14 Conclusion
An intentional educator is a skilled and thoughtful observer. With each observation, whether a running record, anecdotal note, video recording, learning story, or work sample, they are watching and listening, and considering what they know about a child and they can best support them. As educators gather and organize their observation data, they begin to see each child for who they are as an individual and as a member of the classroom community. With that information, intentional educators can set realistic expectations of what children can do. Ideally, educators will utilize the documented data to develop developmentally appropriate activities and create an interesting and stimulating learning environment that is designed to promote play, socialization, growth, and development. Now that you have been introduced to some of the tools and techniques that are used to gather information and document a child’s development, in the next chapter, you will delve deeper to review the concepts of typical development and atypical development, and you will learn about some additional tools that can be used to track a child’s development.
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