Three Roles BOPN Teachers Play — A Parent’s Perspective
by BOPN parent, M.D.
We love BOPN teachers! In my toddler son’s first year at BOPN, I observed the teachers supporting the children in three primary ways: bearing witness to them and their interests, providing balance and security to their days, and championing them and their growth.
Witness
BOPN teachers slow down to let our new-to-walking toddlers make the triumphant march from the classroom back to pickup. They sit still and witness the children witnessing the world in turn: bugs, frogs, sticks, stones, and birds demand the quiet and careful attention that accompanies learning. They watch carefully to let the children take calculated risks — staying back unless needed. They wait to intervene to see if the child can solve their own problem — and often they can! They offer teamwork instead of “help” because they know the child is inherently capable, intelligent, and eager to learn.
Balance
The teachers know that little people, like big people, thrive with routines, structure, and reasonable expectations. As adults, we like to know how our day will go and what to expect will come next. We like to know that we will have a time to eat, a time to rest, and then plenty of time in between to choose what we’d like to do. The kids are just the same!
The structure of the day at BOPN puts the children at ease: they know where to walk for drop off, to wait for their adult before walking to the parking lot at pickup, to put their backpacks on to walk to the adventure spot, and many more routines in between. This helps the children feel empowered to succeed and contribute to the success of their classroom. In between the routines, the children are empowered to make choices about how they’ll spend their time: building, puddle jumping, digging, reading — wherever their imagination takes them. BOPN teachers help the children have both steadiness and spontaneity in their days from the balanced combination of structure and unstructured time.
Champion
The teachers are also setting goals for the children: where can they grow in motor skills? Communication? Confidence? Then they champion the children in finding their way towards what they’re working on.
When my son started at BOPN as a toddler, he hadn’t started walking yet. Nearly every day we heard reports from the teachers about the progress they saw him make in that direction: walking holding a cart, or a teacher’s hand, or taking a few wobbly steps towards a favorite toy. Their eagerness to see him achieve his goals was palpable.
They embraced him and his particular areas for growth entering the program as a young toddler: learning to nap with other kids in the room, getting to know different kinds of foods, learning to communicate with others. The teachers’ patience, and their nonchalance about the hard parts, gave me confidence in their teaching and genuine care for my son.
“He didn’t nap today, it’s ok!”
“We had to hold him until he fell asleep, no problem at all!”
“He didn’t eat much, but you know, they eat on a cycle, so I’m sure he will tomorrow…”
Their flexibility, patience, and care put me quickly at ease as a parent, and made it easy to leave my son at school – knowing he was in good hands.
Teaching at an outdoor preschool attracts a very special kind of person: careful, patient, flexible, joyful, energetic, and thoughtful. While each teacher expresses these characteristics in their own beautiful and unique ways, we have loved observing these special individuals from afar, and how skillfully they care for and educate our tiniest family members.
