stop.” Using your words for self - advocacy. That's a social - emotional domain in terms of learning how to play next to or with each other. Or maybe you might consider something in the perceptual, motor, and physical development domain. The world is our oyster.

Becky: It is time for our next segment, Teacher Toolbox. Our teacher toolbox is full of practical strategies to support with ease and joyful teaching, and our teacher toolbox also includes strategies to support you in your role as a researcher. Researcher and tinkerer. We can't forget that. Let's check out what's in the toolbox today. There are so many ways to document observations. Many of you were giving us ideas in the chat earlier using sticky notes that could be color - coded and journals and notepads. Again, we want to hear from you. Please use the chat widget to let us know what other tools you're using to collect observations. 

As you are typing away, I'm going to list off a few of the suggestions we have for your toolbox. And like we said, you can document observations through video, collecting work samples like maybe it's different forms of artwork or it's recording children's words and/or vocalizations. You can document through pictures or using a checklist and your communication with family. Thinking about those infant or toddler daily sheets as a space to collect observations and documentation as well. 

One thing we want to think about is when we document observations and we're constantly, consistently collecting multiple forms of observations it could be work samples, it could be anecdotal notes on the iPad, it could pictures or more, that we can bring all of these together to create a child's portfolio. I'm sure many of you are already doing this. Portfolios can be helpful in helping us to see the overall view of what the child is learning and doing and can help us to see development over time, especially with infants and toddlers when development happens quickly and you get those moments of like, oh, yeah, that's what we were doing back in October. It's also really wonderful to share with families. 

I also want to give a little friendly reminder of don't forget to date your observations. It's important to find the tool or method for observation that works best for you. It might be handwriting observations with a pen and sticky notes or on a clipboard, or it could be using a tablet or a smartphone. We encourage you to try out a few different ways and see what works best for you. 

One way to document observations is through anecdotal notes. And we have this anecdotal record notecard and it includes space to record contextual information on the top portion of the card the child's name, the date, the time, the setting the educator, and then space to record what you saw and heard happening in the moment. We want to let you know that you can find this notecard in your viewers guide and also on the ECLKC website and we invite you to print them out and put them throughout the learning environment. The biggest thing about recording observations and gathering data is having the resources available.

Michael: For our next segment, Small Change, Big Impact, this is where we will show small adjustments the way that we can set up our learning environments, how we can modify our curriculum, or just engage with children and how that can make a big difference in a child's learning. We know that children vary in their learning characteristics and how they engage with the people and the materials in their learning environments. 

These small changes, also known as curriculum modifications, are made based on the individual needs of the child to really help promote their engagement and their participation. As we already know that when children are more engaged, they have more opportunities to learn. Some children might need some more highly individualized teaching to help them fully participate and engage, such as embedded teaching and intensive individualized teaching, but by making that curriculum modifications based off of a child's individual learning needs can be a great place to start that support for more engagement and participation. 

I just got word that we have a researcher guest who wanted to hop on and say hi. They have a specialization in using observation and documentation. Specifically, for IFSP goals. I'm going to pass the mic over onto her. Gail Joseph also leads Preschool Teacher Time and I believe she has a broadcast coming up very soon, Thursday, March 7th at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Gail.

Gail Joseph: Hi, everyone. Hi, Becky. Thanks for letting me slide on over here. Thanks for that great introduction, Mike, about what we usually talk about when we're talking about small change, a big impact which usually is around curriculum modification. And this time, we're going to talk a little bit about how what we were just talking about, this idea of a plan, observe, tinker can be applied to children's IFSP goals. Let me back up for a second and say what the IFSP is in case some of our viewers are not familiar.

IFSP is an acronym which stands for Individualized Family Service Plan. Infants and toddlers with disabilities or developmental delays who are receiving early intervention services will have an Individualized Family Service Plan. I'd love to hear from our viewers how many people are familiar with that. How many people have maybe been to an IFSP meeting with the family? That would be so great to know. I'm going to peek over and see. People are talking a little bit about that in the chat. But what I would like to present today is that the same types of kind of observation strategies that you discussed can be used to document a child's progress on their IFSP goal and objective.

And there are a few steps to do this. We actually have a link to a resource that can describe it more fully. I'm just going to hit the highlights here. But the first thing is that as you're participating in that IFSP meeting, you would introduce the idea of a portfolio to the family as like, “Hey, this is a way that we can collectively document all the wonderful things your child is doing and learning at home and in the early learning setting wherever they are.” That would be the first idea, just introducing that.

We might kind of track your child's progress with the portfolio. The next thing would be to decide on the focus of the portfolio. Here it's what is the goal that the family would really like to work on with that child. Maybe it's an older toddler like we might see pictured here. The family decides that they want to really work on the child pointing and using some word approximations to communicate what they would like, what they want. That might be the goal that they're focused on. 

We, as educational staff, are working on that goal with that child. The next thing that we would do is identify how are we going to document that. You provided many great ideas. The viewers have provided many great ideas. I don't need to go over those. But those same ideas of how you document children's progress is exactly what you could use to document a child's progress on their IFSP goals and objectives. You might use checklists or notes or photos, or videos. You might talk with the family about what they want to contribute to the portfolio and how they want to communicate their child's progress on that goal.

In our example, if the child is - if the goal is that they would point or use some word approximations to communicate what they want, maybe the family says, “Hey, when we drop them off with you every day, we'll just do a quick check - in and tell you if we've been seeing this at home and when they've been using this at home.” And the educational staff might say, “you know what,” and we can collect some video and highlight when they're using these word approximations or pointing, maybe we get some photos. 

And maybe even collect some work samples like when this child is drawing vigorously with his marker, maybe we'd also make a note on that drawing that they used their words, or they used a word to communicate that they wanted that pen and that's how they got that. It would be collecting all of this information, and what I love about that is that's strengths based. It's what they're doing, when they're doing it, how they're doing it, but not what they're not doing or not doing yet. That's great. 

Then, you collect all these possible entries or artifacts, you collect them in some type of storage container that then you'll get back out and share with the family again when you're assessing their child's development. How are they doing? Are they making progress? And we can look over all of these great kind of artifacts and entries that we've made and say, “Yeah, they're making progress so maybe we're ready to work on using two words together.” And maybe if they're not making expected progress, we think about how we'll tinker with what we're doing to encourage more pointing and talking. 

That might be that we have a favorite toy of theirs and we have it in kind of visible space where they can see it but out of reach, that they actually have to point or use the word to get access to it. That was really quick. But I just wanted to emphasize that we can use these same types of observation strategies with a child's IFSP goal.

Becky: Thank you so much for joining us, Gail, and for giving us all that wonderful information.

Gail: It's fun. I love seeing all the reactions too. That's kind of a fun thing.

Becky: The heart exploding up. We got a number of people saying in the chat that they are familiar with IFSPs, they develop them, and they attend meetings.

Gail: That is fantastic. Excellent.

Becky: I'm going to pass it to you because we share here on Teacher Time.

Michael: Thank you. Sharing is caring. I think the most important part, like Gail said right there that you want to bring up again, is that family piece. Sharing with the family. Centering our families is an appropriate segue to our Partnering with Families segment, where we will discuss ways to ensure that we're keeping families at the center and heart of this work. Let’s start off this segment by actually sharing from the Early Head Start educators and how they use data to celebrate. 

[Video begins] 

Emily Erwin: I mean, we share this with our parents that we really think it's a real privilege that we get to help their children grow and learn. And it's really amazing to see.

Sonia Holloman: The progress they're making.

Emily: To see even just a few months ago to now and all the new things.

Sonia: You forget how quickly they progress, and you forget where we started. It's fun to go back and reread some of the data that we've taken before and everything and we're going like, "Oh, my gosh, I remember when.” 

Emily: Or even thinking where we were at the beginning of the year. I mean, with just the way that we taught and interacted with the children and where they are now, and our routines and how - 

Sonia: We learn as much as they do.

Emily: Yes. They teach us things every day.

Sonia: They do, they teach us things every day. It helps us grow as teachers. It really does.

Linda Chui: We're really doing this for our families also, especially our children. And I know that there is a lot of challenges with the paperwork. I think for us to really hang in here is really due to remember why we're here, it's really for our children and for our families. And that's the reason why we have so much documentation because we want to make sure that we are heading in the right direction. 

[Video ends] 

Michael: It is certainly a privilege. The first thing they said, the privilege to be with the children and with the families and watching them grow, as well as grow ourselves. I compared Teacher Emily's and Sonia's reflections, which are critical reflections on the process of observation and documentation. They just serve as an important reminder for me and for all of us that collecting and sharing data in our learning environments consistently, going back to what you said earlier, Becky, about making sure that we're dealing with tying everything throughout the program here is a vital piece of partnering with families in celebrating their child with them. Thinking back to some of the forms of documentation that was mentioned in the chat, that we discussed in our Teacher Toolbox segment. 

We know how powerful it can be to share children's work and their notes through pictures, videos, through iPads of development with their families. Through WhatsApp, I saw in the chat. This process of sharing not only supports the idea of partnering with families as we plan our learning experiences in our environments, but it's also a way of communicating. It's a two - way street, a two - way communication with families that their children are being seen, they're being heard, and they're being validated. When we think about how we intentionally partner with families around observation, documentation, and planning environments, it's important to talk with families about why and how observations are made in the program. 

Then, we invite them to share what they've observed about their children verbally or through pictures or photographs, or inviting us to look at the notes in journals that go back and forth between home and the program, whether it's through email, maybe it's a text exchange as allowed by program communication policies is super important. Another thing to keep in mind is that documentation is a way to invite families in. It's a way for them to share what their children are learning and they're curious about in their home lives. 

This is another place where that anecdotal record notecards can come in handy. You know what, I suggest making copies of the notecards with your observations on them and sharing them with the families, especially around experience that the family has said the child is interested in. Sharing and poking documentation is a great way to support family engagement, family partnership. Having those pictures of children posted in the learning environments or sending photos and pictures electronically can be such a great conversation starter for families. And it's a form of inclusive communication. 

Considering families who are dual and multilingual learners, providing photos and pictures to support families and starting conversations with their infants, with their toddlers about what they did during the day, or talking with their infant about the experiences they have. It’s a great way for us as educators to start conversations with families and to find out more about their learning experiences that children are doing at home. Our partnering with families is always important regardless of the child's age given so much that's happening within the first year of life. It's really important to engage with families of young children to keep each other posted of new growth, of new areas of interest, of concerns, or of struggle because all this is to support the child to succeed.

Becky: Let's jump into our "BookCASE" segment. This is where we're going to highlight some books related to our episode's theme and we're excited to hear from our Teacher Time Librarian Emily Small today. Let's check it out. 

[Video begins] 

Hi, and welcome to our "BookCASE" segment. I am excited to be here today with our Teacher Time Librarian Emily Small.

Emily Small: Hello, again.

Becky: And for those who are new to Teacher Time or as a refresher, we use the CASE to help us intentionally select books for the learning environment. CASE is an acronym, and "C" stands for connect, where we connect the book to learning goals in the Early Learning Outcomes Framework or ELOF. "A" is for advanced vocabulary where we can use the book to introduce new and novel words. "S" stands for support engagement while reading the book. And "E" stands for extend the learning beyond the book where we take the content of the book outside of the book and into our learning environments.

Emily: Yes. Today we're going to talk about "Who Jumps More?” by Grace Lin. This is part of the Storytelling Math series. I love the Storytelling Math series. For "C," for our CASE, we are talking about friendship here, as well as for the ELOF, the cognition domain of emerging mathematical thinking because they are measuring their jumps and how far they can jump based on a different animal.

With that, we also see some advanced vocabulary in terms of words like hop, leap, big, and small, as well as very animal - specific words such as reindeer and rabbit. That's just some of our advanced vocabulary. You could add some advanced vocabulary talking about what they're wearing because some children may not be familiar with like heavy coats and boots as part of winter gear. 

For supporting engagement, encourage children to move their bodies while we're reading this book. Infants, you could make them jump. Encourage your toddlers to jump along. And then for extending the learning, if you live in a cold environment, maybe bring some of that snow inside and let them engage with it. See how they could jump like different animals. A lot you can do with this really simple wordbook. I should also mention this comes in Spanish as well.

Becky: Oh, wonderful.

Emily: Yes.

Becky: Emily made the case for "Who Jumps More?” And in your Viewer's Guide, Emily has also helped us make the case for a number of different books that we see in our background. There's also a complete infant booklist and toddler booklist. Thank you so much, Emily. We can't wait to see you again.

Emily: Thanks for having me. 

[Video ends] 

Michael: I'm super excited and I'm ready to run to the library right now to find the books that Emily has pulled for us, especially since it is also in Spanish. Don't forget to check out our Viewer's Guide for a full list of infant and toddler books. That's enough from me. I'm about to turn it back over to you because when we do our best caregiving and teaching - is when we do well ourselves. 

Engaging in self - care practice isn't just for Saturday night or Friday night; it is something we should be doing all the time. Self - care practices can help us as educators build our social and emotional capacity to be more present in the moment so that infants and toddlers can experience the joy of teaching and learning. 

Here is one quick strategy that we can use to really get to that calm and present space. I'm going to call back Dr. Gail Joseph, but in the form of a video this time, and Dr. Dawn Williams about a strategy that we can use in moments when we're feeling a little overwhelmed or a little stressed. We can use this to refocus and reconnect, to be present in the moment, and in our practice of observing what is happening. 

[Video begins] 

Gail: This little strategy is what we call Notice Five Things. It's a pretty common mindfulness exercise. And the idea here is really to center yourself to connect with the environment. And to just think about what I'm going to tell you to think about. This is the time to not think about what you're worried about from what just happened that morning or worried about what's going to happen tomorrow when they come to do an observation in your classroom instead to just be in the moment here. 

It's called Notice Five Things. You just pause for a moment, and you look around, and you just notice five things you can see. You might just say I see the camera, I see the lights, I see the table, I see the snow globe from one of our other Teacher Time episodes. I see the clicker. It's just noticing five things you can see. And then it's noticing five things you can hear. And you really have to pause to do that; I can hear the traffic, I can hear my breathing, I can hear the click of a keyboard. Just thinking about what I can hear. And then the last thing is kind of five things that connect with my body. 

Kind of five body points if you will. I can notice my feet on the floor, my back against the chair, my watch on my wrist, my shirt on my skin, the air on my face. It's really just thinking about five things I can see, five things I can hear, and then five kind of body point connections. And doing that in just a moment and doing it at several times during the day just kind of, wow, let me just notice five things. This is not like I'm taking a break and I'm going to be in the staff room. This is like I'm going to be right here in the moment and I'm going to just notice five things. What's great about this strategy is that you could teach this to your own children as well.

[Video ends]

Michael: What a throwback. Where you can find that video? On the ECLKC website. I'm going to pass this and give this back to you, Becky, to close us out on our Teacher Time broadcast today.

Becky: Thank you so much, everyone, for joining us today and for all of your engagement in the chat. We hope that you will join us next month, March 7th, for Plan, Observe, Tinker, and Teach in Preschool. We can't wait to see you then.

Michael: Thank you, everyone. Have a great time.