How my pivotal role as an early childhood practitioner, has evolved during this time of crisis.

As an early childhood teacher, this pandemic has brought growth along with the many challenges. I was very apprehensive about delivering classes remotely to young children outside of what I grew accustomed to in the comfort of my classroom. I also was a bit weary on how the parents will be able to support me in this venture. Young children can be very restless and distracted and so I knew that I had to bring my A game. After pondering and sighing, I got down to planning for the individual children in the class, it was important that every child received instruction in a fun way that appealed to them. It was important that the parents’ job was only to ensure that they were able to receive and distribute the material and have the children present. I also had to take into consideration that screen time would have to be limited and so plan carefully to integrate many activities throughout the weeks and days to ensure that the daily diet for learning was packed with the essentials. This in itself was a task that seemed daunting initially but turned out to be a huge learning experience. I researched, tweaked and discussed with colleagues how this delivery should look then got to work on the scheduling and activities. As an early childhood teacher I believe that I have learnt so much in a short space of time. My skills in dealing many aspects of technology has certainly been enhanced, these include filming activity videos, editing and even setting up the virtual classroom. Throughout the time in the classroom, from observation and reflection I have learnt how to tweak activities to ensure that the children are kept involved, engaged and active. This pandemic has certainly brought growth along with the challenges for me.