By:Jacky Gerzema
Kids, teacher get ready
Incoming kindergartner Adam Campbell is a little wary of a full day of school at Brookside Elementary.
"I don't know," Adam said, trailing off while thinking about a full day. "We used to take a nap after lunch where I used to go at Cobblestones [preschool]."
Adam and other children will not be afforded the luxury of a nap when they go to kindergarten this year, because there is too much learning and growing to do. So much, in fact, that the kindergarten day has been extended from a half to a full day. Which means that Adam will be part of the first group of kindergartners in the Baldwin School District to attend a full day of school.
Meadow Elementary teachers Julia Wolchok and Lynn Glianna have taught kindergarten for over 20 years. And they were both on curriculum committees to determine whether Baldwin schools needed a full day of kindergarten and to determine whether class size needed to be smaller.
They researched the pros and cons of a full day, talked to experts and observed kindergarten classes in schools that already had implemented the full-day plan. They made a proposal to Superintendent Kathy Weiss and worked extensively with her to bring about the full day and smaller class sizes.
They also helped to write a teacher-friendly curriculum that meets New York State standards of what students should know by the end of their first year. The new curriculum will serve as a guideline to all kindergarten teachers in Baldwin. And the maximum class size has been decreased to 22 students this year.
Both the extended day and reduced class size will be beneficial to students and teachers, the teachers said. The decreased class size will allow more student/teacher interaction, which is essential and beneficial to the student's growth, Glianna said.
Baldwin kindergartners had gym in the past but will now have art and music as well.
"As kindergarten teachers, we had to get rid of a lot of fluff to cut to the core and meet state curriculum requirements in a half day," Wolchok said. "Now with a full day, we can expand concepts. Students will get more art and music, more down time ... the curriculum will be the same; now we will be able to stretch and offer more enrichment. We can use this additional time to go more in-depth on a subject and spend more days talking it."
Glianna and other teachers attended conferences to prepare for the new, full school day. At the New York State Kindergarten Teachers Conference in Saratoga, they learned how music and art can enrich a child's learning experience. Reading, writing and math workshops were also taught. In another workshop, "Teaching Kindergarten," teacher Bonnie Brown Walmsley, whose brother writes the "Arthur" books for children, showed ways in which teachers can structure a full day to make it more fun, while children learn just as much.
The Meadow teachers said there are no district-wide lesson plans. They know what they will be required to teach to meet the New York curriculum, but the approach will be determined after each teacher gets a feel for his or her class and students.
"The curriculum we made is something to use as a guideline," Glianna said. "Skills have to be covered at an earlier age now than in the past. Our curriculum ensures that students will be taught the skills they need to learn by the time they finish kindergarten, but it allows all teachers to use their own personality and creativity in their approach to teaching these subjects."
Glianna said one example of making learning fun for kindergartners is to use songs and poems for learning numbers and letters, or to use hands-on materials such as dominoes to teach mathematical concepts.
This will be Jeanartta Prysock's first year of teaching kindergarten. As a former second-grade teacher at Meadow, she said she is used to a full day but is prepared for the challenges a younger group of children bring.
"One of the first things I'm going to have to do is cut down my list of rules," Prysock said. "I will expect for my kids to learn how to respect each other here."
She already has made up songs and games for the students and said that one thing she wants to do is use music and dance to teach children about different cultures and ethnicities. This also would tie into a geography lesson.
"I feel that the more these children are exposed to at a young age, the more they will be able to knock down barriers," Prysock said. "Exposure is very important, and I intend to give them that through teaching. It's an open-door policy here."
Incoming Meadow teacher Michele Dionisio said she has no definite lesson plans yet but that her first goal is to gain her students' trust. "Once you gain trust, then teaching will be easy," Dionisio said.
Team teaching is also being used this year. This means teachers work together on curriculum subjects and give advice to one another. This will enable each teacher to take the best out of everyone's experience, Dionisio said.
Glianna said a full day will allow more movement in the classroom at unstructured times, when students are not working with teachers. Each classroom will have different workstations where students can practice skills or learn new ones. For example, one workstation might include blocks and another would be the computer station, Glianna said.
Although Adam Campbell is unsure how he will fare in his first full day of kindergarten at Brookside, he is excited about going.
"I want to learn new stuff," Adam said. "I have two backpacks. One is a knapsack that's purple and the other one is a Dr. Seuss book bag. A lot of my pencils have broken points because I used them already."
Adam's mother, Sheryl Campbell, said she has tried from an early age to instill in him a desire to learn. They read books together and she orders a monthly learning kit called Brighter Visions, which includes phonics, reading, math, fractions, visual skills and spelling and reading tests.
"I've told Adam that when he goes to kindergarten, he has to be a leader, and not a boss," Mrs. Campbell said, laughing. "He has a tendency to get bossy sometimes, but I told him that he should lead by example, not by telling the other kids what to do."
