I still can’t believe how quickly time is going and that Kelly and I have been here for 11 weeks now. To add to this deblief was the ending of our observations/teaching practice in Willie Price University Nursery School this week. Looking back I am so thankful that I have been given the opportunity to witness the similarities and differences between home and here. It has helped me to grow both personally and professionally as I have been able to adapt my teaching and learning strategies to suit the environmental differences.
It was an interesting experience learning from the younger children as I hope to teach primary school age and had never considered nursery school age. Willie Price helps to prepare the children for going to elementary school and I enjoyed observing just how they do this. The common phrase that children are like sponges has been proven to be very true as it was amazing seeing how much information young children can absorb. It was also embarrassing as they were far quicker at picking up their Spanish than me!
My time at Willie Price also offered Kelly and I the opportunity to co-teach which as mentioned in an earlier blog was something we both found challenging yet rewarding. The atmosphere within the school was very laid back and it was a nice comparison to the stress that we would feel on teaching practice back home. The teacher’s planner which included just a few notes planned ahead for each day amazed me as both Kelly and I agreed that we would be unable to hand this into Stran as our planning for teaching practice! I felt that the school put very little pressure on the teachers and as long as they produced some evidence of their weekly planning then they had a lot more freedom over their content and how it would be taught.
Obviously with being so young the children have a lot more playtime opportunities than those in primary schools and they also have a good long nap in the afternoon after lunch. (I feel that teachers should be offered the same opportunity as working from 8am can be very tiring!) I found it interesting observing and listening to the children during their free time and how they were able to form imaginary stories combining what they had learnt in school and their knowledge about the outside world.
The school was very focused on centers and during each lesson the teacher with the help of the classroom assistant would split the children into four main groups and present a different activity at each. The school has 8 main centers which helps children to develop a wide range of skills. The centers include art, house-keeping, block building, science, library, math and manipulative, sand and water play and the cooking center. As I enjoy being creative the art center was an area that always drew my attention and with the correct guidance and support the children made excellent crafts. This was also something I noticed that was different as back at Stran we are encouraged to develop the student’s creativity and some believe that crafts limit the children’s opportunity to do this.
However I believe that using crafts at such a young age is beneficial as it helps to teach children how to follow step-by-step instructions and there is always the chance to add their own personal detail to their craft. The house-keeping center which included dress-up was also a center that the children enjoyed as they were able to pretend they were in for example a shop or bakery. They were able to exercise the routine of buying products rather accurately. Of course this was minus the understanding of money and correct change which they would develop in elementary. (It was funny listening to how an apple cost “10 bucks!”)
I am sad to see my time at Willie Price come to an end though I will not miss the 8am starts! I thoughly enjoyed learning from the children and their teacher and who knows, one day I may even come back here to teach myself if the opportunity arose!
(27/03/2012)
No comments:
Post a Comment