Welcome to My Classroom: A Day with K

A bit of the main garden with the playground hidden behind the mango trees

I got to spend the day with a healthy K for the first time in a while. Last week she was sick and we mostly read stories together and napped. Now that she is going to preschool three days a week, the majority of my work on the farm has centered around developing the preschool cooperative. Today, however, K and I spent a solid chunk of time together and most of it was out and about on the farm doing various chores and exploring the landscape. It occurred to me how unfair it is that not all kids have the freedom to self-direct their play in the way that K and I do, since the Reggio Approach is still so new to American education. We are lucky that K’s mom is familiar with and supports the approach’s idea of an emergent curriculum, where knowledge is acquired through interest-led interactions with the environment. We are also lucky that K lives in such a rich and enticing natural environment. The farm has added volumes to our curriculum, making it easy for me weave all sorts of academics into our play because the environment is so naturally stimulating and engaging.

Many critics of the Reggio Approach argue that left to their own direction, kids would never choose to pursue academic endeavors. While this might be initially true for older students who have never had the opportunity to direct their own learning, I can confidently say from experience that this is not the case for students whose education has supported their intellectual curiosities from the very beginning. Because I trust K to show me what she needs and wants to learn, and I trust my own ability to build a flexible and quality curriculum around my observations of her, I know she is always interested and motivated to learn. It is a different kind of teaching in the Reggio Approach and it takes some getting used to for sure, especially considering most of us grew up with traditional education programs. The benefits, however, for both K and I are well-worth the effort it took to transform my approach. Through an emergent curriculum we collaborate on projects more-or-less as equals, though we play our respective roles as teacher and student. We both spend our days learning, having fun together, building our relationship, and challenging one another to grow and roll with the continual ebb and flow of life. 

K and I love to observe the chickens pecking for bugs beneath the mango trees in their pen. We often bring them kale from the garden, peek in on them as they snuggle in to lay, and collect their delicious, fresh eggs, one of K's and my foods.

When I met up with K this morning, she was finishing up her breakfast, quickly stuffing the last few bites of omelette into her mouth when she saw me so that we could get to work. I asked her to please slow down so she didn’t choke on her food and reminded her that we had to wash hands and wipe down the table before moving on to drawing, which is how she decided she wanted to start the day. After taking care of our responsibilities we started to draw with colored pencils. K is all about mastering her fine motor skills and is drawn to just about any task that allows her to work on them, so drawing is a particularly appealing activity. I love creating art with K because when she is so focused on a task that we are able to carry on very natural and genuine conversations as we work on our projects alongside one another, sometimes collaborating, sometimes working individually. I was drawing a pattern with triangles and K asked how to draw one. I paused to show her, hand over-hand. She was more interested in circles and asked to draw those, so we practiced that shape as well. I told her that when I want to do something well, I practice it over and over again so that I can get better and make my shapes look more how I want them to. Then I drew five small circles in a row as she watched intently.

We worked on our art for nearly 30 minutes, K making circles and various lines while I worked on my triangle pattern. She had a color that I wanted to use and so we got in some sharing practice. She didn’t want to give me the red pencil so I politely asked if I could use it when she was all done, explaining that I could keep using the orange and yellow pencils until she was finished using the red. She agreed and after a few minutes she said “here you go” and handed me the pencil. I thanked her and started drawing my triangles and after watching me for a few moments she asked for the pencil back. I told her I needed to draw and color in a few more triangles and then I would return it to her. She continued using the orange, patiently waiting until I was done with the red. Among her scribbles, K noticed a pattern and pointed to her page saying, “mountain” to show me what she had drawn. “You did draw a mountain,” I remarked pointing at her drawing, “I see it right there.” K smiled. I smiled back. Then she asked to listen to “Apples and Banono’s” her current favorite (K prefers the Keith Urban version of this classic Raffi song). We danced around and did some yoga for the rest of the hour, read a few stories and then headed out to the garden.

By 9:15am, we had already worked art, literacy, music, and creative movement into our daily curriculum. We worked on fine motor skills, practiced personal responsibility, patience, and sharing, we got in a little exercise, and we worked on conversational skills, yet we were relaxed, had a great time and allowed our natural motivation and interest tell us when it was time to move onto the next activity. Sure my studies in education and human development have helped me understand children’s attention span for activities at different ages, but more importantly my ability to tune into and participate in K’s educational experience and learning style is what I rely on when we work together. I make our activities as interesting and enjoyable as possible to get the maximum educational benefit from each, but when K loses motivation to continue I follow her lead and we move onto the next activity that draws her in. It is a waste of both our time and energy for me to stick to a prescribed schedule because when she isn’t engaged, she isn’t learning anything except that my agenda is more important than hers and I do not respect her enough to think her capable of playing a role in her own learning process. That is not a message I want K, or any of my students to internalize.

I want K to trust her own instincts, listen to her physical, emotional, social, and intellectual needs. I want her to see how satisfying and meaningful learning can be and much fun she can have practicing her favorite skills and seeking out the answers to her many questions. So when K asked to take our adventures outdoors, I grabbed my water bottle and invited her to pick out a pair of shoes and hat. We started by heading up to the cherry tree to pick ourselves a delicious and healthy snack. We worked on our colors, identifying the darkest red ones because those are the ripest and most delicious. I explained that the darkest ones are the ones that have soaked in the most sun and are therefore the sweetest. “I got one!” K said when she found a dark cherry, holding it up to show me. Instead of telling her “good job,” I said with enthusiasm, “that one is dark, I found a dark one too,” I showed her mine and we both popped the sweet fruit into our mouths. Since I am partial to a Reggio-Inspired teaching style, my objective is not to evaluate her activities or judge her success, but rather to share and participate in her learning process, expose her to new experiences, and invite her to explore alternative possibilities and multiple perspectives.

Once K and I had our fill of cherries, I suggested we check on the tomatoes, since I harvested pounds of them over the weekend and knew there were a ton more that had since ripened. K loves the garden because it means she gets to work her fine motor skills in relation to food, two of her most favorite things right now. K loves to taste the garden, asking first for the name of each plant and then asking for a taste. I love walking through the garden with her because all that naming builds her vocabulary and all that tasting helps enrich her culinary experiences while adding depth to her knowledge and understanding of plant biology and agricultural sciences. Both the naming and the eating help her develop a pleasurable association with healthy food, a deeper connection with the natural world and the possibilities associated with a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Again we had the chance to practice selecting the best fruit for harvest and while just a few weeks ago K was regularly pulling the green “baby” tomatoes and tossing them on the ground, today she identified the reddest ones, pointing and checking to make sure it was a quality selection with a “see me pick it?” This is huge for K, who until very recently, loved to test her boundaries in the garden. She has learned that not all the food is for picking and that there are specific windows for optimal harvesting. I shared with her how impressed I was by the respect and responsibility she showed for the plants in the garden. She smiled.

When I reminded her that it is wasteful to eat only the insides of the tomatoes, K took care to eat the whole thing, rather than tossing it to the ground after a few nibbles. I happily offered her another tomato when she was done, which she gratefully accepted. Today K had my full trust as she perused the garden freely. She proved to me with her care and thoughtfulness, her patience, and restraint that she is ready for the responsibility of being a participatory member of the farm. She earned a notch in her gardener’s belt as we harvested tomatoes, vine-dried lima beans, and a watermelon radish the side of a soft-ball which we promptly and enthusiastically took back to my kitchen to prep and eat. I showed K the nail brush that I use scrub the root vegetables and her whole face beamed with her quiet excitement when I pulled a chair up to the sink and let her scrub to her hearts content. I narrated my actions as I carefully got out the chef’s knife and sliced up the radish, reminding her to keep her fingers safe and away from where I was cutting. K watched as the deep pink of the inner radish became more exposed with each cut. It was an enormous radish though, so I was at it for a while and she quickly lost interest. She was, however, not yet satisfied with her scrubbing work so she began to wash the few forks, spoons, and coffee cups in the sink. I really need to get on that play kitchen for K, I thought to myself as I watched her fall happily into the zone of sensory play and fine motor development.

We listened to Sam Cooke croon as we worked quietly, side-by-side, each deeply focusing on our task. I was practicing my best and safest knife skills, cognizant of how I was modeling this responsibility to K, who is always observing me (later that day I saw her replicating the “safe grip” I demonstrated as she “cut” her velcro play food). Once in awhile she asked for a slice of radish, reveling in its spicy crunch, and together we arranged a plate of the pretty pink and green veggies to offer up to our friends on the farm. K and I spent over two hours soaking up the sunshine and priceless lessons in agriculture, botany, culinary sciences, and biology. We took in a rainbow of sensory experiences, more personal and social responsibility development, and worked our fine motor skills as we twisted, picked, plucked, grabbed, and gripped the various shapes and textures across the farm. We shelled and collected an entire jar full of dried lima beans to store for soup on a rainy day in the future, fed the chickens some dried kale and admired the new baby duckling, observing how the mama protects and cares for her vulnerable little one.

When our time together came to a close, K was exhausted from all the adventures. We packed a ton of lessons in today and far more than usual, spanning a wide variety of subjects, yet we had a great time together without any conflict whatsoever. We had an amazing day together and my faith in the power of an emergent curriculum grew even stronger. Nothing about our day together was planned, except that K’s mom suggested last night that the lima beans were ready for picking. I mentioned it to K when I first arrived during breakfast but although she was interested in the idea, K elected to start our day inside. I didn’t pressure or try to persuade her, trusting that she’d let me know when she was ready to head out and tackle the job. When we stumbled upon the lima beans after feeding the chickens I asked her again if she was interested and this seeing the big green and brown pods hanging above her head was more than enough to entice her. K thoroughly enjoyed opening the crispy, dried pods and collecting the big white beans in the jar.

K and I allowed our interests and motivation to guide our curriculum in true Reggio fashion. It was a beautiful, exciting, and intellectually stimulating day. We did meaningful and enjoyable work, sometimes collaboratively and sometimes independently side-by-side. I don’t believe for one second that it is a coincidence this was one of our best days together. We were fully engaged in the process of learning and we were enjoying ourselves so much that time seemed to fly by. It is days like this that remind me why I love what I do and why I believe so passionately in the Reggio Approach as the most effective way to transform our struggling public school system. Though this approach was designed for early education, the philosophy applies beautifully to learning at any age and paves the way for self-directed, project based, and interdisciplinary learning. This is the kind of education that is meaningful, relevant, gratifying, and leaves teachers and students alike excited to get out of bed every morning and get to work. Just imagine for a moment a world in which this is the norm and perhaps you will understand my enthusiasm for the Reggio Approach.

Literature: the Backbone of Learning

As I review my curriculum outline and begin to piece together the classroom materials needed to breathe life into the farm preschool cooperative, I find myself relying more and more on children’s books to address the various fields of knowledge we have selected as the focus of this program. I love children’s literature and as a teacher I have found that it is often the most powerful tool I have to connect with students of all different learning styles with every imaginable interest. But books do more so much more than simply provide bonding opportunities, though if that was all they did I wouldn’t think them any less powerful or important. Stories allow children to enter all different worlds, to vicariously experience challenges and pleasures through characters they come to love. Stories give life to the lessons being addressed in the classroom while at the same time inspiring new ideas for where to to go next in the process of discovery. But mostly I love stories for the depth of creativity, innovation, and thought that they provoke. Many of my most memorable conversations and activities with students have come from sharing and discussing a beloved story together.

While my research children’s books to complement each component of the three core areas of the farm preschool curriculum (Social & Personal Responsibility, Agriculture & Sustainability, Creativity & the Arts), I find myself drifting back to the stories I read over and over again with my 4s class kids at Bella Mente. For a while, we used books as the backbone of our school curricula, selecting a new book every week or so, using the images and ideas in the story to shape our daily activities. Sometimes we teachers picked a book and other times we picked a book that the students were showing particular interest in, but each time it was a huge success. Because of that experience, I am able to put together a diverse and powerful library for K and her friends to learn about themselves, the world, and their places within it. Currently, K and I are using her favorite stories to build vocabulary, she being a bit too young still for the kind of curriculum projects I did with the 4-year-olds previously. K’s favorite right now is a book of silly, fantastical poems by Calef Brown called Dutch Sneakers and Flea Keepers. Though she has just turned two years old and is still learning to string together complete sentences, little K has memorized, in full, at least one of the 10-line poems in the collection, reciting it with pride in her linguistic accomplishment.

We started this book-based curriculum idea at Bella Mente with Carin Berger’s story, Forever Friends, a mixed-media illustrated story of friendship and the changing seasons from which emerged a lesson on the cardinal directions. We hadn’t intended on teaching this but the kids were so interested in the bird character flying south for the winter that we would have been foolish to neglect their enthusiasm to learn what we would likely have ended up teaching them eventually anyway. Our class was ready and eager to learn navigational skills then and there, thanks to this story, and so this was where we began our curriculum. Together we made compasses at the art table, hung direction signs in the classroom and practiced pointing to the west, east, south, and north walls of the room. The kids became bird watchers in the dramatic play area, listening to Stokes’ Field Guide bird sounds recording we borrowed from the library, and we used graph paper as the backdrop for our artwork, just like the artwork in the story. There was a little something for everyone in this book and the message of friendship helped reinforce the ever-important values of kindness and building lasting relationships.

While us teachers selected the first book, our lessons on paleontology and open-mindedness came from our class’s mutual love of Mercer Meyer’s fantasy story called How the Trollusk Got His Hat. So many kids had been requesting this book that we took their lead and built a curriculum around it, inviting kids at the art table to create their own fantasy creatures and making a batch of “tango playdough” to match the trollusk’s famed “tango soup.” The main character, Reggie was a paleontologist, so we set up an archeological dig in dramatic play and set out dino-bingo and non-fiction dinosaur books at the science table, which were a huge hit. Many conversations about how easy it is to misjudge a person because they look different resulted from the trollusk character’s frightful appearance, despite his kind and gentle nature. Though at first glance this is but a fun and silly story, we went on with it for weeks finding more and more to learn about together that we’d never have expected. The more we read this beloved tale, the more questions and ideas it inspired in both our students and teachers and soon another class was requesting the story for their curriculum when we finished. By the time we passed it along, our walls were adorned with imaginary letters to the trollusk and Reggie with hand-drawn stamps (the trollusk is a collector), pictures of dinosaurs to add to Reggie’s work, hand-created monsters and their descriptions, and all the kids wore giant paper hats that they learned to fold using an origami pattern.

We had so much fun exploring story after story, while seeking out others to complement the various components of our focal piece. We acted out the adventures together, made art in the style of the illustrations, and learned about the habitats and habits of the various creatures featured in each book. But it so much more than just fun and games, serious and meaningful learning was taking place every day and the students loved that the questions and ideas that they had after each reading inspired the activities and projects we would engage in as a class. Each story spoke differently to each child, stirring up a variety of emotions, questions, and thoughts. Everyone found some way to connect both with one another through their mutual interests inspired by the story, and with their own intellectual curiosities. For me, however, it was the thoughtful discussions resulting from our reading and analysis that I loved most. We asked the kids many thought-provoking questions based on each story and time and again the depth, wisdom, and maturity in their responses blew us away.

After reading Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius, my co-teacher, Becca, and I asked our group, “how might you make the world a better place, like Miss Rumphius did when she planted lupine flowers all over town?” Responses varied from giving lots of hugs, to drawing pictures for friends and family, to planting more flowers, to sharing toys with friends. One particularly thoughtful little guy who shared my love of literature decided he wanted to “give a flower to everyone everyone I see,” but then later on as our class had moved on from circle time and sat down to lunch, he was still thinking about the story and our question. “Miss Jo, I have another idea to make the world a better place,” my little friend shared, “I want to go to all the places in the world where people don’t have enough food and share my food with them.” A few tears well up in my eyes even now as I share his beautiful idea with you. I told him, “Caid, I hope that one day you get to do exactly that,” the pride beaming in his smile matched the pride I felt for him, as his teacher. Thanks to Caid, I fell in love with this story and share it with every child I can. K and I have already read it together a handful of times and each time we find something new and fall in love with the story all over again. 

So much wisdom can be found within the pages of just about any children’s book, and as a teacher, it’s nice to take part in the lessons and allow the story to do the teaching. I love reading stories with my kiddo friends and asking their thoughts and opinions, what they love about the book, and what interests them. I love sharing my take on the story too and through our dialogue about the book we begin to know and understand one another a little better. Our conversations about stories makes us equals, co-learners, as teachers in the Reggio Approach are intended to be, and they allow us to share in the beauty and joy of the written word and the artful illustrations and photographs that accompany each story. When I read with my students and ask them to tell me how the story inspires them, to share the thoughts and feelings the story evokes, it is as though we are just two friends deep in an authentic conversation. I listen to them, they listen to me and together we develop a deeper understanding of life. All the while these kids are practicing their critical thinking skills, building their vocabulary and ability to express themselves, they are learning new things about themselves and making connections they might have otherwise missed. There is no limit to what can be learned from a story when the power of literature is harnessed in the classroom and home. Here are a few of my favorite stories, I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Free to Learn and Play

Last week I discovered “The Independent Project,” and it has been consuming my thoughts ever since. I’ll let you watch the video for yourself, but in case you choose not to, I’ll summarize. Students at a high school in Massachusetts wanted to play a larger role in their education and so they created a semester-long self-directed study program. Each week began with a topical question and the students spent the week delving into the issues that interested them presenting what they learned to the group each Friday. They also tackled a larger independent pursuit as well as a group service project based on the needs and problems within their community. Since my time in the Interdisciplinary Master’s of Education program at the University of Vermont, formatted as self-directed study, I have been an advocate for this kind of education. I have practically been jumping out of my skin with excitement since I came across this video last week. The potential this project has to transform education is so enormous that I couldn’t not share it with you.

My work here with K is fully emergent, and though my work at Bella Mente was supposed to be, I was still learning how to employ the idea and struggled to fully understand it while at the same time negotiating the needs of the 18 children in our classroom. My curriculum with K emerges based on her developmental needs and personal interests and I’m finding that with only one child to focus on, I am gaining the mastery over this method that I previously lacked. I hardly do any advanced planning these days, except when it comes to the resource development projects I do during my independent work time here on the farm. While my project time has greatly increased from my days at the preschool, I use it in a very different way. I used to think of planning time by looking ahead, trying to guess at what the kids might take an interest in to keep us moving forward. Now, I use this time to reflect on what K is already working on and how I can add more depth to her play in the areas she shows me she is interested in developing.

Instead of trying to get her interested in the activities I came up with, as I used to, I now let her take the lead completely and play right along with her, taking mental notes on what materials and activities she likes best and how she prefers to develop her skills. During my planning time, I reflect on how we spent our time together and develop new resources and ideas for her to further develop the skills she had been working on. The chalkboard table I painted for K a few weeks ago was a project born out of her desire to draw directly on her nicely finished wood art table. She showed me her need, to stretch and develop her fine motor skills and artistry without the limits of just crayon and paper. I found a way to meet the needs she was communicating through her action without forbidding her from engaging in a behavior that has both developmental benefits and brings her great pleasure. She now uses the chalk table every single day and has since stopped coloring on her other art table, the one she knows she’s not supposed to draw on. It's a win-win. 

When K was struggling with her desire to pull the tomatillos prematurely from the plant, I brought her over to the pigeon pea bush where it didn’t matter how many peas she plucked, allowing her to productively exercise her fine motor skills and her desire to pinch, pluck, peel, squeeze, manipulate, and eventually eat a green vegetable all on her own. A week later we revisited the tomatillos and successfully filled a bucket with only the ripe and ready-to-be-picked fruit. She just wanted practice manipulating smaller objects and to her it didn’t matter that they were not ripe, she saw me preventing her from practicing a skill she felt was important. In this way, K shows me her needs and I make it my job to figure out the most fun and productive way for her to work on her preferred skills safely and within our set boundaries.

This is how our curriculum emerges; we are partners in its creation. K leads the way and I follow with observations, options and challenges to help her develop the skills that she has determined, consciously or not, that she is interested in working on. K is a very sensory-driven learner. The activities that appeal most to her are the ones that involve manipulating objects with her hands, putting things in her mouth, testing smells, listening to the sounds around her, and repeating what she hears. I know this about K because in order to develop our emergent curriculum, I have to constantly observe and reflect. I watch to see what she is drawn to, what catches and holds her attention, how she goes about gathering information, and what methods she most easily uses to successfully solve problems. I notice this about K not just because of my background in personality studies, but because following an emergent curriculum requires me to do so, though understanding the functions of personality according Myers-Briggs makes my job markedly easier. 

Click here for the source of this chart and check out The Myers Brigg Foundation to learn more

If I was pre-planning activities and materials for K, deciding without her what she should learn, then teaching it to her, I would spend so much time talking that I would likely never pick up on all of the nuances of her personality and learning style. We would both likely end up significantly more frustrated and with a far more strained relationship, devoid of much of the fun we have together. Clearly lecture style education is not appropriate for a nearly two year old, but K is a hands-on experience driven learner, lecture is never going to be the most successful way to hold her attention or interest, regardless of age. Through our play together, K expertly guides me toward a curriculum that meets her needs, and keeps her both happy and engaged. She is constantly learning and developing her skills at an optimal pace, making sure she gets the very most out of every experience. If she is capable of doing this before she is even two years old, why would this capacity diminish as she hits elementary school, middle school, high school and beyond?

Kohn's a critical voice in education reform

America’s public education system does not view children as capable or responsible enough to play an active role in what and how they learn. Rather, they are viewed as empty vessels waiting for adults to pour in whatever information they see fit. This model has little regard for students’ interests, personalities, and learning styles, let alone the problems that are most relevant in their communities. We know that all children are unique, we tell them all the time in an attempt to raise self-esteem, yet we contradict ourselves by forcing them to conform to a model of learning that was designed to produce obedient, faceless factory workers who all think and act alike. Sure, this form of standardized education makes it easier to test and rate our children but that doesn’t mean it measures the most important things. I was a terrible test taker; judged by my scores alone you would never know the extent of my skills, knowledge, motivation and love of learning. All standardization has done for our students (and thus our society as a whole) is to teach kids that school is boring and irrelevant, while at the same time making skilled teachers hate their jobs and burn out at alarming rates. How is this helpful?

I have often heard worried and skeptical parents wonder “given the choice, wouldn’t most students pick nothing but recess and snack?” I’ve worked with plenty of “difficult” kids who spend their free time reading books, tending a garden, or memorizing the names and favorite foods of every dinosaur that ever existed. These kids do this because all human beings have an innate desire to learn. So what quashes this quality that helped human beings evolve from apes into who we are today? There are likely many reasons for this but I’m willing to bet that students’ lack of a voice in the process of learning is at or near the top of the list. Students often stop or ignore the pursuit of their natural interests because our current model of education forces them to. Some students give up and suffer through school only to get out and have no idea what they are good at or even interested in. Other times students give up on school entirely, believing it irrelevant and pursue their interests anyway, but without the diplomas they usually end up just as disadvantaged.

I love the Reggio Approach because rather than a “teaching to” style of education, it embraces the ideas of “learning with,” which to me makes so much more sense. An emergent curriculum, which is essentially the precursor of the self-directed study detailed in The Independent Project, invites students to play and active rather than passive role in their education so they develop an inborn love of learning. If students are able to continue in this way, they will never reach the point of mental exhaustion and boredom that leads to recess being the only time they get to have fun at school. Following most current public school curricula, recess is one of the few times during the day when students have complete control over how they spend their time. Instead of seeing their learning as fun, it becomes something they need to escape from. In this approach, recess is the reward for suffering through something that is not enjoyable, perpetuating the myth that learning is in opposition to fun.

K worked at it all week and can now lift herself up on the swing!

In an emergent curriculum, play is acknowledged not only as a necessary component of learning, but the primary means for understanding the world. Interest is what motivates human beings to keep learning and honing our skills. Whether it’s Einstein playing with the ideas of physics to postulate the Theory of Relativity, or Gillian Lynne playing with the movements of her body that led to the choreography of the Broadway classic Cats, play is a crucial part of the process. When I am with K, I let her show me how she likes to play and from there we build our curriculum together. Right now she is most interested in learning to master her physical skills so we spend our time together climbing, swinging, jumping, stretching, and manipulating all kinds of materials in all kinds of new ways. After she has worked her body as much as it can handle, she tells me so and we shift gears. K is also interested in expanding her vocabulary and learning the power of her own voice so we read, sing, talk, rhyme, count, shout and write together. At some point each day K gets hungry and asks me for some blueberries, her current favorite, so we stop for a snack before heading back out for more play. Through our emergent curriculum, K is challenging herself every day and surprising both of us with her rapidly increasing capability.

If a student as young and fiercely independent as K is already capable self-directed study, it seems crazy to me that post-preschool students not be afforded the same right to have a say in what and how they learn. After all, aren’t we each an expert when it comes to ourselves? No one knows better than I do that I learn best when information comes in the form of a story. Though I struggled through and never enjoyed math and science in school, I have picked up countless biology and agriculture lessons from the farm narratives I love to read, and I got my only A in a math class when my high school geometry teacher started each lesson with the story of the philosopher who postulated the theory in question. When framed in a compelling narrative, I could learn almost anything and do so willingly all the time. But K prefers to experience things first-hand, trusting her own senses to teach her about how the world works, her imagination is not the effective learning tool that it always has been for me. We see and interact with the world differently.

An emergent curriculum leaves room for both K and I to learn in the way that is most effective for each of us, while at the same time allowing us to see the world through one another’s eyes. This approach to teaching and learning does not require a separate curriculum for each student, rather it invites all kinds of learners to come together, share ideas, experiences, questions, and perspectives to create a more complete understanding of each topic. In the Independent Project, students pursued the aspects of a problem or topic that most interested them and studied it for the week with the goal of sharing what they learned in a way that would engage and interest their fellow students. Each student walked away from the week with a general knowledge of whatever subject was being explored as well as a deeper understanding of one piece of the puzzle. Isn’t this the very same outcome most teachers hope for when they design their curriculum? The only difference is that in a self-directed study, the students do the design work. This frees teachers to engage and connect with their students, listen to their ideas and ask thought provoking questions, and offer the individual support that every teacher wants to provide but simply doesn’t have the time or energy to give.

More resources like this on my Pinterest page

I can’t speak for all teachers, but for me, and many teachers I have worked with, the passion to teach comes from a love of learning and sharing information with others so that we all can realize our true potential. An emergent curriculum is equally more enjoyable for me as it has been for those I have had the privilege of teaching. I have learned more about math and science and art and literacy from engaging in study alongside my students than I could have imagined and I loved the learning process more than I ever did when I was the student being taught at in grade school. My enthusiasm for learning does not go unnoticed by my students, either. When they see me so genuinely engaged in how the diet of a chicken effects the hue and nutritional content of its eggs yolks, that information gets planted deeper in their memories and leaves them wondering what else might be effected in a similar way, or even just about cause and effect in general. The intense passion I model in the process of engaging with them on a subject that deeply interests me shows them the joy in learning new things and seeking out knowledge. This desire to learn and the know-how to make it happen are the most important things I, or any teacher, could possibly hope to pass on to the next generation and this is the foundation of what I hope to teach K in the short time I am here with her.

You Don't Have to Sit Still to Learn How to Read

While some kids love to park themselves on a couch with a book or write and rewrite their ABCs, many kids that I have worked with would never freely choose to sit down and practice their letters or look through a book because they are too busy running around. I’m sure you all know a few of these active, busy little ones; maybe you were one yourself. It’s not that these kiddos are not interested in literacy activities; it’s just that they learn differently and are more interested in things that don’t involve sitting still. Perhaps though, they are less comfortable with their fine motor skills or get their energy from being around others and so the solitary literacy activities leave them restless or bored.

This doesn’t mean they are destined to struggle with reading, or that they are even disinterested in it, as is too often assumed. It simply means that in order to set all kids up for success, we as teachers (or parents at home), need to set out activities that speak to a variety of learning styles so that at some point during the day, each kid has the chance to get involved in literacy work one way or another. The more we get to know each individual child’s preferred way of learning, the kinds of activities that they are most naturally inclined to participate in with enthusiasm, the better chance each child has at reaching his and her true potential. Too many kids get left behind in school when it comes to literacy because the status quo in education is to have all children conform to a single or a small range of activities that cater to the dominant learning style. This isn’t fair and it is not the only way.

A great way to encourage literacy development for all students is by including bits and pieces of it throughout the classroom as a whole, rather than simply creating an isolated literacy station. A designated station can work too, so long as it includes a variety of activities that speak to a variety of learning styles, this just takes a lot more space and often more work than is necessary. Integration not only increases exposure to these types of activities, it also ensures that no matter what station kids naturally lean toward, they will get in some literary work within the context of their preferred activities. I like the integration approach to literacy development especially because it encourages learning within the context of what the kids are doing so it is far more relevant and therefore allows kids to both want to read to add to their experience as well as better understand why it is important to do so.

A variation on my puzzle activity

At Bella Mente, the preschool I left behind in Seattle when I moved, I worked with a little boy who had no interest whatsoever in learning to read or write, until one day I created a stack of boards that had our new classroom name printed on them with empty squares below for letter tiles so the kids could learn their new name since we were no longer calling them the “4s class.” This little friend loved puzzles and the act of searching for the letters and finding and placing the ones that matched the letter printed above each box was something he was deeply interested in. To him this was just another puzzle, but as he filled in the letters and “built” words, he said them out loud and smiled the biggest, sweetest, proud smile when I pointed out that he was spelling real words.

Another student in that same class was the most perfect example of a kinetic learner I have ever seen. This boy loved to move. All he wanted to do was run around and climb on things. Quiet, stationary activities were just not something he was interested in. So how do you get a kid like him to focus on pre-reading and writing? Well, you find a way for him to move while he learns. Three activities immediately come to my mind for kiddos like my incredibly active little buddy but there are so many more once you start researching (Pinterest is a great resource for this), brainstorming, and trying things out in your space with your kiddos and see what they respond to.

One idea is an alphabet scavenger hunt. I love this one because it can be done individually, which is great for those introverted kiddos who get their energy from retreating into their inner dialogue, but it can also be a social group activity. A few of my students did this and had so much fun searching all over the classroom for each letter of the alphabet. This way, kids are working on letter recognition while at the same time moving around the classroom to satisfy their bodies desire to be in motion. To also make this a writing activity, the kids can carry a detective’s notebook and scribble down each letter as they find them.  

Another great activity for more active learners involves a little yoga-like movement where the kids attempt to shape their bodies to match the different letters of the alphabet. They can also do this one individually or with friends by turning it into a game as one friend watches and tries to guess the letter the other one bends into. You can also model the shapes and have the kids try to guess what letter you are making. Not only is this a lot of fun, whenever I’ve done it has left all the kids tumbling over in glorious fits of laughter and glee, but it also promotes large motor development and is a nice way to incorporate some principles of yoga into their daily worlds.

The last activity that immediately came to mind is one I recently discovered on Pinterest and I am super excited to try it out next time I get the chance to work with a super active learner. For this activity the teacher lays colorful tape down on the floor in the shape of very large letters, in upper and/or lower case for the children to practice walking along heel to toe as they would on a balance beam or tightrope. This is a fantastic challenge for the little movers who struggle to concentrate while sitting still, their bodies too antsy to remain seated for too long. If you try this one out, let me know how it goes!  

I love that these activities do not require a literacy station of their own and can easily be incorporated into the other core classroom stations. The word tiles puzzle is a great one to add to a quiet area paired with books and pillows, a work-table, and a run to sprawl out on. The scavenger hunt is perfect for creative play (aka dramatic play or imaginary play). When the kids in my class did this they called themselves the “alphabet detectives,” but they could have just as easily been pirates on an alphabet treasure hunt. The other two activities are great in any indoor and outdoor active play station, something every classroom ought to have where kids can move around and put their crazy energy to good use.

The yoga alphabet poses make for a really effective and participatory group meeting for when the kiddos seem too restless for or disinterested in a more traditional circle time meeting. Really though, the possibilities are endless and they will make all the difference in the world for those students who might otherwise struggle when it comes to learning to read. Constant exposure, even if it’s just adding rocks with letters and/or words painted on them to a sensory tub, can help set certain kids up for success later on just by increasing their exposure to language in such seemingly random and subtle ways. The learning happens whether they realize it or not and helps prevent later stress for children, teachers, and parents alike. 

Alphabet Bean Bag Toss

Check out my Playingwith Language board and other Ed-related ones on Pinterest for more ideas on incorporating literacy development in unexpected ways in the classroom and at home. There are so many more ways to reach kids than just reading books and singing the ABC song and every kid prefers and responds to different ones. When it comes to getting kids interested in reading and writing my motto is always, the more variety the better. This might take a little more effort on my end, but the results are so worth it. There is nothing like seeing a child take those first steps toward learning to read and the more fun we as teachers and parents can make this process the more likely the kids will be to stick with it and fall in love with reading, and thus learning as a whole.

Interest is Everything

My academic career, before I got to college, was all over the place. Throughout the years my record was checkered with a pretty equal distribution of Cs and Bs with a handful of Ds and a couple As here and there, which were almost exclusively in my English classes. I was barely a mediocre student. Although my grades would lead one to believe otherwise, I truly loved to learn and I spent a lot of time outside of school researching, reading, and writing about whatever caught my interest. After a brief unit in 7th grade I was interested in Greek Mythology and read all sorts of books on the subject and spent hours imagining what life in that time period was all about. I put in extra effort into my school work during that unit and wrote essays twice as long as those of my peers because I found the subject so fascinating. During this unit, you could not pull me away from my homework.

When history brought us to the Salem Witchcraft Trials, my eyes were glued to the history channel documentaries everyone else suffered through in class and I went out of my way to read novel after novel about witchcraft and magic and I even pulled out the Encyclopedias to read what they had to say about it all. I have always had a hunger for knowledge but my motivation is born out of interest. When something sparks my interest, all I want to do is read, write, and talk about it. I get so consumed by subjects sometimes that I could spend three days straight locked in my room doing nothing but studying and it is as if no time has gone by. Unfortunately, during those researching binges, the math textbooks and the chemistry worksheets were left neglected in my backpack. I just couldn’t bear to tear myself from the story I was writing, or my beloved mythology book. And when I did attempt to pound out the answers to my math homework, I rushed through them as quickly as possible, often asking friends to copy their answers just so I could get back to my own intellectual pursuits.

Now, I’m not saying that math is not important, because as a researcher, I love and appreciate statistics, now. And I am so thankful for my ability to calculate percentages when I go out to dinner or figure out the sale prices when I’m shopping. What I am saying is that I think there is a better way to teach these skills that is more enjoyable for both teachers and students that is less like trying to pull teeth from a violently terrified child. It wasn’t that I was bad at math either, I was actually quite good at it until algebra happened and I could no longer understand why it was important for me to keep learning it when there were so many more interesting things I could have been studying. Somewhere between 6th and 8th grades, math lost its relevance in my life and thus my interest went right along with it. Simply solving equation after equation, just to find the answer added no noticeable value to my life except that it might earn me a better grade. But to me, grades were just not a strong enough motivator to get me to put down the stories I was reading and writing and focus on something that seemed like little more than a waste of time.

There are many students out there, we all know a few, who are highly motivated by grades, but are these students really learning more about the subjects they are “studying” or are they simply trying to please their teachers and parents, fearful of breaking the social mores of the achievement culture in which we live? This is the kind of learning our system of education currently encourages, just getting things done with all the right answers on tests and homework assignments regardless of what learning actually takes place. Ask most teachers and they will tell you, they would rather their students actually learn, but unfortunately this standardized model of education we have moved towards is in direct contradiction with actual learning. What does it matter how a student scores on a test if everything he learned is forgotten within a few weeks or months of completion?

It may sound cliche, but learning really is about the process rather than the product (ie. grade) and in order to motivate students to really learn, their interests need to be sparked. And we as a society ought to be in favor of such intrinsically motivating educational programs, like the ones that Alfie Kohn and Ken Robinson suggest (the Project Approach, Reggio Emilia and Montessori inspired programs, and the Studio model are great examples). When students are interested, not only do they learn more (and thus accomplish more), but they increase their confidence because they are met with greater success and increase their chances of finding an authentic career. If everyone was able to find the kind of work that they both excelled at and enjoyed, imagine what we as a people could accomplish.

Interest is one of the greatest motivators and unfortunately it is far too often left out of the equation when we discuss education reform. Improvement does not need to be complicated. Allow students more say in what they are learning, how they go about learning it, and how to best represent their knowledge and we will all be amazed by the result. Of course this is not even close to everything I have to say on the subject of interest, or on education reform, but for now, I will leave you to imagine how school might have been different for you, had you been allowed more room to pursue your own intellectual interests and have more of a say in your education. I know for me, it wouldn’t have taken me until college to realize how much I love learning.

A New Adventure

In the world of education, there is always a lot of talk about what to teach and how to teach it, but rarely is the question raised, “why do we teach?” In my search for an answer to this, a few great thinkers have repeatedly left me feeling inspired and excited about my future in education. For one, I am in love with Ken Robinson’s idea of searching for one’s Element, the place in life where our greatest passions and strengths converge. Alfie Kohn’s thoughts on giving students a say in what and how they learn have also heavily influenced my perspective. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence and Isabel Briggs-Myers’ work with personality type are responsible for guiding me toward my true calling as an educator. And of course there is the Reggio Emilia Approach, which is what I have spent the past two years immersing myself in at Bella Mente in Seattle, WA where (up until next week) I have served as a teacher and Curriculum Development Specialist.



When I was growing up, school was a major source of anxiety for me because I wasn’t very good at it. It was not that I didn’t try or that I wasn’t smart or capable, but I just was not interested in it much of a time and I was one of those kids whom you could not get to sit still for more than a few minutes unless I was intrinsically motivated to do so. In my graduate research on learning style I realized that our current public school system is designed for a very specific type of learner and because I did not fit that mold, the cards were stacked against me from the beginning. So I spent my entire pre-college career anxious, embarrassed, and believing that I was not a “good student” because I did not get good grades and school did not come easily to me.

Flash forward to my first semester in college (I went here and then here) and suddenly everyone was asking me for help with their homework, ME! I was in shock. Reading and analyzing texts, writing papers, and having meaningful discussions about the issues and ideas I cared most about meant that I could finally shine as a student. So what was the difference? Well, in college I chose what I was learning, so my intrinsic motivation skyrocketed, and I was able to process information and demonstrate my knowledge in ways that were far more authentic for me. I felt for the first time, that school was easy. Looking back, I feel a bit jipped. It wasn’t fair that I had to wait until my education cost me $20,000 (or more) per year to finally start enjoying myself and finding success. So now I am doing what I can to create a more positive academic experience for future students.

Philosophy of education may be an obscure field, as most people who go to school do so for the training. I, on the other hand, have always been a theory junky. I want to know as much as I can about how people learn so that I can increase the chances of students finding success in school and later in life. Through my research, I have come to the understanding that one of the most important factors in determining how well a people will learn something (anything) is how much it sparks their interest. Searching for ways to make education more authentic and effective is what sparks my interest so this blog is my chance to share what I have found.

Everyone deserves to find success and enjoyment in school and not share my unnecessarily miserable experience, and not just for personal satisfaction but for the good of our society. People who are passionate about what they do (in work and school) end up happier, healthier, and more productive and that is just what America needs right now in this turbulent era of change and uncertainty. Although I might seem crazy for leaving a secure, well-paying job to set out on my own for a while, I am so excited to at last be doing the work that makes me come most come alive. Because really, what else is there?