As we prepare to present our AAP's, I am still feeling a little nervous about just presenting my topic. I have an added concern because of the changes that our district just announced where they will be grouping all K-1 classes together. This is a concern because my long term goal is to implement 2 hours of choice time in the full-day kindergarten classes. I am not sure as to how this will be received because of the addition of first grade to this mix. One question that I do have is how are you planning your presentation? Are you going to present to everyone (all 5) at the same time or break them up in groups that may need different information (parents/community members)?
I feel that I have a good amount of information and look forward to finishing my presentation and preparing fact sheets for my audience members. The best resources that I have found are articles by David Elkind and information on the NAEYC website. I also found a great resource about the importance of play in kindergarten entitled "The Crisis in Kindergarten."
I am planning to give my presentation to everyone to gether. I think the mix of the group will be good, the administrators, the teachers and the parents in one group. I understand feeling nervous and the changes in the school dist. make these feelings worse. I would look at the benefits this time would allow the first grade children. There is a reason they are combining these groups and maybe they are comfortable with this type of acativity as well. You will never know until you put it out there.
ReplyDeleteCould the 1st graders also benefit from learning through play?
ReplyDeleteI think that this would be very beneficial to 1st graders. I did some of my fieldwork in a first grade class and saw many children who were really struggling with the academics. I feel that they really could have benefitted from having time to learn through play. The NAEYC feels that play is beneficial to learning through age eight so why do we not follow their recommendations?
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I am nervous about presenting my plan. However, I plan to just sit all 5 audience members down and talk to them at once. I also plan on using a power point presentation to help get my information across. I will address all information that each audience member will find important and also find a way to connect it all together to create a sense of a team effort.
I think that it shouldn't be too much of an issue about 1st graders. I feel that they will still benefit from the play. I'm sure there's tons of information out there that stresses the importance of play for children of all ages.