Connect Canyons
Learning is about making connections, and we invite you to learn and connect with us. Connect Canyons is a show about what we teach in Canyons District, how we teach, and why. We get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great: students, teachers, principals, parents, and more. We meet national experts, too. And we spotlight the “connection makers” — personalities, programs and prospects — we find compelling and inspiring.
Connect Canyons
Episode 69: Applying for Preschool: How Canyons Works to Help Children Succeed Early in Education
“Children love coming to our preschool programs,” says Terri Mitchell, Early Childhood Program Administrator in the latest episode of Connect Canyons. In this episode, we learn how Canyons early childhood educators are trained to guide children through meaningful interactions, turning everyday play into opportunities for learning and development. With applications open for tuition preschool, Ms. Mitchell covers how and when to apply for preschool – hint, apply now – as well as how work in the classroom covers everything from early literacy and numeracy, to science and life skills, proving that what may look like simple play is in fact a strategically designed learning experience.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyon School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections, so connect with us.
Speaker 2:Studies have shown kids who attend public preschool programs are better prepared for kindergarten than those who don't. Preschool also gives students a boost when it comes to basic cognitive and learning skills. Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, Frances Cook, For this episode. I'm joined by early childhood program administrator, Terry Mitchell. Terry, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me here today, Frances.
Speaker 2:We're glad you're here, because here at the University of Michigan we also believe that preschool is important and we have a number of options when it comes to preschool, and some of those options and applications are open right now. Can you tell us about the various options that parents have to send their kiddos to preschool? Sure, we have three different options.
Speaker 3:So our first one that is open right now is our tuition-paying option. Those are for students who live within Canyon District's boundaries and are wanting to have their student attend either two days a week or four days a week. It is $100 for two days a week and $200 for four days a week per month. Those are available across eight different locations in the school district. Those are all listed on our Canyon's early childhood website. Our Title I program will start in March. The applications will be available March 1, both at Title I schools and on our website.
Speaker 3:Families that live within the boundaries of those Title I individual Title I schools are available to be there as long as they are for on or before September 1. There is no tuition or fees related to that if you live within those Title I boundaries. One thing I failed to mention about tuition would be that students must be age three or four. They must be age three or four before September 1 in order to apply and be part of that program For Special Ed. Those are based on individual needs and through eligibility through our assessment process we accept young children ages three through five in that program as long as they are not eligible for kindergarten across all those programs as long as they are not eligible for kindergarten.
Speaker 2:So tell me what these programs cover. Is it the same curriculum? Are they different curriculums? Can you talk to that?
Speaker 3:We use an evidence-based curriculum and it's called Highscope. It's the most researched early childhood curriculum out there and it is across all of our preschool programs. It is a Gen Ed curriculum. It addresses things such as early literacy, early numeracy, science. We work on social skills, we work on learning how to problem solve with materials and with peers, works on building language, and so we have there are 58 key developmental indicators which align with our state core standards from the State Office of Education.
Speaker 3:We target things through our daily routine. Each of the classrooms has a very consistent daily routine, very similar. We have opportunities for large group instruction, small group instruction and individual time. They also have a time which we call work. Time is the time when children are able to engage with their peers and with materials in the classroom. A lot of people call it play, but it's more than play. It is an opportunity for them to learn how to problem solve, to learn how to engage with materials, having adults extend their thoughts and understand where they're at and gather data and assessment in those areas. Right, it's been a remarkable curriculum that we've not changed in 15 years because of how well it works with young children. That's unique. Also, you know, districts often change curriculums quickly. We have not changed.
Speaker 2:I think you hit the nail on the head with it's more than just play. You know, we've heard that phrase the power of play To the unknowing eye. You see them coloring or jumping around in things, but they're really learning those day-to-day life skills that they need in order to be prepared for kindergarten.
Speaker 3:Yes, and one of the key things that I work on as an administrator with my staff is teaching them how to play, how to play with young children in a way that is meaningful and in a way that helps young children grow and develop in their cognitive skills, in their social skills, in their language skills. So we practice that a lot because it is different. It's different than just sitting there watching them play, right where active, participatory learning is what is happening in those classrooms and without that it becomes a situation where all we're learning is rote memorization, right when that does not help young children learn and grow and develop. So we are there to, in those play schemas, help them develop all of those key components in those social skills within that.
Speaker 2:You were mentioning earlier. Another unique part about our early education teachers is they're all certified Correct and that's not.
Speaker 3:That's very unique to Canyon.
Speaker 3:School District. All of our teachers are early childhood special ed certified, which means they understand complex behaviors, they understand the development of language, they understand the development of cognition. They are highly trained in understanding the development of young children. They are all certified teachers and in addition to that, regardless of whether it's a title one setting or a special ed or tuition setting, we also have speech language therapists that are assigned to the classrooms that help support language development. So it is unique across Canyon's District, different than any other district in the state. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yes, let's dive deeper into that setting. Tell me what an average preschool classroom would look like.
Speaker 3:Physically or like the routine, A little bit of both. Okay. So physically we have things set up into different areas. So we will at minimum have a block area, house area, an art area, a library book area. We'll have like a toy puzzle area, small manipulative area. So we have at least five basic areas that each classroom is set up into. Within that context we will start out with a greeting time and opening welcome time, welcoming everybody there. From there we would go to a small group setting and each group will they'll be divided up into what we call like families, right that they stay in those groups. During that small group time they will have the opportunity to participate with snack, which is always popular, especially when we have chocolate milk.
Speaker 3:We love a good snack, All right good chocolate milk, which actually works on a lot of mathematics skills and language skills, et cetera, that we're targeting at that time they all have an opportunity to do a different large group activity, which might be a group project, might be a music movement activity, might be a language development activity. So an example of that I've seen in our classrooms, in conjunction with our speech language therapists, that we learned the vocabulary of near and far and we're learning to be far away from things and near things and we're learning that vocabulary and then we're moving across the whole classroom near and far, near and far. Who's near, who's far? I mean it's just movement and engagement and language all the time. Right, it's very exciting.
Speaker 2:And again, just taking that aspect of play and making it educational.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we call it active learning.
Speaker 2:Active learning.
Speaker 3:Active learning is what we call it.
Speaker 2:It's a center of the video. It could all be a little bit more active in our lives, yeah active learning. It's good and it sounds like there's, like you were saying, a really great balance of individual time, smaller group time, bigger group time. So you're working on those social skills but you're also focusing on the individual student. Yes, that's wonderful. How can parents maybe work to prepare their children for preschool? Any advice for those days or weeks or months leading up to them getting their kiddos signed up?
Speaker 3:If they're like, if there's anxiety about coming to preschool kind of an idea right. So once they've signed them up then and their assignment has been given to what school they're gonna go to that typically happens around July, the first week in July that we let folks know so they could start going. Driving by the school, they could go to the playground, right. There are books out there that they could read, books about going to school, right.
Speaker 3:Reading books with their children they're having. If you know, with good old COVID people have been afraid to engage with socially, with other peers and et cetera. That was a great way to do that. Sometimes the students that come to us it's the first time they've been away from mom and dad, it's the first time they've been away from grandma or grandpa, whoever is their primary caretaker. So it's a little bit of anxiety, right, to be able to do that. But we're well equipped, right. We're ready to support them and usually within the first week or so we've got it down. They see the benefit Children love coming to our preschool programs. If they're at any point teachers would reach out and say you know what? He's struggling more than we would expect. So let's problem solve and brainstorm what we can do to help make this more successful. So yeah, we're always gonna be transparent and communicate with families.
Speaker 2:So, as we mentioned, the tuition based preschool applications are now open. Can you talk about what that application process looks like for parents?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. On our website we have a place where you can go to and see the locations of where all of those are at. You can download the application mark which what are your priorities? So you're able to choose Sprucewood is my first priority or Willow Springs is my second choice, right which one? So you're able to choose those. Once that application is completed. On the application, it tells you different ways that you can send it to us. You can mail it to us. You can email it to us. You can take a picture of it However you wanna get it to us. There's lots of options to do that.
Speaker 3:Once that is received, then you will get notification that we received it. Right. It is time stamped and everything from the time we receive it, because we don't have spots to be able to accept everybody in the whole community of Canyon School District. We're limited in our space, right? So that's why it's a first come, first serve option for those tuition paying spots. Then you'll be notified within a couple weeks of the things that you need to do in order to follow through, right, what the next steps are. There is a $20 registration fee just to hold your spot, right, to make sure that everybody's really interested in having it, and then, from there, the communication will be things that you'll need to have on hand. Eventually will be things like birth certificate and immunizations. So, as you are waiting for all that information to come through, if you can start searching for those things, then you'll be right on top of it when that is requested from them.
Speaker 2:Great yeah. And again, eligibility requirements are pretty straightforward Three or four years old before September 1st, you have to have appropriate language and social skills to get you in the door, right. But then we'll obviously work on those as we go. And parents provide transportation, is that?
Speaker 3:correct, correct.
Speaker 2:And then also have to be potty trained.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes. If you have a student that you're like, oh, but they won't meet all these requirements, then they might need to consider looking at. Maybe we need to evaluate them to see if there are some needs or some gaps that we can address through our special education program.
Speaker 2:What's that evaluation process like?
Speaker 3:So parents can request an information package to list out your concerns, right, the parents concerns. Once we receive that, then they would go through a hearing and vision process just to check hearing and vision, make sure there are no concerns in that area, because sometimes when little ones are low in language, then it's a hearing problem. Sure yeah, ear infections and things like that. Once the hearing and vision screening is completed, then we schedule assessments with our professionals, with our speech language pathologists and with our certified teachers to do formalized assessments. After that's completed, then we have a meeting to determine eligibility based on the data that we've collected and if they are eligible, then we will write what's called an individualized education plan.
Speaker 2:So there's really a whole team, a whole team working together to make it happen. Wanting to get your kiddos in preschool? Yep, that's great.
Speaker 3:Yep, and then we try to place students as close to where they live, right, based on those students with disabilities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, like you mentioned, it's first come, first serve For tuition, for tuition. So with those applicants, with those tuition applications being open right now, would you say sign up?
Speaker 3:jump on in right now. Do it now. Do it now. Typically, we start getting applications at 12.05 am. Wow.
Speaker 2:Get it in soon.
Speaker 3:Okay, get it in soon.
Speaker 2:Well, terry. Thank you so much. This has been very eye-opening on the whole process and it's been great to hear how you're again taking that idea of the power of play and turning it into active learning and just helping our Canyon students excel as early as we can?
Speaker 3:Yes, we love. We love our little, our little children. They are amazing and it's the best job in the world, so we're excited to have all of you come our way.
Speaker 2:Looking forward to it. Well, terry. Again, thank you for joining us. It's much appreciated. Thanks for having me and thank you for listening. If there's a topic you'd like to hear discussed on Connect Canyon, you can send us an email to communications at canyonsdistrictorg.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at canyonsdistrict, or on our website, canyonsdistrictorg.
