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PRE-K UPDATE
JULY 31, 2019
Here's the latest news from The Long Island Pre-K Initiative, your source for  expert training and useful resources:  www.nassauboces.org/pre-k

Is it STEM or Pseudo-STEM? Here's a guide from NAEYC to help you evaluate activities found online
Building with marshmallows and straws? Constructing ramps for a marble run? Which activity is real STEM and which just makes for an eye-catching photo on Pinterest or Instagram?

Luckily, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has come to your rescue when it comes to answering this question. An article from the July 2019 issue of Young Children magazine is now available free online--and it's a comprehensive guide to selecting high-quality STEM activities and lesson plans.

Young student in elementary school science class doing an experiment
"As STEM teacher-educators, we often use social media to disseminate research-based STEM resources," say the authors. "However, we typically find activities labeled as STEM that are not actually engaging children in the practices of science and engineering, or that are underestimating children's abilities to learn core science ideas..."

Examples of "pseudo-STEM" include craft projects with a limited focus on possible science exploration, such as making a seed necklace, or that are "one-hit wonders" -- science demonstrations that are "pretty thin on meaningful educational content."

The authors' comprehensive guide to choosing high-quality--and developmentally appropriate--STEM resources is too lengthy to reproduce here. It includes a series of questions such as "does it connect to children's day-to-day experiences?" and "what opportunities are there to integrate language and literacy?" Also included: considerations for teacher planning and examples of evaluating a few common activities.

Download the full article here.

Are you asking questions that are too simple? This researcher says "yes"
Ohio State professor Laura Justice and her colleagues recorded 5,207 questions asked by 96 Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers during read-alouds. Her findings were just released last Thursday, and included the following observations:

Fifty-two percent of the questions were "yes-no" type questions such as "Does he look happy?" According to the study, most of these resulted in one-word answers
Volunteer teacher reading to a class of preschool kids
from the children.The rest of the questions include "what" and "why" as well as what researchers called "how-procedural" questions, such as "How did they become friends again?"  And it was these "how" questions that elicited the most complex answers from the children.

Another finding: 85 percent of the children's responses in the study were correct answers, says Justice, suggesting that they aren't being challenged enough. "Asking more sophisticated and difficult questions means that children are more likely to give wrong or inappropriate answers, but that's okay."

The study's conclusion: read-alouds should include lots of questions, including ones that encourage children to give complex responses such as "How do you think this book will end?" Says Justice: "With some practice and reflection, we can change how we talk with children during shared reading, and help them develop stronger language and reading skills." Read more.

It may be the age of screens, but learning to form letters by hand is vital to reading
So says Brooke MacKenzie, writing earlier this month for Edutopia (the website of the George Lucas Educational Foundation). She's taught Kindergarten, first and second
little asian school girl writing notebook homework with pencil on the table
grade, and she's convinced of the importance of handwriting. "Research has demonstrated a correlation between letter-naming and letter-writing fluency, and a relationship between letter-naming fluency and successful reading development."

In other words, children who use a pencil to form their letters are building the foundations of reading, too, thanks to a connection between the hand and the circuitry of the brain. MacKenzie even cites a study that shows that students who wrote by hand, rather than using a keyboard, generated more ideas.

In her article, MacKenzie outlines the four main aspects of teaching handwriting and how to approach them: pencil grasp, formation, legibility and pacing. Read more. 

This week's job listings for early ed on Long Island

Universal Pre-K Lead Teacher
Universal Pre-K Teaching Assistant
Stanford Care Center, Copiague
Email gigir@stanfordchild.com or call 631-225-4600

Group Family Daycare Teacher
Elite Scholars Christian Academy, Valley Stream
Email resume and cover letter to Paula Mills at elitescholarsacademy52@gmail.com or fax to 516-753-9381

Full-Time Preschool Teacher
Stony Brook Child Care, SUNY Stony Brook
Apply online  Enter Req #1902633 or "childcare" in the keyword search bar 

For the Long Island Head Start positions listed below
Email resumes to humanresources@liheadstart.org or fax to 631-758-2953

Full-Time Teacher Assistant
Full-Time Teacher II (Infant/Toddler)
Full-Time Teacher
Full-Time Teacher Aide
Full-Time Family Educator/Home Visitor--Bilingual
Full-Time Cook Assistant
Long Island Head Start, various locations

Part-Time Family Advocate--Bilingual
Long Island Head Start, North Fork

Full-Time Teacher I (Infant/Toddler)
Long Island Early Head Start, Central Brookhaven, Patchogue

Mental Health Consultant
Full-Time EHS-CCP Secretary
Full-Time Program Services Secretary
Long Island Head Start, Central Administration, Patchogue


Here's how to add your school's staffing needs to this list:
 
Send an e-mail to prek@nasboces.org with the subject line "List our position."
 
In the body of the e-mail, include the following information:
 
For our records:  
  • Your name
  • Your position
  • Your e-mail and phone number
For the listing in our e-newsletter  
  • The name of your school and the town it's located in. You can include your web address, if you have one.
  • A very brief description of the position or positions you want to fill. (For example: "Part-time Teacher Assistant" or "Full-time Pre-K Teacher."
  • Information about how potential applicants should contact your for details or to apply. (For example: "Call Jane Smith at 631-xxx-xxxx" or "Send e-mail to jane.smith@schoolname.org") 
It's important to understand that:
 
We will not include information about salary. We will not include any descriptions of your school or program, although we can include a link to your school's web site.
 
We will publish your information a single time. If you still have openings, you can e-mail us again with the details and we will run the information again.
 
Our e-newsletter is typically sent out on Wednesday mornings. However, it may be mailed on a different day, depending on content or technical considerations. 
 
The Long Island Pre-K Initiative reserves the right to edit information; space in the e-newsletter is very limited.
 

About Us
The Long Island Pre-K Initiative is a grant-funded project that seeks to strengthen partnerships between school districts and community-based organizations and to share information about research, policy and best practices for early learning. Administered by Nassau BOCES, it is supported with expertise from The Early Years Institute and funds from the Rauch and Hagedorn Foundations. Our partners: Eastern Suffolk BOCES, Western Suffolk BOCES, and the Child Care Councils of Nassau and Suffolk.






NASSAU BOCES 
71 Clinton Road, Garden City, NY 11530-9195
Phone: (516) 396-2220  Fax: (516)-396-2355
www.nassauboces.org