Transcript

Text on screen: Coaching Cycle: Reflect (24–36 Months).

Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.

On screen: A coach and an educator sit next to each other at a table inside.

Coach: So, we’ll go over a little bit of just like what I noticed you working on in the classroom -

Educator: Mm-hmm.

Coach: - and you can tell me if there are any particular things that you want to highlight or if you want me to give you suggestions on expanding.

Images on screen: An educator sits next to a kneeling child. In front of them is a structure built out of clear and white tubes. The tubing goes from the floor upward and back down. Several colored balls slightly larger than ping pong balls are inside the tube facing toward the ground. The educator’s hand is held flat against the open mouth of the tube to keep the balls from falling out. The child is pointing to a red ball housed inside the tube.

In another image, a child stands on the concrete outside, holding a yellow plastic truck. An egg carton is on the ground with small balls in several of the spaces. In another image, a child sits on a rock outside in the sandbox holding a basket filled with several balls.

Coach: With multiple materials, I think that was a really great example, getting to watch the children use the same materials in different ways, having different methods of counting.

On screen: The educator sits in a chair outside on the concrete. A child stands across from the educator. The tube structure is in between them. There are several balls scattered on the ground.

Coach: There were some children who were trying to fill up the tubes and counting inside the tube.

On screen: The educator sits cross-legged, facing the tube structure and holding a hand over the open tube to keep three balls from falling out. Two children stand next to the tube holding balls. The educator points to the open part of the tube located above their hand. One child approaches and reaches up to place a ball in the opening.

Coach: There were the moments when you were having the children put the balls or the materials inside of the egg cartons and having them count that way.

On screen: In a video, an egg carton is filled with balls. The educator points to the first ball in a row, then the second, and the third. A child is sitting next to the carton and reaches out to point to a ball.

A child kneels behind two plastic baskets. The basket on the left has more items in it than the basket on the right. The child reaches into the basket on the left and pulls out a ball in each hand. The child tosses one of the balls back and examines the one they are still holding. In the next scene, the coach and educator are seated next to each other at a table inside.

Coach: Having baskets and then estimating how many balls were inside or how many materials were inside each basket. The materials and environment that you provided for those children allowed them to do those things.

Educator: Yeah, I wanted to make sure, especially like with the balls and different objects, I wanted to make sure that they had different textures and different sizes to use so that it wasn’t just like one thing and then they do it a few times and they’re bored.

On screen: Two plastic baskets lay on the ground. One is tipped over to the side. The right-side up basket has eight balls of the same size. Two of them are white and the rest are different colors. There is one smaller ball. Three of the larger balls are on the ground. There are six pinecones on the ground. In the tipped-over basket are two pinecones. Image on-screen: A wooden crate sits on the concrete ground with different-sized wiffle balls inside.

Educator: It’s like, no, let’s compare them.

On screen: The educator and two children sit around the egg carton. Each child places a ball in one of the spaces. Educator: It’s almost full.

Video: The coach and the educator sit next to each other at a table inside.

Educator: When I first started working with toddlers in the fall, so it’s been a few months, but it was a challenge because I came from working in an older classroom with four and five-year-olds -

Coach: Yeah.

Educator: - and they’re in a very different place developmentally in all aspects, especially things with like language and math and symbols, and so that’s something that definitely took some adjustment. But I feel like now I’ve gotten better at being like, okay, it’s this child. They can do this. They’re still working on this concept.

Coach: Yeah. I was going to talk about the mutual learning piece of it too, and that is a perfect example of mutual learning. You watched the children interact with different materials, watched how they reacted to you saying certain words or doing certain actions, …

On screen: The educator sits to the side, looking at two children kneeling next to the egg carton. One child is holding a ball in one hand and reaches into the egg carton to pick up one of the balls. The other child places one larger ball and one smaller ball into the carton. Educator: You got a couple more?

The child holding the two balls walks over to the tube structure in front of the educator and places them into the opening above the tubing. The educator is holding their hand to keep the balls from falling out.

Coach: - and learned whether or not they had those word associations or not yet, and you built up on that.

On screen: The coach and the educator sit next to each other at a table inside.

Educator: Yeah. I’ve kind of learned that within my first few years of teaching of like, no, you have to be always, like, as the children are paying attention to what you’re doing, you have to be paying attention to what they’re doing in order to the next week, do something a little bit more -

Coach: Yeah.

Educator: - and then, they can build off of that and you’re constantly like constructing it.

Coach: Yeah.

Text on screen: A special thanks to the children, families, and staff of the Cuesta College Children’s Center, without whose help these videos would not have been possible.

Logo: Count, play, explore—for early education.