Traci Kreider Is a Preschool Teacher at South Whitley United Methods, Called Rainbow Preschool

Traci Kreider is a preschool teacher at South Whitley United Methods, called Rainbow Preschool. She first wanted to go to college to be anPeds RN, then found out she wanted to work with healthy children. When she told her family she was going to become a teacher they were excited for her, they knew she loved children and would make a wonderful teacher. Traci has been in the classroom for over twenty-one years, I was in Traci’s fourth year of teaching! And can’t wait to learn about how and why she does what she does as a teacher, from the teacher’s point of view! Working at the type of program in a church you do not need any formal education, but she has taken some courses at IPFW to help better herself as a teacher. Many different teachers have played a huge influence on her wanting to become a teacher, but no one person. She wants the children to LOVE school and want to come every day and enjoy being with their classmates. She also wants to make school a fun place where kids can be free to learn. She always has many great lessons planed for the day, but must go with what the children are feeling for that day, many things don’t go as plan-must always be whiling to go with the flow. Also depends of type of students she has that year, last year was rough and every day had its challenges. Main focus is getting the children ready for kindergarten and making sure they have the skills they need to succeed. The best thing about teaching is being able to be involved in so many children’s life and watching them grow. What frustrates her most is not being able to get every child to the level she wants before they level her classroom. She loves being a teacher even with its moments, if she could do it all over again she would pick the same career.

On the days that I were at the preschool we had another fellow MC student along with a high school student and assistant teacher, making for a total of four helpers in a small classroom. So Traci made centers for when we were there so each small group could get one on one help. Day before spring break Traci read them a story about Hawaii, Mrs. Traci was leaving to go to Hawaii in three days. So the students were super excited to learn about where their teacher was going. Before the book was read each student got a lay to wear around their neck. She then read an alphabet book about Hawaii, the kids loved to hear new words about Hawaii, even coming up with their own during the story. When they were done she taught them a Hawaii dance as part of their music lesson. The students then went back and colored a picture of an Aloha dancer. This was a very interactive lesson she did with them, and many kids learned about Hawaii for the first time. The students were so happy to learn about where their teacher was going on vacation. Many of the students didn’t get to go anywhere over break so this was a nice time for them to imagine if they had.

From working with the kids I saw that many of them love to play matching games, so when it came time for me to do my lesson that was the first thing that came to mind. So we did a type of lesson where you had to match the upper case with the lower case then if you had a match you would have to say the sound and give a word that it begins with. This was a great lesson even for the younger kids, they saw and heard the older kids saying letters and words which helped them gain that knowledge as well. This helped to teach the students phonemic awareness of how to say a sound correctly. If they do not master a sound on its own it will be harder for them to combine them later on down the road.

Mason started preschool this January, so he was already behind the other students. He is only 4 years old, and was placed in this classroom because his sister was and they thought it would help bring him up faster. His parents are divorced but mother has remarried. His father and stepfather are both with the army and both are overseas fighting with the army. He has the added stress of having two parents in the war. His mother is in her last year of school and just had a new baby, so he doesn’t get a lot of time with her he said. I noticed that he is very shy and does not interact with the other students when playing. During story time he told me he doesn’t have any books in his house. Both he and his sister are behind their peers in many areas of learning. They were the only two out of the class who didn’t know their telephone numbers; this is because no one at home is working with them. Mason will not listen to you when asked to do something; he is still at that stage where he does what he wants. His language is very poor; when he speaks you cannot understand the words that he is saying. Once again you can tell that there is no one at home working with him. The teachers are getting very distress because there is only so much they can do at school. I would classify Mason as introverted, I never see him play with the other children, because he is not getting the information the teacher is teaching him he is disconnected with school.

Cadence is a very vibrant girls, she comes to school every day ready to learn. When I first started to observe Cadence I thought she would be going on to kindergarten in the fall by how much she knew already. So when I found out this was her first year in preschool I asked her how she already knew so much, she told me her mom and her play school all the time. Her mom is the director of the daycare next to the preschool, and when she is done with kindergarten in the morning she goes over to the daycare and teaches the kids what she learned that day. Cadence is already above her older classmates, when asked a question she is already two steps ahead of you. She is very much a leader of the class even though she is a year younger than most in the classroom. Cadence is a joy; she is always smiling and sings in the class you can tell she really wants to be there.

When I first picked two students to observer I pick these two thinking they were different ages. I wanted to compare someone who was a first timer to someone who was leaving for kindergarten in the fall. What I got was a case of someone who is nurtured at home compare to someone who is not. There is no question the amount of differences between these two. Teachers only have so much they can do at school and parents need to help reinforces that when they get home. By teaching the younger kids at the daycare Cadence is retaining that in her brain. While Mason is going to the babysitter after school and not applying what he learned that day.

I asked Mrs. Kreider why she has her room set up the way she did (it was still the exact same as from when I was in preschool) The church has giving them this space to use and they must share it with the Sunday school class as well. So she doesn’t have much to work with. It’s a very small classroom and they are giving on cabinet they can store these items in. Most of her stuff she uses is stored at home. With being a smaller class behavior is not a big problem and their routine changes daily depending on many things. She said that she is very flexible when it comes to daily routines.

I design my classroom to feel very open with as many windows, to give it even more of an open feeling. I am a very organized person and cannot stand lots of clutter. I have two bulletin boards in my classroom so I can display their art work and other usefully items. Every classroom has to have a blackboard of some type for students to write one. I have two book selves close to student’s desk (which are the round desk) so all supplies and books are close and easily accessible. My students desk are round so they can better work in groups and help each other learn. We also have three computers so students and explore and learn more if they chose to. We can also use the computers for interactive games to help strengthen their education. There is also a big round desk so we can work in a bigger group on different activates.

My assessment and my teaching manipulative were the same.-We did matching the alphabet. Even if they did not get a match I would ask them to say the sound of one of the letters they turned over, or sometimes I would asked them to name something in the room that started with this letter. I wanted to see if they really knew what letter that was and not just going by sight. I found that the end of the alphabet was much harder for many students, saying the sounds and finding an item that started with this letter. Many could match the upper case with the smaller case letter.