Hi all
I have recently moved into the permanent assistant position in my room, working with a room leader, 2:8 ratio. My room leader has shown me how to do the daily documentation for our room (the 'day sheet' so to speak), and I have become a little concerned with the information she puts on it. Every day she will put a few things there that we have done (that have photos to go with them), but then tends to make up the rest of what we did, I presume to make it sound more exciting to the parents. I'm not talking occasionally, I'm saying she does this on every day sheet she writes.
Is this a common practice that others do/have noticed? Or just laziness? Am I worrying about it for nothing? I was previously float staff so wasn't involved in any documentation other than providing information to the room leader and taking photos. It just doesn't sit right with me, because I feel like if you have to make stuff up to put on the day sheet you're either saying you didn't focus enough on the children's learning and development that day so you have to add in fake things, or you don't think what you did do would be seen as enough by the parents, so you jazz up the day sheet with made up information. Either way there are issues to be addressed if information is being made up.
Any thoughts???
Made up information on daily documentation??
Re: Made up information on daily documentation??
No, this isn't common practice to make up information on the day sheet. That's pretty bizarre! When doing the day sheet you should be evaluating the activities from the program to analyse that the children achieved the outcome/goal that has been set out. I'm not too sure why the information has to be made up! It should be written as it happened during the day. Even if the children were not interested, it could also be added so you can change the activity or adapt it in the future. You could also write comments from the children while they were doing the activity, spontaneous experiences that occur, focus on a group interest that may have happened during the day...There is so much to write about I'm not sure why information should be made up...
Maybe you should just ask your room leader "when did this happen" if you read something that has been made up...
,
Lorina
Maybe you should just ask your room leader "when did this happen" if you read something that has been made up...
,Lorina
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Child News: Child Weekly
Re: Made up information on daily documentation??
Just reading your post again, when writing the day sheet, you need to add more information than explaining what the children did to match the photos...
Daily Dairies are now used to reflect and evaluate the planned and unplanned experiences that occurred throughout the day. Mainly when describing an experience/activity that occurred, talk about what the children discovered, their learning, what happened, what they said. It should be a paragraph or so depending on the experience and how much interest the children showed. So similarly to an anecdotal observation. You will also need to include the Learning Outcomes to the experience as well. Usually the outcomes in your daily diary will match the ones for the same experience in the program plan. So within the daily diary you are evaluating how the children achieved the outcomes/goals. However, for spontaneous experiences, you will need to add your own outcomes...
The following article lists how children achieve outcomes which you can use to help guide you and also use when you are completing the daily diary.
How Children Achieve Outcomes
For example - if you are writing about a group time experience on catching and throwing ball you could add. "Through this experience it is evident that the children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical well being (3.2), as they show enthusiasm for participating in physical play and negotiate play spaces to ensure the safety and wellbeing of themselves and others (3.2.10)".
Another option is just to add the outcomes in brackets, next to the experience you have written. Have a read through the sample daily dairy here (you will need to download) to get an idea of what types of information you can include:
Daily Diary
Hope this helps,
,
Lorina
Daily Dairies are now used to reflect and evaluate the planned and unplanned experiences that occurred throughout the day. Mainly when describing an experience/activity that occurred, talk about what the children discovered, their learning, what happened, what they said. It should be a paragraph or so depending on the experience and how much interest the children showed. So similarly to an anecdotal observation. You will also need to include the Learning Outcomes to the experience as well. Usually the outcomes in your daily diary will match the ones for the same experience in the program plan. So within the daily diary you are evaluating how the children achieved the outcomes/goals. However, for spontaneous experiences, you will need to add your own outcomes...
The following article lists how children achieve outcomes which you can use to help guide you and also use when you are completing the daily diary.
How Children Achieve Outcomes
For example - if you are writing about a group time experience on catching and throwing ball you could add. "Through this experience it is evident that the children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical well being (3.2), as they show enthusiasm for participating in physical play and negotiate play spaces to ensure the safety and wellbeing of themselves and others (3.2.10)".
Another option is just to add the outcomes in brackets, next to the experience you have written. Have a read through the sample daily dairy here (you will need to download) to get an idea of what types of information you can include:
Daily Diary
Hope this helps,
,Lorina
