It was another great night of gathering with friends to learn and play together with Kristin and the teachers sharing all the work that goes on in the classroom. Thanks to all of you who made time in your day to include the evening with us. The food and drink were plentiful and we all walked away very filled and fulfilled. Here’s a recap for those who couldn’t join us and refresher for those who did:
We started with a song “Mi Cuerpo!” and a presentation beginning with words from Joanne Hendriks’ book, The Whole Child:
The Whole Child is based on the premises that physical and emotional health are fundamental to the well-being of children, that education must be developmentally appropriate if that well-being is to prosper, and that children need time to be children—time to be themselves—to do nothing, to stand and watch, to repeat again what they did before—in short, they need time to live in their childhood rather than through it. If we offer the young children we teach rich and appropriate learning opportunities combined with enough time for them to enjoy and experience those opportunities to the full, we will enhance childhood, not violate it.
Which led us to our West Wing Intention, the guide for our work this year:
Honor the ‘me’ in identity and bridge to the ‘we’ which will evolve into what Dan Siegel calls the ‘Mwe’. We will explore connections among participants, acknowledging similarities, differences, and growing new knowledge of self and others.
We were able to find context with this by watching the OMEGA video clip from Dan Siegel where he talks about ‘Mwe” and define and visualize our classroom culture with stories, photos, and video clips around:
American Sign Language
Emotional Identification (and we walked away with an emotions chart for home)
Journals
Terminology. (We can repair it, What will/would help you feel better? What is the plan?)
Appointments
Connections
Reflection (thinking about our thinking)
And then we broke into our own appointment groups to experience and understand more fully how the children and teachers move through their day.
We met back in the Middle Courtyard at 8:30 for our own reflections. What I heard was the deep appreciation to the teachers for all the work that goes into creating environments where the materials are rich for exploration and relationship building. Whether it be sitting side by side with someone new drawing horses and recalling memories and connecting childhood stories, or finding the pleasure and satisfaction of working with clay for the first time, or being challenged to hook and unhook locks, it was a way to meet people and recognize what it means to be pushed outside of our own comfort zones. It is the same experience for the children with all the feelings that go along with that challenge. I think we forget that.
I was reminded of the importance of recognizing that feelings are something to share and that feelings are just that. Feelings. They don’t define us, they connect us, and so in our own terminology, we say “we are feeling sad, or mad, or . . “, rather than saying “I am sad, or mad, or. . .” Just this simple adjustment to our language has us more empowered in knowing that we are in charge of making the changes we can to move forward through the emotions.
Some of you wished we had shared all this earlier with you since now there was a more tangible connection with things that the children were talking about at home. It’s a lot and how to organize it all in context takes more than thought and we appreciate your feedback and consider the timeline as we continue to connect you to all that we do. Certainly, adding the parents in the team meetings this year has given us great insight and we are grateful for the parents’ perspective as we develop meaningful curriculum as partners together in the learning. Thanks to the input from Christina (Phedon) and Nancy (Kou), the teachers made adjustments to the presentation to reflect your curiosity about the flow of the day and how reflection meetings work. Very cool.
Which brings us to new upcoming evenings together. On October 23rd, I will be hosting a NSW History Night. It’s important that you know the story of how this work has deepened over the 19 years when we made our first shift of practice inspired by the relationship we have developed with the schools from Reggio Emilia, Italy.
And on November 15th, the teachers have planned a Pragmatics Night, It’s More Than Magic! which will be directly related to your desire to know the language the teachers use with the children and our shift in terminology that is validating, respectful, and powerful. Mark your calendars now. Both nights are ones you won’t want to miss.
My heart is full with gratitude. .to you, to the children, and to our amazing teachers who just keep giving, unconditionally. Feeling very blessed, indeed. Thank you. xoxoxoxoR