Who is the learner?

“Just as scientist must unlearn much of what they believe if they wish to master a new paradigm, so, too, ordinary readers have to be able to expunge misleading conceptions and construct new knowledge, if they are able to appreciate a hitherto unfamiliar concept.”

I feel that being in school this long has a huge impact on me to grasp onto concepts and learning about early childhood education.  Now what will happen when I have completed my schooling?  Will my disciplined mind to learn, crack?  How will I stay focused on continuing to learn all that I can? 

To care for children, and to let alone research children daily has also an impact on us as educators to continue to learn and grasp onto the updated researches about early development.  So how do we stay up to date?  How do we keep our minds open for new information? 

My site just changed the way we sanitize and disinfect.  This change alone, though it is so minor, changes the way I clean the classroom, the way that I find time to create sanitizing solutions, how am I going to fit this change into my schedule with the children?  What a minor change, but it can definitely have a huge impact.  So how will  you use new information to benefit your classroom and your teaching with the children? 

How will you make your learning visible?  I never thought of this question pertaining to me.  But as I learned in this reading, not only is the children the learners, but I am too.  So how do I make my own learning visible?  How would you make your learning visible? 

By:  Jadelynn Davis 

Are you questioning me?

Are we asking questions to be answered?

As I reflect upon my own teaching, I find myself asking questions that I allow one child to answer, and then move onto the next.  Often times, usually during a group discussion, I ask one thoughtful question that I am prepared for the entire class to answer.  In these two scenarios I think to myself, am I really preparing for the children's participation?

As I continue my reflection, I notice that the one child who answers my questions are often times the same children.  After reading this text, I think about, am I allowing children the time to think?  Am I preparing them with the right tools and information for their minds to expand?  Have I prepared enough prerequisites for the children to understand the question I am asking them?

All of these answers in the text are rich and full of meaning.  I notice that even the shortest answers are the greatest.  "You think better"  "They're in your head"  "It's easy you concentrate more."
Children know so much and as teachers, YES!! it is our duty to bring out these ideas.

So, how do we plan this?  How do we plan questions?  How do we prepare information?  I thought that questions just come out instinctively as we listen to what children are saying?  What if no one answers, where do we go from there?  How do we know if questions are too hard, to hard to comprehend?   How do we plan for questions to be thrown back at us?

"A child may ask us questions in areas where our knowledge is scant, and we become confused by our own uncertainty, in relation to both the topic and how to handle our confusion in front of the child."  

As the text sums up, yes we are asking questions, to investigate the child, to bring about ideas, to learn as the children learn, to document the child's knowledge, and so on.  But what's greater is when the children come back and ask us the question.  When we have those blank stare moments of, "What should I say," or "How do i explain this concept?"  As the text describes, children are not only asking us to find a answer as well, but they are watching us, they are watching how we gather information and how we delegate the answer.  They are listening to the examples we present, whether it be from a book or drawn upon our own experiences.  

Children are brilliant.  They have the answers to the questions we pose.  And these questions are what brings out the hidden knowledge children are harboring within their vast minds.  

By:  Jadelynn Davis

     

Project Zero & Reggio Children (2001). Making learning visible. Reggio Emilia, Italy:

Reggio Children.

Who are you to judge?

“They saw what happened, but judged the child instead of seeking his intention and creative idea.”

People are so quick to judge, and it's sad to say that often times I fall into that trap.

-I'm quick to judge a child according to their appearance

-I'm quick to judge a child according to their parents 

-I'm quick to judge a child according to their abilities

-I'm quick to judge a child by the way they draw

-I'm quick to judge a child by what they say or perhaps what they cannot say

-I'm quick to judge a child by what toy they choose

-I'm quick to judge a child according to the friends they play with

I'm quick to judge, but when I remember to just sit back,  erase these judgments, and look through a new slate -- observe the child and his abilities, I am almost always baffled at how surprisingly wrong I am of the judgments I have preluded.  

REMINDERS needed for us teachers

--“We teachers need to remind ourselves daily to remember that there is meaning in a child’s behavior. Discovering that meaning helps us support children.”

Our duty is to the children.  We are the children's advocate.  It's not our job to fill these empty minds.  Instead it's our job to break their ideas, creativity, strengths, and all tat good stuff out of their minds.  

--“Teacher and child stand shoulder to shoulder with much of the same, uniquely human, perspective — wanting to know, to accomplish, to grow, to follow their imaginations and curiosities. The teacher, caring, adds her own desire to help the child achieve his own intention.”

When I look at children through a new lens, I get a sense that CHILDREN are just the same as I am.  In fact I feel that the roles have reversed, instead of children doing the learning, in actuality I am.  I have to research the child.  I need to do the write ups and observations.  I need to see whether or not children are interested in bugs or not.  Looking at children through a new lens reverses the role and I now take the role of the learner, learning each child, and adding what I feel is appropriate for the child to grow. 

--“Nel Noddings[95] writes that caring is not something you are, but is something you engage in, something possible in every interaction.”

“While I saw their kindness to the children, I didn’t see respect for them. Love was present, but love alone wasn’t enough!”

I just read Nel Noddings book "Caring," and attended a seminar by a Woman who spoke of Nel Noddings "Caring."  When I first thought of caring, I thought that its just a phrase that I say to display my affection, for example, "I care about you."  But caring is more then just a phrase or an adjective.  It's a verb, it's an action.  It takes actually having to care for someone.  So with this said, to care for our children within the classroom takes more then just passing handouts to them.  I actually need to take the step to know them, to know who they are, to know what they want.  I actually have to do for them, I have to provide for them, see them as an individual, help them, accompany them, walk at the same level as them, and so on. 

--“As we try to change our Image of the Child from one who is weak and needs us to protect him to one who is strong, competent, and has his own ideas, needing us to find the materials and times for him to explore and create, we are called on to make changes in our own teaching dispositions.”

This is a phrase I find myself struggling, especially when I go through a situation with a child who "cries."  Children who cries are my triggers, and I often fall into the trap of seeing the child as weak and who need me to come to their rescue.  At times I need to step back, not jump into the situation.  I need to remember that in actuality this child is strong, so what do I do to bring out his words instead of a cry.  What can I help this child with?  How can I bring out his strengths?

--“We have an obligation to encourage the terrific thirst to make sense of the world little children experience from the day they are born.”

If there is something i'd like everyone to remember, is to remember this.  Children love to learn.  As teachers we need to bring this love out.  We need to help these children, not stuff them with rules and paperwork.  We need to remember that they are still children, as much as we learn of them, they are trying to make sense of the entire world around them.


So what would you remember?  How do you remember these things?  How do you go day by day with these new lens?  At times do you take it off?  Do you fall back to your old ways?  What do you do to keep these new lens on?

By:  Jadelynn Davis

Excerpt From: Sydney Gurewitz Clemens & Leslie Gleim. “Seeing Young Children With New Eyes.” Leslie Gleim, 2014-01-28. iBooks. 

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/6f7k2.l

A child, or childish?

Children are most often disregarded for their capabilities, especially those who misbehave. Clemens and Gleim discuss using documentation to gain an understanding for children. 

“Believing that the child is competent, we have to figure out his or her behavior when it seems odd to us. We have to learn to see better. Regularly writing down what we see — and regularly taking photos and recording — are tools for improving understanding.”

How do we see better?

Through observing, having our full attention, eyes, ears, mouth, movement, focus, all on the child.  Children are fascinating humans, so fascinating that we adults need to decode children’s true abilities, and help them break through to reveal them. 

“Finding strength and competence in children who appear to much of the world as incomplete or incompetent has made me adopt an unwavering belief that all children are born competent, capable and rich.”

Such a powerful message, that Gleim believes that all children are BORN!! competent, capable, and rich.  

            What do we do to bring out these competencies?

            Is by 4 years old too late?

How do we find the strength and competence in children who are incompetent?   

“Do you respect her? Can you think of her as competent, strong, and full? This isn’t easy, but it is necessary.”

Yes, it is necessary.  We need to see each child as full, strong, competent, and with respect.  Through observing, through documenting, through researching each child, and then each child as a group, building each child, and then continue to research over and over to unravel what the child has been storing since birth. 

So if we teachers go through this researching and documenting, what do we do with it? 

Is it only for parents to see?

Do we share it with others?

How?    

 “While you collect data you send a clear and powerful message to Lauren that she is interesting, likeable, strong and capable, showing her that she is good.”

These observations and documents are especially useful for the child themselves.  They deserve to know of themselves.  When they see themselves being documented and then being able to learn of what they are capable of, the child is seen as important, they see themselves, and they notice what they themselves are capable of.     

Children are important.  They may not be seen as important.  The views of a child is seen as childish, foolish, babyish, silly, as playful, which often associates with mischievous, rascally, spirited, not serious.  But as you change your view of children hopefully “THE CHILD” maybe seen more seriously.    

Excerpt From: Clemens & Gleim. “Seeing Young Children With New Eyes.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/6f7k2.l

By:  Jadelynn Davis

How do we communicate?

What is the purpose of our work in the end of all things?
Why are we doing what we are doing?

These questions all lead to the idea of communication for me.  In the end it is getting the word out to the people of children.

To get the children's voices heard

To get the understanding of children out

To get people to know children

To get people not to underestimate them

To get the word out that children are capable

Two examples of communication from Making Learning Visible and Seeing Children With New Eyes are:

Daily Sheets

Long Distance Communication

Daily sheets on the one hand communicates with parents directly, the ideas and the explanation of teachers and their ways of teaching.  Through the stories that the teacher describes each day explains to parents what the children are doing and in that why it was important, that there was teaching within the playing.  

Long distance communication is a bit more complex since it takes cooperation from two parties to communicate.  But in doing this children are exposed, different parts of the world is exposed, children are seen, support from parents and the whole school is added in the mix, and learning is exercised.  There is so much to learn from long distance communication and so much can be done.  Pictures, phone calls, mailing, faxing, and nowadays there is video chats, which are all ways of communication, which ideas and teachings can be used.  The expansion of "the child" is expressed in the child, the parents and families, school, and it opens the doors for the community, even people across the world.  

What will you do to communicate? 

Why is communication important to you?

Why will you use communication?

What are other ways to communicate?

What do you use for communication? 

What do you say when you communicate?

Is getting the word out about "the child" ever the focus?

By:  Jadelynn Davis

   

How do we help children?

As teachers, how do we help children see themselves as able bodies, physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally?  How do we help children help and notice each other?  

As teachers we have become keen to observing and documenting the children.  And as we all should know that documenting helps us as teachers grow and it helps us help the children.  But how do we help the children help one another?  How do we help children see one another?  And hear one another?  How can we help children understand each other?

“Young children don’t yet understand that others have different ideas and perspectives and that talking with each other is the way to explore and possibly bridge those differences. If children come to our programs sometimes seeing other people as objects, we can help them become more adept at relating to others as people who are in some ways like them and in other ways different.”

Knowing the capabilities of children and understanding their milestones, gives us, the teachers, an explanation of what we should be doing.  So how do we do with this knowledge? 

We build the child!  

We build the child through play

We create activities of interaction 

We build our own vocabulary to express to children 

We plan intentionally!!

We listen to the children 

We are the children's role model 

We consider the children's thoughts and perspectives and ideas 

We allow children to guide their own learning 

We build relationships with everyone we come in to contact with 

We have an unbiased view

And in addition, we document!!

"The effect of documentation (documents, notes, slides, and recordings) is not limited to making visible that which is, but on the contrary, by making an experience visible, documentation enables the experience to exist and thus makes it shareable and open to the "possibles" (possible interpretations, multiple dialogues among children and adults)," (Project Zero, 150).

So how do we use the children to our advantage?  How do we use our documents to our advantage?  How do we help build relationships?

Excerpt From: Sydney Gurewitz Clemens & Leslie Gleim. “Seeing Young Children With New Eyes.” Leslie Gleim, 2014-01-28. iBooks. 

This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/6f7k2.l

Project Zero & Reggio Children (2001). Making learning visible. Reggio Emilia, Italy: Reggio Children. 

Documents?

As an early childhood educator all I know is play.  All I know is to focus on the children and to build the child as a whole.  So why do we need documents?  What are these documents?  Who are the documents for?  What do you document?  Clemens and Gleim ask "Is it something we do or is it something we make?"  

When I think of the word documents, what comes to my mind is...

Paper work 

Piles of forms

Rules

Writing

Information 

Records

Facts 

Official use

Objectives

Files 

None of these definitions of documents have anything to do with children.  So why is it important?  Why do we need rules and forms?  Why document?  

Well I'm glad to say that documents and documentation have an important use in the early childhood field.

-Clemens and Gleim indicates “We collect data, we think about what we’ve collected, we consider it with our friends and colleagues and we produce something to share with the children, their parents, the school community, and the wider community.”

-Documentation according to an early childhood educator, from my perspective, is a record developed by teachers of instances and experiences from straight from children, whether verbally, through play, through interactions, etc.

-Documentation is the true examples of children's capabilities.  And through documentations parents can become aware, the community can become aware, founders and the government can become aware of all the wonders that children have in stored.  And most importantly the children can visually see their abilities when documentations are shared on the children's level.  

-Documentation is not only for the use of capturing the child's abilities, but it's also used for the teachers.  To reflect on their teaching and handling of the classroom.  To discuss daily activities, what's working? what's not? what are the children interested in? Are the children understanding?  Or is the information not being grasped?  

Do will you document?  And if so how are you using these documents to its fullest capacity?

Excerpt From: Sydney Gurewitz Clemens & Leslie Gleim. “Seeing Young Children With New Eyes.” Leslie Gleim, 2014-01-28. iBooks.