If I Could Have A "Do Over"

Not too long ago I had someone ask me, "if you were going back to the classroom this year, what would you take with you?"  In other words, what would I do differently? Or would I do anything differently?

At first I answered, "I would be more intentional in my teaching." As the Early Years Learning Framework puts it, "intentional teaching involves educators being deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in their decisions and action. Intentional teaching is the opposite of teaching by rote or continuing with tradition simply because things have.."

During my visits in classrooms, I was somewhat surprised to see what is considered "old school" teaching still happening. For example, young children being kept in large groups doing the same activity, being asked to sit still for long periods of time, and being reminded time after time that they are "getting ready" for kindergarten and they need to act like it.

When I spoke with teachers about allowing more independent play and learning to take place, it was almost always met with resistance. Usually, the teacher had been doing things the same way for many years and in fact, the entire staff at the facility did things this same way. Why should they change anything?  The feeling was that this was working for everyone. And while in fact it might have been working great for the adults, was it really working that well for the children? I'm pretty sure I was at one time or another guilty of the same kind of thinking.

My next thought about what I would do differently in my classroom was "I would be more aware of "teachable moments" and take advantage of them."  I came across Beth Lewis' definition of teachable moments.  She writes, " A teachable moment is an unplanned opportunity that arises in the classroom when a teacher has an ideal chance to offer insight to his or her students. It is not something you can plan for, rather it is a fleeting opportunity that must be sensed and seized by the teacher."

Whaaat? Allow unplanned activities? Let the children decide what to talk about? Get off schedule to look up information about the newly discovered insect on the playground?  Or take time to stop and ask children about their play and learning and asking them to explain their thought process?  Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Once again, I admit I didn't always place importance on "teachable moments."

And then I decided to add one more component to my answer. "I would be a more "minimal" teacher." In his blog, ABCDELT, Chris Wilson writes about minimal teaching.  I recently came across a post that had four basic questions for teachers. It is as follows:

• Does this have a purpose in the classroom?
• Is there a simpler way to do the same thing?
• Will it add to learning?
• Could I get the same or better result without it?

Probably the one question I didn't ask enough was "will it add to learning." Sometimes I feel that I was just adding "filler" or something that I felt was important for children to know regardless of whether they showed any interest or not.

So after all this deliberation and what I felt like were really "good" answers, I decided, bottom line, I would only do two things differently this year.

• I would let the children talk with each other and with me more.
• I would let them move more, dance more, run more, climb more, build more, and wiggle more.

And here is the basis for my decision:

 " The primary purpose of being four is to enjoy being four--of secondary importance is to prepare for being five."
                                                               Jim Trelease, educator and journalist

That's it for now.

Check back later!