Saturday, March 26, 2011

Little Tigers Child Center Evaluation

Staff:
Cindy Martin, Program Director/Teacher; Joni Mullock, Teacher Assistant; David Carpenter, SPED Assistant.

Enrollment:
We currently have 15 students enrolled in Preschool.

Our Daily Schedule includes:
Breakfast, Circle time (name recognition, letter and sound recognition and correlation, number recognition, weather, graphing, listening, following directions, reading books and discussing, music and cooperating as a member of our learning community), morning gross motor activity (recess), free choice/centers (writing, art, building, reading puzzles, music, computers, make believe, math, fine motors/puzzles, and science), lunch (we read as we prep for lunch and once all hands are washed, we sing songs and do finger plays until everyone has a plate), bathrooms and rest time, small group activity, free choice/centers, snack, then go outside for our final recess, read and pack our bags, and then dismiss.

We have been very lucky to have two high school helpers in our classroom this year. Currently, our two helpers are Faith and Courtney. They used to come different times during the day, but are now both coming during the seventh period (1:26-2:11). Faith has also asked if she can come for her classes at Tech School with Mrs. G. She will begin coming here in the morning for that class four days a week. Along with our high school helpers, we have another visitor that comes twice a week to work with our special needs child. We enjoy all of their help and enthusiasm about working with our Little Tigers.

Past Events:
Open House -- Meet the teachers and see our room.
Parent Meeting -- Pass our paperwork, sign up for home visits, and answer any questions.
Home visits -- Joni and I go into each child's house before school starts to get to know the child and their family a little better. While there, we go over the paperwork and handbook, do an activity with the family and child, as well as answer any questions they might have.
Grandparents day -- Grandparents come and see our school, eat treats, and do art activities.
PAC Meetings (Parent Advisory Committee) -- Discuss various topics relating to preschool. Ex: Handbook, events, important dates, homecoming, general ideas for preschool, family fun nights, and any changes that might occur.
Family Fun Nights -- Fall Festival (held in conjunction with PAT, SOAR, and Head Start), Thanksgiving Feast (food and student performance), Christmas gathering (food, art activities, meet Santa), Valentine's Day party (snacks, games, activities).

Upcoming Events:
Family Fun Night -- Ooey Gooey Science Night; have invited the Kindergarten, the Learning Academy, SOAR, and Head Start; each table will have some kind of science experiment such as exploding soda, exploding film canisters, goo, gel bags, create your own lava lamp, making worms, etc.
Easter Egg Hunt; decorate eggs, hunt eggs, and scavenger hunt with prizes.
Family BBQ.
Track and Field Day
Field Trip
Graduation

Program Information:
The Little Tigers Preschool is currently in its 5th year receiving the Missouri Preschool Program Grant. We also re-received our Missouri accreditation in December, 2010.

Consultant Observation and Highlights for November 30, 2010:
--New accreditation is in effect until December 5, 2013.
--Children were role playing with music.
--A high school student came into the classroom to teach children actions to go along with a Christmas song that the preschool will be performing.
--A hearing impaired student was getting acclimated to the students and classroom.
--Amazed at how much every inch of space is used in this program. Room is bursting with 13 children present.
--Good room arrangement.
--Liked the Spanish sleep music.

Suggestions for continued growth:
If wrong info on a calendar displaying yesterday, today, and tomorrow and no child has asked about the wrong info, does this mean the display is not relevant to them? I am not sure how you use this, but something to ponder.
--With accreditation and receiving training for the hearing impaired student, Cindy had not had time to begin PARS registering and the OPEN Initiative webinars. The thought of doing another notebook was overwhelming. Cindy had tried to contact Terri Foulkes several times, but did not have any response. We got on the OPEN Initiative website to get the dates. As some of the dates and times are restrictive, I suggested she talk with her principal to get a sub so she can stay on top of the requirements. She is trying to contact Terri Foulkes again.

Program Goals:
--To educate parents on the preschool standards.
--To become knowledgeable on the disability and requirements for the hearing impaired student.

Progress Made:
In order to provide the proper environment for the hearing impaired student, Cindy has taken training outside the district and works with a speech implementer that comes from Kansas City two times a week.

Consultant Observation and Report for February 8th, 2011
--Playtime when I arrived.
--PARS enrollment will be done soon.
--Good language usage between children painting.
--This room is very small but arranged well. The lack of space limits art materials accessible for students.
--There are students on the waiting list for next year.

Suggestions for Continued Growth:
--As the Teacher is the Director and does all the billing, I suggested the teacher ask her Superintendent for half a day twice a month to do bookwork and documentation that needs to be completed for the upcoming evaluation.
--Keep working on allowing students to make choices. Example: When child hasn't put away painting on drying rack, instead of telling him what he should do, ask him what he should do with painting.

Progress Made:
The hearing impaired student is thriving in the classroom. The training that has been taken has enabled the staff to provide for the student in a positive manner. As the teacher is overwhelmed with the number of hours needed to be the Director plus preparing for the notebook for her evaluation, not much work has been done on standards.

Questions/Concerns of Staff:
--Will more standards training be offered?
--What teacher does the best job implementing Project Construct? Cindy would like to visit the classroom to become a better facilitator of Project Construct curriculum.
--Can the MPP classroom provide set aside monies for any professional development for the licensed program? Example -- the local Head Start is going to the National Head Start Convention in Kansas City. The OK has been given and approximate budgets have been set. Was this done correctly?

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