Full-day Kinder­garten:
Early child­hood edu­ca­tors reflect on their first year in the classroom

By Matthew Romain and Inessa Petersen

Des­ig­nated early child­hood edu­ca­tors (DECEs) are the newest addi­tion to the ETFO family.

In 2009 when the Ontario gov­ern­ment announced its inten­tion to imple­ment the full-day kinder­garten pro­gram, ETFO moved to become the bar­gain­ing agent for DECEs. Today ETFO rep­re­sents DECEs in 10 Ontario pub­lic and sep­a­rate school boards. The num­ber of DECE mem­bers will increase over the next two years: intro­duced in 600 schools in 2010, full-day kinder­garten will be offered in all Ontario ele­men­tary schools by 2014.

In the new pro­gram, cer­ti­fied teach­ers and DECEs work side by side to imple­ment a play-based cur­ricu­lum. We asked some DECE mem­bers to share their thoughts about being a part of the inau­gural Early Learn­ing Kinder­garten (ELK) program.

The value of full-day kindergarten

DECEs believe that every child should have the oppor­tu­nity to expe­ri­ence the play-based learn­ing of full-day kindergarten:

“It allows chil­dren to be in an envi­ron­ment with many oppor­tu­ni­ties; a chance for chil­dren to expe­ri­ence and be exposed to things they may not oth­er­wise have the chance to. Chil­dren build on their social/emotional skills and learn to self-regulate in a group set­ting.” — Rayna Bar­rese, pres­i­dent, Durham DECE Local

“Some chil­dren do not attend any sort of for­mal edu­ca­tion envi­ron­ment prior to kinder­garten, and the full-day kinder­garten struc­ture allows a duo of highly trained pro­fes­sion­als to help not only the child, but each other with eas­ing chil­dren into a life­long learn­ing rou­tine.” — Amy Ras­mussen, pres­i­dent, Hal­ton DECE Local.

“It is valu­able for chil­dren. The rea­son includes improve­ments in read­ing, writ­ing, cre­ativ­ity, social devel­op­ment, work habits, motor skills. It also makes the tran­si­tion to grade 1 eas­ier.” — Diego Olmedo, vice-president, Toronto DECE Local.

The growth of our children

DECEs explained how excited they were to wit­ness their stu­dents’ development:

“We con­tin­u­ally saw an increase in the children’s eager­ness to come to school, as well as their enjoy­ment while learn­ing through play. Chil­dren were devel­op­ing a love for learn­ing and were moti­vated to learn. Their sense of accom­plish­ment never ceased to amaze us when they would real­ize they could rec­og­nize a word in a book. Instead of being sat at tables and issued sheets to learn from, they were given time to play and learn in a con­crete, not abstract way. So when they real­ized they were learn­ing through those expe­ri­ences, that was the biggest accom­plish­ment for us.” — Mandi Judd, pres­i­dent, Sim­coe County DECE Local.

“Chil­dren who oth­er­wise were very intim­i­dated and unsure are con­fi­dent and look for­ward to com­ing to school each day. Chil­dren are very inquis­i­tive and being in a full-day kinder­garten pro­gram they have the chance to fully engage and explore exten­sively.” — Rayna Barrese

New chal­lenges

The intro­duc­tion of full-day kinder­garten has not been with­out chal­lenges for both the teacher and the DECE—from teach­ing with another pro­fes­sional edu­ca­tor for the first time to fol­low­ing a brand-new cur­ricu­lum in a new program.

“A new pro­gram, new cur­ricu­lum, and new work­ing areas were all step­ping stones that needed to be nav­i­gated with care.” — Jenn Wal­lage, pres­i­dent, Water­loo DECE Local

“For us, there were chal­lenges due to phys­i­cal space for every aspect of the pro­gram from stor­age of toys, space in the coa­t­room, space for chil­dren to play.” — Mandi Judd

“Chal­lenges are met dif­fer­ently by every­one: the unknown of what was expected and where the pro­gram was going to go; bring­ing two edu­ca­tors (teacher/early child­hood edu­ca­tor) together who come from very dif­fer­ent backgrounds/experience in hope of build­ing a strong suc­cess­ful rela­tion­ship.” — Rayna Barrese

Ben­e­fits for our youngest learners

DECEs were encour­aged to see that par­ents embraced pro­gram and were delighted by the sig­nif­i­cant growth they observed in their children:

“At first, par­ents did not know much about the pro­gram and what to expect. By the sec­ond term of par­ent inter­views, par­ents were express­ing how their child was excelling in read­ing, writ­ing, and social devel­op­ment.” — Diego Olmedo

“Par­ents have been very pleased with how well we know each indi­vid­ual child, and the progress the chil­dren have been mak­ing while attend­ing the pro­gram.” — Mandi Judd

“Par­ents were very excited and thank­ful that the pro­gram was offered. It allowed chil­dren in lower-income areas to have the ben­e­fits of a great pro­gram. Par­ents were very appre­cia­tive and some were sur­prised how much knowl­edge their child gained and how excited they were to go to school.” — Rayna Barrese

The teacher/DECE part­ner­ship – play­ing is learn­ing

The part­ner­ship between the teacher and DECE brings a won­der­ful blend of expe­ri­ence to the early learn­ing class­room. The strengths of the part­ner­ship are obvi­ous to par­tic­i­pants.  Chil­dren are ben­e­fit­ing by being the recip­i­ents of well-rounded edu­ca­tion as they begin their life­long edu­ca­tional journey.

“Full-day kinder­garten allows chil­dren the oppor­tu­nity to be in a struc­tured set­ting while expe­ri­enc­ing play-based learn­ing and the con­sis­tency of hav­ing their teacher and DECE for both JK and SK. A suc­cess­ful rela­tion­ship between staff builds a suc­cess­ful build­ing block for chil­dren.” — Rayna Barrese

“Teach­ers have a vast knowl­edge of the Ontario cur­ricu­lum for kinder­garten and received the train­ing nec­es­sary to teach what a child needs to learn in kinder­garten. The DECE has spe­cific knowl­edge of early child­hood devel­op­ment, teach­ing meth­ods, and activ­i­ties suited to engag­ing the whole child, and a focus on play as a vehi­cle to teach the larger con­cepts.” — Amy Rasmussen

“With two qual­i­fied pro­fes­sion­als in the class­room for the full school day, more stu­dents will get one-on-one atten­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn together in small groups.” — Diego Olmedo

Year 2 and beyond

DECEs are com­mit­ted to build­ing on their expe­ri­ences from the past year:

“In year 2, we look for­ward to the oppor­tu­nity to con­tinue and expand what we learned from the pro­gram last year. We are look­ing for­ward to pro­vid­ing new expe­ri­ences for the chil­dren through play.” — Mandi Judd

“DECEs and teach­ers are look­ing for­ward to the excite­ment of teach­ing many of their JKs in SK. [It will give us] a chance to build on the children’s knowl­edge and expand on their inter­ests. After build­ing a suc­cess­ful part­ner­ship between the teacher and DECE in the first year, many great things will be seen in the sec­ond year.” — Rayna Barrese

Matthew Romain and Inessa Petersen are ETFO exec­u­tive assis­tants in Pro­tec­tive Services.