I've been feeling a bit inadequate when faced with questions about children's readiness to transition to various age-groups or to school.
Studies have shown that retaining children once they have started school is detrimental to their wellbeing and has no positive benefit for their learning. This makes the decision of whether or not to retain children before school age all the more important. As most early childhood teachers working in pre-school settings have not worked in the early years of primary school I wonder how they can be qualified to advise parents in this regard.
The general consensus seems to be that children must be confident communicators and able to follow more than one instruction at a time. They must have the desire to learn, the ability to focus on a task and the ability to regulate their behaviour while doing so. They must have the emotional regulation to be able to separate from their parents and to conform to the expectations of the setting, and the social development to be able to fit in with their peers. They must also have the physical and emotional stamina to cope with five full days in an educational setting.
I have seen children in early primary school who have difficulty focussing on learning, but more typically I have seen five year olds in pre-school settings who have outgrown the informal learning environment and are therefore under-stimulated and disruptive. Recent studies are showing that quality teaching has more impact on children's successful learning than previously thought, so it's possible that children might receive benefit in either situation if quality teaching is occurring and learning is tailored to meet children's needs.
What concerns me is that some teachers seem overly zealous in diagnosing deficiencies in normal, healthy children of pre-school age and suggesting the need to retain them in three or four year old kindergarten. It seems that they feel more valid as educators if they can be seen to discover problems and fix them. The concern is that this may be particularly hurtful to parents who begin to see their children as less than perfect and start to blame themselves or their parenting.
Children vary in the temperaments that they're born with, and in their personalities that develop over time due to external experiences. Children will draw on a variety of skills in order to succeed in school depending on these innate abilities. I'd suggest looking at children's ages and cognitive abilities, encouraging a love of learning and children's positive identities as learners, and building their confidence in knowing that they can take care of their physical, social and emotional needs independently. Also, if you don't feel like an expert, refrain from passing yourself off as an expert. Encourage parents to get a second opinion. They will appreciate your honesty.
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Saturday, 13 July 2013
'I thought you did it for me, Mamma'
Are we allowing children enough space for their interests to unfold naturally?
Wow, wow, wow! Beg, borrow or buy a ticket to see Caroline O'Connor as Mamma Rose in Gypsy because she is incredible! (and I've seen Patti Lupone on Broadway. She was fabulous too). The whole show is incredible. I didn't realize row EE was the front row, so I had the view of a lifetime. I saw sweat, tears, and other unmentionable body parts in g-strings. Amazing! The message in Gypsy, however, is loud and clear. If you choose your children's paths in life there's a high likelihood that they will resent you or even leave you in their struggle to find who they really are.
I think children should have the opportunity to experience as much as your time and money affords. I think they should also be expected to develop a certain discipline, the ability to delay gratification, to experience success and failure, and to set and achieve goals. We need to be aware, however, that there's a difference between teaching children to develop these skills and enforcing them from outside. Internal motivation, self-belief and self-regulation are the tools that will help children to become highly-functioning adults. Internal motivation comes from love, from passion, from joy in the process of whatever it is that we're doing, building, crafting or creating. Self-belief comes from knowing that we are building on the talents and abilities that come most naturally to us, that we feel we were born to do. When we tap into these abilities we become focussed, as we feel a sense of purpose and see our skills improve in concrete ways.
Most hobbies that we encourage children to explore have positive benefits for their physical wellbeing, social skills or self-expression. Encouraging children to develop skills at a high level is okay. I had a piano exam every year for eight years. It didn't hurt me and I'm really grateful for it, but I was never forced and I can't think of any long-term negative effects that come from playing the piano. I'm more concerned when parents push children too hard in areas such as ballet, beauty pagents or modelling from a young age. Now not many people love ballet more than I do. For years I read every book I could get my hands on. I'd sit by myself watching videos of Margot Fonteyn dancing Swan Lake or Ondine, and who knows how many times I read Anna Pavlova's biography. Despite this I always knew that ballet and piano lessons were for fun. My level of natural ability in either was never going to be at a professional level.
This is where we need to be realistic with ourselves and with our children. There are natural, physical attributes required for ballet and for modelling that belong to a tiny few. Maintaining a painfully thin body without seriously compromising physical and emotional health is impossible for almost everyone. Fulltime dancing on feet that are not born for it leads to a lifetime of hobbling around in pain. Let's not project our own unrealised dreams onto our children. Let's give them every experience that we can. I can't think of anything more exciting than standing back a little, and seeing children's true selves emerge and unfold before our eyes. This is the surprise, the wonder, the magic of it. Let's enjoy it (and not forget to live out our own dreams. There's still time).
Wow, wow, wow! Beg, borrow or buy a ticket to see Caroline O'Connor as Mamma Rose in Gypsy because she is incredible! (and I've seen Patti Lupone on Broadway. She was fabulous too). The whole show is incredible. I didn't realize row EE was the front row, so I had the view of a lifetime. I saw sweat, tears, and other unmentionable body parts in g-strings. Amazing! The message in Gypsy, however, is loud and clear. If you choose your children's paths in life there's a high likelihood that they will resent you or even leave you in their struggle to find who they really are.
I think children should have the opportunity to experience as much as your time and money affords. I think they should also be expected to develop a certain discipline, the ability to delay gratification, to experience success and failure, and to set and achieve goals. We need to be aware, however, that there's a difference between teaching children to develop these skills and enforcing them from outside. Internal motivation, self-belief and self-regulation are the tools that will help children to become highly-functioning adults. Internal motivation comes from love, from passion, from joy in the process of whatever it is that we're doing, building, crafting or creating. Self-belief comes from knowing that we are building on the talents and abilities that come most naturally to us, that we feel we were born to do. When we tap into these abilities we become focussed, as we feel a sense of purpose and see our skills improve in concrete ways.
Most hobbies that we encourage children to explore have positive benefits for their physical wellbeing, social skills or self-expression. Encouraging children to develop skills at a high level is okay. I had a piano exam every year for eight years. It didn't hurt me and I'm really grateful for it, but I was never forced and I can't think of any long-term negative effects that come from playing the piano. I'm more concerned when parents push children too hard in areas such as ballet, beauty pagents or modelling from a young age. Now not many people love ballet more than I do. For years I read every book I could get my hands on. I'd sit by myself watching videos of Margot Fonteyn dancing Swan Lake or Ondine, and who knows how many times I read Anna Pavlova's biography. Despite this I always knew that ballet and piano lessons were for fun. My level of natural ability in either was never going to be at a professional level.
This is where we need to be realistic with ourselves and with our children. There are natural, physical attributes required for ballet and for modelling that belong to a tiny few. Maintaining a painfully thin body without seriously compromising physical and emotional health is impossible for almost everyone. Fulltime dancing on feet that are not born for it leads to a lifetime of hobbling around in pain. Let's not project our own unrealised dreams onto our children. Let's give them every experience that we can. I can't think of anything more exciting than standing back a little, and seeing children's true selves emerge and unfold before our eyes. This is the surprise, the wonder, the magic of it. Let's enjoy it (and not forget to live out our own dreams. There's still time).
Saturday, 6 July 2013
Warhol? Well I said create creativity.
A couple of weeks ago I went to an Andy Warhol exhibition in Wellington. There were kindergarten children there with their teachers. Now for me Andy Warhol brings to mind Bianca Jagger riding a horse into Studio 54 and people openly snorting cocaine off tables (and this is from someone who has never had the slightest desire to set foot inside a club). I wouldn't have considered taking 5 year olds to an Andy Warhol exhibition, but New Zealand is cutting edge when it comes to early childhood education. A lot of what's in our framework comes from there. I pretended not to eavesdrop and prepared to learn.
This is what I heard:
Teacher:
This is called screen printing. We could do this when we get back to work.
5 year old:
You mean kindy?
Teacher:
It's my work. It's your kindy.
5 year old:
Look. The queen.
Teacher:
It's our queen. Look at the colours. Do you like the pink and yellow one? How do those colours make you feel? Do they make you feel happy?
Not sure what I think about this one. I don't think the benefits would outweigh the cost involved. There was quite explicit nudity in one painting and the self portraits are pretty terrifying. The rest of the museum was fantastic for children though and all free. There were heaps of dead, stuffed animals, the only giant squid in the world that's in a museum, and Phar Lap's skeleton (and you thought he was in Melbourne didn't you? Some of him is).
This is what I heard:
Teacher:
This is called screen printing. We could do this when we get back to work.
5 year old:
You mean kindy?
Teacher:
It's my work. It's your kindy.
5 year old:
Look. The queen.
Teacher:
It's our queen. Look at the colours. Do you like the pink and yellow one? How do those colours make you feel? Do they make you feel happy?
Not sure what I think about this one. I don't think the benefits would outweigh the cost involved. There was quite explicit nudity in one painting and the self portraits are pretty terrifying. The rest of the museum was fantastic for children though and all free. There were heaps of dead, stuffed animals, the only giant squid in the world that's in a museum, and Phar Lap's skeleton (and you thought he was in Melbourne didn't you? Some of him is).
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Behaviour Guidance
These are my strategies for managing normal behavour in kindergarten:
-
Take the focus off behaviour and spend time
planning engaging experiences for the children. A lot of the behaviour should
take care of itself. Follow their interests and create new, exciting interests
that they don’t expect.
-
Put some of the toys away. Toys are more
exciting if they are rotated so that they become new again.
- Suggest to the children that they separate for a few minutes so that they can calm down
and re-focus. They will be less tempted to react to each other’s behaviour.
-
Allow the children to help you with jobs and
routines so that they feel grown-up and begin to see themselves as having an
important role in the setting. Ask them to help other children.
-
Have zero tolerance for “silly” or disrespectful behaviour that
goes too far. Turn your attention to the other children until they choose to self-monitor
and stop the behaviour.
-
Spend as much time as possible outside so that
they can burn off their excess energy and won’t be tempted to do this inside.
Before going outside ask the children what they intend to do there. Help them
prepare the materials they will need. This will decrease the likelihood that
they will engage in unfocussed or rough play.
-
Make sure experiences are re-set and
attractively presented. Insist that the children are involved in this so that
they learn to respect the effort that you put in to provide these experiences.
-
Always give children at least one warning before
moving onto the next routine during the day. They can then wrap up their play
and won’t resent the sudden change. I usually give a 10 minute, 5 minute then 2
minute warning and make sure they have heard me and accepted what I've said.
- Have realistic expectations. Don't expect children to participate in group time for longer than 30 minutes. Telling children off for failing to live up to unrealistic expectations is unfair.
-
Let some of the little things go. It will save
frustration for you and the children.
-
Give lots of positive attention and
reinforcement when the children are behaving and engaging well. Build trusting
relationships and help them develop more empathy so that they begin to respond
to you and their peers with more consideration and care.
-
Have a sense of humour. Children love to share a
joke with us. If they feel comfortable and happy they are more likely to be
calm and engaged.
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Interpretations
It seems like the EYLF is hindering us in producing quality interpretations.
Before the framework came along we would write an observation of a child or group of children. We would peer into it, looking closely for evidence of learning and current developmental ability and then document it in our own words. Now what we're seeing is this:
Link to framework:
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity.
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.
Is this a quality interpretation? I understand that people are going all out to understand the framework and show that they're linking it to their program, but this is not telling us much about the child's learning. The framework provides us with a common language to articulate our professional practice. It reminds us of the importance of Belonging, Being and Becoming. It gives us principles and practices to use to underpin our practice and it provides lots of outcomes that give us a guide as to what to cover when providing educational programs for young children.
An interpretation should specifically relate to the observation. These are some of my examples:
Before the framework came along we would write an observation of a child or group of children. We would peer into it, looking closely for evidence of learning and current developmental ability and then document it in our own words. Now what we're seeing is this:
Link to framework:
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity.
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.
Is this a quality interpretation? I understand that people are going all out to understand the framework and show that they're linking it to their program, but this is not telling us much about the child's learning. The framework provides us with a common language to articulate our professional practice. It reminds us of the importance of Belonging, Being and Becoming. It gives us principles and practices to use to underpin our practice and it provides lots of outcomes that give us a guide as to what to cover when providing educational programs for young children.
An interpretation should specifically relate to the observation. These are some of my examples:
The children are showing that they have a strong sense
of wellbeing, that they’re connected to their world, and that they are
confident and involved learners through this play. We are allowing them to
experience ‘learning through play’ and to explore their ‘learning environments’
in their own ways. We are giving the chance to just ‘be’ in the outdoor space. The
children are learning about the natural world and exploring science concepts
through nature play. They are also exploring maths concepts such as weight and
volume.
The children all produced books that included drawings and a variety
of types of mark-making, including scribbles, dots and small circles. They are showing
that they are emerging as writers and developing the awareness that letter
symbols create text, which has meaning. They are showing the awareness that
books contain both text and illustrations, both of which convey meaning to the
reader.
It was wonderful to see the girls’ level of
creativity and their ability to play cooperatively together for such a long
time during their morning outside. Their imaginative games kept flowing and
changing without the need for any props other than the play equipment in the
yard. The girls are showing their strong sense of identity and abilities as
effective communicators who are confident to express themselves and keen to
help and include each other in their play. They are showing their prior
knowledge and their ability to transfer knowledge from one context to another.
H is showing that he’s a confident and involved
learner, taking the initiative to select paint colours and fill the palette
himself. The children are showing their interest in painting and colour-mixing,
and demonstrating their ability to work as a team while constructing their own
learning. They’re communicating with each other throughout the experience, and
with me, showing that they’re effective communicators with the skills to give
directions and to describe processes.
Saturday, 20 April 2013
Children need to read
Children's success in school and in learning absolutely relies on reading.
Written text is still the most widely used method for distributing information, and children's ability to decode, comprehend and critically analyse written text is key to their ability to achieve in every subject area. The difficulty is that some children's lack of interest and pleasure in reading is closing the door to a world of information and imagination that they could be experiencing.
Last weekend I went to the library and searched through the shelves for stories that I thought would appeal to my 3-4 year olds. I read a very simple book called 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' for three little boys, who sat with their hands on my knees and eyes glued to the pages. When one of boys' mums arrived he jumped up and said, "Mummy, there's a tiger who came to tea and ate all the food and drank all the drink". He ran back and sat down to listen to the rest of the story.
I was surprised by the boys' level of engagement with this story and it brought home to me how important it is to choose texts for children that are right for their age and interests. This story captured the boys' imagination. It was enjoyed for its own sake and purely for pleasure. If reading is not pleasureable children will be turned off. Studies show that engagement trumps socio-economic background and home influences when it comes to children's involvement in reading.
We had a discussion yesterday in our tute group about books that we'd enjoyed as a child. It brought back memories of a time when we were never without a book in our hands, and made me aware of how much of who I am now was shaped by the books that I read and re-read as a child and teenager. I also know that my skills with language are a direct result of my having absorbed huge quantities of well-written children's literature over the years.
Children love being read to by adults, but when choosing books to read to children we should be aware of two things. Sometimes children need to have their lives reflected back at them through stories which help them to understand their worlds and have their experiences validated, but sometimes the world is too serious and children need to escape and be taken to other worlds. Imagination and the ability to create is becoming increasingly important in our rapidly changing world.
If we want children to love reading we have to read to children, purely for enjoyment. We have to be aware that as they grow older children will need to have a strong grounding in the technical skills required for reading so that they will continue to engage. We have to give them choice and we have to give them time to read. We also have to remember not to turn every reading experience into an opportunity for a learning activity. Children will anticipate this and it will affect their ability to relax and enjoy the story. Lots to think about...
Written text is still the most widely used method for distributing information, and children's ability to decode, comprehend and critically analyse written text is key to their ability to achieve in every subject area. The difficulty is that some children's lack of interest and pleasure in reading is closing the door to a world of information and imagination that they could be experiencing.
Last weekend I went to the library and searched through the shelves for stories that I thought would appeal to my 3-4 year olds. I read a very simple book called 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' for three little boys, who sat with their hands on my knees and eyes glued to the pages. When one of boys' mums arrived he jumped up and said, "Mummy, there's a tiger who came to tea and ate all the food and drank all the drink". He ran back and sat down to listen to the rest of the story.
I was surprised by the boys' level of engagement with this story and it brought home to me how important it is to choose texts for children that are right for their age and interests. This story captured the boys' imagination. It was enjoyed for its own sake and purely for pleasure. If reading is not pleasureable children will be turned off. Studies show that engagement trumps socio-economic background and home influences when it comes to children's involvement in reading.
We had a discussion yesterday in our tute group about books that we'd enjoyed as a child. It brought back memories of a time when we were never without a book in our hands, and made me aware of how much of who I am now was shaped by the books that I read and re-read as a child and teenager. I also know that my skills with language are a direct result of my having absorbed huge quantities of well-written children's literature over the years.
Children love being read to by adults, but when choosing books to read to children we should be aware of two things. Sometimes children need to have their lives reflected back at them through stories which help them to understand their worlds and have their experiences validated, but sometimes the world is too serious and children need to escape and be taken to other worlds. Imagination and the ability to create is becoming increasingly important in our rapidly changing world.
If we want children to love reading we have to read to children, purely for enjoyment. We have to be aware that as they grow older children will need to have a strong grounding in the technical skills required for reading so that they will continue to engage. We have to give them choice and we have to give them time to read. We also have to remember not to turn every reading experience into an opportunity for a learning activity. Children will anticipate this and it will affect their ability to relax and enjoy the story. Lots to think about...
Friday, 12 April 2013
Behaviour vs. Learning
The number one reason that teachers leave the profession is students' behaviour.
The number one antidote to challenging behaviour is engagement. Remember this word! Engagement, engagement, engagement! There are so many reasons that children exhibit challenging behaviours. Some are not really within their control. There's one thing that I've noticed with children of all ages. When they are happily engaged behaviour becomes a non-issue. So what should we do? We should remember that we are teachers, and a teacher's focus should be on learning rather than on behaviour. Is learning taking place? What learning is taking place? How can we facilitate further learning?
Children love to learn. Learning is fun. Learning is empowering. Learning stimulates us to want to learn more. Why not experiment and shift our focus? Providing learning experiences for children is time consuming and takes planning and imagination. We need to observe children's interests, stimulate their curiosity, create new interests, and unblock pathways to new learning journeys. As challenging as this sounds, managing difficult behaviour every day is far more frustrating. What's even more important is that it can be damaging to children. Giving children the opportunity to identify as learners is far more powerful than having them identify as people who behave badly.
Instead of teaching children how to behave, let's teach them how to learn. The benefits for children will be lifelong, and if we engage in shared learning experiences with them we are sure to learn a lot too. At the end of the day, instead of reflecting on how we could have managed challenging behaviour differently, we can feel proud knowing that we have empowered a child to take ownership of his or her learning, to become a person who is confident and involved, and who is connected to his or her social and physical worlds.
The number one antidote to challenging behaviour is engagement. Remember this word! Engagement, engagement, engagement! There are so many reasons that children exhibit challenging behaviours. Some are not really within their control. There's one thing that I've noticed with children of all ages. When they are happily engaged behaviour becomes a non-issue. So what should we do? We should remember that we are teachers, and a teacher's focus should be on learning rather than on behaviour. Is learning taking place? What learning is taking place? How can we facilitate further learning?
Children love to learn. Learning is fun. Learning is empowering. Learning stimulates us to want to learn more. Why not experiment and shift our focus? Providing learning experiences for children is time consuming and takes planning and imagination. We need to observe children's interests, stimulate their curiosity, create new interests, and unblock pathways to new learning journeys. As challenging as this sounds, managing difficult behaviour every day is far more frustrating. What's even more important is that it can be damaging to children. Giving children the opportunity to identify as learners is far more powerful than having them identify as people who behave badly.
Instead of teaching children how to behave, let's teach them how to learn. The benefits for children will be lifelong, and if we engage in shared learning experiences with them we are sure to learn a lot too. At the end of the day, instead of reflecting on how we could have managed challenging behaviour differently, we can feel proud knowing that we have empowered a child to take ownership of his or her learning, to become a person who is confident and involved, and who is connected to his or her social and physical worlds.
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