fully. The list offered above can be amended, added to, and perhaps also reduced. I suggest that it could be useful for leaders, staff, and parents to come together to create their own list of answers to the question: "What experiences should our children have much of the time in their early years, and no doubt in their later years as well
Love this idea, I would love to bring this question to the teachers at my school during our next staff meeting and to our parents.
Occa-sional experiences of that kind are likely to support the development of the disposition to seek in-depth understanding throu
This reminds me of the goal of many ECE centers to develop life long learners, such a wonderful goal!
"Awesome;' "Super;' "Well done;' and many other positive, but empty phrases. Research on this 'over-justification effect' indicates that frequent praise lacking in content does not increase the desired behavior as well as does occasional, but informative, feedback.
Such a good reminder, I often find myself using these phrases especially in "busy" moment when I don't take the time to truly give the child my full attention. I remember attending a professional development session on this and really tried to focus on this afterwards but I admit I have fallen back into bad habits and this was a wonderful reminder of what I learned!
What experiences should all children have much of the time?" (not every minute). In other words, what standards of experience should we provide for our young children?
Love this way rewording and looking at how we approach "standards" in early childhood education, becomes much more about the experience of the child while in an ECE setting rather than getting this to a predetermined end point!
And finally we wonder what support and understanding these propositions might reeive in the current cultural and educational approach toward children's learning of today.
This is such a powerful point, how do we get the society and powers that be in America to recognize the importance of ECE and receive the support we, the families, and children we serve so desperately need.
Therefore, schools have a new task: rather than child-minding they have to open up to observation, research and experimentation by teachers who, together with children, participate in constructing a new culture of education.
I love this qoute as it shows the importance of Early Childhood Education and removes us from the common definition of Daycare or Babysitters.
They reread the notes and hypothesize that the adults need to “push the children further into the disorder that they have created” as a way to accentuate the contradictions of their thinking. Perhaps this will help the children progress in their understanding.
This is such a wonderful approach, rather than giving the children the answer the teacher challenges the children's thinking and encourages them to solve the problem on their own!
he teacher is not expected to figure out what she should be doing all by herself. She always works in collaboration with other adults.
This collaboration is so vital, I am reflecting on how we can incorporate and encourage more collaboration in our school between our teachers?
Systematic documentation allows each teacher to become a producer of research—that is, someone who generates new ideas about curriculum and learning, rather than being merely a consumer of certainty and tradition.
This idea of the teacher as a researcher is so important and vital to the growth and learning of both the teacher and the children.
In reliving earlier moments via photography and tape recording, children are deeply reinforced and validated for their efforts and pro-vided a boost to memory that is critical at their young age.
I love that this makes the focus of documentation on the children and not just on making a pretty display for adults and parents!
Reggio educators believe in shared control between teachers and children.
How can we help our teachers to understand this idea of sharing the control in the classroom and that by sharing the control in the classroom richer learning experiences will emerge!
for the game to continue, the skills of the adult and child need appropriate adjustments to allow the growth through learning of the skills of the child
I find it interesting this repeated emphasis not just on the children growing but also on the teacher, such an interesting shift in thinking about education!
What kind of teachers are needed by our children—those real individuals in the classrooms of today?
What a powerful question ask!
The educators in Reggio Emilia often say that young children are powerful, active, competent protagonists of their own growth.
What a beautiful image of children they have!
The role of teacher as curriculum planner changes to the role of the teacher as a co-constructor of knowledge.• The role of the teacher as program planner emphasizes the role of creator of the environment as a third teacher.• The role of the teacher in facilitating play changes to the role of the teacher as an exchanger of understandings.• The role of providing guidance changes to the role of the teacher as a supporter of the competent child.• The role of the teacher as an observer is extended to documenter andresearcher.• The role of the teacher as parent educator changes to the role of the teacher as a partner with parents.• The role of communicator with outside audiences changes to the role of the teacher as listener, provocateur, and negotiator of meaning
What a beautiful way to think about the role of the teacher and to reframe our thinking, I am going to post this in my office as a reminder!
These children were speaking about the dependence on adults that arises, not from lack of competence, but from their small stature in an adult-sized world.
I've often considered this, how would it feel to live in a world where everything is more or less inaccessible to you. How frustrating it must be to not be able to do for yourself not because of lack of competence but because everything is placed just out of your reach!
Children's assertions that sadness and anger were not okay may stem from their awareness that these emotions were not always okay with their parents or teachers or peers, or that being angry or sad did not feel okay to them. The children nevertheless might have believed that they had a right to be angry and sad as well as happy.
What a powerful reminder about the messages we communicate to children about their emotions, even the messages we may not be aware of. Everyone feels sad and angry at one point or another, we must focus more on how to handle these emotion and not on how to not feel it!
10 Seen and Heard So it does not depend on the age of the teller, but on the sensitivity of the listener. A newborn baby is l oking in your eyes, making silent questions, asking for cooperation for building a common world. That is the beginning of stories. (reported in Alderson, 2000b, pp. 26-27) The literal meaning of "infant" is unable to speak, but children's "voices" can be heard from birth, provided adults take the time and effort to listen (Pugh & Selleck, 1996, p. 123). Researching the ideas of young children requires indirect methods of inquiry; one cannot simply ask children to talk about rights (Langsted, 1994; see also Clark & Moss, 2001). Nevertheless, children of all ages offer valuable insights about rights, if society oon become attuned to children's ways of communicating (McLeod, 2008). LISTENING TO YOUNG CHILDREN A children's rights movement must be as much about "adult ears" as it is about "children's voices"
Love this statement, we as adults must be open to hearing what children are telling us!
filled with adult ideas, including ideas about their rights. The Charter on Chil-dren's Rights makes clear that young children have important insights into the issue of children's rights and how it pertains to their own l
What a powerful statement!
Children have a right to tell parents and teachers to help them if they have a big problem
What a wonderful example of children wanting the right to give consent to receive help and not receiving help when they can do it for themselves!
The children discussed their ideas until they agreed on statements made by two children. One child stated, "A right is like you know in your heart it's okay to do it ... you can do it if you want and that's it." Another child added, "But only if it's okay, like you won't hurt somebody and it's not safe . . . because the other person has a right to not be hurt too, right?·
Love this idea, what a wonderful way to engage children in a discussion and get to know the mind of a child clearer!
What childrenwant is to be observed while engaged, they do notwant the focus of the observation to be on the finalproduct. When we as adults are able to see thechildren in the process, it’s as if we are opening awindow and getting a fresh view of things.
What a wonderful statement, definitely something to reflect on. How many times do we observe only when the work is done (i.e. a child presents us with a finished products...a structure they built, a drawing they created, etc.) and how much more learning could happen if we observed the whole process
All of this is a great forest. Inside the forest is thechild. The forest is beautiful, fascinating, green, andfull of hopes; there are no paths. Although it isn’teasy, we have to make our own paths, as teachersand children and families, in the forest. Sometimeswe find ourselves together within the forest, some-times we may get lost from each other, sometimeswe’ll greet each other from far away across the forest;but it’s living together in this forest that is important.And this living together is not easy.
What a beautiful analogy!
All of this changes the role of the teacher, a role thatbecomes much more difficult and complex. It alsomakes the world of the teacher more beautiful,something to become involved in
This is so important, teachers have to be willing to relinquish the role of creator of knowledge and instead take on the role of co-learner with the children. This can be hard to do for those that have carried the former role for so long that they have become accustomed to it. I think it would be helpful to have a framework to help work through this for teachers and help them more deeply examine their approach to teaching and learning in the classroom.
This theory within you pushes you to behave incertain ways; it orients you as you talk to the child,listen to the child, observe the child. It is verydifficult for you to act contrary to this internal image.For example, if your image is that boys and girls arevery different from one another, you will behavedifferently in your interactions with each of them.
This is such a powerful statement and one that I want to reflect on further. What does my image of the child orient me to see and observe about children? What in my image of the child am I not aware of or how can/should I change my views to create a stronger image of the child?
theymakechildrenawarethattheireffortisvalued;andfurthermore
This is such an important point, I think that often documentation is considered important for the parents and teachers but we sometimes forget the importance of its role in the students lives and perceptions.
heyarenotconsideredconsumersbutco-responsiblepartners.
Love this, I think too often in early childhood centers parents are viewed as "customers" and center act as though early childhood education is a service they are buying. How do we move past this and create a co-responsibility with parents? How do we create a true partnership?
Atthesametime,though,theycontinuetoformulatenewinterpretationsandnewhypothesesandideasaboutlearningandteachingthroughtheirdailyobservationsandpracticeoflearningalongwiththechildren
Such an important point to remember, the work is ongoing, we must constantly be evaluating our work to ensure we are doing what is best for the children and families