Working in my kindergarten classroom has been an incredibly rewarding experience. A large portion of the time I spend in the classroom, the students work in small groups at various rotations between the other teachers and myself. The rotation station that I lead is where students come to practice their writing and spelling skills. We use various techniques such as practicing our alphabet-phoneme song and breaking words down into individual phonemes in order to string them together to spell entire words. Working with the students in these small groups has allowed me to become familiar with each student’s writing and spelling abilities. As a result, I am able to witness, first-hand, each student’s educational growth as it occurs, which in and of itself, is a remarkable experience. Moreover, knowing that I have helped contribute to their growth makes it an even more satisfying experience. I’m super psyched that I have the opportunity to make a difference in young students’ lives by continuing the work I do in my kindergarten classroom and with Project DIRECT.
 
P.S. Beginning my Monday mornings by walking into a classroom of enthusiastic students who are excited to greet and hug me is a pretty awesome way to start the week.

I love going to my preschool each week! I have been at the same preschool for a few semesters now, so I have really gotten to know a lot of the staff that work at my site. At first, they were a little unsure about what role I could have in the classroom, but now they understand that I am there to help with any extra work that they need. I usually end up playing with the kids during center time, reading to them before carpet activities, or dancing with them during music. I also help out with kids that need extra one-on-one time or help.
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I love being able to see the kids week after week, and it’s such a great time to take a break from my busy schedule. The kids have grown so much over the year, and it’s so interesting to see how they learn and change so much. For example, at the beginning of the year, they struggle with learning letters and numbers, or sitting still during carpet time. Now, they know when to follow along with the teacher, and many of them can write their name or even read short words! I can’t wait to see how much they will learn by the end of the year, and how much they will grow!

My work with Project DIRECT thus far has been incredibly meaningful and fulfilling. Between juggling coursework, lab hours and meetings, thesis writing, and an ongoing graduate school search, Wednesday morning preschool hours are a welcomed treat each week. There’s no better feeling than walking into a classroom and immediately having 25 little faces light up with excitement to see you. This is by no means my first experience working with preschoolers, However, working in the preschool classroom has allowed me to enjoy greater freedom and independence in the classroom than I’ve ever had before. I love being able to participate in classroom activities and work one-on-one with the children as I choose. What’s more, I can’t express enough how warm and welcoming the children and teachers have been at my partner school – the environment is the perfect atmosphere for truly being able to engage in working with children of all abilities, backgrounds, and personalities. My partner school is lucky in a number of ways, one being that there are a plethora of available resources, and another being its diverse student body. The opportunity to work in a classroom where children are all working together towards a similar goal despite ranging from practically illiterate to reading and writing at a 3rd grade level is an extraordinary thing to see, and an even more extraordinary thing to be a part of. I look forward to many more Wednesday mornings at my partner school to come!

Preschool hours are what I look forward to every week. My Tuesday mornings are punctuated by a chorus of little voices calling out "Miss Claudia!" and running up for hugs, which is an incredible way to start a day, and I would recommend it to anyone. I really love giving these kids some one-on-one attention during Center Time that the teachers sometimes are unable to give them when trying to handle the entire classroom. I also get to help out during lunch and snack time in managing the chaos that is 11 hungry four-year-olds. I love getting to know each child individually and understand each of their strengths and areas that need strengthening. I also have the amazing opportunity to work in this class with children on the autism spectrum, with many different IEPs (individual education plans), and some non-verbal children. This mixed classroom full of neurotypical and non-neurotypical children has taught me so much and I've really fallen in love with each and every child in this class. For part of my service learning project, I'm helping to create an organizational tool to help the teachers organize center time and help hold the children accountable for their activities. I really feel like my presence in the classroom is a help to the teachers and is a fun new experience and adult to interact with for the children. 

My work as a research assistant with Project DIRECT has varied significantly in the past two years, providing an assortment of experiences that will inform my future career in research. In my first semester in Dr. Baker’s lab, I had the opportunity to participate in data entry associated with program evaluations regarding the teacher training that had been in progress at several of our partner schools. In this process, I had the ability to learn from teachers’ experiences with our program from their own words, suggestions, and critiques. These lessons have informed my current participation in “Helping Hands,” a Project DIRECT program focused on collaborating directly with teachers in our partner schools to establish long-term and community-informed relationships. One morning once per week, I have the opportunity to provide any assistance that a teacher may need with her kindergarten class. From a trauma-informed lens, I have been able to provide specialized and extended interactions with students that often show behavioral problems, and I have developed incredibly positive relationships with children that may otherwise perform poorly. Teachers have also given me the opportunity to lead small groups with some kindergartners, giving them more free time to focus on their class and plan. Overall, working as a “Helping Hand” has given me a firsthand experience in understanding the strengths and challenges teachers and students face, doing so in a way that provides any aid needed. Through a bottom-up approach, these qualitative lessons, in turn, can inform the trauma-informed research we conduct at Project DIRECT. Participating in research that seeks to translate our current literature into effective interventions and public policy has been a defining experience in my own pursuit of a career in evidence-based policy, and I am incredibly thankful to Dr. Baker and Project DIRECT for the opportunity to participate in this work. 

This year I’m working in a classroom of wonderful kids at my partner school. The students in my classroom have skill levels all across the board which has been a new challenge for me. Some are far above the average in math, for example, and can count to 200 and are already experts at adding and subtacting, while others are still struggling to count to 5. This semester, I’m lucky enough to be shadowing the school’s speech-language pathologist for a few hours a month, as I hope to study speech-language pathology in graduate school.

Additionally, I’m working on a service learning project alongside the teachers of my classroom this semester. Although I am still deciding on exactly what I’d like to do, my project will likely involve center-time. More specifically, I’d like to focus on center-time transitions and/or teaching the students about proper care and organization of the items in the center (e.g. dress-up clothing, blocks, art supplies, etc.). I’m really looking forward to continuing to develop my project, and to making it come to life in the next few months!
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​Externalizing problems in young children can prove to set classroom-wide obstacles in creating an effective learning environment for all children.  Externalizing behaviors can be described as any act of disruptive behavior that associates with difficulties in a child’s life such as family abuse, crime, and psychiatric disturbance.  In this study, programs aimed to reduce externalizing behavior in classrooms were utilized. Tackling these externalizing behaviors seeks to improve a child’s receptivity for learning and in turn eliminates the exacerbation of these behaviors into children’s adult lives. 

Namely, two programs were used to tackle these externalizing behaviors.  In the first, an program called The Incredible Years had children watc short videos in which social situations are modeled.  The students then discuss how they would have acted in such a situation and practice these actions with a teacher and parent.  Between these sessions, children would work on homework regarding the themes of appropriate prosocial reactions.  The second program, which focuses on academic improvement, was Dialogic Reading.  In Dialogic Reading, students (3-5 at a time) and teachers read a picture book together.  Students would also read individual with their parents at their own homes. 

Results from these intervention programs showed promise, with over 85% of parents satisfied with the outcomes of the programs.  Specifically, The Incredible Years saw improved circle time, which allowed for more time on planned academic activities and less time focused on gathering the children’s attention.  In addition, Dialogic Reading had broad positive effects on adult-student interactions.

No research study is perfect, but considering the challenges placed by this experiment allows for better improvement of future experiments.  For example, the workshop which debriefed the skills needed by teachers for these programs was offered for only one day.  Thus, improvement of carrying out these programs would best improve if more time were given to train these teachers. In addition, participation in the programs was limited to the competing demands that families face every day.  It helps that food and child care were offered, but future directions could look at what could make access to participating in the study even easier.  Finally, the concern of extrinsic motivation arose in some of the parents, worrying that their children would not want to work on their externalizing behavior for the sake of bettering themselves, but rather to earn a reward.  This facet of the program eventually decreased after some time.
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With this, these programs of addressing externalizing behavior show promise in addressing exacerbating classroom problems, leading to more effective learning within preschools.  

Arnold, D. H., Brown, S. A., Meagher, S., Baker, C. N., Dobbs, J., & Doctoroff, G. L. (2006). Preschool-based programs for externalizing problems. Education and Treatment of Children, 29, 311-339. pdf    ​