Early Education
Joy DeAngelo Bowman
Kindergarten teacher
Woodward Elementary School, Harrisburg School District
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(Joy DeAngelo Bowman is in her fourth year of teaching kindergarten
in the Harrisburg School District. She is a graduate of Messiah
College. The Harrisburg School District provides full-day kindergarten
for all kindergartners. Its REACH program - Reaching Early Achievement
for Children in Harrisburg, new this year - offers prekindergarten
for 3- and 4-year-olds.)
The first thing I always want to tell people about my job is that
I love the kids I teach. They're so resilient. They want to learn.
People don't realize that a lot of these kids do have a good home
life, but many just haven't had a lot of chances to learn. It's
so rewarding working with the kids because the smallest things can
be so exciting. We make cupcakes when they didn't even know the
word "cupcake." It's old hat to us, but all new to them.
When I started working in the Harrisburg School District, teachers
were dismayed because the K-4 program at the time, kindergarten
for 4-year-olds, had just been eliminated. They could see how far
behind some kids were, and they had seen the difference K-4 made.
I can certainly see the difference that good prekindergarten makes.
At the beginning of the year, it's very obvious which kids went
to Head Start or some other good program. They're so much better
prepared, but there are so few of them.
Fortunately, in my full-day kindergarten program, I can help kids
begin to catch up with the things they've missed. Children enter
the school year who don't know their colors, and who can't count
to 10. Full-day kindergarten is so much more meaningful for them,
because they get so much understanding out of it. It's wonderful
for me, too, because I couldn't do in a half day what I can do in
a full day. One and a half hours in the reading center, one hour
in the math center, plus time for art, music, gym - all the things
that kids love. With a half day, these kids would just go into overload.
By the end of the year, I will say that many of the kids who started
far behind still aren't where they could be developmentally. But
they've learned so much, and they're still like little sponges,
waiting for someone to tell them more things that they didn't know
before. So I hope that, by third grade, there will be some leveling
off, and these kids are ready to keep learning more.
Small class sizes, in my own class and in the next three grades,
are so important. I have 20 kids in my class, but even at that relatively
good size, I can't spend enough time with each student. And I don't
just mean the kids who are trailing. Quite often, I don't have time
to work closely with the kids who are doing well. I always I feel
torn, because I want to keep challenging the achievers while I help
the kids who are behind catch up.
Fortunately, I work in a school district that is committed to early
childhood, and I can't wait to get the kids who are in the early
childhood program right now. I just wish that all kids could have
the same opportunity. I belong to the Society for Developmental
Educators, and our motto is, "Childhood is a journey, not a destination."
Children are so eager to learn when they're young, and anything
we do to help them love learning will stay with them for life.
Thank you.
This Page Last Modified
August 11, 2003
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