First Days

Many people believe that teachers are in the profession for three things: June, July, and August. That period of time where all of our responsibilities, duties, and work is non-existent. What they don't realize is that the work of art of teaching never stops. There is never a moment that a teacher is not thinking about, looking for, or working towards bettering their classroom.

While there is a "first day" back for teachers and a "first day of school" there are no first days. Teaching is a continuous process of learning and working. If a teacher waited till the "first day back" to prepare their classroom for the upcoming year, essentially the teacher would be setting themselves up for failure. With all of the meetings, home visits, and conferences and professional development that is crammed into those few days, there is a very limited, if any, time left for the teacher to actually work in their room and prepare their classroom for the upcoming students.

I was able to spend eight days helping to prepare the classroom. Out of those eight days, there was only one day that was completely uninterrupted and devoted to only preparing the room. Multi-tasking quickly becomes a teacher's strength. During these eight days, we spent time completing all the paper work for the children, updating the STEPS preschool online documentation site, printing pictures and label, labeling the room, and making everything personalized for this year's group. So of my own personal tasks that I completed in this time for the classroom include:

A birthday chart                                      

 

  A Velcro sign-up Chart

   

And a new behavior management class chart

Pocket charts can be very expensive, so I made my own "pocket chart" using business card holders that are a lot like page protectors, I just cut them in half to make the rows of five, a poster board, and tape. It was very easy and very cheap - two of a teacher's favorite things!


Getting a classroom ready, is not an easy task. It is a monumental, on-going, task that at times seems endless, makes the teaches want to pull their hair out all the while they promise themselves that when given the time they will become organized - that next year it will be easier, if they had the time. IF they had the time.

But it's okay - because as soon as the students walk in that door on that first day, all that hard work, all that tiring work, all that stressful paperwork, all those negative thoughts go out the window. All that work that went into getting the classroom ready no longer seems monumental, because, it is when you have 18 smiling faces, 18 eager and curious minds, 18 morning hugs that you realize it was all worth it. And in that moment, you wish you could have done more for these students, after all, they deserve the best and only the best.

On Home Visits

When I was in kindergarten, there were no such things as Home Visits. In fact, the concept of a home visit was first introduced to me my tutor year of the program when I first began student teaching at Suncrest Primary. In Monongalia county, teachers are required to conduct home visits for pre-k and kindergarten students. In my home West Virginia county, Putnam, no such requirement exists.

I found the idea of home visits to be interesting, beneficial, and eye opening. I believe knowing the background of a student, the student's family, the home life, and the living conditions provides an abundance of insight into the behavior, the cognitive function, and the over-all student. It also allows the teacher to catch a glimpse into the daily life of the student outside of school.

Before going on my first home visit, I was both excited and apprehensive. I was unsure what to expect or even what to do! The first home visit went very smoothly and I found that I was able to easily interact with both the student and his mother. As I continued on the home visits, I began to form more opinions on home visits from my experiences and made notes about them importance of home visits and key elements of a home visit for the future.

• Home visits are a time to get to know the student: During a home visit, I found it was a great opportunity to find out what the student's interests are. Have them show you their favorite toy, their favorite book. After all, they are in a safe environment, their home, and are probably going to be more outgoing and welcome to you in this environment than on the first day of school in a new classroom. 
• Prepare students for the first day of school: While it is critical to get to know the student, it is also important to have conversations with the student about school. Tell them about the classroom, tell them about yourself, run through the schedule, show them pictures, relate parts of the day/the classroom to their interests. Ideally, through conversations, you can help put any fears or doubts of the first day of school to the side for the student and get them excited.
• Find out the parent's expectations: It is crucial to ask the parents what they expect out of you and out of pre-school. Asking them for their expectations, allows you to set your own goals for your classroom and clarify any misconceptions - such as "I want my child to learn all of his numbers and letters". Well, yes ideally, we would hope the child would leave pre-school knowing more numbers and letters, but that is not a direct goal of pre-k.
• Successful Home visits --> Successful Year: Beginning the year off right with a successful home visit, helps set up the entire year. This first interaction with the child helps foster a positive relationship for the entire year. Involving the parents from the beginning will hopefully lead to more involvement throughout the year as well. Having home visits before the school year begins, allows you and the parents time to get the classroom prepared and labeled with names and pictures and all the forms and paperwork collected. 
• Calm all nerves: At times, it appears the parents are more nervous and more hesitant about this step into preschool than the students. Especially if the child is the first one to be sent to school. Home visits are a great time, to not only get to know the parents, the students, and the expectations, but to calm any nerves and set any worries or concerns aside. Ask the parents what concerns they have - and do the best to ensure them, they are tiny, tiny issues in the larger scheme of the day
• Leave them wanting more: Leave the student with something to look forward to. Rather it be noticing their collection of dump trucks and saying: "You know what? When you come to school on Monday we will get the dump trucks and play with them at the sand table ... How does that sound?". Or even promising the child time will be set aside for a read aloud of a book of their choice from the huge classroom library. Whatever interests the child, latch on it, and use it to help spark the curiosity and excitement of pre-school - give them something to look forward to!

It is imperative to view home visits as an integral, positive responsibility of teaching early childhood, not as a chore. It is crucial to go into a home visit with open eyes, open ears, and more importantly an open mind. Be sure to remain excited and positive - and make this energy contagious to both the child and the parents. 

After my first year of home visits, I not only look forward to seeing my students again on the first day of school, but in conducting the follow-up home visits later in the year and in future home visits of future classes.

Beginning Days

   Returning to school at the beginning of August was a big change, but it was worthwhile. When given the opportunity to attend a conference with my mentor teacher, I knew it was something I couldn't pass up. The Pre-K classrooms in Mon County were all given a grant as part of Choosy Kids - I am Moving, I am Learning. A program designed for obesity prevention which takes a proactive approach towards addressing child-hood obesity by increasing the quantity of physical activity, improving the quality of physical activity and promoting healthy food and drink choices.

This conference was very interesting and eye-opening. The statistics given about the obesity rates in West Virginia and across the nation are startling and scary. As an educator, it made me want to take action and incorporate the fundamentals ideas of Choosy Kids into the daily instruction and interactions I have with my students.

One of the workshops, Observing and Evaluating Motor Skills, in particular really sparked my curiosity and got my wheels turning. It intrigued me to begin thinking about possible action research ideas. I cannot wait to interact more with my students and observe them in the classroom to see if this route of action research would benefit the students in my classroom.

As an early childhood educator, I feel there is almost a pressure to develop students' fine motor skills in preparation of them to learn to write and use scissors. However, before their fine motor skills can be developed, their gross motor skills must first be fully developed. If you expect the child to write the number eight, but yet they cannot move their entire body to create the number eight with their legs, their arms, etc. by crossing their midlines - then how can you expect them to make that same movement on an extreme smaller scale? My experiences in early childhood centers has shown me that teacher led gross motor skill practice and development is either non-existent or left entirely up to the physical education teacher.

Integrating motor skill development into existing curriculum is easy. During teacher directed time, the focus of the station, such as letter or number recognition, does not have to be a sitting table top activity. It can be a physical activity, such as throwing a ball into a lettered bucket, hopping the number line, etc. Therefore, the students are still learning - both their numbers and letters and developing their motor skills, and being ACTIVE!

With the WV Early Learning Standards Framework dedicating a section to gross motor skills it is evident that the importance of physical activity and the development of these skills is critical in an early childhood education and would be beneficial in possibly exploring this route for an action research topic.

Beginning the school year by attending this conference was the best decision I have made. It got my wheels turning, got my excitement up, and has me motivated to make a positive change in the classroom. I am looking forward to meeting my students and reflecting more on if this is an appropriate route to take for my action research.