(new suggested topic from Nancy Ohlen) I would also like to see some discussion of Skill 7. I do not believe we can start too early to employ the information and suggestions Galinsky presents in encouraging children to become self-directed, engaged life-long learners. What we say, how we look, how we respond when interacting with children is so very important.
11 comments:
SELF DIRECTED /ENGAGED LEARNING
#12
Self directed Engaged learning,
I have found that 99.9% of my children are hands on, pull up your sleeves, get messy learners!! As I posted earlier, my daycare has put in a raised box garden .Last fall we started the project with an excavator to form the site,( Talk about excitement ) to cutting and nailing the boxes, filling the dirt(this was the most fun ) and finally planting bulbs for this spring. I CANNOT PUT INTO WORDS how engaged the children were. We go out on the nice days and look to see if any bulbs have popped through and yesterday Dylan found a small green tip through the mulch. OMG 6 children gathered and staring at this tiny green tip with such excitement!!! Me too !!! Such a celebration :) I cannot wait for them to plant the vegetables next month so they can actually pick and eat their own home grown healthy food. I also purchased a large compost bin to instill early on the importance and value of our "rubbish".It is amazing how they all ready know what should get thrown in the composter and it is just a matter of fact that paper goes into the "green" recycle barrel. How many children ask "Where do the egg shells go" ? We have dug for earth worms and put them into the compost.. so many questions, so eager to learn and DO. I believe we teach by example. My children see me recycle,compost, get on my hands and knees and work with a smile. . Not only do they have fun but they see the end result of their efforts. Self pride for tasks participated in.Having them right beside me makes it all worthwhile
Skill # 7
It was an interesting experience reading chapter on Skill 7. As the book in whole, it was full of common sense and contradicting moments. I will start with the latter. The knowledge of preferable use of open-ended activities came to us, teachers, not a year or two ago. For a long period of time and by many authors we have been told that the children perform better and more creatively in case of not setting the ending results or making our expectations clear. And for years (since 2005) I was using S. Covey’s habit #2 Begin with the End in Mind (Have a Plan) as my personal teaching approach. By the way, I wasn’t alone. According to Jane Doyon’s posting (for Classroom Applications topic) she was the one who accepted and vigorously followed similar High-Scope motto Plan, Do, Review.
So, I wasn’t surprised to find among Ellen Galinsky’s final recommendations Help to Plan suggestion (p.314). It made perfect sense to me! I do it all the time… In sync with the above is the suggestion on Make Expectations for Success Clear.
Now let’s move to the suggestion Prize Effort, not Intelligence, where, in my opinion, is a very important component missing – we, as teachers, do care about intelligence, the final fruit of all our students’ “searches for valid and reliable knowledge to guide our beliefs, decisions, and actions”, fruit of that hard bloody labor and we HAVE to acknowledge that together with the effort appreciation!
And finally, I’ve enjoyed reading a quote from Kurt Fischer on how we learn (p. 348) so much. I did my best, I read this book, I took it apart, manipulated, tried to control, and it sparkled my eyes… a little bit.
I can’t agree more with the idea that we can start too early to employ information and suggestions to children and helping them to “Pursue Ongoing Learning”. As with Donna, we use the garden as a live classroom. In the beginning, when we are just starting to get into our garden and turn over the earth, the children always get so very excited about the worms they discover. Some children in the beginning are very hesitant about touching the worms or exploring the dirt. One of the strategies I use to help them become more comfortable with doing so is finding a small worm. Then I will exclaim “Oh look! A baby worm!”. More often than not, that is all that is needed for them to start getting interested and touch them. We have used those worms as a starting point for many of our in depth studies. We have brought them into our classroom in boxes and the children just love to dig through the dirt to find them! Often times it is the child who was most hesitant in the beginning becomes the one who is the most eager to get back out into the garden and learn more. I think our own enthusiasm for learning and getting dirty - or lack there of has a profound impact on children.
Galinsky brings up a small point on p. 327 which I find to be a very large point-The Importance of physical learning. She touches upon healthy foods and how a child's body reacts. She mentions a child who finds eggs to make him tired. I truly believe that diet impacts how a body feels. If foods are not reacting properly with the body then a person can be deeply impacted and not able to be ready to learn. For example, we have a student on the autism spectrum. His mother has been concerned by his regression. I spoke to her about diet and she put him on the carbohydrate diet. By removing several foods from his diet...the fog suddenly seemed to disappear and his teachers noted that he was engaging more within our world. I have also seen children with movement disorders and abdominal migraines remove several things from their diet and these movement spells and migraines have deminished. A child cannot be self-engaged in learning if he/she is not feeling well.
In reading Principle Three of skill 7, I loved the points Gallinsky makes about children having direct experiences and multiple experiences. I love field trips. I know some teachers who think I am insane but through all of the extra work that field trips involve the experiences are priceless. When I am interviewing families for our preschool and I mention that we do a lot of field trips there are some parents who respond ‘you do! That must be so hard!’ My response is always something to the effect that although it’s a lot of work it follows our philosophy of hands on learning. As I often say, it’s one thing to see a picture of a cow; it’s another to be in the presence of that cow and hear, smell, and touch it. I truly believe that having children directly involved with the experiences and concepts that we are trying to teach them goes a long way to having children really understand them. It also follows that these field trips are ‘meaningful and purposeful’. When we do a field trip we are always involved in an investigation of some sort that ties into the trip. This makes the trip and the investigation that much more important and meaningful.
We go on field trips in our classroom too. In fact in the summer time we go on a field trip every day! I love them because I get a chance to show children aspects of the natural world that you can't see well in the classroom. I also believe that children need the time to just "be" in nature, left to make forts, fairy houses, climb trees, and mix mud pies. I am a big fan of Rachel Carson who wrote among other things, "The Sense of Wonder", and also Richard Louv who wrote "Last Child in The Woods: Saving our Children from Nature - Deficit Disorder". Being connected with nature is a basic need for all people, but most especially for children.
Tatiana,
I agree with your statement that we have to praise the intelligence and the effort. I think that children can sense our empty praise, but they also innately have pride in learning something and being able to show us. By only praising effort, we are also ignoring the fact that some children are intelligent, can express it, and should take pride in it. The teaching also comes when they begin to get an attitude about their understanding or intelligence, and treat others differently (as inevitably happens). We praise all effort, in addition to, intelligence. As we know and have learned we have multiple intelligences, there is nothing wrong with praising the areas where there is strength. finding everyone's strength is key to all having a successful experience.
I found it very interesting when Galinsky talked about Tronick. Tronick states what babies have the ability process what's happening, understanding it, then go on to have the capacity to respond appropriately. When I sat down and thought about it I see this very thing happening in my classroom daily; It is very eye-opening to see. Galinsky also mentions how children imitate and learn indirectly. I have one child (Child A) in my classroom that seems to do that very very well. For example I had been working very hard teaching on of the infants sign language. I would show him more and please. In teaching the infant the other Child A just started using the signs after her first week in childcare. This same child coughs and covers her mouth with her arm; its quite cute. I went on to ask her mother about it because I did not directly teach this 15 month old to do this. Her mother stated that was how she covered her cough, so Child A was imitating her mother.
I would like to comment on the importance of having a trustworthy relationship between students and teachers. On p. 311 Galinsky writes
The day-in, day-out security of children’s relationships with the important people in their lives makes it possible for them to try new things, to learn new things…Children need to feel safe in order to learn.
I think this relationship is most important in early childhood and probably diminishes as students get older. However, even as an adult learner my best and most valuable learning experiences occur when the teacher is both a good teacher and is also someone to whom I feel connected. I have noticed that for my son who is in 8th grade he will do better in the classes where he likes the teacher, which also means the teacher likes him. In classes where he does not like the teacher he does not do as well. Last year, he loved his science teacher and worked really hard for her. This year that is not the case. At some point, the learner has his or her own motivations for learning and liking and connecting with the teacher loses importance and the quality of instruction is more important.
We talked a bit about “unconditional positive regard” in class the other evening and Professor Nelson said that having “unconditional positive regard” did not mean you had to like every student, but you had to be able to accept them and see their humanity. (I am paraphrasing but I think that was the gist.) I think I need to disagree. I do think we need to like every child and that at this young age connection is what kids need. Most kids are smart enough to decipher whether or not you like them.
A long time ago I was taking a class in teacher-research while I was student-teaching in a first grade class. There was a child I really disliked. He was arrogant, mean-spirited and sort of a bully. I decided to focus my research on this child instead of the child who I really liked. I can’t remember the question I was answering but through the course of really looking at this child I could see both the reasons he behaved so badly and I could also find some redeeming qualities in him. Can you have a real connection without liking the person? I guess I don’t think so.
I have found that through focused team observation it is possible to see the reasons behind the behavior much more clearly and faster than observation done alone. This entails coming up with a focus question for each observation, then refocusing the question for each sucessive observation. When done with a video camera, the teaching team can stop and start the video while writing down the observation, and also replay to enhance discussion. In this way it is possible to get a very detailed observation which can give enough information to form a hypothesis and adjust ongoing questions. It takes the subjective emotion out of observation, so that it doesn't matter whether you like the student or not, you can collaborate to begin to understand behavior so that you can work with the child. I believe that all behavior is for a reason, and that if I understand the reason it can go a long way towards understanding (and even liking) the person.
I believe as teachers, parents, and adults we believe that children do not understand or "pick up on" our true feelings and thoughts. We need to be very careful how we get our messages across and even our body language. I know when I was in school if I felt a teacher did not like me and treated me without respect all I wanted to do was rebel, I had no desire to do what they wanted of me. I was to focused on my feelings and anxious about what the teacher would say to me I could not engage and could not focus. Thus begins the vicious cycle. Even when a child rubs me the wrong way I really watch myself and try to put myself in their shoes and understand them. It seems the most difficult children I become closest to because they usually have hard home situations and you know it is up to you to engage and nurture them.
I work with the 3 year old class so once they are 4 they go downstairs. A new women works downstairs and she now has A. A has come so far and comes from a very tough situation at home but she is a very sweet girl. Now I see her rehashing some of those old behaviors and I believe it is because the other teacher does not understand her. I try to explain and give her points on things that help A but she just blows me off. It breaks my heart so I try to go out of my way to give A attention at lunch or when I run downstairs to grab something.
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