 Elementary school students participate in Monday afternoon's baking activities held by the Kaleidoscope Program. The program is held every weekday afterschool and offers tutoring services and enrichment activities for children ages 5-12. Photo by Margaret Cozens | The Appalachian The playground sits empty and untended, the surrounding fences are collapsing under their own weight and there hasn’t been a service there since last summer.
But looks can be deceiving.
Hidden inside the old church’s basement is a room filled with games, craft supplies, books and toys. The walls are covered with artwork and pictures of smiling children, and a large array of multicolored letters bids visitors welcome to “Kaleidoscopia” – the home of a unique program at Appalachian State University.
“Kaleidoscope is an informal enrichment learning experience and it happens for five year olds to 12 year olds right now,” Program Director Bill Peacock said.
For the children involved, that learning experience includes tutoring, field trips and a variety of interdisciplinary activities. But it’s not the range of resources offered that sets Kaleidoscope apart – or even the fact that it’s completely free.“Kaleidoscope is the very latest version of what has been a pretty longstanding focus in the college of education, to provide an in-house, field lab experience,” Peacock said.
Each semester, the Reich College of Education has around 350 students enrolled in its teacher preparation program, that each must be placed in field experience programs.
Though multiple programs around the county help with the task, Peacock said Kaleidoscope – which began last summer – is the “homegrown” version.
“It’s just this incredible array of all kinds of different experiences that kids get – that’s why we adopted the name,” Peacock said. “And of course, at the same time, the children don’t even know this is happening, really, but our future teachers are having this really rich opportunity to notice and appreciate learning in this kaleidoscopic array of contexts.”
Students are paired with an individual child and work on developing a relationship.
“I love it,” said Christian Caudill, a junior art education major participating in Kaleidoscope this semester. “It’s a lot of fun and all of the kids are great.”
One of her favorite parts of the program is the freedom of creativity, which she said is an important part of interacting with the children.
“Not only is it beneficial to us students that are wanting to become teachers, but for the kids because they get to hang out with college students,” Caudill said. “They get to have good mentors and it’s a free program for the parents who can’t afford to have afterschool arrangements.”
Zach Hypes is another aspiring art teacher in the program.
“We want to provide enrichment programs, so we do a little bit of homework at the beginning – but we don’t make homework our priority,” Hypes said. “It’s more about providing enriching experiences for the kids.”
Hypes said the program teaches “intricacies” of working with children that can’t be taught in the classroom.
“Hopefully this program can create a generation of teachers that’s more student-focused as opposed to teacher-focused learning – critical thinking and stuff like that, as opposed to just following directions and test-taking.”
And the program also helps students grow more comfortable working in a student-focused learning environment, Hypes said.
“A lot of times, when students want to go into teaching, they first want to fall back on the safety of a rigid learning environment where it’s highly structured, just because it makes it more comfortable for them,” he said. “But this makes students more comfortable working with kids in a looser environment, which I think school should ideally be.”
Story: HANK SHELL, News Editor
Photo: MARGARET COZENS, Intern Photographer
Video: ZACH DRECHSLER, Multimedia Editor and LIBBY DALLIS, Intern Videographer |
