The other day, my teaching partner, Paula, spoke to me about an article that she read sharing that adults don’t laugh enough. I don’t know if this is the article that she found, but it definitely shares the same information. As we chatted about the article, one thing became clear: the two of us definitely laugh way more than the average adult, and so much of this laughter is in the classroom. Maybe that’s what makes work/school so enjoyable. If you’re spending your days chuckling, wouldn’t you want to keep coming back to the place that makes you so happy?!

This got me thinking more about why we laugh so much. Is it because we’re surrounded by four- and five-year-olds, who find everything amusing? In a school, if you want to visit the happiest place on earth, find a Kindergarten class. Everything is exciting! 

• Listen to this child sing and talk excitedly about the baby worm she found. Joyful! Precious. And it makes me giggle just a little again, as I hear her laughter over her incredibly lucky find.

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• As adults, mud is synonymous with a mess (and likely hours of laundry), but as a kid, mud is all about happy times. Chasing each other with the mud. Exploring in the mud. Even painting with the mud. Nothing is better than this kind of sensory play, and just watching it in action, makes me chuckle along with the kids.

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Playing in the mud puddle. This sensory play often leads to oral language opportunities. pic.twitter.com/noKZwFaE8r

— Aviva Dunsiger (@avivaloca) February 26, 2018

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• You just never know what’s going to be said or done, and it’s the unexpected that can sometimes cause the biggest laughs. It’s like finding the biggest broken branch ever, and hearing your teaching partner say, “I wonder if it can fit through the door.” 🙂 Then it’s actually working with ten kids to carry that branch back to the school, and figuring out with them how to get it through the gate before trying to get it through the door. But of course, you also fall in love with the branch so it has to make it in. After that, there’s also the process of getting this branch over to the floor ready for painting, and then somehow managing to flip it (all on your own), so that the children can access the other side. It’s the sign the children make to remind you that the “big stick” is there — as if someone could miss it — and the many giggles that accompany every step of the process. Then it’s the act of getting that branch back out to the forest again, and the amazing crowd waiting to see you do it. It’s the numerous reminders of “the gate, the gate, the gate,” and realizing that the children are going anywhere but there. Who knew that one broken branch could lead to so much laughter?! 

• It’s in seeing life and learning from a child’s perspective. Kids see the world differently, and some of the happiest moments are around these differences. Only a child could see a stick as a person, and two sticks, as “kissing people.” And imagine when children then see the perfect birthday present as these kissing people. For what really is better than that?! Then think about the child’s comment around having “scissor hands” for the people. Even more than the comment, I love how my teaching partner never once said, “No,” but instead discussed the potential problems with the child. It’s each of these little moments that brought me some joy, and it’s experiencing every little part of this, that brought on lots of laughter.

Please don’t get me wrong: I couldn’t be happier about the progress that our students have made this year. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it. But I’m equally as happy over the tremendous joy that I’ve experienced this year. I love that every day is full of the kind of laughter that makes my sides hurt and my eyes run with happy tears. I love that we can share this kind of laughter with kids, with parents, and with each other. I’m thrilled that I get in way more than four laughs a day, and that these laughs are genuine, are long, and are full of immense joy. If your place of work can bring on this much laughter, then life doesn’t get much better than that! How often do you laugh? What can help you experience more joy in the workplace and at home? Here’s to a week full of many giggles! Surround yourself with people and experiences, which make this possible.

Aviva

I still remember the first time that I had to look at children through a developmentally appropriate lens. As educators, we all know the age of the students that are in front of us, and we understand school rules and expectations, but what if our children are at a different developmental level? This was a reality that I faced a number of years ago. And it was this very topic that I thought back to again when I heard a very disturbing story yesterday.

I think often about this group of students, who caused me to really re-evaluate my teaching practices. I was struggling. Really struggling. I was not a new teacher, and I was not a beginning teacher in this grade, but nothing seemed to be working. I was spending my entire day dealing with one problem after another one. I felt as though I was constantly putting out fires, and just as I put out one, another blaze began. Ask any Kindergarten child, and he/she can probably recite the school rules.

• No hitting.
• No kicking.
• No pushing.
• No spitting.
• We can look instead at the nicer option of, “Be kind to your friends and keep your hands to yourself,” but the overall message is the same.

For the most part, these students also knew these rules, but they didn’t follow them. How was I supposed to support academic gains, when I was split in so many directions dealing with social problems? At this point, I tried options that worked well in the past, and when these options still didn’t work, I broke down in tears. I went to the principal and asked for help. I wanted to bring in some consultants and Board teams and see what we could do to support these children, as the classroom environment was not working for anyone. I had a wonderfully supportive principal, who was quick to contact some Board supports, and we had a meeting. In the meeting, we talked about The ELECT Document, and where these students might be at a developmental level. I knew where they needed to be, but if they weren’t there, were my instructional approaches really supporting them? This meeting was eye-opening for me and challenging at the same time. I’m a teacher. I teach reading, writing, and math. But these consultants re-framed things for me: I teach kids first! So I walked back into the classroom, feeling partially defeated and partially inspired, and I had a really long talk with my teaching partner. If all of our students were at the developmental level of a toddler, what would a toddler room look like? We made a lot of changes after school that day, which continued into the next day.

• We covered up shelves.
• We switched materials in the room.
• We replaced lengthy read alouds with board books.
• We added more sensory options (from water to play dough), and even made the sink into a learning space.
• We changed our schedule: reducing transitions and allowing for more of a flow in the day.
• We responded differently to kids: modelling social interactions instead of punishing for hitting or grabbing, as this was the developmental stage that the students were at. 
• We started to sing everything. As an educator that I admire reminded me, “Kids hear music at a different level than talking. They respond to it differently.” And they did!

The next day was the BEST day that I had at school in over two months. Our kids had their best day too. What initially felt like a very dysregulating environment changed to a very calming one. I could feel it, my teaching partner could feel it, and the children could feel it. This was a great reminder to all of us, that while we had our expectations for kids, we needed to respond to the children in front of us. By responding differently, the students also changed. They grew. They matured. And we could gradually address academic needs, as now these children were self-regulated and ready to learn!

I thought back to this experience yesterday when a teacher from a different school told me about a disturbing issue with tweens and social media. The details of this problem are irrelevant. We’ve all heard about these issues before. Be it inappropriate postings, language, or interactions on a social media site, we all know the horror stories or have experienced them. And this is when I started to wonder about elementary students bringing and using their own devices at school. Please don’t get me wrong. I’ve taught up to Grade 6 before, and I’ve used technology in all grades from Kindergarten to Grade 6. I see the value in using technology as a learning tool, and watching students use these devices in the classroom, I think that they also see the academic benefits. But when we add personal devices into the mix, we also potentially add more problems.

• There’s the ability to text.
• There’s the ability to upload to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter (usually used less by students). 
• There’s the ability to use Snapchat or Kik (a popular option with my Grade 6’s many years ago). 

We could argue that the rule is that the students are not supposed to use these apps in school, but rules are often broken. In fact, most of the social media platforms that these tweens are using are for individuals 13 or older, but many are using it much younger than that. And while, as a teacher, I always circulated and looked at the screens as students used iPads or computers, with hand-held devices it’s impossible to see every screen at every moment of the day. It takes seconds to publish a post, and these seconds can lead to many minutes of problems later. 

I’m beginning to wonder if students in this Grade 5-8 range are emotionally and socially mature enough to deal with the possible repercussions that come from the use of social media. Add into the fact that many of these students are starting to go through puberty, and at times, hormones lead to them responding in a way that may even be outside of their control. I get it. I’ve seen it. And these same students may be genuinely upset later with how they’ve responded, but it could be too late. I know that these individuals are likely to explore texting and social media applications at home, and maybe these same problems will surface, but I wonder if parents can catch issues even quicker. Can they support their tween even more? For these same parents may be watching a couple of kids versus a class of 30+ students. It’s the numbers that concern me the most. 

When I taught junior grades, I did encourage students to bring in their devices from home. Many did. This was what often gave us 1:1 devices in the room, and allowed us to blog and create online, collaborative presentations as frequently as we did. But if I was to go back and teach a junior grade again, I’m not sure that I would encourage these home devices as much as I did before. I’d still use the iPads, Chromebooks, and computers that we have at school, but maybe cellphones could stay in the lockers until after school. Would just this one change minimize the potential for problems and allow me to continue to model technology use for learning, but with Board devices in a classroom setting? These horror stories scare me, and not just because of what happens, but because I wonder if we can truly expect different outcomes from kids of this age. Maybe some kids, but most/all kids? It’s like my teaching story from years ago: when we respond to students at their developmental level, the learning and behaviour changes. I wonder if the social and emotional developmental level of these 10-12 year olds really allow for the independent, mature interaction with the platforms that they ARE using — and will likely CONTINUE to use — on their personal devices. Knowing this, do we need to respond in a different way? What might that way be? It only took one more disturbing story to have me wondering. 

Aviva

The other day, I had a conversation that has been on my mind ever since. I was speaking with another teacher about writing in Kindergarten. I’m very passionate about authentic writing, and the value in using this writing to also support reading development. In my 17 years of teaching with the Board — and 11 years teaching Kindergarten — all of our children this year are reading and writing more than I’ve ever seen before. All of this writing is authentic.

• It’s embedded in play.
• It’s largely student-driven.
• It takes place all day long.
• It’s linked with opportunities to read, and supports and includes the development of new vocabulary (oral language).

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My teaching partner, Paula, and I could not be happier about the reading and writing that we’re seeing in our classroom, and we’ve received numerous emails from parents that express their gratitude for the growth that they’ve seen in their children. All of this matters immensely to me! This may have been why I was triggered when this same teacher suggested the use of notebooks/journals for some of our kids. What? Why?

I’m going to share here the same concerns that I expressed at the time.

• Many journals are lined, and there’s information out there that shows how these lines act as “visual noise,” and can discourage children from writing more. I used lined journals for years with my Kindergarten and Grade 1 students, but as soon as I made the switch to unlined paper, I noticed a huge increase in the quality and quantity of writing. I’ve never gone back! This unlined paper also allows children to easily draw and label their work, which is something that beginning writers do frequently. Drawings are how many Kindergarten students communicate — especially initially — and our Program Document supports this with Visual Arts being one of the ways that children can communicate. 
• Even if we can find unlined journals, as soon as we make writing about what happens in a notebook or a journal, we start to devalue the writing that happens in authentic ways. I don’t think that this is done intentionally, and maybe it’s not the case for everyone, but often there is far less writing happening around the room and through play when writing happens in a notebook. Maybe it’s in our attempt to make that notebook special that children receive an implied message about the importance of this journal. Maybe it’s because so many of our mini-lessons happen with the journal that the other writing is seen as less valuable, be it in the eyes of adults or children. But for years I’ve noticed that as soon as a journal is introduced, other writing gradually decreases. I think it’s worth exploring why this happens. 

I know that writing starts to look different as we move up in the grades. I’ve taught Kindergarten to Grade 6. Yes, these grades are not all the same. But while the pedagogy is explicit in the Kindergarten Program Document, it’s not explicit in the Language Curriculum. Reading and writing could still happen through play. When I taught Grade 1 at Dr. Davey, a Writer’s Workshop model totally changed things for my students. Kids were writing constantly and for long periods of time, and these were not children that started the year feeling as though they were readers and writers. I had grand plans for how I wanted to run our Grade 1 classroom, but I had to make changes because of the children that were in front of me. This Writer’s Workshop model was one of these changes, and it was a game changer. Even then, my children did not have journals. I did have writing folders, and encouraged students to organize loose papers in these folders, but writing was often done and displayed around the classroom. Signs and labels were used within the context of play, and it was when the interests changed, that children took these papers and began to put them in their writing folders. Perfect!

Please don’t get me wrong. I know that sometimes the value of a journal is not in the writing (the expression of ideas), but in the printing practice (opportunities to form letters correctly and in ways that are readable to others). There is a time and a place for learning proper letter formation … and I realize that sometimes when learned incorrectly, this is a hard habit to break. That said, I’ve noticed that when children get hung up on how to form a letter, many of them stop writing. For some children, just showing them that they’ve made a mistake is enough to discourage more writing. It all comes down to knowing your students. 

• If Paula and I notice letter reversals, we will often demonstrate how to form these letters correctly.
• We might write children back a note based on what they wrote us, and even point out the differences in some of our letters versus theirs. 
• We might encourage students to trace the letter that we wrote and try some of their own.
• For a few children, we might remind them before they write to remember about uppercase and lowercase letters. 
• And for some children, we might not say anything because just the very act of writing can be stressful enough, and we want to encourage and support, and not discourage the growth we’re seeing.

And so, we try to put out papers that are of various sizes: from small sticky notes to notepads in the dramatic play restaurant to papers on clipboards. We also put out different writing instruments: from Sharpies (the preferred one) to pencils. We want children to learn to write smaller and more exact, but we also want them to love writing and to understand that writing can be a very valuable and convincing way to express ideas to others. This is why we’ve also started to include technology as part of our writing, and using PicCollage is another way for children to write. They love sharing their PicCollages with a larger audience through Twitter and Instagram. We’ve also started to use Explain Everything in addition to PicCollage to give children a bigger voice in their writing, for often at this age, what children can express orally even exceeds what they can write down. 

I showed Milla how to use @explainevrythng today, and we talked more about her car track design and her PicCollage. pic.twitter.com/w3oKloYsRn

— Aviva Dunsiger (@avivaloca) April 11, 2018

Writing is complex and wonderful, and even now as an educator, I’m inspired by what I can share through text. Sometimes this text is a handwritten card (yes, even with the lack of a pen, I still do those 🙂 ), sometimes it’s a blog post, and sometimes it’s a Twitter or Instagram post. These kids that we’re teaching now will grow up to hopefully still be eager writers, who realize that writing can happen anywhere at any time. There’s still time to further perfect the size and formation of the printing, and while it might also matter, the confidence that comes from children realizing that they can communicate to anyone through the messages that they write is powerful. I don’t want to even inadvertently change these feelings by adding a journal into the mix. If children bring their own journals into class — which some do — we’re happy to support the writing that happens in these journals. This is now child-initiated writing that’s meaningful to that child. How can we not? But we’re reluctant to go the route of a journal for everyone — or even a handful of children that have not indicated an interest. Are they really necessary? What do you think? I know that the teacher that mentioned this to me the other day got quite the passionate response — and I do apologize for that — but I hope that this post explains why this matters so much to me. With a Program Document that supports authentic writing, why move to a journal? I wonder how authentic this kind of writing really is for our youngest learners.

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Aviva

We all know that relationships matter. We may even talk regularly about the benefits of these strong connections between educators, parents, and students. But sometimes it’s really seeing the value of these strong relationships that make us realize just how important they are!

Yesterday was the last day for one member of our school’s Kindergarten team. Starting today, Janet is taking on the new-to-her position of a Reading Specialist in our Board. This is my second year of working beside Janet. I knew of her, and then had the pleasure of meeting her, a few years before I started teaching Kindergarten at Rousseau School. I was involved in the N.T.I.P. Program for our Board, and was mentoring an educator that wanted to see a Kindergarten classroom in action. Many colleagues recommended that we go and see Janet’s room, and so we did. I wasn’t disappointed! There were many things that stuck out for me on that visit, but one thing that I remember even years later, are all of the things that Janet did to connect with kids. From her gentle tone to sitting down and creating with a group of students, Janet was always about the kids first. She still is! There is not one child in the school that has not been impacted by Mrs. Raymond! In fact, I don’t think that there’s one educator that hasn’t either.

This point was highlighted for me yesterday. When Paula and I told the class that it was “Mrs. Raymond’s last day,” children were inspired to create things for her all day long. They made her cards, pictures, and notes of love and encouragement. These children are not in her class. Some of them just met Janet for the first time in September, and largely only see her during our outdoor learning time in the morning. But she’s made a difference for them! It was incredible to see how many kids gave Janet some of their very best work yesterday because they wanted her to know how much they cared. Even though Paula and I were already thinking about giving her our pink painting piece as a goodbye present (as she shared with us that it really was her favourite piece of artwork), it was the children that suggested giving her a painting. They wanted her to remember us with something special. Many children at this age are very me-focused, and this is true of numerous students in our class. This is developmentally appropriate, and we know this. But thanks to all that Janet has done for us, and for the school, even these me-focused kids made yesterday about her. 

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So thank you, Mrs. Raymond, for reminding us about the importance of putting kids first. Thanks for always being there with a hug, a kind word, and some encouragement. You’ve made an impact on thousands of students, parents, and educators, including every single one of us in ELP 1. What’s a little something that we could all learn from Janet? I’m very sad to see you go, but I’m thrilled that I got the opportunity to work with and learn from you. You’re going to continue to make a difference for kids and adults everywhere, and I wish you nothing but the best on your first day as a Reading Specialist!

Aviva