Sharing Wonder - Learning from the Children: August 2014

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

Building Relationships

Building relationships is essential in all areas of life and what is fascinating is how we learn so much about ourselves when building close relationships with others.

This week I have had the opportunity to meet three amazing educators that I will be working closely with in kindergarten. Each of us on a journey that combines a shared environment and an openness to understanding beliefs about learning to make the children our fundamental focus. I look forward to each day as I get to learn more about the wonderful experiences they bring to education.

Adding to building these wonderful relationships is this opportunity to learn about myself. Everything does not need to be in my control, (imagine.....). As this week moves forward I am letting go of the control; it is actually making me more acute to listening and hearing all ideas and opinions. A wonderful sidebar to this is less stress as I put trust in everyone contributing to a common goal.

I look forward to continuing to build strong relationships with my colleagues, parents and children and cannot wait to see the learning we share. In the meantime we continue to collaborate on the attributes that will make up the beginnings of the 'third teacher', the classroom. I anticipate the amazing changes the classroom will take as the children make it stretch and grow in new and exciting ways.

The beginning stages of the "third teacher

Monday, 18 August 2014

The Journey Begins...

Monday, August 18th.

As I contemplate the wonderful journey and professional development I was immersed in last week at the "Reggio Intensive", I cannot express enough the immense excitement I feel for the new school year ahead. I have spent a week developing a deeper understanding on how play is a catalyst to rich thinking. I look forward to listening, observing, hypothesizing and communicating the ever changing journey the students and educators take as they become "acutely sensitive to the pleasure of surprise", (Loris Malaguzzi). I also look forward to observing our environment change and grow as the space is filled with wonder and awe."Think of the environment not as shell but a skin - how does it change with those in it?" Carla Rinaldi

My role this year will be to explore the many possible ways to gather the evidence of rich thinking from the students as they explore through play. Setting up provocations based on student inquiries and figuring out the multitude of ways to collaborate with students and colleagues on each individual student's learning journey. Always keeping in mind that pedagogical documentation should be interactive and allow for multiple perspectives.

I also look forward to developing the relationships with families as we work together to listen to each individual child's curiosities as we explore our environment indoors and outdoors; the goal being to provoke new thinking through precise exposure to materials that allow for exploration.

The journey is just beginning and who knows where it will take us. What I can say is that I plan to "never stop questioning" and to always "play"