Expectations for kindergarten classroom?
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Anonymous
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I have a new kindergartener in FCPS and I am new to the whole system. I truly want to love it but I am a bit disappointed so far. From what I've seen over the first week --
The class watches a video every day. DD brings home a bunch of letter tracing worksheets she did in class. Teacher gave DD a lollipop for being a good listener. Teacher uses a behavior chart. DD asked me why her teachers spend so much time typing on their computers. There are 24 kids and 2 teachers. We previously were at a preschool / daycare with the same ratio that didn't use TV or worksheets *and* didn't have specials like music, library, etc to fill the day. Am I wrong to expect more teacher engagement? Is this typical? |
Anonymous
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Parent of a (South) Arlington student here.
The class watches a video every day. - NEVER HEARD OF THIS UNLESS IT WAS A SPECIAL TOPIC, END OF SCHOOL, RIGHT BEFORE A BREAK DD brings home a bunch of letter tracing worksheets she did in class. - I THINK MINE STARTED OUT WRITING Teacher gave DD a lollipop for being a good listener. NOPE Teacher uses a behavior chart. NOPE DD asked me why her teachers spend so much time typing on their computers. NOPE |
Anonymous
| Sounds par for the course |
Anonymous
I I have a kindergartener in a Catholic school in the Diocese of Arlington and here has been our experience: The class watches a video every day. - NO. DD brings home a bunch of letter tracing worksheets she did in class. - YES, I BELIEVE THEY ARE STARTING ON WRITING AND MAKING SURE THEY FORM THE LETTERS CORRECTLY. I AGREE AND THINK THIS IS IMPORTANT.Teacher gave DD a lollipop for being a good listener. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Teacher uses a behavior chart. NO, HER TEACHER VIEWS IT AS A "LEARNING EXPERIENCE" AND REMINDS THE CHILDREN UP TO 3 TIMES ABOUT SOMETHING. SO MY DAUGHTER WILL COME HOME AND SAY I GOT NO REMINDERS! OR, I GOT ONE REMINDER. SO-AND-SO GOT THREE REMINDERS! AFTER YOU GET THREE REMINDERS, YOU HAVE TO WRITE YOUR NAME IN AN 'OOPS BOOK" AND A LETTER GOES HOME TO YOUR PARENTS SAYING YOU NEED TO WORK ON NOT MAKING THE "OOPS" AGAIN. DD asked me why her teachers spend so much time typing on their computers. NO SIRREE. |
Anonymous
PS Oh yeah, and they do have "specials" or "encore classes," as they call them. Their schedule is as follows: Mon -- PE and Art Tues -- Spanish Wed. -- PE and Computers Thurs. -- Music Fri. -- Mass and Library |
Anonymous
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We're in APS, but some questions/thoughts. Before I comment on the specific items, it helps to remember that young children are notoriously unreliable narrators, especially when it comes to quantifying stuff. Are you familiar with the old teacher suggestion, "If you only believe half of what your child tells you about school, we'll only believe half of what they tell us about home"? It sticks around for a reason. As to your specific concerns:
The class watches a video every day. What kinds of videos are they watching? Sometimes schools will use videos to cover certain topics like bullying to make sure all students are given appropriate and consistent content. Also, there are a couple of lines of short educational videos that involve getting the kids up and dancing, they're really short (maybe five minutes), kids really engage with them and it helps break up their day a bit and give them some movement. If the teacher is just putting on an hour of cartoons in the afternoon, that's a different story. DD brings home a bunch of letter tracing worksheets she did in class. She's been there a week, and her teacher has to evaluate all of the students in the class to see where they are with things like reading and writing. The letter tracing worksheets may be part of that evaluation process. Also, at that age most kids still need practice forming their letters properly and getting fluent in writing them before they're ready to move on to substantive writing. Worksheets are an appropriate way to practice this. Teacher gave DD a lollipop for being a good listener. I'm with you on this, I don't like food being used as a reward in the classroom. I don't know the FCPS policy on this, though. Teacher uses a behavior chart. I'm also not a fan of this, but whether I made a fuss about it would depend on whether it was negatively affecting my child. DD asked me why her teachers spend so much time typing on their computers. See my comment above about children being unreliable narrators. You don't know how much time the teacher is actually spending on her computer, and you especially don't know what she's doing on it. If she's on her computer responding to parent emails or checking for a follow-up on a potential change in class schedule for the afternoon while the kids are getting a break to play in the classroom, there's nothing wrong with that. |
Anonymous
| Forward to the Principal. They SHOULD care. |
Anonymous
OP should only forward her concerns to the principal if there's a violation of school/FCPS policy going on, or if any of those is having a negative affect on her child and addressing it with the teacher hasn't gotten results. Going straight to the principal with "my kid had to practice writing letters on a worksheet instead of via my preferred instructional method" is going to get you on the short list of problem parents really fast. |
Anonymous
| These are the types of issues that should be resolved at parent/teacher conference first or through an email to the teacher if necessary. |
Anonymous
| Just want to point out, OP, that at our school, because of the heat index and/or thunderstorms, the kids have had indoor recess almost every day of school this year. The kindergartners typically have 2 or 3 outdoor recesses, but they've been stuck inside all day long. That might be why they've been watching videos. I don't really like it, but I can see how it might happen on these very hot days. |
Anonymous
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1) How exactly are you seeing these things? I'm curious since we are not allowed into the classroom at our FCPS after Day 1 drop off.
2) As a PP mentioned, kids are terrible at providing context and details. I would inquire with the teacher (to understand) before you turn this perception into Spanish Inquisition -another parent with a first time kindergartner in FCPS (McLean) |
Anonymous
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This is OP. Thanks everybody, and hopefully there will be more replies also. Back to school night is tomorrow and I'm thinking of bringing up the lollipop thing as it is an issue for us. The other stuff I will wait a bit but I am interested in knowing if it typically happens elsewhere. I know DD can be an unreliable narrator but she was able to show me one of the videos on You Tube (a kids dance thing) and after preschool she's very familiar with how a classroom runs, for example her preschool classroom also had a workstation for the teachers to do email work.
I have heard really great things about this school and I want it to work out. That said, we have been thinking about moving houses in the spring (could be in school zone or out), and private school is a possibility also, so I am interested in knowing whether this is how FCPS classrooms are run. |
Anonymous
OP, if they watched a kids' dance thing, I agree with the poster above that it may be weather related. My kids have also done some active videos this week because of the heat, and I get it. I'd feel differently if it were a movie/cartoons. |
Anonymous
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no FCPS shows kids videos daily. and school has only been in session for a few days to begin with. you are not describing a typical experience for children in K in FCPS and I taught at two such ES schools. I would share your concerns with the teacher but don't assume everything your child said is reality
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Anonymous
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the kids dance thing -was it Go Noodle? Those are very popular for movement breaks. With the smartboards, it is very easy for the teacher to play a 5 minute dance video or several throughout the day.
The only thing you mentioned that would give me any pause would be the behavior chart as those are NOT best practices and NOT part of responsive classroom, which I thought all FCPS ESes had implemented. |