zen mind beginner's mind

No matter our age, our profession, or our passion we are always students. It is in our interest to retain a beginners mind - open and receptive, and ready to learn. With this philosophy guiding me I spent the last two days visiting and observing in schools. I am fortunate enough to have a friend at the Dwight School's Woodside Preschool who graciously let me in to observe all day long. And today I was lucky enough to visit Bank Street's School for Children and spend time in their 4/5 classrooms. There's a lot that could be said - but really it is just best to visit if you can.

Before leaving Bank Street, the admissions director gave me a folder filled with writings and more information about the school. There were two small books, titled Progressive Education in Context: I and II. Within these small treasures were eloquent musings on education from their own teachers and one from Alfie Kohn. I'm providing a link for this because it is a wonderful article to read - and should give us all an invitation to reflect on our own practices and educational beliefs.

I would like to share one small passage from the article (linked above) about deep understanding.

As the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead declared long ago, “A merely well-informed man is the most useless bore on God’s earth.” Facts and skills do matter, but only in a context and for a purpose. That’s why progressive education tends to be organized around problems, projects, and questions — rather than around lists of facts, skills, and separate disciplines. The teaching is typically interdisciplinary, the assessment rarely focuses on rote memorization, and excellence isn’t confused with “rigor.” The point is not merely to challenge students — after all, harder is not necessarily better — but to invite them to think deeply about issues that matter and help them understand ideas from the inside out. 

As a nation we have a great deal to think about in regard to how we view children and education. As policy continues the trend of reaching in the opposite direction of research and experience - educators - have a lot to consider. Articles like this are necessary because they push us to consider - what really matters.

If you are in the NYC area - what are some other great schools to visit and observe?

ramblings and such

A recent article from the New York Times has given me a lot to think about. The achievement gap is growing and the divide becoming increasingly wide. This is beyond an education concern or a political concern - it is a moral concern. The article addressing the growing education gap appropriately points to the importance of early childhood experiences.

...affluent children spend 1,300 more hours than low-income children before age 6 in places other than their homes, their day care centers, or schools (anywhere from museums to shopping malls). By the time high-income children start school, they have spent about 400 hours more than poor children in literacy activities.

This thought remained with me this weekend while I attended the NYCAEYC early childhood conference and had the privilege to hear one of my favorite authors Ann Lewin-Benham speak. She said that we can not expect rich language if we do not provide early opportunities for rich experiences, conversation, and reflection. Her talk focused on this cycle of experience-conversation-and reflection being an important, active process that shapes young brains and thinking.

I'm trying to think about how to extend this conversation into our school community. I'm thinking of extending our current documentation panels in the hallway, which portrays the richness in language and conversation that has emerged from the animal tracking experiences to parents...finding a way to build on this important conversation.


Yes this is a bit of a rambling but one that invites you to read the excellent NYT article if you haven't already.

Rambling done.

looking with fresh eyes

As promised, some images from last week. With a few changes in the environment children seemed to feel energized and excited to try old activities and materials...in new ways. As one child mentioned to us, "I like the room different, it's good."

The sand table moved to its own space.

Allowing children to feel the freedom to move around the table...

And stand up.

A piece of dramatic play furniture complimented the water table perfectly.

The joy in exploring funnels, pipes, tubes and holes with water is evident!

The furniture even creates a pleasant spot to sit.

Moving the easel ever so slightly...

Adding giant, oval-shaped paper, and different tools...

inspired our young artists in new ways.

And back to the bunnies...

Collaborative map-making became vital - in leading us to the bunnies!

Sticky glue traps were set to catch the barn owl (read the digital story book
from last week to hear more about this).

the proof's in the pudding but where's the pudding?

Well, my camera is without battery so I must rely on my words (not too many, I promise) and one video to share my sleepy Friday night insights. Thanks to Allie over at bakers and astronauts I read an excellent article about documentation. If you're interested in reading, head over to Allie's blog and sign on to be a part of the ECC dialogue, which is a discussion group she just started. The first article Documentation: A Hard Place to Reach by Janice Kroeger and Terri Cardy prompted me to take a look at my documentation practice - and more precisely what my intention was when documenting. I realized two things - one I often feel a need to share the whole project work (history) to families and the school community by creating panels. This is an important component of documentation but really the most important element (in my opinion) is using documentation to make children's learning visible (to them) and as a tool to deepen play, experiences, theories, and ideas. This is where I was lacking. It's interesting because as much as I value process over product - this is what I was doing - favoring product (a panel) over documentation/traces being used consistently in the classroom (process).

It takes a lot of time to go through photographs, video, and notes each day. Yet this is the heart of documentation - to use it as an active process in moving forward. It is not (simply) an archival process, it is a responsive process in taking next steps and informing curricular decisions.

Time is an issue. Somehow the process of collecting and analyzing needs to be streamlined to make it easier to succeed. With this in mind, Ms. Anny and I (who also read the article) made an effort to make the children's art/ideas/work visible in the classroom. We also focused our efforts on using the documentation to prepare the learning environment - adding provocations, making changes, and really thinking about the materials that would best support the children. It resulted in a pretty amazing week, each day felt like a change in the environment - a mentioning of a previous idea - or a provocation inspired the children which in turn inspired us. It's sounds a bit like a fairy tale I know (especially with no photos to prove it!) but it was an inspirational week.

I'll share images on Monday but to give a bit of context we were immersed in the study of animals. There was a lot of high-interest activity with two rabbits in our room, animal tracks appearing daily (including predators looking for the rabbits), and the need for children to protect the rabbits and solve many problems. Here is one story that emerged after a student set an owl trap - hoping to catch the barn owl...before it caught the rabbit.