Observation 3

I again had observed in the Elementary and Preschool classrooms. There was more playing going on in the preschool room than the Kindergarten room. I watched the children during their free play time. There were some playing on the computers, there was a group of boys were playing with the blocks building ramps and airports to go with their cars and trucks.There was a group of girls who were playing in the play dough. This time of the year the classrooms are busy with getting ready for the holidays. It is fun to see the children filled with excitement over the holidays.

While I was observing the preschool room the teacher had a few moments to sit down and talk with me about how she engages her families into her program and how she advocates for them.
How do you engage your families in what you are doing in your preschool program?
What I do is I send home notes or weekly newsletters to let my families know what we have done during the week in Reading,Science, and Math. Also I include what special projects that we may have done during the week. This might include cooking during our science lessons. I also have to make home visits and this is another way for me to get to know the families better and I can get more of an idea of what is going on in the children and families lives.
How I advocate for my families is that if I see that there is a need that needs to be addressed I will make contact with the parents by either a note or a phone call depending on the severity of the situation. If there is a need for further observation I will contact another specialist and a meeting will be set up. My role in these meetings is to be the speaker for the child and also the parents. I feel that I need to stand up to get the best education for that child.

I was able to be there when some parents were coming in to pick up their children after school.. I introduced myself to them and asked them if they were comfortable answering my questions.
Do you feel that the teachers of your program make efforts to engage you in what is going on in your child's classroom?
Yes, I feel that my child's teacher does a great job of informing us of what is going on. She does a great job of making us feel welcomed into the classroom.
Another parent that I spoke to did not have quite the same answer as the other parent. They felt that the teacher did not make an effort to help them feel engaged.
What I have found that happens with parents alot is, yes the teacher puts forth that effort but the parents do not always see the notes the child brings home.
Sometimes children who ride the bus may take their notes out of their bag on the way home and it doesn't get put back into the bag. I know that sometimes parents also get too busy to empty out their child's folder every night.

It is up to the teacher to make sure that they are doing their job to get parents involved into education. It is also the parents job to keep up with what is going on in the classroom, especially when the child is young and has not learned the responsibility to give parents notes and letters.

The principal also sends out a weekly note to the parents to let parents know what is going on every week in school. I talked with the principal and she told me that their are staff meetings that they have each week to talk and discuss what is going on in the school and they brainstorm on ways that they can reach out to families. The goal of the school is for the children and their education.

If the teachers are not reaching out to their students and advocating for them, the who will?

Observation 2

I again observed in the Kindergarten classroom but also observed in the Preschool classroom room at the elementary school where I live. While I was in the Kindergarten classroom it was during the math lesson that the teacher had prepared for them. They were to cut and paste cars to match the number they had at the top of the paper. The students seemed to enjoy this lesson and was being very attentive to the teacher and raising their hand to answer questions that the teacher had asked. When the lesson was over it was time for them to go to their special, special is a time during the day where the students go to another classroom for either music, art, computers, or P.E. The day I observed was when their special for that day was P.E. The children loved going to P.E. They like it because it is a chance to play and not have to do sit down to do work. While the children were getting ready I asked one of the children if they were enjoying Kindergarten so far. His response was "Yes, I do, but it's a lot of hard work!". The reason I spoke with this child is because I knew this child was in preschool last year and I worked in the preschool classroom as a paraprofessional. I asked him if it was as much fun as preschool, he said, "Kindergartens if fun, but we don't get to play very much." This was a change for this student because in preschool they did do work but they also got more free time in the classroom to play more than they do in Kindergarten.

The Kindergarten teacher was the preschool teacher last year. I talked with her about how the play time is different in kindergarten than what it is in preschool. She said from preschool to Kindergarten is a big change because as you know in our classroom last year we had at least four times during the day where we had free time, then they transition into Kindergarten to where they only have one free play time, but they also have two recesses in Kindergarten just as they do in preschool. The children do miss playing indoors with their toys, but we are so busy in Kindergarten that they just do not have the time to get to play as they did before.

I also talked with some of the parents of the kindergarten class, they like the fact that their child is doing more work because they think their child is at school to learn and not play. Some of the parents feel as if their children are being worked a little too hard in Kindergarten. I explained to them that I don't believe the Kindergarten teachers enjoy pushing your children so hard but they do it because of the mandates from the state that push them to push the students.

It's a tough decision for teachers to make but if they want to have students who excell in school and want to be able to keep their jobs, they need to do what is required of them.

Observation

I observed at the Wayne Elementary School Kindergarten classroom.

I spoke with the teacher of that classroom asking her how she feels about the children having time to play in her classroom. She feels that play is important to her students ability to learn. She says that if you make a child especailly children at this age sit at a desk the whole time and not allow them time to play you are not going to get much out of them. She said that she sometimes makes her lessons into a playtime or makes them more fun for the children and she gave me an example of what she had done during one of her reading lessons. It was guided reading time and they were working on poems. The children did not seem to interested and she even thought to herself that she was not excited with this either. So she made a game out of it. She said if you guys can beat me or trick me on the words that are in this poem then I will get on the floor and do push ups. She told them that if she beat them then they had to do push ups. This students loved this idea. She wanted to see if they were actually understanding the words in the peom. She said they actually beat her and she did have to do push ups. Was this appropriate for her to do? Maybe or maybe not but she got the lesson done and the kids had fun. This teacher allows time for play for her kids. You can tell when you are loosing your kids when teaching them.

What I noticed in this classroom is the children were playing and getting along at the time when I was there. Does this always happen?  No, children are not always going to get along when they play, there will be conflict. I asked the teacher when the children are having thier free play time does she just jump right in to help fix or solve a problem. She said no, I wait to see if they can work it out themselves and if it seems that it may be getting out of hand I will intervene.

A quote that I would like to share from my observation would be "Play is learning".
An sight that I gained from this observation is that children need to time to interact with each other not only while doing school work but also during play time. Play time allows the children to socialize, if that time is not given to them they are going to socialize during your instructive time and that is going to be stressful for everyone.

Questions for Collages

My question to my collages: What types of play do you think is most important for children to engage in?
How much time for play do you think should be allotted for a child during the school day?

Teacher Interview

What I learned from interviewing two Early Childhood teachers is that they are concerned with children not getting much time to play anymore. They feel that children having the time to play is very important because it builds on their social/emotional, cognitive, and language skills. They feel with all the state mandated standards that they have to follow it pushes them to make the children work harder therefore not allowing as much time to play. They have to ensure that each child is meeting the benchmarks that they are required to meet.

The Importance of Play

Do Early Childhood teachers feel that play is important for preschool aged children?

How can Early Childhood teachers be an advocate for children about them playing to learn?