Pre-K Teach and Play with Kristie Pretti-Frontzcak

Kristie Pretti-Frontzcak blog image

What is the purpose of early care and education? How does
our system impact these early years of development? How do we begin
building brains instead of putting up barriers early on? And what
do we really do about all the problems we currently face?

These are the questions that Dr. Kristie Pretti-Frontczak asks
in her work training early educators through her company, B2K
Solutions. She finds solutions to complex problems such as
conducting authentic assessments in an age of accountability,
teaching with intention during play, and supporting children in the
messy middle (i.e., when children are struggling). Kristie spent
16 years, as faculty, at Kent State University.

Now, her passion lies in changing the paradigm of early care and
education.

In Kristie’€™s opinion, the purpose of education has gotten lost.
Instead of focusing on children, the focus now lies on paperwork
and testing with assessments starting as early as with 3 year olds.
Instead of this, there needs to be chaos! There needs to be play
and exploration for children to thrive! These are strategies that
are missing from today’s classrooms. At the same time, we have to
work at this from a community, family and whole-child level. We
cannot continue to outsource it to schools, as our only hope that a
communal approach will fix the system.

Kristie explains the paradoxes and tensions that exist for our
teachers in their daily work as they are trying to prepare kids for
school while at the same time wanting to address the individual
needs of the child. When it comes to managing the classroom Kristie
has a different idea of the one skill teachers need to be a great
role model in preparing students for school and life.

We also talk about why Kristie believes that we are racing to
nowhere and leaving everyone behind and how poverty, toxic stress,
poor nutrition, and lack of predictability can put up barriers for
the brain as every year, more and more children grow up in
difficult environments.

To find out more about Kristie and her work, visit: http://prekteachandplay.com

 

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