COVID has had a huge impact on the lives of our entire global population. The field of education increasingly felt its devastating impact on the lives of students, teachers, and staff. More specifically, meeting the educational needs of young children during a global pandemic had its own specific challenges. Educators of young children understand the importance of teaching and learning in a child's early development. Teachers of young students are trained to be engaging, be culturally competent, and understand the importance of teaching children through play. This chapter discusses the need for play and engagement in early and elementary education classes. It also provides the reader with obstacles and opportunities experienced by practicing teachers at the university level, the elementary classroom, and the PreK classroom during the 2020-2021 school year. Each teacher and teacher trainer will share their unique experiences and provide successful strategies utilized to support the teaching, learning, and engagement of young children during a global pandemic.
The demographics of schools in United States (U.S.) are rapidly changing. Therefore, teachers in the U. S. need to be prepared to teach children with a wide variety of diverse backgrounds. This article describes an introductory early clinical experience purposefully designed to provide early childhood pre-service teachers from a large Midwestern university in the U. S. with opportunities to teach children in a high-need and diverse setting. Data from exit slips and surveys associated with the Open Doors program were analyzed over four years. Results indicated that almost 90% of candidates felt the experience was beneficial to their professional growth and would consider working in a diverse school. Slightly over 90% felt the experience increased their knowledge and skills regarding working with diverse students. Implications for similar projects are provided.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide experiences of six effective teachers who engaged in a 21st century global phenomenal experience during a course on the “Inquiry Curriculum.” All six teachers are currently teaching in the Illinois school system as content teachers, coaches, or mentor induction coaches. The participants describe their lived phenomenal experience with selected students in their classes and the guidance of a 21st Century Global Curriculum. The findings underscore the challenges many 21st century teachers face and how those challenges affect instructional decisions in P-20 settings. Results also stress the importance of the institutional decisions of student and teachers valuing the mission, vision, and goals stances in 21st century teaching and learning.
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