Sharapan, H. (2012). From STEM to STEAM: How Early Childhood Educators Can Apply Fred Rogers' Approa

Question

The resource that will be used for the reflection paper is Sharapan, H. (2012). From STEM to STEAM: How Early Childhood Educators Can Apply Fred Rogers' Approach. Young Children, 67(1), 36-40.
We will study the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and how they relate singly and combined to preschool planning curriculum through the readings, resources, articles and websites, videos, planning resources and supplemental resources provided in the individual units of this course. These resources replace the textbook and are current materials written by many individual field professionals with life experiences that can give real input into your studies.
I will ask you to comment on one resource taken from each of the units, your choice, every week. Read all the resources and visit all the links provided in each unit before you make your selection. Some readings will be the knowledge you are already familiar with and will be solidified by reading the resource. There will be some material that will stretch your thinking and give you a new perspective on a strategy. Certainly, understanding that this coursework is intended to inform, extend your thinking, invite you to query, reflect and refine your journey in practice, this assignment will be the final project, as noted in the syllabus, completed along the way of these eight weeks as you create new knowledge and define your teaching practices each week.

I would like you to select a resource from the readings and answer these four questions:
What is the name of the resource, article, website or video?
What was the overall idea of the resource and how it related to the whole unit under study? Ex. how it relates to the unit of science, technology, engineering, or math depending on which week you are responding to.
What was one important idea that you will use in your classroom that clicked for you from this resource? Did it make a connection to another resource you read?
How has this resource changed your thinking, being specific about where you were in your thinking to what you read and digested that made that aha moment of change?

This is 1/8 of your final understanding of this coursework. The resources have been carefully selected to give you current information. Teachers who have actually used the information in their classrooms have composed them. It works! It all connects.
Please select a resource that will allow you to answer each of the four questions that are posed in this assignment and within the required 2 pages. If you find you cannot write enough, choose a different resource.
Select, read and name the resource. Some students say they read it aloud because when you hear it as you read it, it reinforces the material by two senses. Make sure you have submitted the correct name of the resource and also list it as a link at the end of your assignment. Think about what it is saying to you. How does it make sense to you?
Write a short summary of the resource. For those who are in classrooms, you will have a different take than the student who has not had a classroom. Look at your practice or philosophy and see it through the lens of the resource. Think about the material presented in a summative way and write a broad overview as a summary.
Write about an idea that was represented in the resource that you felt was important. There should be the main idea in the resource with some related secondary ideas that you can write about. When you are writing this part, think about another resource that you could mention that linked to this one, is there something that made a personal connection to the idea as you read it, did it make you research an item in the resource, why was it important?
The last part of the assignment asks you to think about that aha moment where you say to yourself, that makes a lot of sense, I think that I will change the way I am doing this in my classroom because of what I read. It is here that you will write about the impact of how you have been engaged by a change in practice due to reading this resource.
There needs to be a change and growth observed in your writing due to how you have absorbed the intent and information in the resource. Simply reporting a summary of the resource does not show an impact. One idea is that you can show connections to other resources in this unit or a different unit. You might cite that resource and link it to a thoughtful and insightful improvement in your classroom practice. You may also research an item or idea in the resource and provide compelling connections to the intent of the resource that shows a deep understanding.
You cannot effectively convey the intent or purpose of a resource in a paragraph or two. This assignment requires at least two full pages of your thoughtful writing. It has to contain more than statements like “I learned a lot” or “I learned many ways to ....” You need to be specific in what ways you can change your practice. Verbiage from the instructions or lengthy quotes from the resource does not count in the two pages.
You will complete 7 of these reflections, one each week that will be your final project grade. Please read your response aloud so it makes sense, use the spell check edit button, look for specificity in your aha moment. It has to show that you have increased your knowledge and practice because of this resource. Unit 8 is extra credit only.
It should be submitted using the four bullets and answers underneath each bullet to be consistent in content and form regarding each question. These will be collected after each unit, graded, commented upon by the instructor and kept as part of the final assignment. You must complete one each week to be current.

In order for you to receive 50 points, this paper has to convey the meaning of the resource, report on the main idea and connecting it to another resource, evidence of some growth and completely free from grammar and spelling errors.