Listening plus Required Reading 2/14

This week as I was listening to my kindergartners and the adults who came into my room I was struck by the things that I get to hear every week as a teacher.  My best teaching is a result of focused listening and reflecting on what students need.  

As you can imagine some of what I hear is absolutely hilarious:

On cupid: "The baby shoots the person with the arrow, and then they die, then they fall in love?"  
"Why does the baby have an arrow, that's not for babies!"

In response to Goldilocks and the Three Bears: "How did the bears get people stuff?" 
"Maybe the bears ate the people who lived in the house and then they moved into the house."
"No Bears eat fish, not people."
"Maybe the bears built the house."
"How would they get the nails to build the house?"
"Bears can't go to store, them would eat the people at the hardware store."
"Maybe the bears ate the people and took the nails at the hardware store"
"No that would be stealing"

"Ms. Savage how old will you be on your birthday?"
"34."
"34?! Dun, Dun DUNNNNN."

Others things I hear are heartbreaking,

"He said 'mother fucker' outside."  

"I don't like people with black skin."

"My dad killed the kitten, the black one with white by the eyes and the mama stood by the door and was sad."

"She heard the upstairs neighbor shoot himself so she has been up most of the night."

My favorite things to hear are beautiful and inspiring, they are the sounds of everyone working together and taking care of each other. This is the best stuff, and how I know rich learning is happening.  

"Look, LOOK Ms. Savage"

"Can you help me?  No I can do it by my own self. "

"Let's get tape to fix the cup, (so) we (don't) cut ourselves.  I do it!" 

"I going to make a present for his birthday, I make a kite." 

"Me love you." 

"She did her best, look she is learning!"

"I couldn't do it so he helped and then I could do it." 

The amount of what I hear everyday can be overwhelming at times since I must quickly diagnose what is being said and then triage what I say (if anything) as a response.  As my students tell me stories and their reflections I think about; what are they telling me, why are they telling me and what do they need?  My favorite times are when I can respond by asking a question and put ownership back on the student for their response.  

How does listening inform your practice?  How do you move from listening to meeting the needs of your students?  

Required Reading 2/14

This weeks required reading is this piece that speaks about play, blocks and screen time. It shows yet again that interacting with children is the number one way for them to learn and grow, and that technology is not a suitable substitute in the early years. This is a subject that speaks deeply to my teacher heart.  My action research for my Masters was about block/construction play and math.  

Also in case you missed it this blog post has been making the rounds.  It speaks about how to get kids to be readers. 

Lastly, here is a photo from our 100th day of school celebration this week.  This was played with, knocked over and rebuilt every day.  The best part was seeing everyone problem solve, negotiate, work together and make design changes.  

Required Reading 2/8/15

Only one link for required reading this week.  A great piece by Alfie Kohn about they way we talk about education and what the words we use really mean.  Check it out here.

Have you read anything this week that has made you think about education?  I'd love to hear about it!

Growth

I read a post the other day that said the time between Winter Break and Spring Break is the best time of year in the classroom.  I wasn't so sure, given where I live it's the worst part of the year weather wise.  As I reflected on this idea over the past week, I started noticing how it is a great time for learning; Routines are established, I know my students really well, students know what is expected and are working together.  It's a time of year to see growth, academic and otherwise.

This week I am proud to say that every one of my students read a book that was a level higher than they had previously read.  I was also thrilled  with the growth of one student who rarely speaks, when he absolutely came alive after making a dragon puppet in preparation for Chinese New Year! He felt more at ease speaking through the help of a prop! The greatest growth I witnessed this week was not academic, yet it's what made me beam from ear to ear.  I saw tremendous social growth in my most challenging student!  This student has a laundry list of challenges/struggles/problems/issues/disadvantages, whatever word you'd like to choose.  I usually choose challenges, because that puts the responsibility of making change back on me as a teacher not onto the student.

This student started the year as the most violent, angry, out of control child I have ever work with.  I will even admit that I was pretty scared of him and in October wondered how I would make it through each day, let alone to the end of the year.  In the beginning of the year I had to keep all scissors and pencils away from him because these items would become a weapon.  This student would run around the classroom yelling, kicking, and destroying any items in his path.  He would not participate in any aspect of the day, and would not play with any other children.  Luckily our school his family and I have all been working together to get him the help he needs to be successful.  It has been hard and there are daily successes and setbacks.  Here is the growth that happened this week,  he started joining in!  When he walked into school one day this week he looked around, noticed a student was absent and said, "Awww, where is my friend?  I miss him."  He sat with me while his other friends were resting to make a project that he had missed out on and used his scissors safely and correctly and said, "I am so strong."  I told him, "you really know how to be safe with scissors now!"  He responded that he was as good as scissors as I am and that he is "going to be a man teacher" when he grows up.  SO MUCH GROWTH!

Chinese New Year is right around the corner and it has been the focus of our learning.  One emphasis of preparing for the new lunar year is to clean out your home to get all the bad luck out and to make room for all the luck and happiness the new year has to offer.  I use this as an excuse to have my students take ownership of their space and they help clean our room and reorganize a bit.  As we were cleaning up I realized I was glad for the growth my most challenging student provided to ME as a teacher.  His behavior makes me reexamine how I interact with him, and have to fight my instincts of how to respond to him daily.  What a gift of growth he has given me!  I would have never made these changes if not for him.  It is hard work to be sure, but worthy of my time and energy.  So as the new year approaches, I am happy to sweep our old challenges out to make room for all the happiness and luck the new year brings!