PK Teacher Training

We had a group down from Bel Air Pres in California to help do a preschool teacher training. They were so much fun. The PK teachers from each school came for the workshop…I enjoyed it because I knew lots of them (though not as many from the other schools). For the first two hours of the morning the 4 year olds came so that the teachers could see some of the techniques they were being taught in action. The next half of the morning was introducing new concepts to the teachers and more talking/teaching.

Each morning began with a group welcome circle in the courtyard where we sang songs such as “The more we get together,” “the hokey pokey” (substituiting You give your heart to Jesus for You do the hokey pokey), and too-de-ta which is a fun movement song similar in actions to Father Abraham but simpler since there are no words… then into the classrooms where we did activities based on the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear (matching, sorting, reading), arts and crafts and more. I was a translator for the team which I found worked ok whenever there wasn’t someone in the room that I thought would be able to do a much better job.

One day they did centers as the teachers group with a music station, reading station, arts, blocks, beads…the music station was very loud. We really enjoyed it because almost all of the teachers are quite musical but afterwards we talked about what would really work in the classroom…and the music wasn’t one as it interferes with being able to think or concentrate at the other centers and would disrupt neighboring classes during school. It was fun to see the teachers see that and work out different options for a center.

It was a great week that was enjoyed by everyone involved. The teachers here are already looking forward to next years training!

Pastor Leon and I doing the too-de-ta