Expectations v. What Actually Happens

We painted small wooden cubes.  I found a box full of cubes that all had "J." written on them, and I had not prompted children with a 3D painting experience yet this school year.  This became a real example in expectation and vision versus the children's agenda.

My expectation was that the children would paint the blocks different colors, getting paint on their fingers as they turned them around and over and tried to get all sides.  Then, they would dry, and we would use them for some tabletop construction, or combine them with another material as a prompt. 

But from the very first child that sat down, the agenda was different.  Children began using the paint as a sort of glue, creating towers and other connected structures.

One of the reasons that I was surprised was because we do not have blocks in this classroom.  It makes me a bit sad that we do not have blocks because it has to be my favorite open ended material.  And when we use small table top blocks, like these or others, the children have not been engaging with them.  I have not found the reason why, and it only aded to my confusion when the children began making structures out of these cubes with the paint.

Many of the sculptures fell apart as they dried, and they have become the painted blocks I was expecting, and we'll use them again.  I have to remember that I can plan for our hours and days and weeks, but there will always be an unknown.  Maybe this is because I strive to make all of the opportunities open-ended and there will never be 15 worksheets traced and colored in, looking the same.  For me, this is better.  No one was forced to stay at this table and work for 20 minutes - they did that on their own accord.  They made the material more engaging than I could have planned for!

planning for engagement

I have been thinking about the level of engagement that the children have with their environment in my new setting.

What pulls children in?  What makes them choose an activity or material and really engage with it?

I think that children are engaged when they are the ones who choose the outcomes -  they can be finished quickly or linger on, depending on why they have chosen something.  We introduced a sensory table the other day, and eight children played with the sand for 30 minutes.  Part of that is novelty; part of it is true engagement.  Piles were made and destructed, animals were buried and unearthed, and some serious space negotiations happened.  Those kids were really busy.

The space is really really important - I feel like I've always known that, but it is so true right now.  The children don't need to be told what to do, but we (as teachers, parents, caregivers) need to throw out a few ideas and give options.  Children want to be quiet, loud, fast, slow, messy, and deliberate with careful actions, sometimes all within a span of 10 minutes.  And the right space encourages that in a way that doesn't make the adults want to rip their hair out.

We've added a bit of structure to the morning, none of which was there before, and that has been positive.  We sit down together twice - once at the start of the morning, and once before lunch.  We have been listening to stories and singing some songs; one day we drew self-portraits; another day we read Not a Box and then each child drew an idea for pretending with a box on a piece of paper with a square drawn on.  Over the past 4 weeks, my main goal has been to get to know these children and understand what to expect from them, the other teachers, the parents, and the culture of the school in general.  With that information, I can understand my role much more clearly.

I need to support the children as they engage in deep and meaningful play.  This involves so much - the environment, the materials, planning experiences, exploring alongside them, and listening.  I hope that I can listen and then use that information more purposefully than I have in the past.  I have a track record of listening and documenting and then ending up with folders full of photos and little projects that stopped soon after they started.  I've made a heavy goal for myself, but it is one of the most important ones I have made in my eight years of teaching.

Wellies and clothes

More fantastic wellie action for your viewing pleasure...

The weather has been on the bad side this week, but we are still going outdoors to explore. We are really settling into the classroom and are becoming more comfortable with the community and the routines, and I think soon, we'll be ready to embark on a project.

After a few weeks of observations, I think a project on clothes could be really interesting for the children, and it could go in so many directions. The students are always talking about what they are wearing, what they have at home, and dressing in scarves in dramatic play to emulate other outfits, such as dresses, skirts, capes, and napkins. The school also requires them to have four different kinds of shoes at school, and that leads into its own study by itself.

We have our fall break in just three weeks, and when we return, I hope to have gathered enough initial data to launch into a project in November, as we begin to layer up.

It was interesting to read the Judy Harris Helm article I mentioned here and relate it to my new teaching post. I feel like I'm spending time getting to know they children's interests, as well as the who's and the why's of different children's interests. I think that helps immensely -- what is a fleeting whim, and what is a dissectable interest? What matters to these children's everyday lives that I can support them in learning more about?

I'm very excited about this.

Standards and Engaged Learning

The world of Early Childhood Education is evolving, but there are still some less-than-ideal situations that we have to face. A new one for me is standards.

But I was poking around the the NAEYC Beyond The Journal website the other day and was thrilled to find not only an article, but also a 10 day discussion forum with the article's author, Judy Harris Helm, on the topic of linking standards and engaged learning.

I love my job so far, and I'd like to be working theer for a while. That means I can either teach standards to the students through lessons and ignore the need to give them situations in which to apply them, or I can embed the standards into child based projects, making the project a priority. I choose the latter.

The discussion starts today, and I know I'll be following it closely for the next 10 as it goes on.

Bon Week-end!