Anna Marlowe

December 2022

ECD 360B – Applied Principles

My Personal Guidance Model

The purpose of this paper is to organize my thoughts and beliefs into a personal guidance

and discipline model. Children need guidance to help them regulate in their early years. They

need encouragement and understanding. The adults in their lives can help to support them in

their learning and development. This model can serve as a guide for interactions in settings that I

work with children; it is a guide that is personalized for my preferred teaching methods.

Professionalism

It is important that any environment a child is in is supported by professionals that follow

ethical guidelines. These guidelines should honor each child’s needs and development.

According to NAEYC, “Doing what is right for children starts with agreed-upon guidelines for

interactions in your classroom, with your fellow educators, and with the families you serve”

(Hickey). The teachers should present themselves in a professional manner in the classroom, to

family, specialists, and in any circumstance representing the children. Children should always be

interacted with professionally in and out of the classroom.

As part of being professional, it is important to continue building knowledge and

experience. Teachers can continue to develop professionally in their education, experience, and

their personal ethics. There are many ways for teachers to assess the environment they create.

Improvements can be made constantly in order to build professionalism and foster good teaching

methods in the classroom. It is important to keep the child’s needs and safety in mind each day.

This is easier said than done, but it will make for maximized class time and professional
interactions with the parents and child that lead to better outcomes. Overall, professionalism

keeps the child safe, but also the teacher.

Behavior Expectations

In some ways, it would be convenient and ideal if children acted the same way all the

time, but it’s not realistic. That’s one of the beautiful things about children; they are developing

along similar paths, but in their own individual way. Every child is so drastically different from

another, in each domain of their development, whether that be cognitive, physical, social,

emotional, creative, language, etc. There should be expectations and even goals for children and

their behavior, but each child may behave differently. This should be honored. Appropriate

behavior should be encouraged and modelled, but children will behave in a way that shows their

needs and interests. Teachers should be able to recognize this and use it to plan for that child.

The expectations I have for children I work with in the future are as follows: to respond

positively and receptively to their environment and peers, behave appropriately with others, take

risks, make choices, and show interest and growth in learning and exploring. Dr. Dan Gartrell

shared that “Guidance begins with building secure relationships with children outside of conflict

situations” (Gartrell, 2020, p.14). The relationships between teachers and children can make all

the difference. Teachers who know the children and have a secure relationship with them are

able to interact genuinely with the child and respond to their needs appropriately. They will be

able to offer guidance to children in their behavior. This behavior can all be modelled and

supported by the lessons and content that are planned by the teacher. It is the responsibility of the

adults to provide opportunities for children to successfully meet behavioral expectations.

Children are extremely responsive to the world around them, and adults have more control over

that than the children do.

Establish and Maintain Classroom Conditions

Teachers have the responsibility of establishing and maintaining the classroom so that

children can enjoy their experience and benefit from their experience. Children will benefit most

from being in a good environment that is tailored to their needs and interests. NAEYC’s 6th

principle of Child Development states that, “Children’s motivation to learn is increased when the

learning environment fosters their sense of belonging, purpose, and agency. Curricula and

teaching methods build on each child’s assets by connecting their experiences in the school and

learning environment to the home and community settings” (Principles).

Teachers can work to create an environment that fosters the children’s learning and

development. It isn’t an instantaneous process, but something that can be improved and changed

over time to grow with the children and their interests. A classroom should be inclusive to

children of all cultures, backgrounds, and abilities. An inclusive classroom builds a sense of

belonging and community in the environment and will make it a better place for children to have

these learning experiences. They will be able to grow in all domains as they learn to

communicate, work with others, trust, take risks, explore interesting activities, and learn good

behavior. In the Economics of Belonging, Emily Plank shares that, “The economics of childhood

are a system of values rooted in belonging. Children measure the value of objects, people, and

experiences in relational terms: Do I belong to my community? Am I a valued participant? Am I

influential and powerful? What currency do I have that makes me influential? In the same way

that adults can judge their economic value by totaling their currency, children use a kind of

relational currency to assess the extent of their belonging. For children, that currency is a

combination of attention and connection. They know how much they matter by the extent to

which they feel connected and attended to by those they love” (Plank, 2016). Children that
recognize they are valued and belong in their classroom will benefit the most from their

experiences.

Fostering Children’s Abilities

Along with building that sense of community in the classroom, a teacher can foster

children’s abilities by assessing them to recognize strengths and weaknesses. They can use this

information to plan and set goals for the children moving forward. Recording a child’s needs,

interests, and growth is a great way to track a child’s progress and interests. All of this

information can be used to foster children’s abilities by using it to plan activities and lessons that

give children the opportunities they need in order to learn and practice. An example of this is

recognizing a child’s level of motor skills. One child is a little further behind than another as far

as their gross motor skills, so the teacher plans an activity to help each child strengthen that skill.

The teacher sets up a balance beam for children to walk across. Hula hoops are provided for

children to step through on the beam as they continue to practice balancing. There are also big

blocks for children to climb and step from one to another. The children are able to each work on

their motor skills through play at their individual level in the classroom.

Another way to help children learn to conduct themselves responsibly and to foster their

abilities is by working with their parents and family members. These partnerships can be very

meaningful to the class and program. Gartrell stated, “Each unique family structure poses its own

potential challenges for staff and other parents…The challenge is to be friendly with all families

and uniformly supportive of all children—without favoritism for social as well as psychological

reasons. Leaders do well to recognize the types of family structures represented in the program

as they become acquainted and work with their individual families” (Gartrell, 2020, p.78).
Preparation for Misbehavior

Teachers can intervene when children behave inappropriately, or when disruptions occur.

There are supportive and productive ways to intervene and prevent misbehavior, and tactics to

avoid. The most obvious type of discipline that should never be implemented is physical, such as

spanking. It goes against all ethical guidelines, professionalism, and each other principle that has

been addressed in this model. Another tactic that should always be avoided is manipulative

guidance. True guidance should let the child decide and learn from their own behavior, and the

child should not be manipulated into anything. This comes with mindful preparation and having

a repertoire of things to say in such an event. Teachers can also have procedures for misbehavior

ready. Having these resources available will prevent anything from happening that goes against

ethical guidelines. “In creating classroom environments for children with challenging behaviors,

teachers make many decisions. These setting require careful planning, implementation,

evaluation, and reflection” (Denno, 2004). Simply by giving children clear expectations, a lot of

misbehavior may be prevented. Misbehavior may also be caused by a lack of engagement – this

can be prevented by teachers scanning the environment to ensure the safety of each child and to

see opportunities for children to engage.

There is so much more that goes into a classroom. This touches the surface of it all, but it

is something I look forward to adding to as I gain experience and a better understanding of my

own personal guidance model and teaching methods that work for me and the children I work

with.
 References

Denno, Phillips, Harte, & Moomaw; 2004. In Challenging Behaviors in Early Childhood

Settings; Creating a Place for All Children.

Gartrell, D. (2020). A Guidance Guide for Early Childhood Leaders: Strengthening

Relationships with Children, Families, and Colleagues. Redleaf Press.

Hickey, M. (n.d.). Becoming your best: Building professional competencies. NAEYC. Retrieved

December 13, 2022, from

https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/summer2021/becoming-your-best

Plank, E. (2016). The Economics of Belonging. Redleaf Press.

Principles of Child Development and learning and implications that inform practice. NAEYC.

(n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-

statements/dap/principles#:~:text=In%20sum%2C%20self%2Ddirected

%20play,strategies%20for%20long%2Dterm%20success.