With universal pre-k now in its first full year of operation, the de Blasio administration is focusing on training the thousands of new teachers hired to make the program work. Our education reporter, Lindsey Christ, has the story.
Over the past two weeks, 160 grown-ups have attempted to get off the reading rug and move their bodies like 4-year-olds.
The sometimes-awkward wiggles and spins are part of a city program training 1,100 pre-k teachers to offer instruction through theater, music, visual arts and dance.
"At this age, students are really learning how to learn through their body, they're using all of their senses," said one teacher.
The expansion of pre-kindergarten to more than 68,000 children required hiring thousands of teachers. Some are new to the profession, others have worked in daycare and not taught an academic curriculum — which, in pre-k, includes lots of learning through the arts.
"I haven’t been open to free dance in my class," said another teacher-in-training. "It’s kind of made me a little bit nervous and uncomfortable, because as 4-year-olds they're riled up as they are and when you give them the option and then when you tell them - you know - go free, go crazy, it makes me nervous to see how they’re going to take that."
Pre-k teachers are also getting instruction in areas like reading strategies and child development.
$1.6 million is being spent on instruction in how to teach through the arts. The city has contracted with institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the 92nd Street Y, home to both a dance-teacher training institute and an elite private pre-school program, where tuition runs just shy of $34,000.
Instructors here say dancing done right actually improves students' focus.
"They can have a dance experience that will help them transition from their free playtime, for example, to story time," said one teacher at the 92 Street Y.
"I’ve realized that it is something to embrace rather than to be scared of and instead of getting them riled up it is actually going to engage them in the lesson," said the skeptical teacher in training.
With the mayor making universal pre-k a centerpiece of his agenda, the pressure is on the city to demonstrate that the investment is worth it. Which is why a lot is riding on these adults.. leaning to move, and teach, like this.