Blog from Dr Darla SHaw regarding Staff Development at the Day Care Center.

From the first day I visited Chris Wagner's Day Care Center in
Battambang I started providing staff development for the director and
5 child minders at the school. Each afternoon we would meet for an
hour or two. I would talk in Engish and the director would translate.

I showed the child minders how not to just have posters on the walls,
but to take them down, label thm and use them in mini lessons. I
showed them how to do the same with any and all items found around the
room; stuffed animals plants, wooden houses, dolls, etc.

By the second day I was there the child minders had taken the posters
off the wall and were using them to teach the childrn. They were
beginning to look at a literacy environment in a new way. On the
second day I went into make posters with the children from items found
out doors as well as from items found in newspaper and magazines. I
particularly focused on categories such as family, housing, plants
animals, sports, religion, food, transportation, etc. By the end of
the day the child minders were going through periodicals to develop
charts. I was so happy when they begin to collect pictures and words
to help children develop the concept of word families and sounding out
words.

On the third day of my visit I begin to take all of the items I found
in the school and put them into interactive learning centers. I
developed centers for puzzles, math, reading, writing and vocabulary,
science, art and construction, and role playing. The child minders
immediately begin to help me find material to put in the learning
centers. They were definately getting the concept of interactive
learning.

Throughout the week we taught the children new games and songs that
the child minders learned and reinfoced with the children. We did the
hokey pokey, the limbo, This is the way you brush your teeth, head,
shoulders, knees and toes, the itsy bitsy spider, when you are happy
and you know it, Simon Says......etc, etc..etc...The children loved
these new games and songs and sang them along with thumbkin, old
McDonald, counting and the ABC taught to them by Chris.

Probably the biggest learning for the childminders was how to go from
a story and storytelling to putting on a play with the children. They
had never done this before. Before coming to Cambodia I wrote a
modified version of the Cambodian Cinderella and each day the child
minders practiced it with the older children. They did such a
wonderful job. They added parts, props, costumes, music and an
incredible stage. Everyone was so excited about the play.

One Friday the parents came to the school to see their children
perform for the very first time on a stage. They had not seen a play
before and the talent of their children. They were so very proud.

Not really being a pre school teacher, I had to take everything I knew
from my 50 years of teaching and put it all togther. I think it
really worked as each day I saw new activities transpiring at the Day
Care Center. The directors and child minders are so eager to learn
and apply. I am so glad I had the opportunity to work with them and
really make a difference.