I think the waiting part is USUALLY good because it is a good way to model patience, but I had a group that we had to start out small with that lesson and I had to find another way in which to start transitions lol. Chaos breeds in the wings of a wait time in a preschool classroom!
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Temesha (Ms. Tessie) Ragan
Family Child Care IF Facilitator
Perfect Start Learning
Family Child Care Provider
Edwards, CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-12-2019 01:51 PM
From: Aren Stone
Subject: Transitions with multi-age groups
Tamesha:
There are some answers right in your great message because it seems like you've found some important strategies. 1. Be open to change. If something isn't working, observe, think, and try something different. Having said that--sometimes it takes a while for a change to take hold, so patience is also key. 2. Your observation that you need to change what you do depending on the children enrolled is very important. Know your kids. Understand what motivates them, what they respond to, what dysregulates them, and what works. It seems like you're picking up that different groups have different personalities--as a group, not just as individual members. This is true, in my experience. 3. Keep what works and figure out how to make it work better. Your use of your Alexa to cue up music so you don't have to search for it seems really helpful. So often when I observe in classrooms the children--babies through preschoolers--are waiting for the teachers to do things like find a song. Of course they have to wait sometimes, but it's really helpful to find things that lessen the amount of times they need to wait. Those 'in between' times when they're waiting with nothing to do are an invitation for difficulties.
Your strategies are those of an attentive, thoughtful, experienced teacher. Passing them on to beginning teachers is valuable. Thanks for the post!
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Aren Stone
Child Development Specialist
The Early Years Project
Cambridge, MA
she/her
Original Message:
Sent: 02-11-2019 02:56 PM
From: Temesha Ragan
Subject: Transitions with multi-age groups
I have changed my transitions A LOT since I opened my program in 2012 and I was interested in finding out what transitions other providers and teachers used in their programs and if you change them every year or have you managed to keep the same ones for a number of years. I have found that I have had to change my transitions depending on the children enrolled. Currently I have my Alexa set for music transition commands so I spend less time starting up a cd player and trying to find the song. Which led me to using Darth Vaders theme as a clean up song for the last couple years. We LOVE it.
What have you found works for you and what advice could you give to newer professionals who are figuring out what works for them?
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Temesha (Ms. Tessie) Ragan
Family Child Care IF Facilitator
Perfect Start Learning
Family Child Care Provider
Edwards, CA
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