Just going through the motions

Early childhood education is the one of the most difficult professions to go into, not only in relation to the amount of work, but also due to how the profession is seen by others.  Repetively teachers say they feel like glorified babysitters, but they are so much more.  They are children's first entry to school, they are nurturers, negotiators, and facilitators of children's first learning experiences.  So why, when they work so hard to provide quality experiences, does it become just an experience of getting by?  How do we help good teachers, those willing to provide quality, early childhood experiences, those who engage students in projects, to not be bogged down?  I know some really good teachers who provide incredibly positive experiences for young children through projects who have to justify such practices and to "compete" with those who merely teach to the standards.  Why is this when we know so much about quality early childhood experiences.  Should these teachers become so burned out that they resort to merely going through the motions?  If there are any of you out there, explain this struggle and tell your story so we as a group can advocate for quality teachers who struggle every day to provide authentic experiences for young children.  And let's dialogue about how to promote quality early chlidhood experiences to support quality, early learning experiences and the teachers who provide them.

podcast on the arts and education

The arts and meeting the needs of the whole child.  Integrating the arts into all facets of education (can we do it?


http://www.wholechildeducation.org/resources/wcpodcast-10710.mp3


thoughts, responses, extensions?

perceptions of early childhood

I am always struck by the composition of parents at my daughter's dance class.  The majority of us are teachers at some level, going from elementary to college level teaching.  When I went to pick her up this evening one was grading 3rd grade papers and complaining about how they just aren't "performing", as she dilgently graded a stack of worksheets.  She began discussing what I think is a valid point, elementary should be more about the basic facts, children can't seem to add the simplest of things in their head and application seems mute. At the same time she was calling her class stupid and idiots as she was eagerly ready to hand out the same packet, again, to her students tomorrow.  As an adult, how many of us would just quickly fill in a bubble to be done?
 A dad waiting to also pick up his daughter began discussing a study done which I found both interesting and troubling.  He was mentioning how they did a study specific to math where some children wer not provided any math instruction until 6th grade and others were.  The results of this particular study showed that by the end of the year of 6th grade, those with no instruction were at the same grade level as those with.  Troubling, yes, and more troubling were the results or analyses.  The conclusion was that early childhood educators have so much to teach that they don't have a firm grasp on math and so they are unable to "teach" it.  I find this untrue, but math and science do seem to be components that teachers are wary of or often try to avoid.  My question is why? I know early childhood educators know and are capable of making the content meaningful within project work, what I am unsure of is whether we document and assess enough to make this clear.  Teachers need to start making visible what it is young children in the proper environment are capable of doing and yet early childhood continues to be driven by standardization.  Imagine if those schools which did engage in things like project work or similar, began to be more intentional in collecting data ) - wouldn't we see a shift in teaching and learning?  As I progress in my work, look to find more evidence of this.

teaching and learning

The more I work with education students and inservice teachers the more I see a hear numerous definitions of  teaching and learning.  Even with this multiplicity of definitions what I repetitively see is the difficulty teachers have of giving up their "power" in the classroom to move towards more child initiated practices.  This loss of control seems to be a primary reason for teachers struggling to implement more creativity into the classroom and projects.  So, before I write more on this topic I am very curious to know what others think?  How do you define the role of the teacher, what does it mean to learn, and why is it so important for teachers to have this sense of power and control?