“Moving my personal, every day relationships with the children to the online space was a great challenge.”, said Dóra Milesz, conductive educator of the Kindergarten of András Pető Faculty, who was also involved in the day care services provided for the children of university employees under 14. In our series we are presenting the changes that the current epidemiological situation has brought upon the lives of the university staff working in different areas.
“The operation of the kindergarten has changed in the current situation, we provide day-care services to the children of university workers under 14. Normally, I work with pre-schoolers, so helping school aged children study was a great challenge, but they were very cooperative and I quickly got the hang of my new role. Together with my colleagues we were all trying to make the children feel safe and comfortable despite the unfamiliar environment. I hope that by providing childcare for healthcare workers, we could also contribute to and help their hard work.”, said Dóra Milesz, who has been working at the Kindergarten of András Pető Faculty as a conductive educator and in the first two weeks was involved in the day-care services.
In the past few months she has mostly been working from home and as a kindergarten teacher, she has prepared developmental videos with songs and music videos for her group. She even held individual development sessions online if they were requested. In addition, one of her daily tasks was to design movement and learning activities, as well as games adaptable to the home environment.
“One of the hardest things has been the lack of personal contact with the children. I really miss seeing the them, their smile and their hugs.”, she said.
This period has been equally difficult for the children as well, so occasionally they sent personalised video messages to them. For example, they prepared a video for Mother’s Day.
In addition to her job as a conductive kindergarten educator, she is involved university education: she is the methodology demonstrator of 3rd and 4th year students and is the methodology teacher of music for 2nd year students of kindergarten teacher training as a visiting lecturer. She had been unfamiliar with distance learning so far but is now familiar with the Zoom system.
“Kindergartens will reopen soon and preparations are underway, I am excited to go back. In addition to my tasks at home, currently I am also going to the kindergarten to make everything ready for the reception of the children and we are also organising the school leaving ceremony.”, said Dóra Milesz.
Bernadett Bódi
Photo: Attila Kovács – Semmelweis University
Translation: Ágnes Raubinek
