This reminds me of the mist metaphor in Mrs. Dalloway where Clarissa felt pieces of her soul in every person she knew. Her soul was a mist that spread far and wide, a constant connection to others. It also reminds me of a conspiracy board crisscrossed with red yarn. Each connection adds to the understanding of any given theory. Which then reminds me of the six degrees of separation.

My pod and ODA group have been talking a lot about how we might present videos and photos back to the children. Do we digitally project our documentation of them? Or we've talked about creating transparencies of their pictures so they could draw on them and use our old-school projector. We haven't really experimented with this yet, at least not on the days I work, but I'm excited to try it out.

I see confusion in my children's eyes all the time and this is a great way to think about those moments. Their confusion rarely ends their experience and if it does then its just to ask a teacher for help. And asking for help in itself is not an end to the experience, its the children looking for different perspectives and ideas of how to manipulate objects of interest.

I'm really trying to make sure I use the same style of teaching in my own class. I love how it gives an example of how to step back while still teaching and being involved in the children's learning processes.

I sometimes struggle with my patience in the classroom. I often want to show them how its done instead of waiting for them to figure it out. Although, I could say that this is scaffolding because I'm modeling the actions necessary to complete a task. I do, at least, try my very best not to take objects out of their hands to show them, I use other similar objects that are around me.

While trying to figure out what our toddlers are trying to communicate, we have noticed how quickly their route of communication is changing. All of our children are adept at pointing and now many of them are getting more and more vocal through a series of expanding grunts. Some of them are getting better at identifying and saying names. Some are very adept at using sign language, others have their own versions that we have come to recognize. We celebrate every new development no matter how small in our class.

I've found it hard not the make discoveries for the children. Just the other day, I showed a child how to use a spray bottle before waiting for him to figure it out on his own. At which point are we scaffolding, and at which point are we overstepping?

Live in that dissonance! There have been many times when my plans were disrupted by a child who wanted extra attention that day. We just have to learn how to be ultra flexible and adaptable.

We always consider this true of adults, but then it made me think of when the parents mention that their child hardly slept the night before, or if they were in a certain mood that morning. Each child has their own outer and inner lives that they bring into the classroom each day and its usually easy to tell when a child's emotions are out of wack.

Sometimes our friends will say "mamma" while they're playing and maybe it just means they're thinking about their moms rather than wanting their moms to pick them up at that moment. Especially when moms are mentioned almost in passing without tears or looking forlornly out the windows.

I definitely need to work on this for myself. I get frustrated when things don't turn out exactly like I wanted them to and I don't always have the patience or emotional self-possession required to try it again. Hopefully I'll be able to help coach children in this concept, even if I can't internalize the concept for myself.

All I can see whenever this concept is mentioned is a segment of Pink Floyd's The Wall In case you haven't seen it, here's the clip. Warning, its a bit unsettling, but it has nothing in comparison to many of the other scenes in the film.

This is why we blog! In the video, the daily activities were posted on paper outside the classroom, but I think the blogs are more effective in terms of leisurely perusal and posterity.

We document so we can figure out how to best set up provocations and learning experiences for the next day or week, etc., but its just as important to share the documentation with parents so they can feel more connected to their children's daily lives away from home.

More formal education should be an extension of what children learn at home and vise versa. But this synergy cannot exist without parental involvement in the school and their willingness to share their at-home culture.

I like the idea that education is just as important as shelter, nourishment and safety. I suppose it is nourishment of the mind and allows children to learn how to participate in the larger community to procure solutions for their own needs.