In the past, the children’s ID panels were a representation of the children’s identity from the teacher’s perspective. During our recent West Coast Collaborative meeting, Tiziana and Loretta challenged us to use the ID panels to truly represent the children’s identity from their point of view at this moment in time. They prompted us to give this back to them and to meet them where they are. Moving forward with their suggestion, we plan on creating a committee of children from both groups. This small group would be in charge of brainstorming questions that pique their curiosity and hold meaning to them. What would they want others to know about them? What do they want to know about others? They would then bring these to the larger group and gather input to refine the questions.
The Basils energy swirled around the prospect of being part of a committee and were curious about how they would meet.
Keaton: I thought they would come over to this side.
Cynthia: We will need to think about how we will meet because they won’t be able to come to this classroom and we won’t be able to go into their classroom.
Mars: We can meet them on the computer.
Everly: Are we going to meet the kids Aloes or the teachers?
Cynthia: It will probably be two children and one teacher from each group.
Keaton: We can do it outside.
Elliot: We can do it outside the school – where we get sign in and sign out.
Keaton: That’s what I was thinking!
The Aloes focused on the content of the questions and the visual representations.
Amy: What would your ID panel say about you? If you decide on the questions, what things would you be wondering about other friends?
Chloe: Mine would say Xinnian Kuaile, that’s Happy New Year in Chinese.
Presley: Mine would say all the holidays.
Levi: Mine would say. ”I like it when it’s Halloween.” I would have spiders.
Poppy: Because Halloween has lots of black.
Levi: And black is my favorite color.
Mia: Mine would have butterflies because I have butterflies at home and I have a friend named Mina who is a butterfly.
Poppy: Mine would be with grass, flowers and a rainbow, and butterflies because they look pretty to me and I love 100 things.
Amy: And I’m wondering why would we include those things?
Mia: So everyone knows!
Christoph: So they know what we like.
Poppy: And what we love!
Colin: I know how to draw people. I can draw everyone. My ID panel would have my drawing and my photo. It would have both.
Dillon R: We each should have a white background and each person draws what they love in their background.
We understand that this process means we must be transparent when creating the children’s ID panels rather than designing and formatting and executing them ourselves as teachers. They must reflect the children’s curiosity and highlight what they know of themselves and what they wish to share with the group. We admit, we are much more excited about what we will all discover together through this process.