Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Observing and Interacting with Families | Children First-Thoughts by Libby Canady

Observing and Interacting with Families Children First-Thoughts by Libby Canady

Yes, I get so mad when we have a parent night and very few parents show up. Every fall we have a parent night. The parents come to school and we explain our curriculum, routines and etc.... Out of 6 students only 2 parents showed up. I was very disappointed, it just goes to show you that parents today just don't care. We also have family functions and it is the same thing, no one comes or just a few show up. I don't know what to do about this, but something needs to be done. Parents need to take a more active roll in their children's lives. One of my teachers suggested that we make these things mandatory, well it will be the same thing no one will come. They just don't care!

jennifer kline

jennifer kline
Boy! the mom did everything for this child. No wounder he can not do anything on his own. I hope the mom puts a stop to that right away. When I look back at my kids at age 4 they were doing everything for themselves. The dad needs to get a clue and see just how his son acts at school also. Parents like this come into your classroom and never say a word and they don't want you to talk to them either, if you do talk to them they turn away and walk away. Parents must hear the good and the bad, it is their job just like it is our job. Parents like this are just in denial and don't want to come to terms with what is really going on with their child. At my center we have a parent with an Autistic child. We knew something was wrong with him since he was 15 months old. Trying to get the mom to see this was another story. Sometimes it is hard to open their eyes, but offering another program may.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Internship 411 Mary Haas

Internship 411 Mary Haas

This past week I spent my time talking with my students parents about their children registering for kindergarten.
Now the parents are wondering if their child is ready for school. I did a progress report on their children in January and no one came to me with questions are concerns.
Everyone of these children that I have, have socialization issues but the parents do not seem so concerned about these. They want to know if their child is ready in other ways such as knowing their letters , numbers, etc.. I also feel that socialization is a big deal.

I had one parent say that she was thinking of holding her child back because he does not listen. I tried to explain to her that he will listen when he wants, he is very immature and wants to be held a lot and likes to bother others to get his way. He also spends a lot of time crying when he is corrected or does not get his way. To mom he does not listen. I also see mom babying him a lot and I feel that he gets babied at home because he has an older brother who is going into the 6Th grade. I did tell mom that it might not be a bad thing to hold him back because he was so immature. She also thought that it might be a good idea. I did suggest that he get screened for kindergarten and let the kindergarten tell her what she or he thought. I do know that this child does struggle in my class with social issues and learning.

I have also talked with another parent about raising funds for a library that my center is starting. We are setting up a library for the children to check out books to take home. We feel that the parents and children need to spend some time reading together. As I am doing my research I am finding that this is true. The parent and child need to spend 30 minutes a day reading and talking with each other. We feel that this is not happening. We feel that the parents are to hurried and have not time. We hope that maybe spending time in our library this may change. We plan on advocating our efforts to the public to see if we can get some sponsors for our event that we are holding to purchase more books and parent info. for our library.

An insight that I gained is that parents do care when it is to late to do anything about it. I have been talking to my parents all year about their children's behavior and now that they are getting ready for kindergarten it is an issue. It seems like we in pre-k don't matter and when they get to school it matters. I don't get it, pre-k is just as important as kindergarten and when will parents realize this.

Another insight that I gained is that parents in my classroom see how hard of time I have with these children, but yet do not offer me any suggestions of discipline that is being used in their homes. They never want to talk in the morning about this issue.

How can I get these parents interested in their children before it is to late! Not only with behavior but also reading together which I feel that these children need, maybe they would not be so hard to deal with.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Interviewing Administration and Others | NatashaDolanReflectionsonTeaching

Interviewing Administration and Others NatashaDolanReflectionsonTeaching
I would like to know more about this stem program. You are right there are a lot of opportunities out there, you just need to know where to look.
I feel finding grant money and time to implement a new program are two very hard pieces to the puzzle.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

jennifer kline

jennifer kline

Your class sounds very interesting. It sounds like you did a great job with this child, I hope that the parents appreciate all of the time and things that you have done for them and their child. You know most teachers would not go the extra mile like you did for this child. Do you ever feel like you have failed when you do not get an end result that you were hoping for?

Children First-Thoughts by Libby Canady

Children First-Thoughts by Libby Canady

I feel the same way about our parents in early childhood. We have parent nights are parent events and they are never attended very good. I understand that parents work, but when it comes to school they should be very involved as much as they can. I feel that the parents today just don't care about their child are school. They are more concerned about putting their child in little gym, tennis, swimming, t-ball, soccer, dance, etc..... They are more concerned about the child competing that school does not matter. It is the same way when I try to talk to parents in the morning about behavior issues, they are doing everything they can to run out the door. Bottom line is that the parents are thinking of themselves and not this child that they are suppose to be raising. The schools are raising these children and when they get home they are allowed to do what ever they want!!!!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Interacting with program directors

In the last 2 weeks I have interacted with the Director of the childcare center that I work at. I am also a Director as well as  the pre-k teacher. The Directors name is Judy Shovlin, she has been a director for about 25 years. Judy and I talked a lot about discipline in the last 2 weeks. I know this has nothing to do with early literacy, but discipline has become very important to me this year, because I have a class of 6 pre-k students who have no social skills what so ever. My job is to teach them some social skills before they go off to kindergarten. Well, let me tell you that I have had a terrible time doing so.

I have had a mental health specialist come to observe me, and while I do a lot of things right I also do a lot of things wrong. Such as not being empathic enough toward these children. Everyday I have a struggle to get them to do anything for me. Today I asked them to clean up for snack and they began to scream no at me and throw toys. I give them a lot of warnings before clean up and that does not help. I tell them to pick up 10 things and that does not help. I play a clean up song and that does not help. The director and I have come to the conclusion that they are like siblings and this is why I am having so much trouble.

I try to make class as fun as possible but this seems to be a disaster. Today, we had computer class, and did some fun valentines projects and they had lots of play time. Their play time consisted of moving all the chairs and taking all the toys off of the shelf. They were playing the 3 little pigs, which was fine until they started to throw toys and jump off of the shelf. I then told them to stop and pick up and directed them to games. Playing games lasted for about 20 min. and then it was time to clean up for lunch and then it was the same old thing of throwing toys and screaming no.

I have told the director all of the things that I have done and nothing has made a difference.
This week I am going to add a good deed and good words marble jar. I hope that this will work a little.
I am ready to pull my hair out. I have never had a class like this before. I honestly can say I can't wait until May when I am working with school age.

The director has told me that it is not me, it is the class and how the parents have not taught them anything at home as for as being social.  I hope that she is right and I am not just getting to old.


I need help!

If I were to be an advocate for something I would be an advocate for discipline. I would create a discipline class for all of the parents to attend which would be mandatory for everyone in the center. While we do have our discipline policy, I feel it is very important for the parents to attend a discipline class. When I try to talk to the parents now about their children, they do not want to hear it they just walk away from me. I guess they will care when their child gets to kindergarten and is in the office because of bad behavior.