Observations of the Classroom 

 

Spend a full day in the classroom that your child would attend.

Make this visit by yourself (arrange other care for your child)

Pre-arrange the visit. You'll need to talk in person with the administrator and the classroom teacher so that you can:

• come into the classroom at the same time the children are entering the classroom
• sit comfortably in the classroom for the full day (half a day at least)
• move with the children throughout the day (to lunch, snacks, recess, bathroom breaks)
• leave with the children at the end of the day

I would encourage you to sit quietly throughout the day…just watch, listen and pay attention to what you are seeing, hearing, and feeling. Quietly and calmly absorb the entire scene – the kids, the teachers, the assistants, all the interactions

 

In addition to this, pick out one child (possibly a child who reminds you of your child) and watch what she's experiencing...

• see how many times someone connects directly with her...
• smiles, touches, talks to her, directly supports her learning
• try to experience the day the way she experiences it
• watch her expressions
• watch to see how she is encouraged / supported to interact with others
• think about her learning day... is it intensive, or does she spend a lot of time waiting? (the adults will feel that the day is 'intense' - they're working very hard - but the key is how the children experience the day)
• Pay particular attention to the quality of interactions (words, emotional expressions, looks, touch)...between the teacher and other assistants, between the teacher (and assistants) and the children and among the children
• Pay very special attention to how conflicts are handled, how 'behavior' is handled
• Listen carefully to the way the teachers and assistants interpret the children and their learning patterns, the ways in which the children 'behave', their expectations and predictions for the children's futures

Remember that a great deal of early learning occurs through imitation; we learn to speak by listening to the speech that surrounds us. We learn to interact by watching the interactions that surround us. We learn to interpret ourselves (to decide who we are) by listening to how people in authority interpret us, watching 'those-like-us', watching how 'those-like-us' are interpreted and treated.

 

Remember that everything that the child hears, sees, and feels shapes their learning, their experience and their concept of self - not just the formal content that is being 'taught'.

 

From time to time during the day, imagine that your child is there, just out of your line of vision...

• how would she/he be experiencing this moment?
• what would that experience be teaching her/him about themselves?
• what would she/he be learning about the relationship between children and adults?

Then go home and spend a quiet evening with your child and think about sending her to the school the next day paying very close attention to what happens inside yourself. Quietly watch your thoughts, your feelings, your imagination.

 

The key to all of this is staying quiet. You'll have to resist the inner urges and the outward invitations to 'interview', to engage in interesting conversations with the teacher and assistants, etc. This is usually easier said than done. Just let people know that you're perfectly happy quietly absorbing the children's day. You're trying to experience the day as your daughter would experience it, so you need to get below the official rhetoric, the words, the self-description of the place, and down to the level of touch, sound, emotion, interaction.

 

This isn't a trick. I've led formal team evaluations of service settings, including family life, classrooms, schools, residences, work-places, institutions, and community support services as a Director of an educational program for socially and emotionally disturbed children. The evaluation process we used was detailed, disciplined, complex, and always included a good 'round' of the kind of observation I've outlined here.

 

It's certainly worth a day off work, and certainly worth waiting to enroll your child so you can get this experience.