| Jan |
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Reply with quote | #16 |
I also recently worked in an early childhood classroom that was based on the philosophy of Reggio Emilio. The teachers took lots of photographs, especially at the start of the school year, and created sign boards for display in the classroom, for "parents night" at the school. The signs included photos of the children at play, labeled the play activity and listed the developmental skills being learned in that activity. The teachers also sent home a weekly newsletter and did brief classroom observations once a month, noting each child's advancement of developmental skills. The observations were then shared with the parents. |
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| Jonah |
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Reply with quote | #17 |
I appreciate Channi's observation that teachers need to "back off" during play times, especially outdoors. Teachers have a tendency to become rule-enforcing machines, and children do not have the opportunities to learn from natural consequences. Teachers are particularly fond of having a child learn the "right" message quickly without the child's messy attempts at constructing alone.
I also love Channi's observation about the perception of "play" as a word. If we are going to succeed in this endeavor, "learning centers" it is! We have to be good marketers and repackage the idea. New and improved!
Lena makes an excellent point about the most convincing tactic - prove play works through a individual child's progress. That is the outcome we are all going for, no? Explicit goals, current research and photos (Teanna) are good ammunition until the learning is evident.
With all the anti-TV talk and play-testing tension, I sense a campaign brewing. We are teachers for children first (I hope), but we must also be shrewd politicians. By this I mean that we must know what is possible and what is not. Suggesting to parents that they choose one day per week (or one hour) to turn the TV off and do something else is more likely to happen than banning TV forever. Adopt a tactic of relentless incrementalism. If your colleague will not give up his kindergarten lecture series, see if he will complement it with some intentional but voluntary teaching during recess. Achieving the possible will work better and help to maintain our optimism for long-term change. (I am not running for office.)
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| Jan |
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Reply with quote | #18 |
As a parent, I have restricted, limited and monitored my children's TV viewing and recreational computer use with what I believe to be positive outcomes (not from my son's perspective, though!) When his classmates were moaning despairingly of the impossibility of going one whole week without watching TV during "Turn off the TV" week, my son said, "I can do that because my parents don't let me watch any TV anyway". He's now eleven and loves to read, reads prolifically and has always read two or three levels above his current grade level. Reading is an entertaining outlet for him when TV is not an option. Perhaps teachers could suggest to parents to try one or two days without TV and work up to a week or two, just to see if they observe any changes in their child's behavior at school and at home. One big incentive for parents, especially now, before Christmas - the amount of TV a child watches has a direct relation to the amount of stuff a child pesters his parents to buy! As we learned from Diane Levin's presentation, parents don't have a chance up against the hugh amount of money and research spent by the marketing industry to kids as consumers. |
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| Jan |
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Reply with quote | #19 |
I forgot to include in my previous post that my son attended a Waldorf nursery/kindergarten school until he was six. The curriculum was completely play based, with no academic skills such as reading, writing or math taught. He learned to read in first grade, while attending our neighborhood public school in D.C. He also excels in math - so he's a living example that a preschool play-based curriculum works. |
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| Jan |
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Reply with quote | #20 |
My theory about limited TV/computer viewing and reading just went out the window when my son's friend came over and I remembered that he's the highest scorer in the accelerated reader program at school and he has every video game under the sun - maybe his media use was different when he was younger http://www.websitetoolbox.com/textarea/images/smile.gif |
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