gradual departure

Over the years I've seen a lot of kids dropped off at preschool, and a lot of kids picked up from preschool.  These may seem like basic everyday events, but they are huge. 

Most parents quickly get drop-off nailed.  At our school we have a built-in part of the day we call "Gradual Arrival."  It's the first hour of the day and we invite parents to come in with children, read a book, play a game, hang out a little bit while kids get settled in, have a quick check-in with a teacher about any information relevant to the day, etc.  It's gentle, it's relaxed, it's cozy.  Many children are ready to separate with a quick hug and sometimes forget to say goodbye.  Others need a specific routine before they can say goodbye: one book, five hugs and kisses at the door, and Mommy does a silly dance outside the window.  The routine varies for each child, of course, and the silly dance is not always required!

More difficult to navigate sometimes is pick-up time.  Your child had a hard time saying goodbye in the morning, so you think they'll be glad to go home at the end of the day, but they have just as hard a time leaving school as they had leaving you.  Or, you had a long day at work and you still have to pick up baby brother and get some groceries before you can go home to make dinner.  It's time to go and you're ready now.  Why is your child not ready to leave?

At our school, kids go home at all different times from 1:00 to 6:00, so there's no way to put "Gradual Departure" into the schedule, but I've come to the realization that it's just as important, and something that parents should consider putting into their daily routine.

Imagine that your spouse is going to pick you up from work.  You don't know exactly when, you just have a general idea that it will be late afternoon.  Just as you get on a roll in a project you've been struggling with, your spouse arrives and wants to leave immediately.  It would be a little unsettling.  Wouldn't you want to share the breakthrough in your work and let them know that you need a few minutes to wrap up what you're doing?

Alternatively, what if your spouse came to pick you up in the middle of a recreational activity with your friends, and demanded to leave right away?  Since play is children's work, both of these scenarios are true for them.  Just as they need time to adjust into school, they need time to adjust out.

Some parents come and hang out, chatting with each other or the teachers, while the kids finish playing and then get ready to go.  This is good community building time, but it could be even better.

The idea of "Gradual Departure" came to me from a parent whose child told her he didn't like it when she came to pick him up and didn't play with him.  He was up in the clubhouse (kind of a treeless treehouse in the backyard, which is too small for adults to stand upright in), and she went right up there and got into his game.  This child, who often resists every step of the way toward going home, packed up and left without any fuss after his mom played with him for a little while.

Another time I was involved in a dramatic play game of "The Three Bears" with two other children in the backyard.  We were just discussing how we needed someone to come out and be Goldilocks when one of their moms arrived to pick up, and without even thinking I said, "Oh good, you're just in time to be Goldilocks." She graciously took it in stride!

Kids love it when adults pretend play with them.  They delight in it.  So jumping into their game is a great way to respect the work they've been doing all day, to show them that you see them, appreciate their process, and value their ideas. 

Then, when it's time to go, just as you reassure them in the morning that you'll be back to pick them up later, you can reassure them that the school and the teachers and the friends and the materials they're using will still be here tomorrow, or next week, and they can play this game again next time.  Some kids even like to save a favorite school material in a special place where they can find it again tomorrow. 

Change is hard, and going home at the end of the day is change.  It takes time to think about it, time to reconnect with parents, and transition out of a hardworking day at school.  Giving your child time and attention at pick-up can set you up for a whole evening of positive interactions. 

watching

Often brand new threes and not-yet-threes seem hesitant to get into the mix of the busy preschool experience.  I know how they feel... this year I'm the new kid on the block, getting to know my new school, new colleagues, new kids and families.  It takes time to get into a new routine, and sometimes you just have to watch for a while until it starts to feel familiar. 

watching

at the window
i am new
to this place
and these people

some of them seem to dive right in
how do they already know who they are, and where they want to be?
i will watch for a while,
gathering information,
storing it all away for future use.

there are friendly faces,
busy bodies,
loud, LOUD voices!
sometimes it's hard enough work
just to be there,

watching.

watching

everybody together over there...
they're all bigger than me
i'm over here, busy
but i'm listening... i turn
when i hear something interesting... i look
when they shout and laugh

i will watch the big kids at their play
then do some of my own,
and before you know it
i'll jump in with them.
i'll tell them my ideas
and they will say, "yes!  let's play that."

but i don't know who they are yet
or how they will respond
i'll find out soon enough,
but for now i'll keep on

watching

seasons go round

summer

"Life's a Beach" by Teachers GK, WH, and WR

summer comes to the bay area in fits and starts -

a day or two in may

followed by a foggy june,

a three-day heat wave in july,

a few sunny days at the beach in august.

the heat only ever lasts a few days

before it gives in, and sucks up the fog from the pacific

like it, too, needed an ice cream cone

 that's when the summer tourists at fisherman's wharf

buy up all those hooded sweatshirts.

"sunny california," they guffaw,

as they marvel at the speed of the fog rolling in.

they blink, 

and the golden gate bridge has disappeared. 

autumn

"Untitled" by Teachers MB & JB

school starts in september;

some places are beginning to feel

that autumn is almost here,

but this is the time, for us,

that summer decides to stay awhile.

there are signs of autumn -   

in the cooler morning air

my bare feet almost want slippers,

bare arms almost want a long-sleeve shirt.

stores are decked out in autumn colors,

halloween's monsters get their own aisle

before labor day

we can't start the school year with autumn leaves as most curriculum guides suggest -

they won't show up until late october,

when stores are stocking aisles with christmas decorations

and images of children playing with sleds on white-blanketed hills.

we have hills

but they will be brown,

and the children have never seen snow falling on their homes.

winter

"Exposed Death" by Teachers MD & AL

what is winter, 

when you have no snow?

when your lemon trees and rose bushes blossom and bear fruit

all year long?

when warm and cold days still alternate at will?

i struggled with this question as a california teacher

for many years

until a four-year-old gave me the answer:

"winter is when it gets dark while we're still at school."

that's how some plants know it's winter around here, too -

by the hours and angle of the sunlight,

the occasional morning frost,

the smell of smoke from fireplaces

on dark and cozy evenings

under the softest blanket.

spring

"A Bouquet of Flowers" by Teachers AT & ST

so, what is spring,

if not the melting of the snow?

daffodils pop out and show their sunny faces

in february,

sometimes before the coldest weather.

spring is when the rain comes

(it also comes in winter)

(sometimes it's hard to tell the difference)

and the morning frosts are gone.

the sun seems brighter,

warmer,

stays up longer,

clearer

spring is when the hills turn green

and the flowers just go crazy.

bugs, and birds, and butterflies

wake up and do their springtime dance.

sometimes there are summer days

in spring

and how do we tell the difference then?

"summer is when it's my bedtime and the sun is still up.  

isn't that silly?"

and we are back around again.

--------------------------------------



 

Last year there was an amazing natural materials project at our Oakland school.  Kids were arranging leaves, sticks, rocks, shells, feathers, flowers, etc. and photographing and naming their creations.  At open house night, the materials were out for families to use, and some beautiful arrangements were created by parents and children together.  

Inspired by this project, we decided to have "seasons" as an overarching theme for both schools this coming school year.  To kick off the theme, the teachers participated in a seasonal natural materials project on the first day of our professional development week.  We set out a variety of natural materials in the art room.  Pairs of teachers (one from each school, who don't normally work together) were assigned one of the four seasons and created natural arrangements to represent their season (photos above).

Throughout the year, we plan to go for regular walks around our schools' neighborhoods, making note of the changes and consistencies, following the children's curiosity and interest.  It will be interesting to see what comes up from being out in the seasons this time around!

look what i can do

look!
look at me!
look what i can do!
watch this!

did you see me jump so far?
did you see me climb so high?

see, i wrote my name.
i can write it backwards, watch.
i'll show you how i did it.

look what i made!
i made it myself.
i put it together and then it broke, but i tried again and it broke again
but then i tried a different way and this is what i made, see?
watch what it can do.
this part turns around and this part shoots lasers.
this is how it flies, watch this!

come and see what we made -
we did it together.  
i built the house and my friend made the garage.
this is where the animals live, and this is where they go potty.
if you want to come and visit, you have to knock on the door.

come and see what we are doing -
we are putting on a show.
you are the audience, you sit over there.
watch us dance, see what we can do.

this is what we're learning
this is what we're building
this is how we're growing
watch us and see

don't go away yet,
take a second look
take a closer look, lean it and examine
ask me some questions about how it works
ask me why i put that piece over there.

don't ask me what it is, because it's obvious to me -
ask me to tell you everything about it.
ask me to tell you what i was thinking about
ask me to explain the parts you don't understand

let me tell you all i have to tell
listen to my thinking, my reasoning
don't say "that's nice," and don't say "i love it,"
unless you want me to learn to only work for your approval.
tell me it looks like i worked very hard
tell me you think i must be proud of myself
tell me you notice how i kept at it, even when it was difficult,
and i figured out a way to make it work
i practiced and practiced until i learned how to do it
tell me, "remember when you didn't know how to do that?"
i will smile and say, "when i was little."
tell me you wonder what i'll learn to do next
tell me you can't wait to see

i'm making my learning visible every day
all you have to do is open your eyes
and look,
look at me.

reggio 101

So, what is this Reggio Emilia, anyway?

Reggio Emilia is not a philosophy that one can be certified in, like Montessori.  Reggio Emilia is a city in northern Italy that has developed its own unique approach to early childhood education over the past fifty years.  It's an approach that cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the world because it's unique to its locale, its people and its culture.  Nevertheless, educators from all over the world have started traveling to Reggio Emilia to study with the teachers*, atelieristas* and pedagogistas* of the preschools and infant-toddler centers there.

According to the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA)'s website, "The Reggio educators seek to support early educators around the world in understanding and strengthening the identity of their own school and community, rather than attempting to replicate the experiences of children, teachers and parents in another culture and community...  Reggio educators hope to promote dialogue among educators...  Through this process, educators can then ensure that the learning and relationships of children, teachers and parents within their school community reflect their shared values."

So, to start the dialogue, let's delve into some of the basics.  Lella Gandini, the U.S. liaison for Reggio Children, wrote an article titled, "Values and Principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach."  These are my interpretations of the nine basic tenets she cites (link to Lella's article below).

The Image of the Child.  This is about how we view children, what we think them capable of.  The image of the child shapes everything about the teacher's approach to education.  If we believe that children are intelligent and creative, whole human beings, citizens of today, capable of constructing their own knowledge and understanding of the world, then we design our schools to respect and support them, and they rise to meet their fullest potential.





Children's Relationships and Interactions Within a System.  Children do not learn and grow in isolation.  Their understanding of the world is intertwined with their interactions with family, community, teachers, and peers.  In school, all of these relationships can be examined and strengthened to best support the child.

The Role of Parents.  Parents have a right and responsibility to be involved in their children's education.  In Reggio Emilia, parent participation is encouraged and expected, and varies according to each parent's strengths and interests, just as with the children.

The Role of Space: Amiable Schools.  There is an emphasis on aesthetics in Reggio Emilia: high ceilings, lots of light, natural materials and works of art make the classrooms beautiful to behold.  The environment is known as the "third teacher," and is thoughtfully arranged to support children's learning through materials provocations and social interaction.

Teachers and Children as Partners in learning.  "The Role of the Teacher" is not to instruct or lead the children, but to be "co-researchers," learning alongside the children.  The teachers ask: What are the children thinking?  How is their thinking changing?  What questions can we ask, what materials can we provide, what problem can we present that will take their thinking to the next level?



Not a Pre-Set Curriculum, but a Process of Inviting and Sustaining Learning.  The teachers observe the children to know in which direction to take the learning.  Lella talks about learning as a "spiral progression," in which the teachers and children circle back on a topic, adding layers of understanding with every new experience or interaction.  It's an active process; the teachers have to be on the cutting edge of where the children are going, prepared to present the next step, and also prepared to veer in a completely unexpected direction if that's where the children end up going.


 

The Power of Documentation.  Photos, transcriptions of children's comments and conversations, videos, tape recordings, and samples of children's work are collected all along the way.  The teachers examine the documentation to figure out where to take the project work next, and bring it back to the children to reexamine and rethink.  When documentation is shared with parents it keeps them connected and makes the children's learning visible.  When shared with the community, it can invite the general public's broader engagement with schools, and investment in progressive educational approaches (one would hope).

The Many Languages of Children.  This is the idea that children have infinite ways to express their thoughts, ideas, imaginings, understandings.  The many various materials that are always available in Reggio classrooms and ateliers (art studios) support children in expressing themselves in their own unique ways.  Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia schools, wrote a poem called "The Hundred Languages" that, to me, best explains this idea.  I've included a link to a lovely video of the poem below.

Projects.  Known in Italian as "progettazione" (I like learning a little Italian in this process), the projects are the basis for the children's work, and can last for just a week, or can progress throughout the entire year.  You never know what might become a project - a chance encounter with a worm in the garden can lead to a month's worth of research, artwork and discovery.  The important thing is that the projects are initiated by the children and follow the natural trajectory of the children's interests.


There you have it, the basics of the Reggio Emilia approach.  It fits in one small blog post but, I am beginning to believe, takes a lifetime to understand.  This is just the first time around the spiral.

------------------------

Reggio educator definitions (to the best of my understanding):

*Teacher - each Reggio classroom has two teachers, who collaborate on all of the day-to-day running of the classroom, documentation, project work, etc.
*Atelierista - an art teacher, one at each school, who collaborates with classroom teachers to support the children in representing their ideas in as many ways as possible.
*Pedagogista - a highly educated professional who oversees a handful of Reggio schools, supporting the teachers in interpreting their research and documentation, to make the most of the educational possibilities for the children.

------------------------

Links:

Reggio Emilia's own website:  http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/index.htm
North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA):  http://www.reggioalliance.org/narea.php
NAREA's FAQ page:  http://www.reggioalliance.org/faq.php#approach
Lella Gandini "Values and Principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach" pdf:  www.learningmaterialswork.com/pdfs/ValuesAndPrinciples.pdf
"The Hundred Languages," poem by Loris Malaguzzi, illuminated by Sarah McRoberts:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=174pYUcwn7w

baby steps

I'm always surprised when I talk to people and they've never heard of the Reggio Emilia approach, even other teachers.  I've been immersed in trying to learn about the Reggio way for six years now, and the more I discover, the more I want to understand. 

I started with a vague sense of what Reggio was about: progressive, emergent, project-based... the words floated around in the ether and made me feel good about working in a preschool with these values.  I was coming out of nearly 5 years of teaching in a very tough and under-resourced public elementary school where I had to follow the mandated curriculum, measure each distinct subject area in minutes per week, and administer standardized tests to at least 25 underprivileged 7-year-olds, some with serious problems in their lives creating obstacles to their success.  Yikes!  Almost any other teaching situation would have been a reprieve, but finding a Reggio-inspired preschool to work in was a dream come true.

We started off with some inservice training; a teacher from a well-established school came and showed us images of their project work and talked about what the children had done.  It was wonderfully impressive, but I came away with a lost feeling of "Yes, but how did they do that?" 

Since those tentative beginnings, I have joined NAREA (The North American Reggio Emilia Alliance) and attended two of their conferences featuring professionals from Reggio Emilia, Italy.  We took our whole staff to Salinas to view the Wonder of Learning exhibit, an inspiring display of Reggio children's project work that tours the world. 

These days I feel like I have wondered a lot, learned a lot, and have a much better understanding of what it is that I want to understand better!  My learning comes in baby steps, some bigger than others, some backwards... something like this:

- Visit a school, conference or exhibit, or 
- Read a blog, book or article
- Get inspired
- Change something about how our school looks or how it functions
- Get bogged down in the day-to-day details of a busy classroom and fall short of intended perfection
- Look back and notice what we could have done better
- Repeat

It's a never-ending cycle but definitely a forward-moving one, and that's the kind that's preferable when you're on a journey.

useful

when you are 4
anything is possible
everything is beautiful
disappointments are the worst thing ever
a knocked-over block castle is a disaster
a little blood on your finger makes you wonder
if you are going to die.

when you are 4
everything is original
naptime is unthinkable
under the table is your hiding place
and time is a snail

when you are 4
your stories get longer
your fingers get stronger
you laugh with abandon
when someone says "underwear"

when you are 4
a stick is a sword
     a violin
     a magic wand
     a mixing spoon
     a hairbrush
     a conductor's baton

when you are 4
everything is for climbing on
everything is for painting on
everything is for gluing on
everything is for banging on
everything is useful
if you use your imagination

when you are 4

----------------

One of the teachers got a new mixer for her birthday and brought the box and styrofoam packaging to school for the kids to use.

N. was leaving school with her mom just as I was returning from a parent-teacher conference.  She walked toward the front door with a big smile on her face and a large... something... in her hands, and announced, "Useful."

I looked at it more closely.  She had transformed the mixer's styrofoam packaging into a caddy of sorts, inserting things into its various nooks, crannies, and holes; mostly her artwork made of paper, but also wilted flowers (a.k.a. bells), a hair band, and an extra chunk of styrofoam that she'd colored on with pastels.

Then she noticed that her useful thing still had some vacant space.  There was a round hole on one side, about two inches in diameter.  She looked around and thought about it for mere seconds before she had the solution: on the table next to the fish tank was a small paper cup containing water and some half-wilted flowers that we'd been using in the art room.  She had relocated the flowers to this paper vase herself a day or two earlier, rescuing them from a certain glue-related fate, and decided at this moment that they were going home with her.  She gently and easily fitted the cup into the circular hole in the styrofoam, and giggled with glee.

"Useful," I said, to acknowledge her delight in her creation.

"Useful," she agreed, and off she went with her mom, easily carrying all of her useful things.

back to yesterday

'I could tell you my adventures - beginning from this morning,' said Alice a little timidly: 'but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.'

-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

yesterday
i was a dancer
i was an artist
i was a farmer
i was a scientist
i was a baker
i was an acrobat
i was a homemaker
i was a horseback rider
i was a hula girl
i was an explorer 
i was an architect

yesterday
i was a whale
i was a jack-in-the-box
i was an engineer
i was a baby swan
i was a passenger
i was a carpenter
i was a witch
i was a reader
i was a plumber
i was a storyteller
i was a paper airplane pilot

yesterday
i was a magician king
i was a jedi padawan
i was a firefighter
i was a tree spirit
i was a princess
i was a pirate
i was a train conductor
i was a blue crayon
i was a potion maker
i was a photographer

yesterday
i was a builder
i was a painter
i was a clown
i was a ladybug
i was a florist
i was a cartographer
i was a pianist
i was a ballerina
i was a judge
i was a model
i was a traveler






then my parents ask me, "what did you do at school today?"
it is hard work to remember.
i shrug my shoulders and say,

"i played."

 

here begins a journey

here begins a journey
out on the edge
     of comfort
take my hand
let's put our toes in.
it might be cold
we might sink down
     in
     the soft, black sand.
this world is huge;
so much to see
     and do
     and take in.
and we are small;
sometimes we are timid
sometimes we get tummyaches
     that we cannot explain
some people call us shy
but we are watchers
     we are seers
we are builders
     we are shapers
we are magic wand makers.
come along with us, if this is your path...
if you, too, can silently observe
ponder all you see
contemplate all you hear
and let it slowly form
     into questions and knowing
     in the growing of your mind
     as you sleep.

we are ready for the journey.
we are the journey.
here it begins.