Today I had the opportunity to observe and sit in on two classrooms at the Head Start program in North Charleston, SC. The first classroom I visited was a 4's/5's room, as part of the regular head start program, and the 2nd class (which were actually two rooms) I observed was an infant/toddler room, which is part of a specialized head start program.
http://www.nhsa.org/
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs/
http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc
The 4's/5's room, had all eleven (8 boys and 3 girls) of its children seated when I arrived. All of the students were african american, and live below or near the poverty level. The teacher, whom they called ,"Ms. Mary," asked each child what they did/played with while they were outside this morning in order to work on their speech and verbal skills. When the child answered her question correctly, they were told they could line up by the door and once eavery child had answered the question they were allowed to walk quietly as a class and take turns at getting water at the water fountain in the hallway. This would require the children to pracice: self restraint, cooperating with others, organizational skills, communication, and patience. I was very impressed with how quiet they remained and that they all kept in line as the walked down the hallway. After all students got water and used the bathroom, Ms. Mary asked student to find specific numbers throughout the room. Surprisingly this task was a struggle for some of the kids, and some could not find the numbers even well they were displayed in numerous places around the room that were made very clear to see. It is unusual for kids that age to struggle with a simple task like numbers, however, Ms. Mary explained to me that these kids, due to their home environment, and lack of opportunity, are very far behind where they need to be and a "slow group of learners" and she told me. Next, they transitioned on, into the next part of their day, which were play stations, in some ways similar to what we have in ECDC. In order for the kids to have the opportunioty to play at one of the seven "learning" sations they had to be able to identify, as well as, say their name. The teacher called them up one at a time to point out their name on a chart. Two of the girls did this very quickly and so were asked to find a classmate's name as well. I was impressed to see that those two girls could also do that successfully. The kids who could not find their name on the chart, were asked to look on the back of their chair as a reference to what their names look like when they are written out with letters (On the back of each chair their names were written out, almost like a name tag), Once they did this on a chart in the front of the room, they were allowed to choose just one station, limiting the number of students per station to about 2-3. The seven stations they had were:
The teacher uised many games and songs to ask certain questions, like the "I spy" game and sang a song about cleaning up. Throughout observing I noticed that the students are very behind in speaking and communicating through words, Instead they are pointing, using other forms of body language, and making sounds, but no words. The teacher kept telling the kids they need to "use their words" and told them they were not allowed to point. At ECDC, when I was working in the 3's the teacher would use that exact same expression when kids became unmanageable but were not expressing themselves clearly to others, with their words. She explained to me that the reason for this is that the home environment, and relationship dynamics at home for these kids is not a good learning environment for them. According to the teacher, parents are not speaking with their kids but instead yelling or firmly telling them what to do, and don't let them go outside to play because of safety issues. This means that they may not only be behind in literacy development, but also in math, science, motor skills, and in their social skills. In this room there was a one lead teacher and an assistant teacher, and another teacher who helps out from time to time. Both the teacher and the teacher's assistant shared with me their likes and dislikes of teaching, and fortunately they agreed that there were far more positives than negatives. Ms. Mary said that Parents are the most difficult aspect in teaching, and knowing how to deal with them, especially ones who can tend to be overbearing. The way they deal, is by reminding themselves that everything they do is for the child and not the parent. She also said that she loved this job because it makes her feel young, and it is such a creative job. Ms. Mary explained that for her, she feels like time almost stands still and almost feels like a kid herself sometimes. She also explained to me how teaching becomes such a huge part of your life, and now whenever she goes shopping, she ends up buying things for her class, regardless of whether she needs to or not. Her class is always on her mind and she is always thinking of new ideas and fun things to do with them.
The second class/classes I visited was a toddler/infant class, also part of the Head Start program, but this head start program is a new kind of a program. I believe it is called Early childhood head start but I am not entirely sure. It is funded by the government to pay for many different things for these toddlers and babies, like food, diapers and wipes, doctors, dentists, counselors, specialists in learning disabilities if necessary, etc. They also pay for field trips and any materials they need. It was nap time in both of these areas when I arrived and the infants were in a deep sleep (almost the enitre time I was in that rotation). The toddlers, however, were up and about playing swords that they had created from empty paper towl rolls, and running around, requesting attention, to be played with, and to be read a story. So although it was nap time only 1 of the 3 kids in the toddler room were asleep. When I first walked in I was greeted with a hug from one of the little boys in the toddler room. Apparently more than just one of us, CofC girls got the "special treatment" (he has already got it down). As we sat with the kids and they played with their swords, and a soccer ball, one of the teachers started to explain to me all the things they do for a child and his/her parents. They provide snack, lunch, diapers, wipes, formula,books, make 2 home visits a month, etc. for the kids and also help motivate the young parents to go back to school to get their GED or associates degree. They actually have an adult GED course at this head start location, where they can take classes in order to get their degree. They have 8 openings per room, and therefore a long waiting list to get accepted into the program. The way they decide who does and does not get accepted s done in relation to who has the most points. One of the openings in the infant room is given to an expecting mother, who gets all of her medical expenses covered by head start. They also make sure she is eating enough, staying active, etc. up until the baby is born, soon where after the baby will start the program. When speaking with one of the teachers in the infant room, she told me that the problem with this program is there are certain rules that need to be changed. For example, a parent may keep her child in the program until she earns her GED, and then the children are not allowed to attend. I think this is horrible because it means she cannot use her education to go to work, because she has to take care of kids. Plus the cost of buying more food, diapers, and other things can certainly add upI In the infant classroom there were two teachers, and three babies. All of the cribs have mirrors in order to help the child development their sense of "self" which happens early on. In both rooms they follow a teaching method that is established based around the principles of catering the lesson plan individually to each child depending on his/her personal interests.
In the toddlers and infant rooms really have great respect fo the staff at that facility. They showed great patience and seemed to genuinely care about those kids. They even base all of the activies they do in class on the intersts of each individual child. They all conveyed to me that they love their job and although it can be a lot of work, they really find it rewarding. They try and involve parents as much as possible because it is important to encourage learning at the home.
Anyways, after one of the teachers explained their entire program, during napping, I have become so impressed and excited about this program. I really think more states need to develope practices like this. I would love to be part of a program that really does make a huge impact on kids' lives and their families. In this case in is the families who are in dire need, which is even nicer to see things change for them. I spoke with the toddler teacher about volunteering there when I am not in class or working at ECDC, so like over holidays if I stay in the area. I think this exposure is great for me because the environment where I lived for most of my life was not very diverse, even though surrounding areas were. Also it is a different socio-econmic class and therefore the parents' child rearing methods may be very different to what I am accustomed. I also had read an article in regard to teaching Ebonics as a form of speech depending on where you live, and that in some urban settings it plays a major role in everyday speech. Does this mean a teacher in an urban setting should be studying Ebonics too since many of the kids may be communication that way? I think it is important for teacher who are planning to teach in an urban setting to understand the basics of Ebonics in order to help make the child's speech more formal and tie it into what the kids hear in their everyday lives.
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