1. To be a more creative teacher
- One way I am working on this is to start learning stories.
- Here are some of the resources I read to help build my understanding.
- NAEYC Teaching Young Children- http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/learning-stories
- My ECE- http://www.myece.org.nz/educational-curriculum-aspects/227-learning-stories
- Teacher Tom Drummond's Blog- http://tomdrummond.com/looking-closely-at-children/writing-learning-stories/
- Aussie Child Care Network- http://aussiechildcarenetwork.com.au/articles/childcare-programming/how-to-write-a-learning-stories
- I tried my first learning story today. It felt very personal to write to a child like that. I regularly take anecdotal notes and the learning story gave more purpose to my notes. There is often important aspects of each child that is not fully reflected in progress reports and in portfolios (at least the way I've been doing portfolios). I love these learning stories as an addition to portfolios to show the different complexities of the children. It also is an amazing connection to families. Being at a school where many parents don't speak the same language as me has made it hard to create the bonds I normally experience with families. I believe the way learning stories show the uniqueness of each child in a focused, positive way will help build a stronger connection with families.
- As I continue, I wonder how will I ensure each child will be featured? Some children are quite reserved and quiet, and I want to highlight their strengths as well. I also wonder how often I can write learning stories. I want to set a goal of one learning story for each child once a month. However, I also want to have flexibility in that because I'm not sure how it will develop. In addition, I wonder about featuring learning stories on my classroom blog. I think because it is always a positive depiction that it should be okay, but on the other hand, it is a deeply personal image that families may be uncomfortable sharing with others.
- It has been hard to make learning stories a prioriety as of lately. As the year starts coming to an end, I want to have a learning story for each child in their portfolios. I think writing it in my lesson plan may help me prioritize it.
- Here are some of the resources I read to help build my understanding.
- I am also working on how to make the materials I have promote discovery, curiosity, and creativity.
- One material I have utilized several times has been tissue paper, cut into various small pieces. We have made collages for various activities and also did color printing. For some projects, the children have just had tissue paper as an option among other materials.
- I set up a provocation with various materials for the children to create a spider or insect for a large collaborative spider web. I set out scissors, paper, tissue paper, cotton balls, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, markers, and shredded newspaper. The first group of children were very confined to using paper. Even with encouragement to create a 3-d object, the children continued to use paper to draw spiders. The next day, I didn't place the paper within the provocation. Although the children know they can use materials in other places throughout the classroom, simply not supplying the paper helped with their creativity. They made spiders with cotton ball bodies and popsicle legs, tissue paper bodies and newspaper legs, etc.
- I have also used the sensory table as a way to promote discovery. Water, sand, dirt, salt, and rice have been used on many open-ended activities.
- I often find myself resorting to simple questions of knowledge and comprehension. After reading this article from NAEYC I found inspiration to find more challenging questions. I changed my lesson plans to include what book I will read each day and a list of questions that go beyond knowledge and comprehension. As I continue to plan with higher thinking questions, I believe I will be able to become more fluent and apply it to the spur-of-the-moment questions throughout the day. http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/files/tyc/file/V9N1/TYC9.1_blooms_article.pdf
- I started to have reflection meetings with my class. It is a good way to end the day by revisiting centers, games, or moments through pictures and videos. Many children are very engaged and enjoy seeing themselves. Supporting the children to think about how things are going, making plans for tomorrow, and thinking about adjustments or changes has been a challenging, yet rewarding process. For ESL students, they sometimes need to answer in their home language; then it is repeated for their confirmation in English. The difficulty right now is attention spans. I keep the meetings short, 10-15 minutes; however, the children are still building these reflective skills. In time I believe we will be able to reach a deeper level of reflection.
- I have also implemented a website called Mind Yeti into our daily routine. Mind Yeti is a mindfulness approach that I use throughout the day, but in particular before nap time to help calm and relax the children. I see a huge improvement in nap time. The children are quiet and calm and many go to sleep that were not sleeping before.
- I think I have grown in my disciplining in an ESL classroom. I started using deep breaths to help the children develop mindfulness. Lunch time was often a crazy time. So I decided instead of approaching the problems as they occurred during lunch, I would try to help them calm down before they enter the classroom. So all the children take deep breaths before they enter for lunch. If a child seems extra rambunctious, I ask them to take a few more breaths so that they are calm. Once everyone is in the classroom, if there are problems, instead of getting angry, I just ask them if they need to go back outside of the classroom to take more breaths and calm down. This had made a nice, positive effect on both me and the children.