What they said...Part 2

In my attempt to create a centralised place for all of the interesting links I find on my cyber travels I have started a What they said... series. What they said Part 1 can be found here. This series will give me an opportunity to think and reflect on some of the interesting articles I come across.

Risk in childhood

The age of bubble-wrap, cotton-wool, that's dangerous childhood is upon us. This article suggest five ways we can gift children more risk in their play. I use the term gift (not the author) because in this day in age of less tree climbing, more soft fall and plastic contraptions it truly is a gift to have a childhood that allows risk. Lauren Knight suggests the following:

* Teach your child to use real tools
* Back off at the playground
* Allow for some freedom
* Climb trees
* Allow for open-ended play.

During my Nature Kindergarten experience at Play and Learn in New Zealand, my long time friend and mentor (also long time boss) Jan would say "the biggest risk is not risk at all". Children learn through experience, they learn to manoeuvre, adapt, think, wait, push, dig deep through lived experiences. What kind of adults will we have should they experience no risk or grit in their childhood?

Leading for growth

I have a new lens when cyber walking. in August 2015 I will assume a new role as Pedagogical Co-ordinator in K2 at TKS. This position is partly about supporting teachers with curriculum and professional practices. So may posts have caught my eye and challenged me to think about the opportunity I have to support, mentor and learn from my colleges. This post caught my attention, actually the whole article did - rather than post the whole article here (because it is so good I really want to do that) I will highlight the sentences that resonate with me.

Great leaders don’t spend time trying to change people. They spend their energy creating the conditions in which people want to change.

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry S. Truman  

“It’s unreasonable to ask a professional to change much more than 10% a year, but it’s unprofessional to change by much less than 10% a year.” - Steven Leinwand

Following on from the what good leaders do came this post from Edna @ WhatEdSaid. A brilliant summary of her experience with coaching and her takeaways (see below).

Edna writes ...

I’ve already learned..

• to talk less
• to listen more
• to craft purposeful questions
• the value of collaborative reflection
• to see things through the eyes of the teacher being coached
• that teachers’ goals shift and grow as they see evidence of change in themselves and their learners
• the value of protected time for teachers to reflect and talk about their practice
• that positive relationships contribute to effective coaching
• that effective coaching builds positive relationships
• that teachers’ observations of their own practice are even more powerful than observations by others
• that some teachers are happy to share the process of their growth, not just with other teachers, but with their students too
• that, even in the early stages, coaching can make a dramatic difference to teaching and learning
• that instigating change requires trying something different
• that self-directed learning is the most powerful kind there is
• the power of using data (about yourself as well as your learners) to inform teaching and learning…

The items that resonate with me the most are 'talk less, listen more' I have been trying this with my class at the moment and I'm really looking forward to this next year. The other item is the notion of 'relationship', these are fundamental to any partnership and I really want to prioritise this in my work next year.

#2much2soon Defending the Early Years Video

What I am learning from Louisa Moats...

If you have been following my blog you will know that I am studying towards a Postgraduate Diploma in Literacy Education. I am currently in the midst of a Foundations to Literacy paper. My thoughts on literacy in the Early Years can be found here.



Our first text that has been assigned is Speech to Print: Language Essential for teachers. A member from the class posted links to videos of the author in our forum. There are a plethora of great videos  available from Reading Rockets website and Louisa Moats Youtube channel that highlight Dr. Moats key ideas. Take a look at the highlight quotes for me below.

The most common confusion is that if the alphabet is taught that is phonemic awareness or if just rhyming and alliteration is taught that is enough phonemic awareness...until we spend time making sure that children are attaching the letters to these speech sounds to words the phonics instruction doesn't work well.

Most people will confuse the idea of a letter with the idea of a sound because we have 26 letters and 40-46 speech sounds...

The large majority of poor readers at the upper grades never got phonics or phonemic awareness instruction. Intervention programs that put a strong emphasis on these basic underlying skills in the beginning are more effective than programs that just emphasise vocabulary and comprehension.

Tim Brown on Creativity and Play

Forbidden Education

What they said....Part 1

I am an avid reader of blogs, facebook feeds and twitter feeds. I have had so many awesome things come through my inbox and feeds recently it's time I start chewing these over, digesting them and thinking about the ever important question in my life "So what?".

This post from Solid Ground talks about traditional reports and argues that we may not need them anymore - especially with the  technology advancements in technology. A blog? a website? even a printed out record of in school learning provide a better picture of a child's learning more than any report can. It comes down to being brave enough to make that change I think...

Why play-based learning? by Early Childhood Australia

All really good points and perhaps the following definition offers us a clearer guideline.

Defining ‘play’While there is no one definition of play, there are a number of agreed characteristics that describe play. Play can be described as:

• pleasurable-play is an enjoyable and pleasurable activity. Play sometimes includes frustrations, challenges and fears; however enjoyment is a key feature

• symbolic-play is often pretend, it has a ‘what if?’ quality. The play has meaning to the player that is often not evident to the educator

• active-play requires action, either physical, verbal or mental engagement with materials, people, ideas or the environment

• voluntary-play is freely chosen. However, players can also be invited or prompted to play

• process oriented-play is a means unto itself and players may not have an end or goal in sight

• self motivating-play is considered its own reward to the player (Shipley, 2008)

Play is NOT organised activities...

Things I wish I'd known as a new teacher

Great easy read and perhaps something that should be sent to any new teacher starting a new school (regardless of the amount of years experience they have). In my new role as Pedagogical Leader next year I hope to work on ensuring new teachers are supported in their role. This article will hopefully keep me grounded.

Here are the key points from the article:

1. This will get better. 

2. Always work from the heart. 

3. They will remember this about you. 

4. Be open to surprises. 

5. Find a coach. 

6. And if you can't find a coach . . . 

Investigate their questions and build on what their interests are:

Thinking Big Extending Emergent Curriculum Projects

Long, extended periods of play is one of the greatest gifts I can give children....

Emergent Curriculum, Reggio, and Inquiry: Coming to Terms with Terms

Diane Kashin gives a comprehensive rundown of the common phrases: emergent curriculum, project based approach, play based learning and inquiry learning. Perhaps the most profound question in this article is:

"What is the image of the child?" and "how do I understand learning?" Your image of the child influences the day to day interactions and opportunities your children are afforded.  

Reading and Writing in the Early Years and Research Fads

I keep saying this over and over again (in my head mostly) but I love my VLN (virtual learning network) and my RLN (real-life learning network)! Today I came across this tweet:

“@vango: Ditch the 4G and find your outdoor adventure #outdoors #camping http://t.co/FMgYMU5a4e”

I forwarded this to a few colleagues as we had just had a discussion about the role of technology in children's lives. One colleague sent a link to the article: A Thousand Rivers: What the Modern World has forgotten about Children and Learning. 

So many things about this article resonated with me. I recently enrolled in a PostGraduate Diploma of Literacy Education. I am intrigued about the huge pressure placed on children in their very early years of life to read and write. Frankly, I don't think they need to formally read and write til at least 6 years old but more often than not early childhood teachers feel the pressure to introduce reading and writing to children early. I am an advocate for play and for childhood and am on a journey to understand what the research says about language/literacy learning.

These paragraphs stood out to me:

In the modern world, unless you learn to read by age 4, you are no longer free to learn in this way. Now your learning process will be scientifically planned, controlled, monitored and measured by highly trained “experts” operating according to the best available “data.” If your learning style doesn’t fit this year’s theory, you will be humiliated, remediated, scrutinized, stigmatized, tested, and ultimately diagnosed and labelled as having a mild defect in your brain. 

How did you learn to use a computer? Did a friend help you? Did you read the manual? Did you just sit down and start playing around with it? Did you do a little bit of all of those things? Do you even remember? You just learned it, right?

So, now what? What can we do to ensure we are providing optimal learning environment for young children and what really is important to know at 4 years old?