CHILD Program
Communicating How Individual Learning Develops

This program will guide pre-service teachers through the process of appreciating the learning differences of a diverse population, understanding the variety of factors that influence an individual's education, and creating an environment that is conducive to learning. The CHILD program aspires to create high expectations for all learners that allow them to reach their fullest potential. Pre-service teachers will experiment with the use of technology as they learn to integrate curriculum while applying flexible teaching techniques in the classroom.

Program Participants

The CHILD cohort consists of 27 individuals all of whom were admitted into the SVSU College of Education elementary teacher preparation program in the fall of 2001. After submitting themselves to an interview, students were directed to indicate participation interest through writing, by phone, or in person to a program coordinator. All interested applicants were put into a drawing and the first 27 students drawn were placed in CHILD.

Work Samples

2002 Student Work

• Team 1- Amy, Ben, Janel, JoAnn and Rebecca
• Team 2 - Amy, Kelly, Marueen and Rebecca
• Team 3 - Angelica, Danielle, Jennifer and Katie
• Team 4 - Amy, Joy, Polley and Robin
• Team 5 - Christy, Jan, Kim, Michelle and Wendy
• TE 334 Student Web site

Highlights

This past semester, CHILD was invited to complete fieldwork at Houghton Elementary in Saginaw, Michigan. Each student collaborated on planning and implementing a social studies unit consisting of 5 lessons. The opportunity proved to be enormously valuable, as students gained experience in differentiated instruction, technology incorporation and (oh, yes) classroom management.

CHILD celebrated March is Reading Month with the students and staff of Houghton Elementary by decorating classroom doors to resemble children's books. It was evident to all who viewed the doors that many painstaking hours had been put into their creation.

Events

Program coordinators will be presenting CHILD at two national conferences during the Summer of 2002. The National Educational Computing Association (NECA) and the Texas Center for Educational Technology (TCET) have accepted proposals regarding CHILD. The conferences are both scheduled for the week of June 16th and will be held in San Antonio, Texas.

CHILD students are busy working on web books that follow an ABC format and deal with special education issues. The creativity and outstanding effort that is being poured into these books ensures the quality of the products. The web books are included in the Work Samples above