Any FDA WOW Discovery Preschool Program parents here?

[Anonymous]

To 11:20. There are multiple parents on this thread. One left. Others have commented about wanting to leave.

[Anonymous]

Was the change of teaching team in the Maple room or the Mulberry room of the Discovery Preschool?

[Anonymous]

10:56 here: I don't know where the previous teacher went. I have not seen her around, but to be fair, I haven't exactly looked for her. I noticed one of the new teachers in the classroom mid-last week, and the other at the end of the week, and they were there together this week.

The telling thing is that my child was actually scared of the teacher who left, and actually likes the new ones. That was what made it so hard to leave DC there every morning last week.

I have to say that I was all for leaving at the beginning, given this teacher issue. My spouse said that we should wait a while, and he was right. Not saying that everything is hunky-dory now, but having those two new teachers is a huge load off our backs. Maybe now I can focus on the curriculum issues, though it does seem like they are learning things according to a set schedule. Last week they were doing the color green, for example.

I'm going to give it a chance. I guess that for those who feel like leaving, I can't blame you for your apprehension, but we're going to wait things out for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was the change of teaching team in the Maple room or the Mulberry room of the Discovery Preschool?

Mulberry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was the change of teaching team in the Maple room or the Mulberry room of the Discovery Preschool?

Mulberry.

One last question-is the mulberry room the older or the younger of the 2 discovery preschool rooms? The older class (I believe) is in room 130.

[Anonymous]

the mulberry room is the younger of the two discovery rooms. there is a new teacher in the mulberry but the other teacher is still in the center. I am not one of the disgruntled posters though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the mulberry room is the younger of the two discovery rooms. there is a new teacher in the mulberry but the other teacher is still in the center. I am not one of the disgruntled posters though.

Not too reassuring that that teacher has just been assigned to a new room

[Anonymous]

11:56 here. I am not quite sure what the PPs are referring too though. I saw the Mulberry classroom teacher in the morning and assumed she was still in the room. there was a new teacher in there as well.

I cannot confirm that the teacher has been reassigned. are the disgruntled poster going to attend the parents meeting on the 23rd? I really do hope so, i plan to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:56 here. I am not quite sure what the PPs are referring too though. I saw the Mulberry classroom teacher in the morning and assumed she was still in the room. there was a new teacher in there as well.

I cannot confirm that the teacher has been reassigned. are the disgruntled poster going to attend the parents meeting on the 23rd? I really do hope so, i plan to attend.

Yes I plan to attend but am not sure that my two biggest issues: 1. Having staff in all of the classrooms who actually want to be there and care about the children, and 2: having a very strong curriculum, are something that can be fixed. I do plan to attend though and will bring up some of my other concerns.

[Anonymous]

11:30: Can you share more about what about the teacher made your child afraid of her? Or what in particular did your child say or do that told you that your child was afraid of the teacher?

There's a difference between a teacher not being as engaged or welcoming as they could be, and actively inspiring fear in a child.

I'm not sure if this is the same teacher who was mentioned early in this thread for physically sitting a child down for snack, but it would be useful to know if this is the same teacher.

[Anonymous]

To the 12:34 poster. Are you the same poster who wanted young and vibrant teachers but stated that you are not ageist?

Are you actually saying that "having staff . . .who actually want to be there and care about the children" cannot be fixed? I am trying to follow this thread with an open mind, my child is enrolled in the center, but this seems like a very negative statement.

As far as the curriculum is concerned, what do you want to accomplish? Do you want them to change the curriculum used, and what would you suggest? What model was used at your other center? Do you want the teachers to be able to communicate what was done during the day better? I have noticed the easel in the classroom with the days activities and I do check out the pictures to make sure they are corresponding to the activities.

[Anonymous]

12:48 are you one of the directors?

In my exchange with the directors they mentioned that some of the teachers had not completed their training (by CCLC). They also said that they would "reconfigure" teachers as necessary to find where they best fit and admitted that some teachers may be a better fit for an older or younger class.

While I appreciated the thought... it concerned me more that the teachers had not finished their training. It seemed to me that if that was the case (as it was since it came from the directors themselves) then the center was opened prematurely, at the expense of the children.

[Anonymous]

12:48 again here. No, not one of the directors but the future FDA employee who has been posting questions throughout this thread because I'm considering a spot for my DD as of April 1 in the Mulberry room.

DD is currently in a very loving in-home day care situation and, like others who have posted here, I'm concerned about the quality of the teaching staff. An apathetic staff would be something I'd hope the directors could fix, but I want to make as informed a decision as possible. (and yes, we're touring and meeting the Mulberry teachers to form our own opinion before we make any decision).

A teacher who makes a child feel afraid and/or physically mishandles a child is unacceptable. I'm trying to figure out if this is one individual, two separate incidents or two individuals, two separate incidents. If the latter, that's a bigger problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the 12:34 poster. Are you the same poster who wanted young and vibrant teachers but stated that you are not ageist?

Are you actually saying that "having staff . . .who actually want to be there and care about the children" cannot be fixed? I am trying to follow this thread with an open mind, my child is enrolled in the center, but this seems like a very negative statement.

As far as the curriculum is concerned, what do you want to accomplish? Do you want them to change the curriculum used, and what would you suggest? What model was used at your other center? Do you want the teachers to be able to communicate what was done during the day better? I have noticed the easel in the classroom with the days activities and I do check out the pictures to make sure they are corresponding to the activities.

Being a parent at the center, it concerns me deeply to hear another parent say that the teacher could not specifically reference what the child learned that day when asked, how the child was doing in the class in terms of what they were learning (were they happy, excited, etc), and if that child was having a difficult time transitioning what were the methods being used to make it easier on the child. When a teacher who supposedly has had training and a background in early childhood education cannot answer those things in a conversational tone with a parent- then it is a BIG problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the 12:34 poster. Are you the same poster who wanted young and vibrant teachers but stated that you are not ageist?


Are you actually saying that "having staff . . .who actually want to be there and care about the children" cannot be fixed? I am trying to follow this thread with an open mind, my child is enrolled in the center, but this seems like a very negative statement.

As far as the curriculum is concerned, what do you want to accomplish? Do you want them to change the curriculum used, and what would you suggest? What model was used at your other center? Do you want the teachers to be able to communicate what was done during the day better? I have noticed the easel in the classroom with the days activities and I do check out the pictures to make sure they are corresponding to the activities.

No I was not the young and vibrant poster.

I have been told by the admin that they chose the best of the best out of 400 applications. From things I have observed, I don't get the sense that many of the teachers really do want to be there and seem genuinely interested in the children (some of course are better than others). I am not sure what remedy there really is besides getting better staff in there, and I don't really see that happening. It sounds as though a not so great teacher was removed from one classroom and put in another-that certainly does not speak to fixing true problems. It's really hard to put into words, but the teachers at DC's previous place were warm, caring and at least acted interested in the kids even if they weren't. I have not observed the same to be true at WOW, not yet at least. I also observed DC trying to talk to one of the teachers and the teacher sitting in a chair and not even looking down at DC who was right in front of her. Completely ignored DC. That is not okay to me as a parent, to have a child blatantly ignored. If something else had been going on that required the teachers attention of course that is different, but in this instance there was not.

As far as curriculum, when I look at the daily schedule, there are really only 3, 15 minute, educational sessions. The rest of the day is outside play, naps, feeding, bathroom, etc. I did observe one of those 15 minute time frames and I just don't feel it offered that much academically.