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Gloria Ruchen Ding

Philosophy Statement
I believe that children learn through play. Vygotsky states that
children improve cognitive abilities during play. Play is also a right of
all the children in the world. They use five senses to explore the
surrounding and to obtain knowledge when playing. They also build
up their muscles and interact with other people when playing, which
brings about the physical development and the mental health.
I believe that the materials in the classroom and in the
playground should be open-ended and should include loose parts
and natural parts. These kinds of material help children practice
their creativity and build up a bond with the nature. Educators
should offer children various and sufficient toys and also allow them
to use the materials in their own ways.
Educators should plan activities and prepare environment
including all domains to support childrens learning. Children should
have enough time to play outside as well as playing inside everyday.
Outside play develops childrens gross motor skills and helps them
learn about the nature. In terms of indoor play, educators should
sing songs and share stories with children during circle time or
group time everyday. The indoor area should be divided to zones
such as reading centre, art centre, block centre, dramatic centre,
sensory centre and so on. Then, children can focus on their play
without interrupting each other. This also makes it easier for
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children to find their favorite toys and activities. Educators should

keep

the

classroom

organized,

safe,

and

developmentally

appropriate. Also, the environment should be modified according to

childrens interests and development.
I believe that each child is unique. Based on the Multiple
Intelligences theory, all children learn differently. So, educators
should value diversity. In order to learn about each child and identify
their strengths and emerging skills, educators should do observation
everyday and as frequently as possible. This help educators
establish a supportive relationship with children. The observations
offer information to help educators design appropriate activities for
individuals and groups as well. I believe that all the activities should
be inclusive and take account of childrens diversities to support
young childrens development.
I believe that emergent program is a good way to support
childrens learning. Children are always curious about new things
and the environment around them. This requires educators to
provide children with a safe and developmentally appropriate
environment, which has to be based on childrens curiosities.
Children pay attention for a longer time if they work on the things
they are interested in, which benefits the learning efficiency.
Educators should discuss together to figure out childrens interests
and brainstorm creative activities for children. Educators can work
together with colleagues to design a long-term project for a group of
children and model the children how to do the project. This gives
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children the opportunity to practice working with peers and to

improve problem solving skills. In this way, children learn new
knowledge with joy, which brings about the learning habit and the
love of learning. This kind of exploration process contributes to their
life-long learning. After accomplishing activities, educators should
meet with co-workers to discuss on the reflections and to track on
each childs progress.
I believe that educators should implement activities in the Zone
of Proximal Development. This insures that the children will not be
stressed out by something too difficult or be bored by something too
easy. This requires teachers to observe so that they can discover
childrens interests. Also, teachers need to do documentation, which
shows childrens skills mastered and the progress they made.
Educators can use various observation tools such as informal
observations, portfolio, and checklist. When documenting, educators
can choose learning story, documentation panel, work sample and
other kinds of documentation like that. The scaffolding can be
offered by both the teachers and other children. During this process
the children have the opportunity to learn from each other, which
benefits their social development.
I believe that educators should always interact with children.
Educators should communicate or talk to children and play with
them. Interaction builds up childrens language and social skills. In
addition, children learn from adults. They learn new words and
physical knowledge from educators.
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Educators should work together with parents, families and

communities. This gives educators more information about the
children, which benefits childrens healthy growing up. Its also the
educators responsibility to provide parents with professional
knowledge to educate and take care of the children at home.
Educators should build up a good and friendly relationship with the
parents because this gives the children a better sense of belonging
and engagement. Furthermore, educators can either use their own
professional knowledge to contribute to the community or use the
resources from the community to benefit the children in the daycare
they work in.
Besides, I believe that educators should keep documentations
confidentially. Educators should also be clear about and abide by the
professional boundaries.
All in all, children are the future of this world. They are active
learners. Educators should supervise them and the environment as
well to make sure they are safe. In addition, educators should
educate the children in the most appropriate way.