Tennessee Guiding Principles
Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards
Guiding Principles for the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards
• All children are capable of learning, achieving, and making developmental progress.
The Early Learning Developmental Standards (ELDS) are intended for all children regardless of economic, linguistic, and cultural differences and/or physical, learning, or emotional challenges.
• Children develop at different rates and each child is unique in his or her own development, growth, and acquisition of skills.
Individualized, appropriate, and reasonable supports and accommodations must be provided to close the achievement gap and promote school readiness for all children.
• Early experiences have both cumulative and delayed effects on each individual child’s development; optimal periods exist for certain types of development and learning.
• Four-year-old children are active, eager learners.
A primary approach to learning is through purposeful, inquiry-based play. Optimal learning environments invite children’s participation through hands-on, experiential exploration using all five senses. Four-year-olds are concrete learners who learn best through interactions with people and educational materials in multiple, varied contexts.
• Development advances when children have opportunities to practice newly acquired skills and when they experience a challenge just beyond the level of their present mastery, known as the zone of proximal development.
• Multi-dimensional development is essential for optimal brain growth.
Children’s learning is integrated and occurs simultaneously across all developmental domains, which are interrelated and interactive with one another. Children’s brain growth and cognitive development is accelerated when early education is focused and balanced among all eight areas of development included in the revised TN ELDS.
• Children learn in the context of interactions and relationships with family members, caregivers, teachers, other children, and adults in their immediate environment and greater community.
• The family is the most significant contributor to a child’s lifelong learning and development. Engaging families in the early education of their children is essential to continuing a child’s success in the elementary classroom and later learning.
Source: Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards
The kids learn to read & write after learning to speak and listen actively
- Listening comes first-by listening to others the child learns to identify speech.
- Speaking-Listening is followed by speaking
- Reading – Reading comes much, much, later after the child masters the ‘look and say’ method of identifying letters and words and begins to read.
- Writing (This comes last) – It starts only after the child is able to hold a pencil or crayon. We seem , as a country to place a lot of importance on writing, even before the child has mastered listening, speaking and reading skills.
Achievement
The Mastering of the spoken word, identification of letters, numbers, alphabet, word pictures, and other objects are necessities for development.
Leaps N Bounds Academy utilizes over 360 spoken language activities, 250 written language activities and 225 identifying sound activities.
These activities assist children in learning basic skills with repetitiveness in order to master more difficult skill.
What others are saying...….
I have known Priscilla for many years. There is no one more I would trust with my infant or child than her. We worked together in the Newborn Nursery at River Park Hospital years ago. -Stacy Brown
Priscilla DunnRegistered Nurse and OwnerKristie used to work at the Manchester Rec Center in the daycare and Nursery in Manchester TN while she was going to school. My kids loved Kristie. When she became a teacher at the Middle School my kids were so excited to see Kristie at school. -Jeanette Wilson
Kristie MorrisonProfessional Teacher and Owner
Leaps N Bounds Academy
The Pedagogy of Childcare
Pedagogy is the academic discipline that deals with the theory and practice of teaching and how these influence student learning.
Pedagogy informs teacher actions, judgments, and teaching strategies by taking into consideration theories of learning, understandings of students and their needs, and the backgrounds and interests of individual students.
Pedagogy includes how the teacher interacts with students and the social and intellectual environment the teacher seeks to establish. Its aims may include furthering liberal education (the general development of human potential) to the narrower specifics of vocational education (the imparting and acquisition of specific skills).
The Teaching Methodology
