It has definately been an interesting week!! My computer is not letting me connect to the internet and my boyfriend is out of town with his computer, so I'm writing this from my parents house...never a dull moment!! I was able to create contact with two individuals, but only one has been emailing me back on a regular basis. Her name is Maria and she is from Osterund, Sweden and she works as a preschool teacher. I really enjoyed what she has to had to share with me. She was excited to work on her English and there were a few times in the email where I was a little bit confused as to what she meant, but overall, it has been great conversing with her.
Maria works in a public preschool. There are 3 departments in her preschool and a total of 54 children. They are 1-5 years old in preschool. Mom or dad stays home the 1st year of the child's life and they get paid by the government to do this (Wouldn't that be nice?). In Maria's room, there are 3 teachers and they have 18 kids plus one resource teacher for a child with special needs. The one thing I was a bit confused on was the age of kids she serves. She wrote "2, 5-4 years old", so I'm not sure of the ages.
There are five languages that children in her center speak: Swedish, Finnish, German, Kurdish and English. At school, all of the children speak Swedish, but for one hour every week, they meet with an adult who speaks their language. It is the muncipalities job to find someone for that child to speak with, not the schools.
She said that the most important way her children learn is through play. She and the curriculum strongly believe that children learn best this way. She sent me a copy of their curriculum, which was really interesting to look at. It was very similar to what we use. I would have included the attachment, but I was afraid it would take up too much room.
Emailing back and forth with Maria has been very interesting. I asked her about povery at her school and the area, but she didn't answer those questions for me. I'm wondering if the language barrier is making it hard for her to understand what I was asking? Learning about the Swedish early childhood school system has been awesome because I know nothing about it. Hopefully you are all learning as well.
Hi Amber,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on making contact with an international resource! I have not been as lucky. I have read about many countries that have work policies that allow the parents to stay home for the first year of their child's life. I wonder how many parents would do this if we had the same policy in America. Would we be able to stay away from our careers for so long? I think it is so important to be with the child for as long as possible!
I look forward to reading more from your contact with your resource!
Amber,
ReplyDeleteI am still trying to establish contact, but I haven't had any luck. I know that they probably have never heard about Head Start, but that is their curriculum also (Learning through Play). I have worked in a classroom with 18 students (3 & 4 year olds) and there was only two teachers. You can imagine how that was. I really think when the classroom is that big and you know that there are going to be some behaviors you need three teachers. I can remember some days I wanted to pull my hair out.
Our ratios at work for preschoolers, which is ages 3+, is 1:10, so I'm used to working with only one other teacher and 20 kids. It can be crazy at times and 3 teachers would be wonderful, but the Army policies doesn't see it that way.
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