Lately I’ve become frustrated with observing classrooms in which Center or Choice Time has become Free Play With Teachers Preparing Parent-Loving Crafts (ugh), Running Errands, Lesson Planning, Doing One-on-One Child Activities While the Assistant Teacher Handles Potty, Cleanup, and Supervision of All Children From a Single Central Location Time. Many teachers feel this is “TEACHING”. If so, then, please –

STOP TEACHING and START. . .

Being Present, physically, emotionally, and educationally. Your physical presence, participating fully in every part of the day, offers your children the security and safety needed for their wellbeing and high quality learning. Your emotional presence,  presenting a sense of warmth, humor, and respect for each child, builds self-esteem and the ability to intrinsically motivate interest, curiosity, and a desire to learn. Your educational presence has to do with your bringing your best child development knowledge and DAP to the learning process and environment every day.

Being Aware of what each child is doing as they learn. This means:

• Watching – looking for learning opportunities & recognizing when learning occurs
• Listening – with ACTIVE, eyeball to eyeball, mouth to ear, respectful attitude, and undivided attention
• Having REAL Conversations – taking the time to communicate personally with each child every day

Being Smart about your responsibilities as an Early Educator. This calls for:

• Acting as a Resource for facts, language, concepts, and assistance AS NEEDED ONLY
• Asking questions (What if? How did you? How might you?)
• Recording, Dictating, and Posting THEIR words about what & how they’re learning
• Assessing Strengths and Needs without formal testing
• Relinquishing the ownership of the learning to the children
• Understanding and Believing that the best learning comes from child-centered, child-chosen purposeful play with the Human Factor

Being Present, Aware, and Smart are expecially vital at Choice Time.Choice Time is the meat of the preschool sandwich. It should be offered for a minimum of 1/3rd of the total hours of the day. It is the prime time of learning in which the teachers must be fully engaged, involved, and participating.

Every day there are opportunities to generate more learning from both the Routine (coming & going, eating, pottying) and the Curricular (Community/Circle, Purposeful Play/Center Time, Group Time) elements of the day. These opportunities should be recognized and taken advantage of as they can be instances of high quality learning and practical use of each of the Learning Methods (Movement, Manipulation, Sensory Operations, Construction, Role Play, and Expression) and more specifically in problem-solving, logic, deduction, math, science, social studies, and if used well, literacy. Their spontaneity and child-centeredness of stretchers and squeezers makes them relevant and developmentally appropriate, so they are automatically correct experiences for young children.

First, teachers must STOP, LOOK, AND LISTEN! Dont be in such a hurry to “TEACH” stuff that you forget what the children are in the progress of learning automatically and intrinsically on their own. Observe them in every part of the day as they move, manipulate, think, create, imitate, imagine, and express themselves. Listen to their conversations and have meaningful conversations with them. Watch for learning moments or make learning moments from their play.

Rather than answering all their questions and solving all their problems, ask them open-ended questions to encourage their ownership of situations. You might even formally and purposefully plan (on your Weekly/Monthly Plan) challenges, problems, concerns, and quests and spend the week solving them using the children’s Learning Methods.

Some Real Life Examples:

• Babies: Teacher rolled a ball across the floor and said, “I wonder what else will roll?” Teacher and babies tried to roll toys of various shapes across the floor and talked about why some things roll and some do not. Comparison/contrast/shape, physics and fun.
• Toddlers:  Child threw a ball in the air and it landed on the canopy over the sandbox. Teacher said, “Uh oh. Where did that ball go? Can you find it?” Toddlers looked on the ground and then up in the air. Teacher said, “I think it may be on the canopy. Can you see it?” Toddler climbed up the stairs of the climber so he could see the ball. “It there!”, he said. Teacher said, “How can we get it down?” Toddlers said, “Hit it off, Teacher!” Teacher could not reach it so Toddlers said, “Get the broom or a tree stick and poke it. Science, logic, perspective, deduction, invention, use of tools – and great delight when the ball came down.
• 2-3’s: Plastic window bird feeder with suction cups kept falling off the window. Child said, “Oh, no! How will the birds eat?” Teacher said, “You will need to help me figure that out, but until we do, look out the window. Where else can the birds get the seeds?” Children discussed a hanging bird feeder, tree branches, outdoor mud kitchen bowls, and the ground as being good dining places for the birds. Community, sharing of ideas, memory, identification skills – and such relief that the birds would be fed.
• 4-5’s: A disagreement broke out about rug space for large block constructions. When the children complained to the teacher, she said, “There doesn’t seem to be enough space for all of you. Please take care of that yourselves.” Children returned to block area to talk and after ten minutes of ‘wrangling’ had marked off sections of the room with masking tape and string, divided up the blocks and added materials from the Art area, and each team of builders had enough space. Expression, planning, problem-solving – Voila!

Each of these examples could have been stretched or squeezed more had the teachers written down a description of what occurred, some of the children’s words, or had the children talk, draw, or write about it later.

 

Remember these guys and the song they sang as they marched off to the mines? Except for Grumpy, they were a happy community of responsible hard-working little fellows.

We want our communities of learners to be happy and responsible too, and one of the best ways to assure this is to give each and every member ownership of the environment, the atmosphere, their behavior, and their learning.

I’d like teachers to assure that each child has a specific job each day (see past blogs)

https://teachsinger.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/best-jobs-ever     https://teachsinger.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/more-work

But I also want teachers to try to have the children do much of the extraneous ‘busy’ work that keeps teachers from quality and quantity time interacting with the children in meaningful ways like personal conversations, listening, observing them as they work.

Here are the children’s Routine responsibilities throughout the day. Please allow them to learn to participate in them (even though you think it may be easier to do it yourself to save time). Use your knowledge of DAP to determine expectations for ability & understanding. Begin to show them how to do this in the first days of school. Guide, lead, model, and remind them until the routines become expected and natural.

• Wear their backpacks and carry their lunch boxes by themselves
• Place backpacks in place on arrival, sorting papers for teachers, placing snacks, lunch boxes, and water bottles in appropriate places
• Wash hands
• Choose a staged activity or join together for morning Community (Circle) Time
• Listen and express ideas, opinions, memories, stories, & words
• Sing, dance, chant, recite, or participate in Community Time activities
• Choose an area for Purposeful Play
• Take action in Purposeful Play
• Make decisions for peaceful Purposeful Play
• Reorganize environment when requested
• Wash hands and take care of personal hygiene (developmentally)
• Prepare for snack, eat, listen, talk, reflect on the morning’s activities, and clean up
• Transition to other experiences
• Participate in experiences in other locations
• Prepare for lunch, eat, listen, talk, reflect, and clean up
• Prepare for dismissal (gather belongings)

These are the children’s educational responsibilities during the day:

• Use large muscles
• Use small muscles
• Use the senses and deduction (logic) to make decisions about the sensations
• Plan, build, take apart, rebuild, and build something new
• Use imitation and imagination
• Use art, music, dance, drama, and spoken & written word as self-expression
• Select where, what, and how to take Action in Purposeful Play
• Take Action in Purposeful Play
• Reflect on the Action taken
• Apply the learning from the Action to repeated and new strengths
• Listen and follow directions

That’s a lot to do, so don’t forget to Whistle While You Work!