Associates Degree in Early Learning Childhood Education

• Cultural Literacy Skills: Students exhibit an understanding of cultural and aesthetic expressions through humanities, literature, the arts and/or philosophical world views in historical and contemporary contexts.

• Community Skills: Students discuss important issues and the interconnected nature of diverse and or international people/societies.

• Quantitative Reasoning Skills: Students apply mathematical reasoning to analyze mathematical models and use the results to solve real world problems.

• Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: Students apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills across the curriculum.

• Scientific Reasoning Skills: Students apply scientific methods of reasoning to analyze and interpret data and use the results to solve real world problems.

• Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: Students apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills across the curriculum.

Area of Social Sciences:

• Social Sciences Skills: Students will demonstrate the ability to examine behavioral, social and cultural issues from a variety of points of view. Students will demonstrate and understanding of basic social and behavioral science concepts and principles used in the analysis of behavioral, social and cultural issues, past and present, local and global.

This program also offers a specialization component for a total of 69 credits to completing this degree. This specialization aspect of the program is specifically designed for those that are interested sitting the state board examination.

Videos:

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2 ½ Years with the specialization

12 Weeks Course Per Semester

A minimum of 3 credits per semester

A thesis paper is required to be written along with the final

practicum.

Books are not included in the program cost. Books are at

The discretion of the lecturer and thus will be recommended by

the lead person for the course

All classes will take place online via Zoom

Total Fee: $ 31,000.00 – to be paid in full (no refunds)

Prerequisites: High school Diploma

*N.B.

All degrees of Micheal University are fully accredited with the Cuban Embassy which gives the programs equivalence in the United States.

This course introduces the history of early childhood education. Students learn about contemporary public policy and advocacy issues in early childhood education. Coursework also explores potential careers for early childhood education professionals.

Objectives:

• Describe the philosophies of various types of early childhood education programs.

• Equip and organize an effective early childhood classroom.

• Participate in a webinar and complete an observation report project.

EEC 1001 Early Childhood Growth and Development (3 credits)

This course trains aspiring educators to recognize and identify the major developmental milestones of young students so that they can foster a healthy learning environment.

Focuses on the appropriate use of assessment and observation strategies to document development, growth, play and learning. Explores recording strategies, rating systems, portfolios, and multiple assessment tools.

The first course in college composition designed to develop skills in writing multi-paragraph essays with emphasis on exposition, including the selection, restriction, organization, development and revision of essays. The student examines selected writing samples as models of form and sources of ideas for the student's own writing.

Objectives:

• Identify the long-term benefits of childhood programs and how cultural differences affects education.

• Analyze how poverty and culture affects child-rearing practices.

• Prepare curriculum and instruction strategies for young English learners.

• Create a week’s lesson plan for a preschool class.

EEC 1004 Introduction to Principles of Mathematics and Science for Young Children (3 credits)

Provides an experiential and discovery approach to learning in the areas of science and math. Students plan and implement developmentally appropriate math and science experiences for young children and apply theoretical concepts in a variety of ways.

Objective:

• Study the guidelines of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

ESL 0015 Beginners of English as a Second Language (0 credits)

Students in the beginner ESL classes develop their writing skills by learning to form sentences, paragraphs and eventually essays in English. This includes topics such as topic sentence, thesis, and parts of an essay. Speaking and listening skills are developed simultaneously.

Students are expected to develop and present a professional portfolio during the course of the term. The students will begin to self-assess their growth, share reflections and growth perspectives in their professional learning, and reflect on their professional development in designing electronic portfolios.

This course explores age-appropriate expectations and strategies for classroom management. Students learn to develop and apply positive behavior management and modeling techniques specific to early childhood education.

Objectives:

• Learn and practice reflective tools for establishing common rules and develop conflict management and resolution skills;

• Develop working methods and approaches for building positive and welcoming environment;

• Analyze and improve current practices to develop a student-centered teaching approach;

• Get to know and experiment practical activities, ICT tools and cooperative techniques to use for interactive learning opportunities;

• Learn about the Flipped Classroom approach and concrete strategies to adopt it;

• Develop effective classroom management strategies for personal, social and relational development (e.g. self-confidence, team building, leadership…);

• Get an overview of the trending innovative teaching methods and their benefits for the student learning process and attitude;

EEX 1102 Introduction to Exceptional Learners (3 credits)

This foundations course is designed to give individuals the knowledge and skills necessary to develop a planned program that will meet the needs of academically talented and intellectually gifted students. Students will gain an understanding of the characteristics and needs of TAG students, current legislation as it relates to the education of talented and gifted children, identification procedures, assessment options, programs and services models, and curriculum differentiation options.

This course is designed as a foundational course for those students who must take additional mathematics in their chosen majors and do not yet have an appropriate background. The emphasis is the study of mathematics from a functional perspective, including linear, quadratic, rational, absolute value, radical, exponential and logarithmic functions. Systems of equations and inequalities and applications such as curve fitting, mathematical modeling, optimization and exponential growth and decay are included.

This course continues and reinforces content and skills from our first ESL level. Students will focus on four skills in various segments- fundamental grammar, common vocabulary, reading comprehension and conversation practice.

Semester Three – Summer

EDF 1005 Intro to the Teaching Profession + Field Experience (3 credits)

This course provides a hands-on experience in working in the field with children. Students will plan and implement a variety of developmentally appropriate lessons. The student will maintain a safe learning environment for children using appropriate guidance and classroom management techniques.

This course defines and explores the fundamental components of the early childhood curriculum, including creativity, sensory experience, curiosity, exploration and discovery, growth in literacy, and concepts of mathematics, science, and social science.

An introductory course that explains the origin of life and the relationships between all living things. It describes how a significant number of organisms are structured and how they work, in order to enable students to discuss intelligently the various forms of life and their processes.

This course is designed to develop students’ English language skills at the low intermediate level, with attention to developing accuracy and fluency in communication. Students will be introduced to paragraph writing, giving speeches and presentations, as well as improving reading comprehension and vocabulary.

Objectives:

• Students will write comprehensively, demonstrating an organized presentation of ideas using simple and compound sentences with proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and structure. Emphasis will be on writing paragraphs that employ the four basic writing steps, and consist of time-order, narrative, and descriptive paragraphs with the use of brainstorming and clustering to organize pre-writing ideas.

• Students will develop critical thinking skills to compare and contrast everyday problems, hopes, progress, and fears from readings and their own lives. They will make inferences, determine cause and effect, find clues to meaning, recognize patterns of organization, and match main ideas and supporting details of authentic reading passages.

• Students will learn to guess word meanings from context, use common prefixes and suffixes, expand vocabulary using word families, and define terms using guidewords, compound words, and superscripts in a dictionary.

• Students will develop critical thinking skills to compare and contrast everyday problems, hopes, progress, and fears from readings and their own lives. They will make inferences, determine cause and effect, find clues to meaning, recognize patterns of organization, and match main ideas and supporting details of authentic reading passages.

• Students will participate in communicative activities, discussions, role-plays, and an in-class presentation on real-life situations and their respective cultural importance. Students will focus on demonstrating the ability to use selected high-frequency words and idioms to improve oral language by expressing ideas and feelings, using simple and compound sentences with proper grammar, fluency, and pronunciation.

• Students will understand the main ideas and details on a topic of personal or familiar interest, understand situational dialogs, distinguish between fact and opinion, recognize real and unreal situations, and get main ideas and details from interviews, conversations, and radio reports. Students will also listen to and comprehend face-to-face conversations, routine telephone conversations, and non-contextualized speech (such as announcements and reports over the media), and take notes in a variety of contexts.

This course covers the psychology of biology and behavior, consciousness, memory, thought and language, intelligence, personality and gender, stress, and community influences.

Objectives:

• Describe the science of psychology, basic structure and function of the human nervous system, and basic structure and function of the sensory system

• Explain various states of consciousness, learning theories, and thought processes and development

• Summarize the nature of human motivation and development, the human development cycle, and approaches to understanding and assessing personality

• Prepare an essay on the topic of conditioning, memory, or motivation and emotion

• Recognize psychological disorders and available treatments

• Explain social psychology as it relates to attitudes, influences, behaviors, and stress

• Use critical thinking skills to determine the likely causes of behaviors of individuals and groups discussed in case studies

EEC 2002 Family Interaction and Cultural Continuity (3 credits)

The student will examine the dynamics of the relationship of home, school and community in early childhood education. Communication techniques, parent partnerships and quality early learning programs will be covered.

Objectives:

• Analyze family-centered approach with the related issues of attachment, trust, and autonomy.

• Point out the various approach of teaching in dealing with socialization and cultural influences.

• Categorize the ways in dealing with personal and social issues related to families.

• Analyze the use of various educational and community resources available to families.

• Prepare a newsletter for your childhood education program.

• Prepare a summary of your findings after completing the Child Care Center Checklist.

ESC 2003 Earth and Space Science (3 credits)

Survey a broad range of topics.

Objective:

• Examine topics within the fields of geology, meteorology, oceanography, and astronomy

EEC 2004 Introduction to Language and Emergent Literacy (3 credits)

Examines the process of language development and the emergence of literacy. Studies the cognitive and social bases of language and literacy development. Considers ways of promoting language and literacy development, including the selection and use of activities and materials.

This course builds on the foundation of the previous level. It is designed to help students refine their accuracy and fluency and build effective communication skills. Students will also continue reading more complex texts as well as building speaking and oral (including persuasive) presentation skills. Students will move beyond writing at the paragraph level into longer compositions.

Objectives:

• Students will write comprehensively, demonstrating organization and development of a minimum of a three-paragraph essay (narrative and descriptive), using clear topic sentences, specific, descriptive details to support main ideas, and a strong conclusion with an emphasis on paragraph unity. Students will engage in significant practice of combining sentences with conjunctions to form compound and complex sentences, recognizing run-on sentences and sentence fragments, using listing-order transition signals, and expressing a written opinion effectively using proper grammar, punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure.

• Students will read more advanced written English and develop the ability to infer, judge, or speculate the answer to specific questions. Students will continue to strengthen comprehension and critical thinking skills in order to distinguish between quoting and paraphrasing and facts versus opinions, complete a main idea statement, understand reference words, determine cause and effect, and understand the writer’s point of view and purpose of a reading.

• Students will expand vocabulary using word families, antonyms and adjectives, understand and use reference words, and exhibit the ability to correctly use phrasal verbs with multiple meanings.

• Students will strengthen oral skills by participating in a variety of discussions and role-plays on popular topics. Students will prepare, develop, and perform speeches and presentations on authentic topics, constructing and defending arguments. The emphasis will be on appropriate fluency and pronunciation, proper grammar, authentic language use, comprehensibility, and improved confidence when speaking in front of a group. Students will also practice and improve speaking tasks specific to the TOEFL and IELTS exams.

• Students will understand the main ideas and details on a wide variety of topics, will distinguish between fact and opinion, and develop active listening strategies. Students will also learn to infer meaning from context, understand most questions, statements, and conversations at normal speaking speed, and take notes in a variety of contexts.

Semester Five - Spring

HUM2001-Art Appreciation Gen Ed Area IV Humanities (3 credits)

In this course, you will gain an understanding of artistic media, historical periods and artistic movements, the roles of the artist and the viewer, and the principles of art criticism.

Objectives:

• Define the language, visual elements, and principles of design of art

• Identify two-dimensional media

• Identify three-dimensional media

• Explain the evolution of art from ancient Mediterranean cultures through eighteenth century Europe

• Identify features and popular examples of art throughout the history of African, Asian, Pacific, and American cultures

• Compare the genres of the Modern and Postmodern eras of art from around the world

HSC 2401 Emergency First Aid and CPR (3 credits)

To introduce caregivers to injury prevention skills and knowledge. Course covers lifesaving first aid skills and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR and AED) for children, and babies. Course meets legislation requirements for provincial/territorial early childhood education and day care worker safety requirements.

Objectives:

• Provide trainees with safety information and standards for children and

• Prepare trainees with the necessary skills in identifying, planning and managing an emergency situation at home or in school

• Equip trainees with the skills in rendering first aid to common accidents among infants & children, its related injuries and medical emergencies

• Equip trainees with the skills in providing effective resuscitation (CPR) to a child and an infant during emergencies

EDF 2085 Intro to Diversity for Educators (3 credits)

Emphasizes the importance of becoming a culturally competent educator able to teach to diverse learning styles, culturally and linguistically diverse learners, children with diverse abilities and from vastly different family backgrounds. Students reflect on their personal biases and deepen their understanding of cultural, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, language, and learning differences in order to create inclusive learning environments, build stronger relationships with students and families, and to adapt their teaching practices to meet the needs of each learner. Aspects of diversity are explored including economic/social class, sex, gender identity, race/ethnicity/nationality, religion, ability, body appearance, language, learning style, family composition.

Application of instructional design principles for the use of technology to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. The course includes hands-on experience with educational media, emerging technologies, and hardware, software, and peripherals for the personal computer as well as data-driven decision-making processes.

Supervised teaching of children in a lab school or community setting, applying what has been learned through coursework and previous lab experiences. Students will take on the role of a lead teacher for a portion of the experience as well as work closely with the parents and other staff. In collaboration with the cooperating teacher, students will plan, implement, and evaluate developmentally appropriate activity lesson plans, which will be used for portfolio development. Seminar will serve as an open forum to self-assess, discuss, and reflect what has been learned from student teaching experience.

For one to fully embrace their desire to complete their degree and accomplish their goal of become a part of the Early Childhood Educational field, one must become licensed. To fully become qualified to practice in your state, sitting the Stare Board Exam is essential. Each state has its own requirements for this exam so research into what your state requires is necessary to sit the board exams.

Total Degree Credit Hours with Specialization - 69 Credits

*The program is designed to increase students’ reading, writing, listening and speaking skills to a level equivalent to that of their native speaking peers and those needed to succeed in life in the United States. These skills will be developed through the use of authentic reading materials, content area concepts, as well as materials similar to those used in the ELA classes. ESL standards are based on ELA standards; hence, students will be required to read literary and informational texts (both authentic and based on concepts from content area classes), write for multiple audiences, tasks and purposes, and listen and speak in collaborative discussions with their peers. All ESL students must pass all of the required Regents examinations in order to earn a diploma, this includes the English Regents or Common Core exam in English Language Arts.