Blog 4/ Observing and Interacting with Families of the Children in Your Setting

 I observed and interacted with teachers and families during the spring show, put on by our daycare. This show had multi language performances. There was English and Spanish singing, dancing, poems read and a play. The programs were in Spanish and English. The programs also had each song, poem and play typed out for everyone to be able to follow along. Leading up to the spring show I observed and interacted with children ages 2 to 6 years old, teachers and families. The families came in to see how each room was doing with their performances before the show to be shown how to help their children practice at home. Whether it was singing, dancing, reading, or participating in the play. We explained to the families the show programs being in English and Spanish for every family to be able to understand and help their children at home. This was our way of getting the parents involved and feel comfortable doing it. Our school consist of both English and Spanish speaking families. We also have many teachers that speak both languages to encourage all families to feel comfortable enough to participate in the spring show to help their children practice at home.
 I observed teachers in pre-K going over the spring show in English and Spanish with parents and children. This way they could help the children read, sing and dance at home with the appropriate resources. This empowered them to help the children at home by helping the families at school.
 I thought it was very thoughtful to include all of the spring show in English and Spanish for all to be able to participate and not be left out. This was my first insight. Another insight was seeing the looks of success on the children, families and teachers faces as the children performed the show. This was encouragement to get the parents more involved with other projects and homework at home as well as at school. My advocacy efforts and needs in this module was meet due to all the support the families gave.

Blog 3 Observing and Interacting With Professionals/Colleagues in Your Setting

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 The last weeks were very interesting for me while observing the program director, executive director and the assistant director. Just watching them interact with the children of all ages in the daycare was good to see how they handle problems and a spring show. Also, they were busy trying to get the children that are in kindergarten to do their work and they are also preparing them for their graduation.

The spring show was the really the highlight of what was being observed because every child except for the infants were doing something in the spring show in English and Spanish. The daycare I work for also teach the children Spanish daily and they are learning the second language very well.

The children practice for the director in the gym daily with their teachers and the Spanish teachers to make sure everyone knew their parts. The program director which oversees the classrooms was in charge and making sure that all signage was done correct and making sure the children as well as the teachers were doing their best.

Each teacher was responsible for making customs and different little art work to be shown while they were performing for the families. The spring show really turned out right and the toddlers even sang and danced in their bumble bee customs and their teachers were big sunflowers.

The executive director is in charge of all billing and paperwork at the center. She was busy enrolling and trying to keep the files updated. This is a pretty big center and lots of paperwork is done daily. There are parents paying fees, enrolling children, paying for pizza parties, nacho parties. You name it they were doing it at this daycare.

The executive director also helps out with some of the children that need additional attention sometimes. For example, there is this one kindergartner that is always in trouble in class so he does most of his work at the front office with the director. He tries to hit the teacher and always in trouble in class. I asked how long has this been going on and was told for about two months. The daycare did not want to take action to have him removed because it is too close to graduation and they know of some personal problems at home.

This is something that I did like about this particular boy situation was the daycare are trying to give him one on one and teach him how to get along with others without fighting and being so angry.

The assistant director was busy each day relieving people for breaks making sure each classroom are following proper procedures with ratio to the bathroom, lunchtime, nap time, and making sure the rooms are clean and safe for the children as well as for the staff. With the bathroom the assistant director makes sure the hallways are free of things on the floor like water and not too many children in the bathrooms at the same time. At lunchtime she is making sure the children are serving themselves seeing that the food is prepared family style. The ratio at nap time has to be the same as when the children are up and interacting with each other. Also, at  nap time is when the teachers are preparing work for the children for the next day, week or when they are getting up from nap.

The insights that were gained was seeing just how busy and how much work these three individuals really have each day. Because doing in the classroom all day with my children not know what they do each day was really a wake up call for me. They do come around and help us with the children throughout the day but we never knew just how busy they really are until the observation came about. Early literacy is the topic of choice and seeing all the different forms of reading and writing at the daycare throughout the rooms was amazing. Being in the infant room we do not have all the different and math. literature on the walls and the library for the children to be able to see just how much reading and writing is happening at the daycare. We have read along books and headsets for the children three years old and up. Each room has a fully staffed library of books in English and Spanish, the walls are filled with art work, literature, pictures and writing in English and Spanish. We even make sure the children are exercising first thing in the mornings before circle time each day. The children are learning through books and music daily how to read, write, art, science and math.