Observing and Interacting with Professionals and Children in the Early Childhood Setting

Observing and Interacting with Professionals and Children in the Early Childhood Setting

Name: Lisa Miller

Date: Observations date 1-22-2013

Name of the Program:

Early Childhood preschool program (3-5 year olds) in a school district setting

Who I spoke with:

 The classroom teacher and two paraprofessionals in the classroom (I will refer to the classroom teacher as classroom teacher and the paraprofessionals as paraprofessional 1 and paraprofessional 2)

Whom you observed and interacted with in your setting during these two weeks:

 I observed and interacted with the children, teachers, and the paraprofessionals in the classroom.  The interactions were in the classroom setting during morning activities.  This is a blended preschool program which means there are children in there that are delayed, Special Ed, ESL, or low income. 

What I learned about…

I learned that the children began with their morning circle time where they were introduced to the letter Ss, the color black, and their goal for the week (to learn about authors and illustrators). The teacher then proceeded to talk about what authors and illustrators do and they discussed some popular authors.  I also noticed that there is a bilingual paraprofessional within the classroom, and the children were encouraged to dictate in English but could also in their home language.  

The special learning experiences that I saw were…

The classroom does centers and I noticed that their centers are based mainly on Reading and Writing.  The children are split into groups of four and complete three stations.  There is an adult (either the teacher or one of the paraprofessionals at each station)      at the first station the children did their Ss book.  The students read through the Ss book and colored the pictures that started with Ss.  At station two the children tells their own story and the teacher dictated and then the children drew a picture to go with the story.  At station three the students did a favorite book journal.  The students picked a book that they liked and told why they liked it and then they drew a picture to go with it.  

There was an issue with one of the Special Education students were he seems to not like the structured environment.  It seems that this student thinks it’s time to come there just to play.  This child would work at each station for a few minutes but then have a ‘meltdown”.  The teacher informed me that the child does get all of his work done like the other students but it takes a little longer.  The child gets breaks throughout the centers. 

Questions asked while Observing and Interacting With Professionals:

Teacher interview questions:

I asked the teacher:  Why she does so much with the read and writing skills? 

She answered by saying literacy in preschool helps prepare the children for kindergarten.  The teacher said that the preschool program does not have a set reading curriculum.  She said they do use Jolly Phonics to help teach letter sounds and she tries to introduce strategies to the children that she has seen used throughout the school with benchmark…such as picture walks, pointing to each word, sounding out words, etc. 

The classroom teacher also stated that the common misconception is that all we do in preschool is play and sing songs, that we are just a glorified babysitter.  She stated that she tries to prove to others that they work really hard by displaying their work in the hallway and getting them involved in school wide activities.  She wants the children to be as prepared as possible for kindergarten.  She also stated that preschool is a crucial part of the children’s development.  It helps them develop their personality, their social skills, and it is the foundation for learning. 

How do you (the classroom teacher) promote parent involvement? 

The classroom teacher answered by stating that the parents always see the child’s work done in school and each month the parents are required to come into the classroom for the designated activity that month.  She stated that parent involvement is one of her number one priorities. 

 Conclusion:

At the end of my observation I thanked the teachers, children, and paraprofessionals for allowing me observe.  I definitely feel that all of these children have the early literacy support and much more needed to get  their foot in the door for kindergarten and beyond.