Wednesday, December 3, 2008
My preschool class last year during circle time
(I had four students absent that day... yikes, almost half my class! Our class changed several times throughout the year, as a few students moved away and new ones registered. )
Our day typically consisted of structured free play, centers, crafts, circle time, lunch and recess.
Just how is a child expected to adjust going from that to a full-day Kindergarten class without recess?
Do you think this is a problem???
This is my last week of this semester's classes at Auburn, next week is finals. As I had mentioned before, I had to do some volunteer work for my Developmental Psychology class, and chose to cheat a little and do it in Kaleb's Pre-K class. =) After turning in my three hours a week, I also had to submit a paper. I thought it was an interesting subject for all of you parents out there... so I thought I would share some of my thoughts...
'The opportunity I had to volunteer in a Pre-K classroom has been one I will not forget. I still feel as though I cheated just a bit, considering it was my youngest son’s classroom. Of course, I truly enjoyed spending that time observing him in a classroom. I was also very careful not to show any kind of favoritism towards him, making a conscience effort to get to know all of the other students. It is amazing how quickly young children accept you and develop a fond bond. I love the doe-eyed way they look at you, hanging on to your every word, waiting for you to teach them something magnificent. I have to admit, I fell in love with this class. I will be teaching students who are a little older, but these young children have truly stolen my heart. Even more so, I have been able to confirm to myself my excitement about my future career as an elementary teacher.
I made the class these little 'D is for Dinosaur' bags... and we went on a dinosaur egg hunt. =)
Holidays are my favorite in the classroom. I loved decorating our door with cute art projects my class made. For Halloween, we painted their feet white and hung them upside-down to make ghosts. They thought it was so funny!
I found it quite interesting to read the section in the textbook relating to how preschools, here in the United States, lag behind ones in other countries. Many countries provide preschool at no expense, whereas, the US doesn’t offer such amenities even though statistics prove the benefits. Children exposed to an early educational program are shown to be less likely to repeat grades and more likely to finish high school. Statistics also prove that preschool programs funded by a government would pay off in the long run with astounding results. These results span from gains in emotional and cognitive development to better educational outcomes to an increase in societal economic self-sufficiency to a reduced level of criminal activities, to even an improvement in health-related behaviors. So, why would the United States choose not to provide a government-funded preschool program for all of its citizens? The Pre-K program, where my son attends, is a program that has been in place for only five years now. As it is in many other school districts, our elementary school’s Pre-K program is a lottery. That is, in an area of possibly 100 preschool aged children, only nine boys and nine girls are chosen to be a part of the program. There is a deadline when paperwork needs to be turned in, and unfortunately most families in the area aren’t even aware of the program unless they have older children who attend the elementary school. I, myself, was not aware of the program until I registered one of my boys in first grade last school year and an employee asked me if I was registering my then three-year-old for Pre-K. What a glorious day that was to discover he could go to Pre-K for free! That is, until I heard it was a lottery. I truly feel we were somehow blessed to have had his name pulled! But how unfortunate for all of those other families, whose children were not chosen for the program! Is causes me to question the reasoning for it. Is it because there isn’t enough government funding? Or is it because of a lack of certified early education teachers? Something tells me it is the previous.
Hannah was the little classroom ring leader, everything she did everyone else followed... it was a good thing she liked her Miss Kristin! =) She's such a doll!!! I still talk to her mom and a few other parents. =)
There were some graphs in the textbook that also caught my attention. These graphs indicated parental values of the purpose of preschool in three different countries, China, the United States and Japan. Since my oldest son was born, I have had a subscription to one parenting magazine or another. As I read these magazines, I couldn’t help but think that most parents must share my thoughts and values on education, teaching good citizenship, and learning how to properly social their children, after all, here were the articles supporting these beliefs. I overlooked the fact that these magazines were written to appeal to a very specific middle-class, educated group of parents, and not all parents in the United States fall into this subculture. The thought as to whether these magazines spanned the side tables in doctors’ offices located in inner cities, unfortunately, never once crossed my mind. So it turns out, my value of raising a good citizen isn’t thought to be the main purpose for preschool. Only five percent of parents in the United States agree the purpose of preschool is to start children on the road to being good citizens, whereas over 20 percent agree the purpose of preschool is to teach young children to be more independent. Do children not learn enough independence at home? Isn’t school a place where children learn how to function in a society? Wouldn’t teaching them good citizenship skills at this young age pay off for our nation in the long run, just as providing them an early education does? Surprisingly, China outnumbers the United States by almost 20 percent in the agreement that the purpose of preschool is to give children a good start academically. Considering that we are a world power, wouldn’t you think our percentage would be quite higher than China’s?
Jenesys came to our class late in the school year. She's severely autistic, but her parents were still in denial so it took a lot of care and sensitivity to gently tell them. I'll never forget this little girl, I learned so much from her.
My little Indians, getting ready for our Thanksgiving play. I found a really cute children's book and read to them the story of Plymouth Rock. They were so excited to put their new knowledge to use! =)
I was talking to one of the Kindergarten teachers at my sons’ elementary school while I was there volunteering today. She informed me the school currently has three Kindergarten classes, each with 25 students. A classroom of 20 students is average, however, I have noted the average class in the school is around only 17. The school is in dire need of hiring another Kindergarten teacher to reduce the number of students in these Kindergarten classrooms, however, it just may not be in the school’s budget. Not only are these classrooms crowded, but these five-year-old children have a full day of school and are only allowed a 30-minute physical education class with no recess. So, as the textbook asks, are we pushing children too hard and too fast? My thought is yes, we are. However, our mistake is that we aren’t starting soon enough, and when we do it is completely overwhelming for these young children. Not only are they not accustomed for it, but they aren’t even allowed an adequate number of ‘brain breaks’ throughout the day. As I listened to this Kindergarten teacher explain a typical Kindergartners day, all I could think about was how are these children I’m standing here with, as they wait to use the restroom, going to adjust. They had just woken up from their 30-minute nap and were getting ready to go back into the classroom to wash their hands and have a snack. After their snack, they were going to listen to a storybook and dance to some fun songs before they got their coats and backpacks to line up for wait to be picked up. How can these children go from a day of structured free play, outside recess, naptime, snack time and story time go to a full day of learning? Shouldn’t there be a transitional process? It’s no wonder so many Kindergartners are being diagnosed with ADHD and LD, I think I would be too! With statistics proving the benefits of an early preschool education, would it make more sense to have this typical Pre-K day be for three-year-olds and to develop an intermediate curriculum for four-year-olds to transition them for Kindergarten? I remember when my second grader was in Kindergarten, he came home crying everyday because Kindergarten was ‘too hard.’ It wasn’t that it was too hard, it was just too long of a day, especially considering the Pre-K class he had come from was only four hours a day, not all day. Are we doing these children a disservice? Are we truly setting them up for success with our current educational curriculum? And most importantly, is this where we are going wrong, and why other countries are passing us up? Or is just contributing to a much bigger problem?'
Our preschool was a very small nondenominational Christian school... we were fortunate to have very involved parents. There's my Kaleb in the third row up, in the middle. =)
So, where do you stand on this? Do you agree or disagree??
I made the class these little 'D is for Dinosaur' bags... and we went on a dinosaur egg hunt. =)
Holidays are my favorite in the classroom. I loved decorating our door with cute art projects my class made. For Halloween, we painted their feet white and hung them upside-down to make ghosts. They thought it was so funny!I found it quite interesting to read the section in the textbook relating to how preschools, here in the United States, lag behind ones in other countries. Many countries provide preschool at no expense, whereas, the US doesn’t offer such amenities even though statistics prove the benefits. Children exposed to an early educational program are shown to be less likely to repeat grades and more likely to finish high school. Statistics also prove that preschool programs funded by a government would pay off in the long run with astounding results. These results span from gains in emotional and cognitive development to better educational outcomes to an increase in societal economic self-sufficiency to a reduced level of criminal activities, to even an improvement in health-related behaviors. So, why would the United States choose not to provide a government-funded preschool program for all of its citizens? The Pre-K program, where my son attends, is a program that has been in place for only five years now. As it is in many other school districts, our elementary school’s Pre-K program is a lottery. That is, in an area of possibly 100 preschool aged children, only nine boys and nine girls are chosen to be a part of the program. There is a deadline when paperwork needs to be turned in, and unfortunately most families in the area aren’t even aware of the program unless they have older children who attend the elementary school. I, myself, was not aware of the program until I registered one of my boys in first grade last school year and an employee asked me if I was registering my then three-year-old for Pre-K. What a glorious day that was to discover he could go to Pre-K for free! That is, until I heard it was a lottery. I truly feel we were somehow blessed to have had his name pulled! But how unfortunate for all of those other families, whose children were not chosen for the program! Is causes me to question the reasoning for it. Is it because there isn’t enough government funding? Or is it because of a lack of certified early education teachers? Something tells me it is the previous.
Hannah was the little classroom ring leader, everything she did everyone else followed... it was a good thing she liked her Miss Kristin! =) She's such a doll!!! I still talk to her mom and a few other parents. =)There were some graphs in the textbook that also caught my attention. These graphs indicated parental values of the purpose of preschool in three different countries, China, the United States and Japan. Since my oldest son was born, I have had a subscription to one parenting magazine or another. As I read these magazines, I couldn’t help but think that most parents must share my thoughts and values on education, teaching good citizenship, and learning how to properly social their children, after all, here were the articles supporting these beliefs. I overlooked the fact that these magazines were written to appeal to a very specific middle-class, educated group of parents, and not all parents in the United States fall into this subculture. The thought as to whether these magazines spanned the side tables in doctors’ offices located in inner cities, unfortunately, never once crossed my mind. So it turns out, my value of raising a good citizen isn’t thought to be the main purpose for preschool. Only five percent of parents in the United States agree the purpose of preschool is to start children on the road to being good citizens, whereas over 20 percent agree the purpose of preschool is to teach young children to be more independent. Do children not learn enough independence at home? Isn’t school a place where children learn how to function in a society? Wouldn’t teaching them good citizenship skills at this young age pay off for our nation in the long run, just as providing them an early education does? Surprisingly, China outnumbers the United States by almost 20 percent in the agreement that the purpose of preschool is to give children a good start academically. Considering that we are a world power, wouldn’t you think our percentage would be quite higher than China’s?
Jenesys came to our class late in the school year. She's severely autistic, but her parents were still in denial so it took a lot of care and sensitivity to gently tell them. I'll never forget this little girl, I learned so much from her.
My little Indians, getting ready for our Thanksgiving play. I found a really cute children's book and read to them the story of Plymouth Rock. They were so excited to put their new knowledge to use! =)I was talking to one of the Kindergarten teachers at my sons’ elementary school while I was there volunteering today. She informed me the school currently has three Kindergarten classes, each with 25 students. A classroom of 20 students is average, however, I have noted the average class in the school is around only 17. The school is in dire need of hiring another Kindergarten teacher to reduce the number of students in these Kindergarten classrooms, however, it just may not be in the school’s budget. Not only are these classrooms crowded, but these five-year-old children have a full day of school and are only allowed a 30-minute physical education class with no recess. So, as the textbook asks, are we pushing children too hard and too fast? My thought is yes, we are. However, our mistake is that we aren’t starting soon enough, and when we do it is completely overwhelming for these young children. Not only are they not accustomed for it, but they aren’t even allowed an adequate number of ‘brain breaks’ throughout the day. As I listened to this Kindergarten teacher explain a typical Kindergartners day, all I could think about was how are these children I’m standing here with, as they wait to use the restroom, going to adjust. They had just woken up from their 30-minute nap and were getting ready to go back into the classroom to wash their hands and have a snack. After their snack, they were going to listen to a storybook and dance to some fun songs before they got their coats and backpacks to line up for wait to be picked up. How can these children go from a day of structured free play, outside recess, naptime, snack time and story time go to a full day of learning? Shouldn’t there be a transitional process? It’s no wonder so many Kindergartners are being diagnosed with ADHD and LD, I think I would be too! With statistics proving the benefits of an early preschool education, would it make more sense to have this typical Pre-K day be for three-year-olds and to develop an intermediate curriculum for four-year-olds to transition them for Kindergarten? I remember when my second grader was in Kindergarten, he came home crying everyday because Kindergarten was ‘too hard.’ It wasn’t that it was too hard, it was just too long of a day, especially considering the Pre-K class he had come from was only four hours a day, not all day. Are we doing these children a disservice? Are we truly setting them up for success with our current educational curriculum? And most importantly, is this where we are going wrong, and why other countries are passing us up? Or is just contributing to a much bigger problem?'
Our preschool was a very small nondenominational Christian school... we were fortunate to have very involved parents. There's my Kaleb in the third row up, in the middle. =)So, where do you stand on this? Do you agree or disagree??
