Personal Narrative: My Head Start Placement

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Pages: 7

For my Head Start placement I was placed at Five Points I in Akron, Ohio. Five Points I is located on 660 W Exchange street, in the Akron City Schools District. This school works with children who are of preschool age (3-6 year olds). Five Points II, located next door, works with toddlers and infants. Five Points uses the Creative Curriculum, Ohio’s Learning Content Standards, and the Head Start Standards. The Creative Curriculum focuses on exploration and discovery of a new way of learning. This enables children to develop confidence, creativity, and critical thinking skills.
I can assume that the children who are coming into the school are from poor or poverty-stricken families/neighborhoods. Five Points neighborhood is in a 100% urban population.
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“I see the parents every day. The school sends home newsletters and calendars. We also hold conferences with the parents and have home visits two times a year.” To start off the day Mrs. Taylor gets to meet the parents. She gives each child and parent a question of the day. The parent has to help their child answer the questions. This is a great way to start off class every day. During this time, Mrs. Taylor can talk to the parents about concerns, upcoming events, or just hold a …show more content…
“The boy speaks very good English, so I do not have to find someone to speak Spanish for me.” The parents are decent at English and they mostly get the idea of what she is saying to them. The boy would explain things better to his parents in Spanish if they do not quite understand something. Question number 6: Discuss some of the ways parents are involved in your classroom?
“After a lesson, there are activities where the parents can come in. At the beginning of the day, there is a question that the parents do with their child.” Mrs. Taylor also has an open-door policy. Parents can come in when they want to. She encourages volunteering. Question number 7: How many events are planned for families in this preschool site? What are they? “Individual classrooms do different things. After each lesson they do a parent activity. There are parent informative meetings/workshops. There is a big party at the end of the year for both parents and students.” She was telling me that events planned depended on many factors. For the most part, each class holds a parent event that helps get the parents involved.

Part III – Reflection on Classroom Observations and Teaching