Vickie Chedgy's 2nd Blog Post Module 2

I am interviewing the staff at a center called The Learning Tree in Island Lake, IL.  The facility has one classroom for each age group that includes an infant room, a 2 year-old, a 3 year-old, a 4 year-old, and a 5 year-old through Kindergarten age room.  The transition into each classroom is on their birthday from one to the next older one.  The classrooms are in a circle as you walk in and you have to be buzzed in with a code that each parent has.  There is children's work of art in the hallways as well as in the classrooms.  The site was established in 1973 and it has a feel of such to it.  The rooms have a lot of wooden furniture and unfortunately does not seem that updated with the equipment that I saw such as the "Comb Barbie Head" and most of the materials are worn.  The enrollment is down, but that is such in our McHenry County as I am on the board of a network of home daycare providers. 

     I had done an observation here for a nutritional class and found the teachers styles to be different even with the nutritional  issue.  Some would make the children try something before giving them seconds on their favorites,  whereas some would have them eat the first plate in it's entirety before serving them seconds. 

     I spoke and interacted with the director and five of the teachers here as the facility is not that big and the staff interacts with each as sometimes they have to cover for the other for breaks and such.  The majority of my interviewing was with "Cindy" who is the 2 year-old teacher who on one of the days was integrated in with "Jackie" who is the 4-5 year old teacher.  That is a big difference but they were short staffed in that even the director was absent and no one could cover the front desk.  One way I was going to approach my paper was the involvement of the owner, (i.e. should she come in and cover) but realized after my interview I will go down the path of parent involvement with the teacher and there child's classroom and how to incorporate the class back to home. 

     The challenges related to my original topic of the communication between the parent, teacher and owner/director was how to zoom in.  I seemed to have lost sight that the paper is for child advocacy, not about the adults.  Therefore, I decided to narrow down and focus on the communication between the parents and the teacher in how the parent can get more involved in their children's classroom and how the teachers can carry the classroom over into the children's home. 

     In talking to "Cindy" the 2 year-old teacher, we had discussed how the parents communicate with her about their child.  An insight I gained was that she is not involved in the enrollment process to get to know the parents and the children, the director is.  Cindy will talk to the parents at conferences (which is twice a year and she states maybe two parents will sign up as it is on a volunteer basis).  The other crucial time to talk with the parents is pick up and drop off but the parents pretty much zoom in an out.   She states she has much to share with them but they don't have the time.  I am hoping to shed some light on this subject of the communication between the parent and the teacher.  Cindy's face lights up when she speaks of the children in her care and I also hope to shed light on how well the children are taken care of outside of the home and it goes beyond being a "babysitter".