Reflection on Working in a bilingual preschool & teaching children online webinar
The webinar was conducted by Justyna Wasek, a teacher at international preschool "Baśniowy Dom”. The first thing that caught my attention is a large amount of organizational philosophy, which is incredibly important for an educational establishment.
To begin with, the preschool puts an emphasis on connection with children, which helps them to learn, connection with teachers, which helps the preschool to work with them, and connection with parents for better communication. The second idea is the week organization. Every week a new value is announced, for instance, solidarity or respect. Teachers talk about it with children in both Polish and English language. Apart from this, there’s a weekly topic for teaching English, for example, family. During the morning and afternoon English lessons children are taught vocabulary on the topic. The preschool implements two English programs promoting reading “Jolly Phonics” (for 5-6 y.o.) and “Jolly English” (for 3-4 y.o.). With the help of these programs, children start to read in English at 5 year old. Besides teaching values and English, the preschool works with Maths and teaches motor skills.
The presenter listed a few obstacles that teachers experience during online teaching. One of the challenges to overcome is gaining children’s attention, the other two comprise technical issues and parents interfering with the lesson (either unintentionally just speaking in the room or intentionally but unconsciously helping the child to answer the questions).
Some helpful sources mentioned by the presenter
https://learningapps.org/ - a source of worksheets
https://en.islcollective.com/ - a source of videos with questions
https://www.twinkl.com.cn/ - a website with materials of a very good quality to download (but for some you should pay)I liked the webinar a lot! It gave me a perspective on what a preschool in Poland might be like and, as always, I’m grateful for the practical pieces of advice, including links!
To be honest, I missed some of those points during the webinar, so thank you for reminding me :) I agree with you that it was very valuable, especially in terms of examples of useful tools. I find it difficult to find new online tools that will serve my students, and to get some on someone's recommendation is an ideal situation!
ReplyDeleteI’m really curious how you’ll feel about other preschools, for example the public ones with very little English (presented once or twice in a week). If you’ll have a chance to visit one, I really recommend you seeing it. It’s always an opportunity to compare those backgrounds, as later they may end up in the same classroom.
Małgosia!! :) Thank you for your comment! Hmmm what an interesting thought of children ending up in the same classroom! It hasn't crossed my mind. Oh my God, don't send me to the public preschools!)))) I feel that I already know what they are; honestly, don't expect it to be much more different from Russia. But if I visit one then only with you! :)
DeleteI completely agree with you that the webinar was full of effective organizational philosophy. When it comes to grabing the young learners' attention OH LORD it can be a nightmare for many (which also sometimes dries my soul). However, I believe that with knowing your students and more experience with those age groups, it may become easier (let's all hope so).
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