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I am Somebody

Weekend Links

I am on lunch our at edcamp35 as I put all of my links in one place this week.  I'll be writing much more about this fantastic day (and teacher professional development in general) in a post next week.  For now, enjoy some links for your weekend!

Expanding Playwork + Adventure Playgrounds

"Play is a very personal experience.  For some it is dolls and fights, for others it is climbing and skipping.  It is what children do when adults are not there or what the children do when the adults that are there are perceived as honorary children."

Bob Hughes, Evolutionary playwork and reflective analytic practice, 2001, p. 11

Many of you know that I spent time in 2013 and 2014 creating a project called Play Lab.  The goal of the project was so show my community what high-quality, play-based education can look like.  I brought open-ended materials to spaces like the Farmer's Market, the library, a local art gallery, and neighborhood art walks.

A few weeks ago, my wonderful colleague Alison Coombs and I presented at the National Art Educator Association's Annual conference on The Materiality of Playwork.  Before standing and presenting with Alison, I do not think I realized that Play Lab was playwork.  But reflecting on the time that I have spent facilitating children's play, I see that my role was not a curator or director or teacher, but rather, a playworker.

I have always wanted to be an "honorary child", as Bob Hughes puts it, in the eyes of the children I work with.  Not a fly on the wall, not a playmate, but someone children can trust.  Friends of mine who have children never fail to marvel at their 18-month-old's chattiness in their room when they wake up in the morning or from a nap.  Young children truly play for themselves, as a way to understand the world.  As they grow older and play with others, their real, true play is unfiltered.  When adults are not present, children can try on different behaviors, maybe even dangerous ones.  The wonderful thing about playwork, and playworkers, is the power that they give to children to explore, to somehow get to that place where they are not the powerful, all-knowing adult, but rather a supportive, interesting person in the environment:  an honorary child.


Playwork is probably most often connected with adventure playgrounds, something that is far from common in the United States.  In the UK, adventure playgrounds have been around for decades.  In the short documentary film The Land, filmmaker Erin Davis explores both playwork and adventure playgrounds, focusing on Plas Madoc, an adventure playground in Wales.

In an interview with NPR, Davis made a powerful statement about the difference between play in the past and play in the present:

"[Kids] climb things, they hide in things, they create dens and places to hide in, create hierarchies and worlds of their own. They're drawn to fire, they're super-imaginative. What's different [today] is the degree to which they have an opportunity to express and pursue these interests. So it's surprising to us — but really it shouldn't be — that kids thrive in these environments when they can do really whatever they want. They have the play drive. It's up to us to kind of provide the kinds of opportunities for them to really follow through on it."

 The issue that arises over and over again, it seems, is not about children's desire to play, but rather the adult reaction to idea of risk.  As adults, we are averse to idea of children being in harm's way.  One does not need to be a parent or a teacher to have a desire for children to be safe.  But if we prevent failure by cushioning everything we can, how do children learn?  How can adults shift their perception of risk and danger to make space for it in our culture?  Adventure playgrounds were created, and stick around, because they are places for children to experience danger.  Playworkers make that possible.






The question must be asked:  how can we, as educators, advocate for play?  How can we become honorary children?  We can start by celebrating the move towards adventure play and open-ended exploration over pre-scripted lessons and blanket ideas that are meant to apply to everyone.



I hope you'll help me create a map of Adventure Playgrounds around the world.  I have started with a few in the United States, and I hope we will be able to create a rich resource for anyone interested in advocating for open ended play in supportive spaces.

Please share your thoughts, comments, and questions on playwork and adventure play in the comments.

Weekend Links

If there is one sure-fire way to get back in the swing of being in this space, it is sharing wonderful education related links from around the web.  From revisiting favorite blogs to playing games with Google Maps, there is plenty for me to ramble on about.

I hope you'll head over to the Facebook page and help start a discussion about professional development.  It has been on my mind since the NAEA conference, and I'd love some reader input. Feel free to share your comments here as well.

Read the links after the jump!

11 Months

A big hello to anyone who came here after seeing me at NAEA!  I always love meeting other teachers who are passionate about early childhood, process-focused play, materials, and documentation.

Carpet at the NOLA Convention Center rivals airport carpeting.

I mentioned in the presentation that this blog has been highly neglected for 6 months; I was horrified to log on and see that I have not posted in 11 months.  I truly plan to be in this space more often.

In the meantime, here are a few things that have caught my eye lately.



Finland throws out subjects in favor of teaching by topic, or "phenomenon" teaching.



LibraryBox changes the way we can share files in places without internet access.



A new-to-me blog of teacher Pam Oken-Wright, The Voices of Children.



The Play Orbit Exhibition, installed in the London Institute of Contemporary Art in 1970, aimed "to bridge a gap between children's toys and works of art".

Happy Weekend!

Weekend Links : Design

One aspect of early childhood education that has become more and more important to me over the years is design.  The things, the spaces, the sounds: how do those interact in "ideal" early childhood settings?

Check out some design links for your weekend, after the jump!

Weekend Links 2.28.14

This was a long, but invigorating week!  I had some difficult times in the classroom, but even after a hard day, I find myself researching, reading and writing about early childhood into the wee hours of the morning.  I described myself as a "child development nerd" in an email to a parent this morning, and I don't know if there has ever been a statement so true.

Check out some links for your weekend, after the jump!

Study of leggings and sock, 2014

There are few things as wonderful as seeing the photos on the kid's camera as I download them!  This practice feel off of my plans for a while, and I finally pulled the camera out this past week.

These two photos really stuck out for me: it is an unusual angle for a photograph, and the way that P (the photographer) tried to capture both the front and the back of her leg is so deliberate.  She enjoys the language of the camera, and I'm looking forward to talking more with her about these leg photos!

Preschool Storytelling Film Festival

I smile from ear to ear when I look back at these stories.  From original stories to retellings of favorites, storytelling has so much value with young children!  We're just starting up with bookmaking this school year, so I was inspired to put together this little preschool storytelling film festival.  All of these videos have come from various classes I worked with in the past five years.  Enjoy!

Weekend Links

Three years ago, I was thinking about a tape challenge that had preschoolers in the US, Canada, and Belgium making their classrooms all sticky!  We had a great time then, and I don't doubt that tape would be an interesting prompt for the preschoolers I'm working with now. I'm just not sure we can spare the tape!  I do feel that if the interest is solid, then there is no reason to put a cap on the materials.  Do you agree?

More weekend links after the jump...

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Favorites from Pete Seeger

It is sad to say goodbye to Pete Seeger, who passed away yesterday at 94.  His music and stories for children are absolutely timeless, and we can help his legacy live on by sharing his work with children!

Here are four of my favorites that pop up every year - I hope you might take a moment to listen and, if you can, share.

Celebrating Process, Part 1

Documentation is somehow both the easiest part of teaching, and the most difficult part. We want to tell stories of learning, play, and exploration that illustrate the small moments in which learning takes place. Stories often have ups and downs, revelations, excitement, and intriguing characters. When we choose stories to share with children, we choose engaging stories that they'll want to hear over and over again. We choose stories that we hope to see them retelling as they run their fingers over the illustration of Corduroy's missing button or the band-aid over the d's skinned knee in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We can pick out the right story to add to the classroom library, but what about choosing what story to tell using documentation? We might be gathering words, photos, drawings, and/or video of children at play, but how do we know we're capturing stories?

There is no plot as we watch a child painting. We’re not writing that story. We’re trying to pay attention to the most salient aspects, but we’re not always able to put our finger on what exactly that is while it is happening. A story that we are not writing is unfolding and we are trying to figure out where it is going next.  It feels like writing a mystery novel without deciding on who did it first, and letting the story unfold chronologically.

I took over 200 photos in the classroom the other day, many of them of a block tower that C worked on. He didn’t say much about it, and as I looked at the photos that evening, I was having a difficult time justifying the time and energy that I put into documenting that event. Why did I even begin to take those photos? And when C decided that he was finished, he didn’t have anything to tell me about his blocks. His construction did not look much different at the end than it did at the beginning. So what is the story? Why take the photos?

Earlier in the week, I took photos and dictation of K at the clay table. He made a variety of small objects from clay and talked both to me and to himself as he worked. I sat across from him for about five minutes as he made a bed, a blanket, a pillow, a mountain, and some little balls. The objects are as representational as one would expect from a child who just turned three, and I knew it was not about those products as I took photos and wrote down his words.

In the case of C, I began taking photos because it was a rare occasion of seeing C engaged with a material, with a new look of determination. I felt compelled to document it. With K, it was the beginning of the day, and it was just he and I in the classroom, starting the day.


If I think about who that documentation is for, it is for our whole classroom community. I could say that C’s is information that I can show back to him so that he can feel excitement and pride about the work that he did, but it is much more than that. It is a story that can be valued by other children, by parents, by teachers. I could make it a story about fine motor development or spatial awareness, but I was not telling that specific of a story as I observed C at play. Perhaps in the future, I’ll need to gather information about spatial relations, gross motor skills, or self-regulation. These photos may help tell that story as well.

With K, I began to document because it was the beginning of the day and it was just he and I. I sat with him at the clay table and he was being unusually chatty, so I suppose I was gathering his words primarily. He was able to represent his words with the clay, and the photos compliment the quotes I was able to gather. But like C’s blocks , there isn’t exactly a “finished product”. So how do you tell a story that seemingly has no ending? How can you call that a story?

After feeling overwhelmed with photos, reflection on the process of documentation brought me to the conclusion that I was thinking about things in a way that is quite contrary to how I think about most other goals in the classroom. Everything that is shared with children, from materials to stories to songs, is about exploring and experiencing. We don’t sing songs to hear them sung perfectly, and we don’t experiment with art materials for the product. The choices made in the classroom are about process, and that is what we can capture with documentation. That is the fundamental difference between documentation and an old-fashioned bulletin board. We can share the product, or we can share a story. That story might be five minutes of paintbrush experimentation or three months of planning an amusement park for birds. Either way, chances are that children will revisit that documentation if it represents their work. If it is made available to them, they can gain the same pleasure from those photographs of their clay bed and blanket as they do from being able to share how Lisa reattaches Corduroy’s button.

For my own work, This reflection is reminding me to always celebrate process over product. And as long as the pictures are digital, there is no harm in taking 200. I do feel more confident about sharing stories but short and long with children and families. Documentation is one of the many reasons that I long for a co-teacher! If you have colleagues to share photographs and stories with, I urge you to – it is an invaluable resource.

Lately

Returning to the classroom in January is always refreshing.  After a few weeks without the daily routines, we all come back with fresh eyes, ears, and hands.  Perhaps I speak for more than just myself when I say that I have resolutions, both big and small, in mind in this second half of the year.  From continuing on with some elements that felt successful to trying new things, January feels like a second chance on the school year.

One thing that I noticed in the first few days of January was the level of independence that the children have now.  So much of our work is focused on self-regulation and community that it takes that holiday break to look at the classroom community (and individual children) with fresh eyes.  I recall September being an endless whirlwind of grabbing, screaming, zipping, unzipping, dressing, undressing, and emotion.  Today I stood and put on my own shoes to go outside as the children put on their own shoes.  It is the simple things that are so hard to see when they are so ingrained in our daily routines: stepping back puts a different light on it all.

I've also been hearing more conversations between children, seeing them interact without the mediation of myself or another teacher.  They invite each other to play; they are able to clearly state if they would like to be left alone; they don't pull each other's socks off!  The development of their relationships has been far from linear.  In the early years, a child is just another kid one day and a best friend the next, and that new openness to peer interaction is a wonderful thing to see.

All of these things said, the goal of preschool (or life) is not to float along in a conflict-free bubble.  Conflicts are what got us to where we are now.  And with fewer children needing support for small problems, we open up our time to different problems, questions, and curiosities.  We take the time to work on every problem that arises because that is our work in early childhood.

Because this was such a young group at the start of the year, we were very focused on the social and emotional aspects of our day.  We did a few projects, but the bulk of our work was free play.  With free play, children can constantly work near and with other children, and I can focus on stepping in for support.  I spend the first 90 minutes of the day as a facilitator: talking through conflicts with children, encouraging children to go deeper with materials, or getting more red paint.  It would be ideal if all of those things could happen at the same time, but needing to wait for that assistance, perhaps, builds in a natural way for children to begin to solve their own problems.  Some high-priority issues will always come first, and children who are waiting to be read to might need to wait.  Chances are, they'll begin to look at the book themselves, or request that book when we all gather together later.  It is just another way that we embed real-world problem solving into our day.  I don't expect three-year-olds to exude patience, but learning to wait a minute and delay gratification is naturally occurring in our day, and practice doesn't hurt!

As I enter the new calendar year, with fresh eyes on the school year, I think a lot about my role with these children, in this community.  In September, in the children's eyes, I am a playmate and a grown-up.  I can help them with complicated things like opening a container or getting dry clothes.  I can read a story or get clean water for the paintbrushes.  I can pretend to be a dinosaur who loves apples and peanut butter!  The evolution of my relationship with each child as an individual and with the group, as well as their relationships with each other, has been our real work this school year.  It has been an absolute pleasure to see children turn to each other rather than me when they need their jackets zipped.  I have the luxury of spending more and more time observing and documenting as I play the role that I truly love:  facilitator.

I hope I can find ways to document and share the journey that we have been on as a classroom community.  This is not a revelation - we actively work on community building, emotional intelligence, and relationships all day, every day, in preschool.  It was important for me to take some time to reflect on the evolution of this aspect of the school year - seeing where we began, where we are, and where we might go next.

On Personal Creative Endeavors

How often do teachers who believe in the power of creative experiences engage in creative endeavors outside of the classroom, on their own time?  We prompt children with paint, clay, fabric, and glue in the classroom, but how do we prompt our own new work?  How do we work that creative muscle?

I was thinking about this quite a bit as 2013 drew to a close.  I thought about drawing/painting everyday...I used to draw and paint all of the time!  Then I thought about sewing: functional creativity!  And one of my main loves, photography.  But creativity does not need to be constrained to the visual arts, so I hope that 2014 is just plain creative.  I know there will be benefits for me, and in the classroom.

One creative commitment I have made is a 365 photography project.  In an effort to document daily life and stretch myself as a photographer, I'll be taking my digital camera everywhere with me, taking photos, and sharing a photo of each day this year.  You can see that project over on flickr.  

The word "creativity" feels like the opposite of laziness.  And when I get finished with teaching, I tend to be downright lazy.  Doing things for ourselves is important because overall happiness and well being trickles right into the classroom.  I hope you might consider painting, cooking, dancing, playing the piano, sewing, gardening, drawing, digging, brewing, baking, synchronized swimming - anything, really - this year in an effort to promote your personal creativity.  Chances are we'll all be inspired to share some of those creative experiences with children!

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patterns, colors, and stacks // november 2013

Looking Ahead

2013 was an interesting year for me.  Honestly, the past two years have been a real whirlwind!  I have found myself working in positions I could not have predicted, and a lot of soul searching has come from this time.  Who knows what 2014 will bring?  I hope that it brings me back to this space more; I hope it finds me connecting with more early childhood advocates out there, and I hope it renews my energy around early childhood.

The best analogy I can think of for my mind is that little ball in pong.  I'm trying to find the right landing spot, and sometimes I'm getting close.  But there have definitely been times, especially in the past few months, when I have been sure I was on the right track, with the paddle in just the right place for a superb landing...and then I realized I was crazy for putting the paddle there in the first place.  Where should my energy be?  A classroom?  A museum?  An independent project?  Writing?  I know I need to slow it down and see what comes naturally.

One place I'll look for some inspiration this spring will be this course, Art and Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies for your Classroom.  It is taught by a Museum Educator from MOMA and it is 100% free.  Although it doesn't begin for a few months, I've already signed up.  If you're interested, I suggest you do the same!  Perhaps I'll see you there.

With everyone creating that end-of-the-year blog post, there has been a lot more in the facebook feed.  One that I loved seeing shared was Tom (of Sand and Water Tables) photo of the year.  I won't share it here - click over, see it for yourself, and read Tom's words about exploration and discovery!

Finally, I had a little message from Google+ last week letting me know they had compiled my "2013 in pictures".  Because I back up everything in Google, it ended up being a pretty good representation of how I spent my time - at least with camera in hand.  It was the end of the year message that I needed: that spending time with children is always time well spent.  And in my world, where I encourage children to make, create, sing, move, talk, read, write, and play, I feel like a very lucky lady!  It does make me realize that there are more moments I could have shared here, and I really hope that my energy and interests bring me back to this space.

A Happy Happy New Year to you and yours!

Background Music

Just when I was beginning to feel uninspired by the regular rotation of classroom background music, Andrew Bird creates another beautiful instrumental album.

We'll be listening to this tomorrow as we print using plastic bags, create cave drawings for the big kid's learning night, and do jigsaw puzzles (this group is so into puzzles!).  It seems like the perfect autumn soundtrack for work and play.  We'll see what the kids think!

What, if anything, do you put on in the background in the classroom?  Kid music?  Elvis?  Classical?  Jazz?  I'd love to know!

kids with cameras, encore!

I was reminded of the beauty of kids with cameras this week.  As we explore our classroom community and the people and spaces that make it up, the children are documenting the days with two old digital cameras.  Their perspective is always refreshing, and they capture the details about people and space that are important to them.

If you are able to acquire an old digital camera, I highly recommend it for the classroom, or for home.  Spend a few dollars at Goodwill and don't get too attached, though - technology changes and cameras can end up in sticky (or wet, or temper tantrum) situations.  I've acquired a few over the years, and the photos above were taken with a 3.2 megapixel camera.  Skip fancy, skip "made for kids" - and let your children use the real tool.  You'll love the photos they take!