Discussion Prompt: KarenL

Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Karen Liska -
Number of replies: 9

Discussion Prompt - Beginning Reflections... Who are you and why are you here? 

Preamble: Most of us have entered the field of Early Childhood Education and Care with similar interests to make a difference in the lives of the children and families in our care. Each of us is in the process of our own professional journey and although we probably share similar reasons for entering the field of ECE, each of us has a unique story to tell about how we got here and where we are heading in terms of our professional development.

Creatively share (draw, paint, etc) your journey and share here in a picture format. Think about how you might demonstrate or illustrate some of your responses to the guiding questions below. 
Once posted, find someone with similar thoughts/images to your own and someone with differing thoughts/images to your own. Comment on what stood out to you from their responses to the below questions. What do you wonder more about? 

 The following questions will help guide your creative reflection:

· What beliefs, values, etc. led me to enter the field of ECEC?

· What characteristics do I have that make me an asset to the field?

· What have I done in my life (experiences) that have contributed to my journey?

· Who has helped me get to where I am?

· What are the skills and attributes I hope to attain?

· Where am I headed or what is my goal in this field?


>>I teach Early Childhood Education and Care, and our students engage in lots of critical thinking, self-reflection, and collaborative discussions to help us unpack and dive deeply into who we are as Educators, why we do what we do, and how we can continue to hold quality care and education as our foundation for advocacy. This discussion prompt is to help students connect with one another at the beginning of the course. This is also a set up for one of their assignments where they share their learning and wonderings individually.  

In reply to Karen Liska

Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Faith Whiting -
Great activity Karen, it's always so nice to be invited to share through a different medium. I love the picture option. I had one clarification I wanted to request, after reading the post from a learner's perspective. According to the instructions, it seems like the questions are just to get me thinking while crafting my picture? Am I including words at all with my picture? (I'm a bit confused because further in the post it says I should comment on what stood out from other's responses - so maybe I am including a written bit as well)?

I ask because I'm one of those learners who feels strong expressing myself through the medium of words and not so strong expressing myself through art. When I think of the "no-words" scenario, it scares me a bit but I love the picture and words (or even a picture of words) option - that excites me. 
In reply to Faith Whiting

Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Karen Liska -

Thank you for the feedback Faith, I appreciate your thoughts. Yes, I would leave it open to words or pictures or any type of images or graphics. I envision that some students might only have pictures, others might only have words, and some a combination. I will certainly edit to make it more clear! 

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Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by emma bourassa -

Karen, the prompt to: Creatively share (draw, paint, etc) your journey and share here in a picture format makes me think of how many questions might be generated from the participants to explain the choices of lines, symbols, colours, images or whatever they do. I would be intrigued by someone else's image and would love to figure out how they express ideas visually. What a fun idea. 


In reply to emma bourassa

Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Karen Liska -

Thank you Emma! I appreciate your comments. I have tried this prompt once and it did go over well. Students were a bit intimidated to do something visual, but once into it, really seemed to like it. 

In reply to Karen Liska

Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Karen this is a creative way to get people engaging I think. It made me think of taking Christina Merkley's graphic facilitation course years ago. She shared this visual of her journey to becoming a graphic facilitator. As you can see, it's quite extensive, and would take a long time to create (not that any of us could replicate how beautiful it is!) It does make me wonder if asking people to share "your journey" might be too complex? Could they share "part of" their journey to make it less daunting?

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Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Karen Liska -

Thank you Beth, I had not considered that. I appreciate your thoughts! 

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Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Melissa A. -

I really like your prompt. It's creative and is a very open-ended way to engage students.

I wonder if it might be helpful to slightly revise/expand the wording about how to creatively share. As someone who enjoys being crafty and not necessarily someone who draws/paints, I might feel a little intimidated by having to share a drawing with others (who could be strangers to me). Could collaging, electronically designing something in Photoshop, and/or building something be added to possibilities alongside drawing and painting? This might be implied, but it could be helpful to give permission directly?


In reply to Melissa A.

Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Karen Liska -

Thank you Melissa! This is a great suggestion and I will edit that in. Definitely makes sense! 

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Re: Discussion Prompt: KarenL

by Leonne Beebe -

Karen,

When I read your prompt, I thought, "Of course, children draw pictures before they have words." so why wouldn't ECEC students be invited to use visuals to express their stories.  Your prompt also reminded me of a student who struggled with writing, so for one essay, he chose to do a PP with pictures/graphics he found on the PP "Insert online pictures".  Once he had his pictures chosen, and his story told, it was easier for him to find the words for each slide.  Using PP Bing Creative Commons online pictures helps those of us who tend to be word-based. PP also give the lower tech level students an opportunity to tell a story with each slide representing a stage. 

Finding the story in other students' visuals/words reminded me of helping children find the words for their picture stories. Have you found that ECEC students have similar characteristics represented in their stories.  Very interesting and intriguing prompt.

Out of confusion comes clarity.

Leonne