When reading chapter five, I came across a paragraph talking about expanding the age group for preschool rooms (pg. 190). It seemed the book was pro for having directors consider in placing multi-aged children in the same classroom. I have mixed feelings in this strategy, because I have experienced two classrooms in which the children benefited from having multi-aged children and have had problems in multi-aged children in a classroom.
The program I work at has one classroom that has three and four year old. I am not going to lie, this classroom is not my favorite class to work in. I feel that it is one of the hardest classrooms in my program. The children are very loud and obnoxious. There is very little discipline and the building has a hard time working with the assistant teacher in the classroom. There seems to be little communication between the regular staff, which is a negative. Who am I to judge and say these things as an aid/substitute? It's what I have observed while working in this class and many other subs has experienced the same as me. Over the past year a new teacher was hired and honestly I think she has turned around the class in a positive way. I feel this new teacher has done a lot for the class and the building likes her, but the assistant teacher still has a lack of communication which affects the whole outlook of the building. Don't get me wrong I really like the assistant teacher and I think she is a good teacher, but she may be a little outspoken which causes conflict with the other teachers in the building.
During my lab at the LCC Children's Center last semeste, I was very apprehensive in working in a multi-aged classroom. As time went on I actually started to like it. Although, lab preschools are very calm and collect when being there, it's a very good opportunity for children to interact and learn from each other at different ages. They did separate the three and four year olds during group time to do their own special activities which are suited at their development. It made me believe that multi-aged classrooms can beneficial to teachers, children, and the community of the school. Of course, the program did have a lot of staff for one-on-one engagement with the children, which made the ratio really good. The teachers, student workers, and lab students all communicated with each other and had a planning session every week and discussed activities and the children's development which was very interesting and made me wish we did this in my own program and classroom. A question that arose was, how can early childhood programs make a classroom of multi-aged children a success, such as a lab preschool?
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteTo whom can you articulate your concerns? As an aide, substitute, new teacher, or a new comer on the scene, is there a way or channel that one can take to get the messages across that the working environment is not functioning properly? How should teachers respond to best support the children’s learning, if staff don’t have open dialog among themselves? In this kind of environment that you’ve explained, that is chaotic, how are the children thriving, or are they? Would focusing on the strength of the environment make things work better? How can a unified and supportive environment come about?
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked as a teacher in the classroom, I always worked with multi-age classrooms. For me, multi-age classrooms were fascinating and lovely -- the conversations were varied and exciting, the children found different ways of connecting, and the peer interactions were deep and thoughtful. As I think about your experiences, I am wondering what could limit the possibilities in the multi-age classroom and wonder if it is the same for any classroom.
At the start of your blog, you discuss communication. Is communication central to the beauty of any classroom? What is foundational to communication? What role does relationship play in communication? How might deep relationships play a part in working communication?
I wonder again about your two scenarios -- what might each imply about the director? What is the role of administration in ensuring communication practice and development of relationships?
Jeanne
Hello Ashley,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing, I think that it is great that you have the opportunity to observe and learn from your experiences. I agree with you, it is very difficult for everyone involved when there is little to no communication; it makes the learning experience and environment negative. I also agree with you about a classroom that contains different aged students has both benefits and fallbacks; it is similar to a classroom with students with special needs. Each child has their own personal differences and characteristics that make them unique just as well as functioning at different levels. One proven benefit is peer interaction, students are able to learn from each other which allows them to grow in all areas (e.g socially, functionally, etc.) but children are also exposed to the negative habits that others may have; it is just apart of a learning environment. Again thank you for sharing and allowing me to comment on your blog.
mari
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experiences with multi- aged children. I have to say that I have had different experiences with multi - aged children. At HCC my lab has mixed ages. There are two sides the toddler side was from 11/2 - 3 and the preschool side was 3 - 5 years old. I feel that the children did benefit from being around children at different ages. The preschoolers got along well and they all learned from each other. The only difficult for me was having to come up with lesson plans that fit the different ages and skills of the children. I liked that you were able to work so well with the staff at the lab in assisting one another.
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteWho, ultimately, is responsible for the success, or failure, of a classroom, regardless of the ages of the children in it? I have observed mixed-aged classrooms work beautifully, as you mention, in which the older children are able to model the correct behaviors and practices for the younger ones. How else can younger children stand to benefit from being surrounded by older children? How can the older children benefit from working with younger ones? How does a multi-aged classroom reflect life outside of the classroom? Regardless of one’s position as head teacher, assistant teacher, or aid, what steps can we take to make the changes we want to see in our classrooms?
There are benefits to multi-age classrooms that I observed. I feel that the most benefit is that the older children feel pride in taking a role in helping the little ones, which helps with their maturation process.I also believe that this lightens some responsibility among the teachers as well. For example, instead of the teacher's helping a child with a simple task, the teacher could ask the older child to assist the younger child with that task. The younger children look up to the older ones and tend to follow their examples, which helps the maturation process for the younger children. In a mixed age class, it is a good idea to maintain small group discussions and activities that are according to their development and maintain the mixed age group when it comes to indoor and outdoor activities. I was apart of a three and four year old mixed classroom, and I must say that it was more manageable that the separate three and four year old classrooms that I have worked in. I didn't find that the older ones acted younger, but instead the four year olds seemed very mature as opposed to other four year old classrooms that I worked in and so were the three year old. The teacher's were very knowledgeable in changing activities according to each child's individual development. How can directors mentor teacher's to maintain organization within a mixed age classroom? What degree of support would a teacher need to maintain balance amongst a mixed age group?
ReplyDelete