Sit Back and Watch the Show (then jump in on the madness!!)

“Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before.”
Loris Malaguzzi

My last 7 years of teaching and learning, and teaching to learn, and learning to teach, have taught me at least one thing I’ve learned to teach at the beginning of a new school year of learning: Don’t plan for a first day of class!

Sensei Malaguzzi knew well what this meant when she asked us all, parents and teachers alike, to “step aside”. So I guess I broke my own rule you could say, I did plan. I planned to step aside and observe. Who are these wonderful creatures coming into my world? What do they like? How do they respond? What makes them jump with glee? How long can they last on a single task? What do they know? What little do I know?

These and many more were the questions I wallowed in, reminiscing for a bit as well, back on my interning days when I used to fret about what I would teach. Ha. Those were much younger days for sure. This week the kids learned much of which only time will choose to disclose. But there were a few things this detective of learning did detect.

DETECTIVE DUTY

         DETECTING LEARNING

(*Please read the following with severe prudence understanding that by no means are these guidelines for all Children or even for my Children for ever here on out. Education is about individuals/authentic and forever changing. But the blueprint we are working with is simple: Sit back and watch the show.)

1. Math Games work great first thing in the morning
2. Music is a nice transition to Math. (Ask why?)
3. Kids love free play in their homeroom.
4. They all listen through and enjoy a 7 minute story entirely told in English, using puppets of course.
5. Everything Craft related they eat up.
   
6. The 2 seconds to destroy a paper boat is well worth the 23 minutes to make it.
7. Laying on their backs, putting their legs up high and doing bicycle motions is an exercise favorite.
8. Most of my ideas for play are discarded and replaced by their own magic. And I'm glad to be around it all week!