Preschool teachers polish skills
As the first contact with formal learning for an increasing number of Belizean children, pre-schools are a key building block of our educational system. And as Patrick Jones reports, our pre-school teachers are spending the summer perfecting their technique.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
They sport cute faces and bright smiles… but appearances can be deceiving. Running a preschool is stress. That’s why these teachers from all over the country have been putting their heads together to find ways to make the teaching experience more meaningful and get children hooked on learning.
Claudia Smith, Principal, Yo Creek Community Preschool
“We deal with children, small children ages three to four. And what we have here in the centre, we are preparing a centre where the child learns, and most our children learn through manipulating stuff, through discovery. For example, we have a science corner where children can manipulate things, and through their own experiences, they discover what’s the world and environment for them.”
Desiree Wagner, Principal, Morning Star Preschool
“We learned that for the Preschoolers, from an early age, if the parents or the guardian of each child ranging from ages two and a half to four and a half, would just get their children in a preschool, it will enable them to have a better chance in life and to know about he world around them, the environment.”
That environment helps children to develop attitudes and values that make it easier for them to survive in the primary school system. According to the principal of the Yo Creek Community Preschool in Orange Walk, preparation is key to eliminating much of the stress from their daily work.
Claudia Smith
“We had a topic on how to do lesson planning, how to do specific objectives so that anybody from where you are absent, any teacher can come into your classroom and just follow up your work, and from there she can teach and just go right through. So if you are well prepared the day runs smoothly.”
Desiree Wagner
“We also learned how to be a professional as teachers. Because as teachers we have our difficulties with parents and different things, but we have to learn how to cope with it and at the same time how to address each issue when it comes to parents.”
Patrick Jones
“Of course teachers as well need to know how to handle the children, because preschoolers at this age are not very easy to handle.”
Desiree Wagner
“Yes that’s true. We also, within this course, we also learned that whenever it comes to children, because we don’t discriminate, in the preschool level, we have children with disabilities, so we have different lectures came in and taught us how to handle the children and just a word of comfort. And we are not supposed to hit any children, any child for that manner. But basically we learned that we should love and care for each child because when they enter our classroom we automatically becomes that child’s guardian for a couple hours when they are in the centre.”
Now that the course is over, the teachers will go back to their respective preschool centres armed with a better understanding of how to manage their classroom.
Rosa Castro, Principal, Children’s Nest Preschool
“I learned how to prepare lesson plans, how to manage children and respect their decisions. I learnt so many things. I plan to implement all that I learnt here at this preschool that I teach, sharing my ideas with the children and learning from them as well.”
Claudia Smith
“Classroom is always busy, so children, they go from one corner to the next, you know science corner, math corner, we have music. So children when the come in they choose their own centres and we have a time table to follow. We have children having their circle time where they socialize and tell events, we study about the calendar, whatever the day’s weather and so on.”
The children in this “make believe” preschool classroom at the U.W.I Centre in Belize City gave parents a brief overview of how toddlers spend their day between the time they are dropped off in the morning and when they are picked up in the afternoon. And with the new school year a little over a month and a half away, its time for the partners in this educational process–parents, teachers and students–to start preparation for the next adventure in learning. Patrick Jones, for News 5.
The training course was sponsored by the Pre School Unit of the Ministry of Education.