Post by title1parent on Aug 26, 2008 5:50:47 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1126559,6_1_NA26_FIRSTDAY_S1.article
D204 kicks off full-day kindergarten program
District thinks program will delve deeper into education
August 26, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
Monday was the first day of classes for Indian Prairie School District 204's students.
But for its kindergartners, the first day amounted to no more than a 30-minute tour with their parents in tow. Over the summer, those parents were faced with a decision none before them had ever had to make.
District 204 is launching an all-day kindergarten program this year, and parents of 1,942 of its 1,969 kindergartners opted to participate in the program, meaning the district has just 27 students enrolled in one half-day kindergarten section housed at Clow Elementary School.
Throughout the day Monday, students in both the all-day and half-day classes offered at Clow gathered there in small groups, and briefly acquainted themselves with their respective teachers and classrooms.
Before embarking on one of these tours, Clow Principal Barbara Kaufman asked for a show of hands of who was nervous.
Two parents raised their hands.
Nonetheless, most parents are secure in the decisions they've made for the education of their kindergarten-aged kids.
Suzanne Flynn choose the full-day option for her son in part because it appealed to her as a working mom, but mainly, she said it's because "he's ready for all-day."
"He goes to preschool and he's already reading, and I was afraid that a couple of hours in half-day wouldn't be enough for him," Flynn said. "Nowadays, so many kids are in preschool as much as they are in a half-day kindergarten program, and sometimes more. So I think nowadays kids are so much more advanced that you kind of need the full-day curriculum."
Then there were the few, the proud, the parents of the half-day students.
Kim Horn is one of them. She enrolled her 5-year-old daughter, whose name she didn't want published, in the half-day class. Horn said her daughter's age played only a small part in the decision.
"I'm a stay-at-home mom, and my husband and I made choices and decisions so that I could be at home with her ...," Horn said. "I chose to be home with her for a reason. She's going to have so many years of full-day (instruction). So I wasn't ready to do it. I just thought that for us, for our family, it was just better to have her in a half-day program, and I can do things with her at home to supplement what supposedly more they'll get through the full-day program."
And what will the students in these new, all-day classes get compared to their handful of half-day peers, and the thousands of kids that went before them and had no all-day option?
Martha Baumann, District 204's elementary education director, said the curriculum hasn't changed, but the district believes it will be developed better - that instruction will delve deeper - in all-day classes. Teachers will have more time to tailor their instruction to individual students.
"We're talking about finding their Point A and moving them to their Point B," Baumann said. "When I was a principal, I used to tell parents that kindergartners come to school, and some of them don't know their letter names while some of them are reading 'War and Peace.' And there's everything in between. So the point is that when you have more time, you have more opportunities to give them what they individually need."
For this reason, Baumann said the district clearly encouraged parents to participate in the all-day option.
But Baumann stressed that it isn't second guessing parents who prefer the model the district used up until now.
"Some parents want to follow a model in kindergarten where they have a school setting for a half day, and then they do their own kinds of family learning together, and we're absolutely respectful of that because we've been doing half-day very well for a long time," she said.
D204 kicks off full-day kindergarten program
District thinks program will delve deeper into education
August 26, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
Monday was the first day of classes for Indian Prairie School District 204's students.
But for its kindergartners, the first day amounted to no more than a 30-minute tour with their parents in tow. Over the summer, those parents were faced with a decision none before them had ever had to make.
District 204 is launching an all-day kindergarten program this year, and parents of 1,942 of its 1,969 kindergartners opted to participate in the program, meaning the district has just 27 students enrolled in one half-day kindergarten section housed at Clow Elementary School.
Throughout the day Monday, students in both the all-day and half-day classes offered at Clow gathered there in small groups, and briefly acquainted themselves with their respective teachers and classrooms.
Before embarking on one of these tours, Clow Principal Barbara Kaufman asked for a show of hands of who was nervous.
Two parents raised their hands.
Nonetheless, most parents are secure in the decisions they've made for the education of their kindergarten-aged kids.
Suzanne Flynn choose the full-day option for her son in part because it appealed to her as a working mom, but mainly, she said it's because "he's ready for all-day."
"He goes to preschool and he's already reading, and I was afraid that a couple of hours in half-day wouldn't be enough for him," Flynn said. "Nowadays, so many kids are in preschool as much as they are in a half-day kindergarten program, and sometimes more. So I think nowadays kids are so much more advanced that you kind of need the full-day curriculum."
Then there were the few, the proud, the parents of the half-day students.
Kim Horn is one of them. She enrolled her 5-year-old daughter, whose name she didn't want published, in the half-day class. Horn said her daughter's age played only a small part in the decision.
"I'm a stay-at-home mom, and my husband and I made choices and decisions so that I could be at home with her ...," Horn said. "I chose to be home with her for a reason. She's going to have so many years of full-day (instruction). So I wasn't ready to do it. I just thought that for us, for our family, it was just better to have her in a half-day program, and I can do things with her at home to supplement what supposedly more they'll get through the full-day program."
And what will the students in these new, all-day classes get compared to their handful of half-day peers, and the thousands of kids that went before them and had no all-day option?
Martha Baumann, District 204's elementary education director, said the curriculum hasn't changed, but the district believes it will be developed better - that instruction will delve deeper - in all-day classes. Teachers will have more time to tailor their instruction to individual students.
"We're talking about finding their Point A and moving them to their Point B," Baumann said. "When I was a principal, I used to tell parents that kindergartners come to school, and some of them don't know their letter names while some of them are reading 'War and Peace.' And there's everything in between. So the point is that when you have more time, you have more opportunities to give them what they individually need."
For this reason, Baumann said the district clearly encouraged parents to participate in the all-day option.
But Baumann stressed that it isn't second guessing parents who prefer the model the district used up until now.
"Some parents want to follow a model in kindergarten where they have a school setting for a half day, and then they do their own kinds of family learning together, and we're absolutely respectful of that because we've been doing half-day very well for a long time," she said.