Reflections on

my Semester
at Hort Woods
Allison Caruso
Child Care at Hort Woods
Hort Woods is located on the Northwest end of Penn
State’s main campus. The Center provides care for up to
170 children between the ages 6 weeks to 5 years old.
The classroom are divided into infant/toddler and
preschool sections. Each class is run by a team of
qualified teachers who believe in treating each child as a
valued individual and providing a safe a welcoming
environment for children to learn through play and
exploration.
Image courtesy of official PSU website

The center contains a vast outdoor play area for children to

interact with nature. There is sand for them to play in, rocks
to climb, and plenty of space for them to run around.

Image courtesy of official PSU website

Room to Grow
I was lucky enough to be placed into Room to Grow, a
classroom consisting of about 20 3 to 5-year-olds. The
class was run by team consisting of Laurie, Erin, Maddie,
and an intern named Caitlin. According to Penn State’s
website, Room to Grow places much focus on developing
problem-solving skills and social-emotional skills.

The Classroom had three main lunch tables on which the

teachers would provide the students with each day. There
was also a rug used for group learning and storytelling. In
addition to that, there was also a section dedicated to
dramatic play, a light table, an art table, a block area, and
quiet space. Overall, Room to Grow contained a variety of
different resources for students to further their
explorative learning.
Room to Grow Classroom Map
Hort Woods’ Philosophy
At Hort Woods, children are seen as our most
important teachers, and it is our job to guide
them in the construction of knowledge. Hort
Woods also believes in the value of each child as
an individual, and strives to make their learning
visible through consistent use of documentation.
Hort Woods also strives to be a sustainable
program, and encourages conservation of natural
resources and recycling energy and materials. In
turn, they also focus their curriculum around the
topic of sustainability.
Hort Woods Curriculum
Hort Woods supports the use of relationships as a learning tool, and believes that
relationships are the foundation of a child’s learning experience. Because Hort
Woods wants their students to develop prosocial skills among a diverse group of
students, mixed-aged classrooms are implemented at Hort Woods. The
infant/toddler classroom consists of students aged 6 weeks to 3 years, then from
age 3 to 5 they continue their learning in a preschool classroom. Hort Woods also
believes in utilizing the environment, both familiar and unfamiliar aspects, to
support learning.

Hort woods also believes that teachers must be diligent observers constantly reflect
on their experiences with their students in order to better understand how to meet
their needs and encourage learning to the fullest potential.
My Experience: The Philosophy
From the first day of my observation, I was in awe of how
interactive the curriculum at Hort Woods was, and I was shocked at
how articulate and inquisitive the students were. I would say that I
embraced the concept of the school’s philosophies right away, but it
took a little bit of time and effort to begin acting in accordance to
those philosophies.

At first, I had difficulties with connecting the students’ experiences

with the curriculum and I had difficulties with disciplining the
children. However, I found that through my readings and
observations of the teachers, I was slowly able to adjust my
behavior and in general became much more comfortable with
assuming the role of a teacher.
 My Experience: Meaningful Interactions
One way that I learned to interact with the students in a more meaningful and productive fashion was
through my readings and observations about powerful interactions. According to the reading, powerful
interactions can be described as exchanges between teacher and student that are deliberate and have a
positive impact on learning (Dombro, Gilman, & Jablon 2011).

One powerful interaction that I had was between myself and a 3-year-old student. This student
typically displayed very prosocial behavior, but would sometimes withdraw to read a book or work on a
puzzle alone. When two of her friends wanted to join her one day, she simply stated, “leave me alone, I
don’t want you here.” Her friends’ feeling were hurt, though she didn't quite understand why. I had a
conversation with her about how it’s okay to want to be alone sometimes, but that she should try to
convey that in a nice way to her friends, because they like her and might not understand why she does
not want to play. I then suggested that next time, she could tell her friends that she would like to read
on her own for a little bit, but that she will play with them later. I noticed that she took this lesson to
heart, and in the future I saw her slowly transition to using this new communication method.
My Experience: Anti-Bias Education
I really enjoyed the anti-bias panel that the teachers from Hort Woods presented for the class, and I found
the reading very fascinating. When I was doing the initial reading, I especially found meaning in the section
written by Laurie, as she is one of the teachers in Room to Grow, and therefore I really liked the insight that
she had on a group of students that I was already familiar with. I especially liked how she and her team were
able to agree on the importance of anti-bias education, and that it is ultimately a non-partisan concept
(Hoven J., et al. 2018).

In general, I had a lot of experience with anti-bias education during my time at Hort Woods. I noticed that
Laurie provided lot of stories and activities about women in STEM, and Erin placed a lot of focus on African
culture. One of my favorite days at Hort Woods was when a guest music teacher came to the class with lots
of instruments, clothes, photos, and sculptures from when she lived in Africa for a brief period of time. The
kids loved hearing the music that she brought and liked trying on the traditional clothing and listening to her
stories. Overall, I thought it was great that the children received exposure of such a rich culture.
My Experience: Literacy Project
I genuinely enjoyed participating in the literacy project with my
class. First, I followed the process of brainstorming lesson plans that
I read about in the literacy article. I created many different
categories that I could focus on, and then created activities based
off of those categories (Rosenquest 2002). The book that I chose to
read to the class was “The Girl who Never Made Mistakes,” because
I knew that they would enjoy the silly story, fun illustrations, and the
lesson that making mistakes was okay.

The children were very engaged in the story. We had a small

discussion about the book after I read it to them, and throughout
the rest of my semester with them they made references to the
story, and I could tell that they really took the lesson to heart.
My Experience: Literacy Project
The activity that I chose for the students was a version of freeze dance. I took out
the tumbling mat and provided some beanbags for the students to toss. The idea was
that they would get to “juggle” and dance on stage like Beatrice did in the story.
When the music stopped, they were supposed to freeze and let out a giant sneeze
like Humphrey did in the story.

The activity went great, and my mentor teacher was impressed that I was able to
maintain control over such an active game. I think that as a teacher, this project was
important in two ways. First, it allowed me the chance to try leading a class in a
discussion. Second, it allowed me to take a small risk with my activity. The activity
that I chose could have easily gotten out of hand, but I instead kept it safe and under
control.
My Experience: Loose Parts
I also loved the loose parts activity and thought that it
was a very valuable experience. According to the
reading, loose parts are an effective learning tool for
children because they are open ended and captivate
their attention (Daley, Beloglovsky 2015).

The parts that I chose were a mixture of shiny metallic

objects and objects from nature. I included recycled
Altoids containers to be used in whatever way the
children wished. My goals included allowing the children
to explore objects unfamiliar to them, and share with
their classmates.
My Experience: Loose Parts
The children really seemed to enjoy the activity.
They were easily captivated by the objects, asked
questions about them, and used them in ways that I
would have never thought to. I was happy to see
them so eager to be creative with the objects that I
provided to them.

I thought that this experience was especially

valuable to me as a teacher because it made me
more aware of how children interact with such
open-ended materials. It made me understand that if
I were to bring out the objects with an intended
‘“purpose” or “goal” that is clear to the children, then
I would have only been limiting them.
Reflection: Learning through Observation
Similar to how Hort Woods believes that the role of the teacher is to observe and reflect,
this course also required that we observe different interactions in the classroom and
reflect on them through observation assignments. These assignments gave me clear
behaviors to observe and consider the importance of, and in turn allowed me to reflect on
how I will react to similar situations in my own classroom someday.

While I do not necessarily plan on becoming an early childhood educator, I still think that
this experience was completely necessary because it taught me classroom management
and interpersonal skills that I will someday use despite the fact that I plan on teaching
slightly older students. I will still need to understand how to lead class discussion, interact
with the students in ways that are compassionate and understanding, and know how to
control a classroom without stifling the creativity of my students.
Reflection: Viewing Myself as a Teacher
When reflecting on my qualities as a teacher, definitely have both strengths that I
should continue to develop and challenges that I should strive to solve. I think that
my strengths include that I am compassionate when teaching, enjoy leading class
discussion and know how to engage while reading or leading and activity. One way
that I have definitely grown as a teacher is that I have improved on approaching the
students when they are behaving in ways that are hurtful to others or unsafe.

I think that my challenges include having personal distractions that I need to learn to
set aside, making small assumptions about situations that end up frustrating the
children, and better understanding children who may have difficulties with
articulating themselves.
My Advice to Future CI Students:
● Ask your mentor teachers plenty of questions during your observation. Have
long conversations with your mentor teacher and enjoy the discussions.
● Take lots of pictures while you have the chance!
● Try and remain in-the-moment. Set aside thoughts and worries from other
classes and your personal life and spend time with the children.
● Ask your students plenty of questions as well! Just try to remain as unbiased as
possible when asking to hear honest answers from them.
● Save any drawings or small projects that the students give you.
● Don’t be afraid to act silly in the classroom! Children love goofing around. Just
make sure that you are keeping track that the students do not act in ways that
are disrespectful or unsafe toward others.
 Citations
Dombro, A.L., Gilman, C.P., & Jablon, Judy R. (2011). Powerful Interactions: How to Connect with Children

to Extend Their Learning. NAEYC.

Hooven, J., Runkle, K., Strouse, L., & Frankenburg, E. (2018). “Never too Early to Learn: Antibias Education

for Young Children”. Phi Delta Kappan 99 (5) 61-66.

Rosenquest, B.B. (2002). “Literacy-Based Planning and Pedagogy That Supports Toddler Language

Development” Early Childhood Education, Vol. 29 (4) 241-249.

Daly, L., Beloglovsky, M. (2015). Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children. Redleaf Press, St. Paul,

Minnesota.