My mom's garden in Dorset, my playground for the summer :)
In the past two weeks I have been in Hawaii, Seattle, Boston, Connecticut, and Vermont. My baby sister graduated high school (making me feel quite old), my hang-gliding instructor brother whom I hadn't seen in two and a half years (insanely too long) visited from Santa Barbara, CA with his girlfriend, and my fiance Dylan went out of town to visit family and friends without me for the first time in years. It has been a crazy fourteen days and I've been a bit overwhelmed, which is why I've been so absent lately. I am still settling in here in Vermont, a place I haven't called home in years, so my brain is a bit jumbled, making it hard to come up with anything new. So instead, I've decided to share a gem of a video that has been on my mind lately. I can't believe I haven't shared Stuart Brown anywhere on the Sparks site yet, but now is as good a time as any right?
Sad to leave the many playgrounds of Hawaii
Dr. Stuart Brown is the founder of the National Institute for Play, a non-profit dedicated to "bringing the unrealized knowledge, practices and benefits of play into public life." His research is astounding and inspiring, putting scientific data and articulate explanations behind all my thoughts and feelings about the importance of play, not only in early childhood education, but in life as a whole for human beings of all ages. When I stumbled upon the Dr. Brown's TedTalk titled "Serious Play" (shown below) which he presented at the 2008 Art Center Design Conference, I was absolutely ecstatic. I've always know that play was important, I've heard Teacher Tom talk about it on his blog time and again, Lauren and I discussed it time and again at Bella Mente, and I've felt it in my own experience as a teacher, student, and human being, but I've never been able to back up how I felt with much more than my own opinion and anecdotal evidence.
This is fine for some people, but many are skeptical of the role of play in education, thanks to rote learning and an over emphasis of standardization and testing being the norm in traditional schooling. And before I am a teacher, I am a researcher at heart, it's where I got my start in education as a serious career and it is an important part of who I am, how I learn, and how I share my information. So needless to say, discovering Dr. Brown's work and the Institute for Play was like striking gold for me. Enough of me ranting, I'll let you check it out for yourself. Here's the talk, and definitely check out the website for the Institute linked above and learn more about the importance of play for your children, the children you work with, and everyone else in the world. Dr. Brown says, "the opposite of play is not work, it's depression," so for your own mental health, get outside and play around for a while, whatever you love doing, take some time today and go do it! I'm going to head out to work in the garden with my sister, and then maybe dance around shamelessly to some guilty pleasure music while I design and organize my new living space. It feels good to be home.
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.
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.
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.
A few weeks ago, when we first arrived in Hawaii, Dylan and
I drove passed this amazing playground a few miles north of the “downtown” area
of Captain Cook. I could not take my eyes from the spectacular and elaborate
play structure as we drove by. The kid in me wanted to jump out of the car and
play and play and play. The adult in me decided that we would definitely be
making a trip back there to check it out soon. So about a week later, Dylan
agreed to take me to the playground. This place is epic and I took a ton of
pictures. I could imagine hours of playtime here as a kid; there was so much to
explore. This got me thinking about the importance of a good outdoor play area.
Harold H. Higashihara Park in Honalo, Hawaii
In the classroom, there is hardly ever the space to run
around and build those large motor skills, which is what outside time is
typically used for. In an indoor/outdoor classroom, where children have free
range to go in and out as they please, kids get the chance to move and run
according to the needs of their own bodies. Luckily, here at the farm my
outside time with K can happen just about whenever she wants. K is able to tune
into her body’s natural cravings and run around when she’s in the mood to and
relax with a book or puzzle or do some drawing when she is feeling like laying
low. It helps too, that it is just she and I most of the time and so she
doesn’t have to factor in the interests of a whole classroom of kids when
deciding where and what to play.
Castle structure at the park, there is another 2 story tube slide in the back of this, it is so fun!
Anyway, once I began to feel settled in and K and I were
fairly comfortable with one another, I started thinking more deeply about her
developmental needs and the areas I used to build in previous classrooms to
accommodate and facilitate well-rounded skill development. Although we have the
opportunity to be outside and run around whenever we want to, there was not a
lot by way of structure to our outside time. In other words, K didn’t have a
lot of resources to work her larger motor skills, just a small jungle gym. Her
parents were well aware of this and had been planning to put in some kind of
play structure soon. Then last weekend, after a trip to town they came home
with a pile of huge boxes that contained the parts to K’s new wooden playhouse,
fully equipped with a slide, swing-set, and picnic table. That weekend, all the
men of the farm gathered together and put it together.
K’s mom, H, had really wanted to design her own play house
and had been researching ideas for months, but K was quickly growing and there
were still so many other projects waiting to be tackled on the farm. In the
end, H accepted that she couldn’t possibly do everything and so she let go of
her desire to create this thing from scratch and go with a pretty amazing
pre-designed play-set. K seems to be thrilled about this decision because after
her Papa and Uncles worked all weekend long, she has spent at least half of our
time together exploring her new space. K’s larger motor skills, I have noticed,
have taken a huge leap this week as well, thanks to so many new opportunities
to develop them on the play-set, not to mention what it has added to the depth
of her creative play.
Since we have started playing on her new structure, I have
noticed K’s arms have gotten significantly stronger. She has challenged herself
and tested her bravery on the rock-wall and slide, and she has felt the thrill
of the wind in her hair as she swings higher and higher, slowly learning to
pump her legs so she doesn’t require a push to get moving. These are all huge
strides for K, particularly since she has such a slight frame to begin with.
The chance to develop her strength has opened up all kinds of new possibilities
for K and she already seems like a bigger, more mature little girl in just a
single week of play.
The strongest evidence that this play-set is helping her
develop in so many ways, is K’s conquering of the rock-wall. This presented the
greatest challenge at the beginning of the week. K was almost immediately able
to climb up the ladder to reach the upper level of the playhouse and access the
slide, but the rock-wall was a bit more complicated. She tried it a little bit
each day and either got scared asking, “help down,” or frustrated when she got
stuck. You see, K is a very methodical little girl; she plans everything down
to the smallest detail, like what spoon she would like to use and which pants
she feels like wearing. When things do not follow her plan, she can get pretty
upset. My Myers-Briggs background tells me that this is a pretty strong
indicator of a preference for Judgment (not to be mistaken with judgmental) verses Perceiving as a way to organize her outer world.
Knowing this about K, I allow her to make her own decisions
whenever possible and appropriate so that she can maintain some internal
homeostasis and control over her environment and her participation in it. This
helps us to avoid unnecessary conflict and build a stronger, more trusting
relationship.When the times arise
that I do insisting on things like putting on sunscreen, shoes, or a hat when
spending time in the sun and walking on rougher turf, she is more willing to
work with me rather than breaking down. Anyway, when it came to the rock-wall,
K got frustrated when she would start climbing up and get stuck, unable to
proceed because she started too far to one side and had no place to put her other
foot. She wanted to do it herself and was not always interested in my advice
while she was mid-climb. Then yesterday, her dad was able to explain to her how
to plan your steps ahead of time and it was as if something clicked within her.
Today, at the play set, K started up the ladder, made it up
about half-way, changed her mind, climbed back down and positioned herself in
front of the rock-wall. I remarked, “you want to try the rock-wall again, ok.”
K looked up at me, and then back at the rock-wall and I watched as she started
out. She grabbed her first hold and then her second, looking down at the ones
below and pulling herself up so that her feet were off the ground. I was
immediately impressed as previously she put her feet up first struggling to pull
her weight with just her arms. She ran into her usual problem of getting to far
to one side but instead of asking for help, she climbed back down and stared at
the wall for a moment before selecting a different hold and heading back up the
wall again. I was in awe of her determination and concentration, not to mention
her clearly noticeable technique.
It was as if K now saw the wall as a puzzle, something she
needed to figure out before jumping in. This girl is a puzzle master so it is
no surprise that this shift in her approach suddenly gave her the confidence
and determination to make it to the top. Once K started up the wall for the
second time, she did so with an intensity and level of concentration that I had
yet to see from her. She took her time and selected each hold with purpose. I
said very little as she climbed, standing close in case she lost her grip. I
did not want to disrupt the careful calculations that were clearly taking place
in K’s mind as she proceeded in her ascent to the top. In almost no time at
all, she had reached the yellow bar at the side of the playhouse second floor
and pulled herself up, standing triumphantly at the top. She turned to me
beaming with pride as I began cheering and jumping up and down with genuine
excitement.
“Hooray, you made it up the rock-wall! You did it all by
yourself! I am so amazed and proud of you! Hooray!” I shouted. I have never
seen a bigger smile on K’s face and she too threw her arms up in the air and
shouted an enthusiastic “hooray!” along with me. It was a beautiful moment for
both of us and K continued to climb the rock-wall another 4 times after that,
making it hard to believe that she ever struggled to figure it out. Today,
thanks to the rock-wall, K experienced a level of physical mastery that will
likely leave a lasting impact on her and I know I will remember that moment for
a long time to come.
Each time K climbs up, she is reminded of her own strength,
capability, and determination. She learned how to analyze the situation before
proceeding and take advantage of her natural strength in this area. Not only is
this play-set providing K the opportunity to develop her physical strength, but
a valuable lesson in problem solving. She has a highly analytical and
methodical mind and the rock-wall allowed her to tap into this inner strength
and make it work for her, experiencing the joy of succeeding in something she
worked so hard at. Perhaps next time she is faced by another major challenge,
she will recall her experience on the rock-wall and learn how to tap into her
natural strengths to help her through it with greater ease. As for me, I will
surely be reminding her of her accomplishment, helping her recognize and
utilize her strength within.
Not long before I left Bella Mente, my beloved preschool in West Seattle, I was presented with the opportunity to explain to someone exactly what it is that we do, as teachers at our school, in a very, brief and practical statement. It was the very first time one of our newer teachers stepped into our 4s classroom as an employee and she asked me what she should do. “Well,” I thought for a moment, “you just get in there and play.” Because that is where we do much of our teaching with our preschoolers. Yes, we do run a handful of meetings throughout the day, but the bulk of what we do as teachers to impart on our students the wisdom we wish them to carry as they grow, is through play. This is how you get to know children, you play right alongside them and most of the time, they’ll want to join your game, or want you to join theirs, or even just stand beside you or snuggle in your arms as the two of you watch the others play.
It is through play that kids get to know one another, and it is through play that we adults can find the doors into their secret worlds. If you want to understand a child, get yourself down to his/her level and ask them about their play. Ask questions, get to know them as people. Kids, even the shy ones, have so much to say and all they really want is for someone to genuinely listen to them. As a teacher, the best way to show children that they are both interesting and important, is by taking an interest in their activities and sharing in their experiences. All anyone really wants is to feel heard and be understood. Children are no different. This desire does not emerge in adolescence alongside acne and body odor, we all want to be heard, to spend time with someone who genuinely enjoys our company. So, one of the most important parts of my job as a teacher is to make a connection with each of my students, to figure out what makes them interesting and unique. I do this simply by playing.
