Case 1 - Kindergarten

BERNI Magazine

Case One: Kindergarten

BERNADETT ASKEY

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ducation is a way of life. Connecting education and design is Bernadett’s mission. Her role as a designer and educator is to inspire. She teaches based on learning outcomes and the individual learner’s abilities. Education should also be a community-driven project. As such, she is also a member the board of a the Mount Pleasant Family Centre in East Vancouver. There, she handles its mission mandate, fundraising and personnel.

It all started in Budapest, Hungary where she habitually rearranged her furniture as a child. As a young adult she found employment in the printing and reprographics industry. Upon moving to Vancouver, BC., she began taking Interior Design. She completed her diploma at NKBA- and FIDER-accredited Lakeland College in Alberta. There she earned several student design awards.

Her career in education began with tutoring fellow students at Lakeland. Back in Vancouver, she worked as the Education assistant for the Canadian Craft and Design Museum. Bernadett worked for several years as an independent designer and for local design firms.

She started teaching at LaSalle College Vancouver and Vancouver Community College in 2002. She joined the Interior Design Department of the Art Institute of Vancouver in 2005.

She completed her Bachelor of Science in Interior Design through the Art Institute of Pittsburg in 2009. In 2015, Bernadett earned her Master’s Degree in Adult Education from Argosy University.

Now she lives and works in Vancouver with her husband and two young children.

Her teaching philosophy is based on inspiring and supporting her students, faculty and colleagues. She provides a respectful environment for students to feel comfortable constructing knowledge.

Her curriculum design is based on industry standards. She designs classroom projects to carry students from a novice level to expertise. Student’s learning styles, cultural backgrounds and personal skills guide curriculum design.

CASE 1 (SEPT 17 – SEPT 28, 2018) Congratulations! You are about to begin your first year of public school teaching. You’ve landed a job as a kindergarten classroom teacher in an ethnically, economically, linguistically and culturally diverse neighbourhood. It’s now the third week of August and you’re feeling both excited and anxious. Last night, as you lay awake at 3 a.m., you were thinking about how you would build on children’s orality.

When you stepped into your school a couple of days ago, a young mother was in the office registering her children. The principal called you over and introduced you as the new teacher. The mother looked you up and down and said, “When my son was at this level, all they did was play. How are you going to make sure my daughter learns to read and write and add and subtract?”

“I, uh, well…please come to the Meet the Teacher Night in September,” you replied. “I’ll share my plans then.”

“I’ll be there,” she said and returned to the forms she was filling in.

As you turned to leave the office, the principal slipped you a copy of the Full Day Kindergarten Program Guide and whispered, “Don’t forget this!”

Your wonder about teaching and learning with such young children; the role of child development on learning; and the ways in which theories of cognitive development might inform your teaching practice.

Later, in your classroom, you were stapling the word ‘welcome’ in multiple languages around your bulletin boards when a man with spiky grey hair and black-framed glasses poked his head through the door. “Hi, I’m Syd,” he said. “I teach in the room next door.

Give me a shout if you need anything.” Over lunch, you found out that Syd has been passionate about social justice education for 25 years and has lots of ideas to share. He shares with you this piece of advice “Start out with getting to know your kids and building your classroom community.” At the end of the day, as you walked out of the school together, Syd introduces you to Sam, the First Nations Enhancement teacher.

After a brief introduction, Sam tells you he’s meeting with a few members of the Musqueam Nation to plan a school event for next week. “I’ll look forward to talking to you about the event at the staff meeting” he says as he heads back in.

Lots to think about – and the school year hasn’t even started!

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COMMUNITY BUILDING

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s a teacher I need to know the image of the child. Children come from diverse backgrounds, and have rights not needs. .

Children are active learners, and co-creators of their culture, identity, values and knowledge of the world. . In Case 1, as a teacher, I need to make sure to provide children with opportunities to express their views.

Listening to their voices through story telling builds their empathetic skills and allows them to relate their identity to the classroom community.

Children are part of the Canadian society, their larger city and provincial community as well as their family and neighbourhood community.

As a teacher I need to be able to interact with all children in the classroom. By knowing their cultural background, I can connect to both ELL and non-ELL community of students in the classroom, and respectfully include multicultural approaches in the curriculum projects.

As a teacher I can create curricular relationships to community by allowing students to share their stories. Through exercises that advocate and support sharing, students develop their understanding of their identity and will able to articulate where they come from. Many activities can support students understanding of their community, local events, places and people. Field trips, writing exercises can also strengthen student’s ability to connect with the topic of self and community in the classroom. Curricular connections to English and Liberal Arts can engage student’s active listening skills, and build their awareness of the views of others.

In Case 1, community building between the family and the child is an important topic. Using the Reggio Emilia approach, as a teacher I can become part of the network of teachers for each child. The first teacher is their caregiver/parent, the second teacher is the school teacher, and the third teacher is their environment. I believe that the child’s microsystem includes their family and community support. Their ecosystem and microsystem includes their friends, neighbours, their values and

customs, as well as their extended family and Canada’s governing laws.

The classroom environment should support the child by considering Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory. Furthermore, the classroom should respect children by including their ideas, creative projects and by showing the process of learning. in order to create a classroom community that is connected with the children’s home, I need to include the parents into the communication about learning. Modelling and communicating regarding Canadian education and curriculum, as well as teaching methods will help me connect the children’s home and the school community. In Case 1, the teacher can find time on the playground to talk to parents about what community is, and give them community resources. A teacher can also support the parent’s network,and invite parents into the classroom to share their knowledge and experiences. I can plan field trips to areas of interest in our community. I believe when parents understand what the children are working on in the classroom, they can better connect with their child’s education. Appreciating cultural differences, and including everyone’s culture will help children connect their home and school environment. Utilizing the Masqueam Nation’s teaching kit to have a better understanding of the rich resources as a teacher will enable me to share the rich history and culture of the Masqueam Nation with the children. It is important that I encourage families to participate in different ways in their children’s education.

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CREATING A LANGUAGE RICH ENVIRONMENT

In a Diverse Kindergarten Classroom

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s a teacher I need to be aware that “emergent literacy” describes our knowledge and abilities related to the alphabet, phonological awareness, symbolic representation, and communication.

In Case 1, the teacher can explain to the mom that she support the children’s learning by scaffolding. Scaffolding is a future-oriented practice, with the goal of bringing about learner autonomy. As a teacher, I can use methods such as modeling, message abundancy, and dialogic talk (Gibbons, 2015). Teaching methods that are based on the child’s individual assessment can be designed to assign help to the student reach further by using this help. Social setting and teacher assistance will bridge the child’s cognitive gap between what they can do alone and what they can achieve with the appropriate help.

The BC Curriculum advocates the use of prior knowledge, and the practices of reading, listening and viewing strategies for their meaning-making. As a teacher I can help students understand the structure of different genres, literacy elements, oral language strategies, concepts of print, letter knowledge, phonemic and phonological awareness, and practice letter formation, story telling and writing.

http://elmwooddayschool.com/programs/ fives-kindergarten-first-

LANGUAGE RICH CLASSROOM

As a teacher and parent, we need to include language-rich environments with a variety of types of texts as well as levels of academic values and provide children with chances to communicate and explore “relationships, tell stories, ask questions, and shape the world around them.”

(Full Day Kindergarten Guide, 2010, p.32) In Case 1, the teacher can refer to the classroom environment at the meet the teacher night. She can show that different areas are clearly labelled and designed to assist children’s academic development. Activities such as story telling using literacy-focused language, read-clouds and the use of multimodalities should help students gauge the topic and engage with the material. As a teacher I can also use home language and school language speaking opportunities, such as “word walls” and class-

room visuals will help students gain better language and meaning making.

The semiotic model of literacy shows that literacy is not only the ability to make meaning from print, but from many forms. semiotic modes including: Auditory – audio, music Visual – text, images, video Kinaesthetic – pretend play, gesturing There are examples I can use as a teacher for modalities, such as Social Dramatic Play, Rhymes and Songs, Alphabet letters in print and letter shape, as well as Cognates. Cognates are words that sound similar to many other languages meaning the same thing.

Multimedia tools can help me develop children’s narrative skills and I can teach vocabulary easier. The teacher in Case 1 can refer to these materials in the classroom, as well can draw attention to online resources such as scribjab.com.

As a teacher I can also use dialogic reading, and ask Wh- questions to clarify and sees student’s conceptual and vocabulary understanding. Methods of First, Second and third reading is also a great method to reinforce information and move the learners towards comprehension.

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/amazing-classroom-reading-corners/grade//p/2314710817/2012/08/03/let-the-children-play-loose-parts-imagination-creativity

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What is Meant by DEVELOPMENTALLY

APPROPRIATE PRACTICE (DAP)?

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heories of cognitive development informs teaching techniques.

I believe that as a teacher I need to make sure that All teaching practices should be appropriate to children’s age and developmental status, attuned to them as unique individuals, and responsive to the social and cultural contexts in which they live.

Developmentally appropriate practice needs to be age appropriate, consider the child’s individual interests, abilities and developmental progress, as well the child and its’s family values, expectations and communities.

As a teacher, I need to make sure to address the three developmental domains, such as: physical, cognitive and social-emotional.

Music, for example can address all curricular areas of learning.

A teacher can incorporate music to foster collaborative learning, as well as children will be able to voice, understand and control their emotions.

Music can scaffold areas of development, and address children’s social emotional needs. Sociodramatic plays can engage children in imaginative and creative activities through which they create on-going conversations, which increases their literacy skills.

The theories of Jean Piaget’s Four stages of Cognitive Development should be considered when planning curriculum. Children should be act i v e learners and should be provided with experiences.

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Creating a Safe and Welcoming Classroom Environment that Respects Each Child’s Background and Needs

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need to protect diversity (people with a variety of backgrounds) as it relates to human rights, poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, equity, equality of opportunity, value of diverse opinions and of cultures, and increased consciousness of the relations of power.

In Case 1, the teacher has the power to explain to the parent how she will balance between developmental coercion and the child’s own interest and abilities.

I believe I would use relational pedagogy to show how research theories of Piaget, Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner support the development of a caring environment, where a child focuses on learning instead of performance goals. Through this caring,I can link play tasks to the curriculum.

THE IMAGE OF THE TEACHER

In order to be a supportive facilitator, I engage in self-reflection and selfcritique.“Honouring diversity within the school system is based on the principle that if our differences are acknowledged and utilized in a positive way, it is of benefit to the quality of our learning and working environments” (BC’s New Curriculum.

(2018). Core Competencies. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies) Engaging in cultural humility helps me demonstrate self-awareness and move the image of the teacher from the role of an expert. This allows the students show their experhttps://howtobeawinner. wordpress.com/

tise that they can share in the classroom.I can invite Solidarity action, by which I provide opportunities for children to work together towards a collective goal.

The student’s background affect their identity (and learning) in the classroom by factors of their family background, socioeconomic status, family makeup, language and culture. As a teacher, understanding this is important as it helps me guide their development of identity.

Breaking down stereohttps://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/ typical ideas of race, ethnicity, sex, age, physi- teaching-content/amazing-classroom-readingcal ability, culture, ancestry, language, religious corners/ beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, soMODELLING CLASSROOM cioeconomic background, and mental ability CULTURE will help children learn about their own idenI think learning respect and diversity can be tity in a safe environment. Furthermore, a corintroduced by in-class respectful interpersonrelation exists between a growth in both peral oral communication, and by inclusiveness sonal and collective self-esteem. Indigenous with respect to group activities.

As a teacher I identity for example is supported by the BC can bring in appropriate collaborative interaccurriculum, and I can foster Indigenous identition to support ELA, HCE, the four fine arts ty, history, and family background in a safe and subject areas, PE, and social studies. inclusive classroom environment by including The Intellectual, personal and social competheir stories, and welcoming contributions. tencies are imbedded in the new curriculum at Children have a variety of physical and menevery subject.

The communication competal differences and learning needs. As a teacher tency supports students to engage with ideas, I need to support these variety of ways by : information and experiences. Furthermore • Working in collaboration with parthey are able to interact and explore their enents/guardians vironment by accomplishing communication • Cooperate with parents who can procompetency. vide compiled documentation from therapists and physicians to help bring The thinking competency is demonstrated more information about the child (ex. by creative and critical thinking skills, and Autism spectrum, ADHD) enables knowledge and skill acquisition.

• Organizing iIndividual and group Through personal awareness, understanding meetings to discuss the child’s of their cultural identity, social and emotional strengths and weaknesses health and social responsibility, students gain their personal and social competency.

• Discussing and identify appropriate support (Individual Education Plan)

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How can Academic Learning be supported by

PLAY in Kindergarten?

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he benefits of play-based learning is supported by theories. As Friedrich Froebel said, “play was a pure and natural mode of learning through which children achieve harmony”. I believe in his methods of family groupings in the schools, where children’s cognitive and social-emotional development can be supported by each other in a social setting.In Case 1, the teacher can bring Froebel’s theories in to her classroom, and set up family groupings, where she brings in the outer environment through experimental learning exercises.

The other important theory I appreciate belongs to Maria Montessori, who recognized that children learn differently from adults, and that they have a fantastic capacity of

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https://www.todaysparent.com/kids/10-a builders-for-kids/

learning in their first five years. I will adapt her theories and provide appropriate learning experiences for the absorbent mind of the children at their specific developmental changes.Similarly to M. Montessori, John Dewey applied child-cantered rather than subject entered approach. I will utilize the Reggio Emilia approach by incorporating pay based learning to allow children to design, invent, and create.Furthermore, I will emphasize social collaboration. When the teacher speaks to the mother in Case 1, she can explain that her approach will consider each child’s developmental abilities and interests in order to adopt these theories.

TYPES OF PLAY: Social/ Cooperative Play: Incorporating opportunities for children to make friends, to negotiate with others, and to develop their communication skills will help me and the children to explore their own feelings, identities, and social relationships.Mildred Parten’s theories show that highest level featuring roles, negotiating, a common goal, and students taking turns discussing plot features can be found in play (Jones and Reynolds, 2011). As a teacher, I will be able to link social play to the curriculum by incorporating role-play, story-telling and rhymes for Language arts, and will be able to scaffold student’s learning by games such as Jigsaw groups, Joint Construction, Jazz chants and Raps, Listening for Information, Monster Cloze, Progressive brainstorm, Shadow reading, and many other exercises.

Constructive play helps children develop and experiment amazing-brainwith ideas, and physical objects. I will use constructive play in a classroom within a social setting to allow children to negotiate ideas. Furthermore, I will be able to link constructive play to the math curriculum, by using block-games for instance.

Exploratory play will be implemented in my classroom by providing children with opportunities to construct their own knowledge that is derived from concrete experience.

Field trips, maniplulatives, experiments will be linked to the science, math and Language Arts curriculum. Furthermore, I believe that the First Peoples Principles of Learning that states “Learning requires exploration of one’s identity” will be implemented in my classroom to

link to Communication, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking frameworks in the BC Curriculum.

Risky Play: During goal setting and identity discussions, I will incorporate outdoor activities, and use the analogies of risk-taking to teach about pushing boundaries and extend one’s limits. Risky and outdoor play also links to another First Peoples Principles of Learning, by teaching children the importance of recognizing the consequences of one’s actions.

Imaginary Play: In Case 1, the teacher will be able to discuss with the mother the positive effects of imaginary play, where children can step out of their own personas to imagine other personas and scenarios. Furthermore I believe that pretending enables children to represent problems and practice solving them, to ask questions and learn about the world in terms they can understand. This imaginary play also helps with problem solving, and develops communication skills, therefore will be an important aspect of my teaching.I will encourage children to use play scripts to portray a sequence of events, while stepping in and out of character.

WHAT WILL I BE LOOKING FOR WHEN OBSERVING PLAY?

Once I establish a physically and emotionally safe environment I can observe and think critically about what is happening within the context of the play.

I can assess children’s strengths, interests and skills, and build systematic observation records for each child. I may join in, listen in and interact with the players in order to engage their understanding or gaps in their understanding of topics. I will be able to use these interactions and observations to scaffold their learning.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parentsleave-those-kids-alone/358631/

MY CLASSROOM LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

I will create a well-supportive place through children’s stories by using student-created projects to respect their learning.

I will refrain from commercially produced and stereotyped designs of characters, people, objects, gender, culture, ethnicity as well as concepts, and will show relevant, curriculum-based information in the classroom. In Case 1, the teacher can communicate curricular competencies, work in progress, reflect children’s learning processes, and personalize their educational journeys by the layout and the displays in the classroom.

By posting work-in progress, children will have the possibilities of revisiting learning experiences and be able to interact, comment and give new direction to ideas.

Welcome children using “the world’s rich and diverse heritage of art forms”(Tarr, p.89) when selecting depictions to support learning.

Use classroom materials, furniture and decorations to imply behaviour and the type of learning that would take place in the classroom.

https://www.robins.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/378722/sciencestudies-prompt-aquatic-makeroverexploration/ October 2018 | Case One | 13

http://www.aneverydaystory.com/beginners-guide-toreggio-emilia/setting-up-a-reggio-inspired-activity/

Thank you! askey studio