If you want to see how teaching should be done, I would
encourage you to step into your local preschool or early childhood center. I
have been fortunate to spend a fair amount of time in my local early childhood
center because both of my sons have attended and one is still there. It appears
to me that all a teacher really needs to know about how to teach they could
learn in a preschool classroom. For example…
·
Play is learning – Kids interact with their
environment and learning space as if they were playing. Learning through play
is par for the course and kids actually enjoy doing it. At what point does play
work its way out of our classrooms?
·
Relationships trump everything else – Just watch
the way a preschool teacher helps kids and you know that relationships are key.
Both of my sons absolutely adored their preschool teachers. They couldn’t wait
to talk to them and share every single aspect of their personal lives and some
of their parents as well. J
The reason for this is kids know when you care for and about them.
·
Parents are part of the process – There is no
other setting where you see more parental involvement than the preschool
classroom. My son’s school has monthly parents in the classroom where my wife
or I can go and “play” with your son. In addition, there are community nights,
open houses, and numerous other activities for parents to be a part of the
school community. This sends a strong message that parents are a part of the
learning process and are a valued member of the school.
·
Small class sizes – Anyone that has actually
spent time in a school as an educator knows that the smaller the class size the
better learning potential there will be. When you have a class of 12-15 kids,
you can provide the individualized attention we know to be best for kids.
·
Cooperation is taught and celebrated – Kids in a
preschool classroom are taught how to work together to solve problems and
cooperate. Competition is not a tool they use but rather they focus on working
in a collaborative manner to learn and play together.
·
Failure is used as a learning tool – Kids at
this age fail on a regular basis and that is to be expected. These failures
though are learning opportunities and kids are challenged and supported to keep
trying and figure things out.
I know there is nothing profound in this post but it just
strikes me how we think some of these skills or ideas go away when kids get
older. There is nothing in this list that could or should not be a part of any
classroom at any grade level. For some reason we think that the fundamental
ideas we utilize in early childhood somehow become less important as they get
older.