2nd Classroom Observation/ Teacher Interview

Classroom observations

I have been observing in a 3 year old preschool classroom.  In this classroom I have been observing children who have both a mother figure and a father figure in their lives.  After talking with the teacher I was able to have a clear view on the dynamics of each child. 

The last module my focus of my research paper was the importance of parental involvement.  This week I wanted to take my topic to a new level, and see how important a mother and a father figure is in a child's education.  Once I knew the children's family dynamics, it was shocking to me how emotionally stable the children with both parental figures acted.  I don't know all the details of all the children in this class, but i was very amazed how socially and emotionally behind the children were that did not have both a mother and a father figure.

After this week’s observation I decided to restructure my research paper.  My new focus questions will be; What is the importance of parental involvement in education? and, what is the importance of having both a father and a mother figure involvement is?

Early Childhood Education Interviews

I am in the process of gaining information for my internship research paper.  In my process I interviewed two early childhood educators. While interviewing these two teachers I listened to the same struggles, and same concerns.  After each of the interviews I stepped back to contemplate my struggles and concerns in the early childhood classroom, and also came to the same conclusion.

The first Interview: Preschool Teacher

Question #1: What are the biggest concerns do you see with children in preschool.

Teachers Answer:  The biggest concern that she sees with 3 and 4 year old's would be their social emotional abilities.  This teacher has been teaching for 20 + years, and feels that children in the past 5 years really struggle with the basic social emotional abilities.  She added that a lot of young children are not being taught about self-control or boundaries.  She further explained to me that she is spending more of her educational instruction on social/ emotional, and self-help skills, and there is not enough time to teach children the material needed for kindergarten readiness.

Question #2: How important is parent involvement in early childhood education?

Answer:  She expressed to me that parent involvement in early childhood education is extremely crucial.  The teacher added that she can clearly tell what families work with their children at home and what parents do not.  She informed me that parent need to become engrossed with their children’s education early, and parents are their child’s most important teacher.  She also challenged me to research the connection between educational success, and parent involvement.  She said that I will find overwhelming statistics that provides the positive connection between parent involvement and educational success.

Question #3: How do you feel about state standards?

Answer:  She told me that she has mixed feelings about state standards.  State standards do help teachers have a common goal of what to be teaching, but many teachers get too wrapped up in the standards that they are teaching off the state standardized test.  State standards are being revised in many states, and the state of Wyoming has just been fully updated!  The new standards are easier to follow, and better designed.

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