Thursday, May 16, 2013
Observing and Interacting With Program Director(s) and Other Administrative Staff in Your Setting- Module 3
Well these past two weeks I am becoming VERY discouraged. I emailed the Dean from my daughter's school, and I heard back from her one time. I explained my assignment and asked her some questions via email and said she could either set up a time to meet with me, or she could answer the questions via email if she was busy. She seemed very excited about my project and thought it was interesting. So, I emailed her back with my availability to meet and have yet to hear back from her. I emailed her, YET AGAIN, yesterday and still have yet to hear back from her. Today and tomorrow they have an event at the school so I am assuming maybe she got tied up with the preparation for that. I hope I am able to catch her tomorrow when I drop my daughter off at school to discuss the questions I have for her. I was able to talk to a preschool administrator which is really no good for me because I already know their philosophy regarding developmentally appropriate practice. They, of course, are constantly working in a manner that is developmentally appropriate for their students. They are not who I am concerned about with this advocacy issue. It is the school I am trying to contact that I would like to hear their stance on developmentally appropriate practice, and maybe by sitting down with her I would be able to offer some of my suggestions for her to consider incorporating into her school wide curriculum. I will edit this blog if I am able to speak with her tomorrow. Wish me luck! :)
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Hi Laura, I know how you feel. What age group are you looking at, is this an public school or a center?
ReplyDeleteHi Laura
ReplyDeleteI can understand exactly where you are coming from with trying to get answers from directors or principals. It can be very frustrating and it will discourage you but if this is your passion and you are dedicated its no giving up. I hope that you get the answers that you are looking up, but don't give up this job isn't easy.
I went through a similar situation when I tried to do my field experience in a CPS school. I don't know why but CPS in my point of view is a rigid system when college students wants to do their field work in their classrooms. I emailed two different schools to get permission to do my field work, one responded me but it took two weeks! The only advice I can give you is to be consistent and keep sending emails or go to the school in person and wait for the principal in the office no matter if the secretary says he is busy.
ReplyDeleteThanks ladies, it is definitely a relief to hear others have had similar issues. This is a charter school, I am focusing on elementary more for this paper because our preschools here already promote DAP, whereas the elementary schools are the ones that seem to struggle with it. One reason I believe is to blame is the teacher preparation here for elementary ed teachers. They are trained very differently than we are here at Kendall through the ECE program. I have worked with many teachers (because MI requires an elem ed degree for prek, we don't have ECE certification here) that say they might as well forget everything they learned in school when they get in preschool because they don't use any of it. This is sad because the way I teach preschool is exactly how I do my field work except I adjust the content to meet age appropriateness. There is no reason elem teachers can't teach this way as well. :( It works and the kids are happier and learn very well.
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