In times of Corona everything is a little different in our everyday life. School spokesman David Ganzi and head of department Barbara Lichtenegger provide information on how the students at Bafep are doing in practice.
KLAGENFURT. “It’s a bit complicated at the moment, internships are canceled at very short notice,” says David Ganzi, school spokesman for the Bafep Federal Institute for Elementary Education. Practical work in kindergarten is essential for training to be a kindergarten teacher. The head of the department and head of the practice kindergarten, Barbara Lichtenegger, confirms that it is not easy at the moment. “It is a great organizational effort because a large part of the practical time from the 1st semester of our 21 classes should now be completed in the 2nd semester. “The practice in the summer semester 2020 has almost completely ceased and the restrictions associated with Corona have proven to be huge hurdles to plan or reschedule practice for this training year. We are very happy about every internship that we can get now. There is a great deal of understanding that young professionals need practical experience, ”says Lichtenegger.
Innovations in practice
What is new is that practitioners are required to take a test, says Ganzi. “Once a week you have to get tested in a pharmacy or test street and also do a self-test once in the middle of the week,” says the fourth grader. “This is the same regulation that also applies to all kindergarten teachers,” Lichtenegger confirms this regulation. Due to the changed conditions, there is a significant restriction regarding the practical tasks for the cooperation with the parents. “Assignments that include a first brief conversation with the parents are currently no longer applicable,” says Lichtenegger, as bringing and picking up the children usually takes place outside the group. Ganzi also emphasizes the importance of the so-called door-and-hinge discussions, which have now been dropped: “Communicating with parents is an important part of our future job. That is really a disadvantage that we cannot try it out in practice now. ”However, there are no further changes in the task for the practitioners due to Corona. The close physical work with the kindergarten children, which is often necessary, is retained, and this cannot be prevented, said the school spokesman. Lichtenegger also confirms this. “It is not really possible to keep your distance from children in our job. Pedagogues sometimes work very intensively with children, also physically, because a lot of children simply need physical closeness. “
Everyday life in kindergarten is normalizing
The kindergarten children have become so used to the situation that they can recognize them with a mask on, even though, as the kindergarten director, she is not present in every group every day, says Lichtenegger. When returning to kindergarten after the first wave of Covid, it was quite difficult for some children to find their way around again. “When he first came into contact with another boy, one boy jumped on his side and shouted ‘I have to keep my distance,’” she says. “We tried to get the children back into the familiar and accustomed daily rhythm as quickly as possible. And the kids got on it really quickly. In this situation, too, it has been confirmed that regular, recurring processes give the children support and thus security. When children sit down as a whole group, as is the case, for example, in the morning circle, here in the kindergarten the armchairs are just a little further apart, explains Lichtenegger, in order to create a little more distance between the children. If, however, as in some facilities in the group room, there is not enough space for a circle of chairs with 25 children’s chairs with a corresponding spacing, this should not be an occasion to discuss expanding the room size, but rather reducing the maximum number of children per group. The balancing act between the covid-related, recommended procedure and the actual kindergarten reality is difficult for many kindergarten teachers to manage.
Hygiene in kindergarten
In the group in the practice kindergarten, the pedagogues would not wear masks, or they were free to do so when dealing with the children. If you leave the group room or have a conversation with colleagues, the mask is put on. The students report that this is different in all companies. “We urge our trainees to adhere to the individual operational guidelines in every practice.” Ganzi emphasizes that wearing a mask is a great difficulty, especially for practitioners. “The children don’t know us, and since the children absorb a lot through facial expressions, it is very difficult to come into good contact with the children like this.”
Practical preparation in the classroom
The preparations for the practice so far have been relatively normal, explains the student spokesman. “We got the theoretical input through online lessons and then planned and prepared educational offers ourselves at home. These were then presented in class. Instead of presenting in person in front of the class, it was now done via video chat over the camera. ”From his point of view, there was no big difference. The head of department, who is responsible for the division of the practical positions of all trainees, emphasizes that the teachers are committed to preparing all students in terms of practical preparation, as always and despite distance learning and shared lessons, preparing them as well as possible for practical work in kindergarten . The final classes were also given the opportunity to choose between practical time in kindergarten and adequate teaching time as theoretical practical instructions in school, as many students had expressed concern that they might become infected in kindergarten – so shortly before the Matura. “If such concerns are raised, we wanted to take them seriously,” Lichtenegger continues. In class, it was discussed how the children are doing with the pandemic, says Ganzi. By staying at home for a long time, the children were looking forward to seeing their friends again, he learned in class. Also that some children had to go through a new acclimatization phase due to the long absence in order to get used to everyday kindergarten life again, or that children had got used to the daily hygiene measures, said the school spokesman.
How children deal with Corona
“In play, the most important form of learning for children,” says Barbara Lichtenegger, “children can, for example, process their experiences with corona situations. “We are attentive, we listen carefully to what the children tell us, we are happy to let them explain what they are drawing, observe them in their behavior and carefully stand by their side.” But that would be daily educational work even without Corona. Overall, however, there was no need for intensive processing in the kindergarten groups of the practice kindergarten. “We noticed that some children found it difficult to find their way back into play with friends after a long time at home,” she explains. It is also noticeable that some children presumably often consumed digital offers during the lockdown period. “One boy described kindergarten as bland because he was used to a much higher level of action from television and games.”
“Home-Kindergardening”
As far as this is perceptible under the currently prevailing distance rules, the mood of the parents with regard to the kindergarten would be positive. “Many parents told us, ‘Thank God you opened the kindergarten normally again!” We had the kindergarten open all the time, but – as prescribed by the federal government – restricted. ”It is understandable that it is especially in the first for those responsible for politics Lockdown was extremely challenging to create a single valid regulation for all elementary facilities throughout Austria. Communicating the regulation to the parents was then primarily the responsibility of the kindergarten management. A not always easy task, recalls Lichtenegger in retrospect and continues to report. “As early as the first week of the first lockdown, we in the pedagogical team thought about how we could keep in touch with the children at home. We decided to develop age-appropriate graded support and play offers from the most important development areas and to send them by letter. Corresponding to the home schooling of the nine weeks of lockdown, we had ‘home kindergardening’. After a short time, we received a lot of responses in the form of photos, letters and videos. We understood this as recognition of the successful effort to maintain, even in a time of crisis, what constitutes professional pedagogical work in kindergarten: relationship, interaction AND education. “Some children had never received their own mail before and later asked whether they would get mail from kindergarten again,” Lichtenegger smiles.
Joy in practice
So far, fortunately, few trainees have fallen ill during practice. If a kindergarten has to cancel an internship at short notice, it is challenging to provide a replacement place. The mood among the students is good, says Ganzi. “Most of them are happy to be able to go back to the practice,” he says and adds: “Those who want to go to work after completing their training are of course particularly happy.” We, in the fourth year of training, are happy We are now looking forward to four weeks of practice in June, which we couldn’t do in November and March. “
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