Pre-K Students and Their Teachers.

¶ … pre-k students and their teachers. The writer explores several critical incidences that can occur between a teacher and a child as well as among a group of pre-K children. The writer then explores the ways the incidences can be handled so that it goes well and what could have been mishandled thereby causing it to go badly. The writer draws on personal experience from which to put this paper together as well as uses three sources.

A teacher of children who are at the Pre-K level has an extremely challenging position. Children at this age are ready and eager to begin learning basic academics. In addition they are at an age where social skills begin to emerge and as they practice and learn what is acceptable and what is not they test the limits of societal norms. A teacher of this grade level has to balance allowing children to grow and explore without letting them get out of hand or hurt.

Teachers who teach at the Pre-level have to walk a fine line between becoming overly involved with student issues and not being involved enough. There are several critical situations that can easily occur at this grade level and the teacher has to work to guide the situation to turn out for the best instead of the worst. Social arguments, racism, disability curiosity and academic differences are a few things that are often dealt with at this grade level.

The teacher's handling of these situations means the difference between student stagnation and student growth. When it comes to social arguments, pre-K children are often argument. As they begin to spread their wings beyond siblings and cousins and make friends with other little people they experiment while searching for the right combination of socially acceptable empathy and self-protection from being hurt emotionally. Children on the playground can be heard shouting with glee as they chase each other across the hopscotch boards.

In an instant however it can turn into name calling, hurt feelings and sometimes physical altercations as the students examine the boundaries and acceptable limits of such actions. One example of this learning curve occurred on a recent Pre-K playground during recess. Sally was playing on the swings when Joey approached and wanted to swing. The following conversation could be overheard. Joey "Sally, can I have a turn now?" Sally:"Not yet Joey, I'm not done.

" Joesy:"Well okay but how long will it be till you are done?" Sally: "Maybe tomorrow maybe next year., I was here first so go away." Joey:"You are a stupid head and I am going to push you off the swing and then I will swing till tomorrow!!!" Social arguments are common among children of this age. It does not take more than a few sentences for a nice conversation turn into threats of violence.

This often occurs because the children are not verbally experienced enough to know which words to use to alleviate their anger or frustration (Stanford, 2000). Nor do they always know how to compromise. In this case the teacher was close enough to overhear the conversation and intervene before Joey could carry out his threat. She explained to Joey that he could not threaten to hurt Sally. She then explained to Sally that her answer was not a nice way to answer a nicely asked question.

She had both Sally and Joey practice different ways that the situation could have been handled. Sally agreed she could have let Joey try the swing for a minute but maintained her desire to swing the entire recess. She also offered to race to the swing during the next recess and hold it for Joey to use.

Joey told Sally he was sorry that he was mean to her and he explained that he lived in an apartment and did not have a swing in his backyard and the only place he got to swing was at school. The two of them shook hands and the problem was resolved. Had the teacher not been there it could have erupted to violence.

In addition, had the teacher stopped the violence from occurring but not worked with them on a resolution they may have remained angry at each other and not learned how to better handle such social situations in the future (Loupe, 1999). Another situation that occurred when pre-K children were together was a disability issue. One of the children in the classroom is in a wheelchair. The other children were prepared for the fact that a wheelchair bound child would be joining them but Sam was not present during that class discussion.

Sam had been in the office of the school for misbehaving. Sam comes from a background of family violence and is currently residing in a foster home. Because of his past he has many behavior issues and is often cruel to the other children when he gets angry. The day Todd joined the class in his wheelchair Sam pushed the chair down a hill on the playground and let it go before any teacher could intervene. This could have ended with injury.

The teachers retrieved Todd and his chair and had a discussion about making sure one of the teachers was always within reach of the chair so that it could never happen again. Sam's teacher then took Sam aside and asked him why he had done it. Sam said he didn't like people in wheelchairs because they were scary looking. The teacher went to a bookstore and bought a children's book about disabilities and read it to the class the next day.

Sam asked the most questions about disabilities and seemed to be attentive during the book reading. After the book reading Sam was overheard saying to Todd: "I am sorry about what I did yesterday. If you need help getting anywhere let me know and I will help push you and I promise not to let go this time." Within a week Sam and Todd were best friends racing across the playground one on foot the other on wheels.

It is important to introduce children to the concept of diversity both in culture and physical abilities. Children who are taught empathy from a young age are less apt to promote or practice bullying or other inappropriate behaviors when they become teens and young adults. One of the most exciting times in a child's life is the pre-K year age. The child is developmentally ready at this point to begin learning about academics. Children at this age however, are at many different abilities.

Some pre-K children are already reading, while others are ready to learn their letters and blending sounds. Then there are others who are not ready to do more than trace letters on paper and use that letter sound. Academic differences can become a problem if the teacher is not sensitive to their existence and how it may impact the students (Hussey, 2004). In Miss Jenn's class last month the class began working on their letter sounds. Sara is already reading and her parents report she was self taught at home.

Kim is ready to start learning to read and already has her letter sounds and blends memorized but Andrea is barely at the point where she can tell you what the letter is and what sound it makes. The three of them play together on the playground daily and they often spend time at each other's.