Kindergarten...Remember That's It's Supposed to Be About the Journey

Jennifer Serravallo published a blog this week titled "Teaching While Parenting: On Kindergarten Readiness". In the article, she shared the different but intentional journeys her two daughters took on the road to kindergarten readiness.

What stuck with me was the following:

"I support a redefinition of kindergarten readiness. I believe in open-ended, hands-on, student-driven play to help them be ready, reading them lots of stories and teaching them to tell their own stories, and working with numbers in real-world ways."

https://medium.com/@heinemann/teaching-while-parenting-on-kindergarten-readiness-56605d614eb2


As a former first grade teacher, and now a supervisor of elementary language arts instruction, I know the importance of kindergarten readiness. However, I also firmly believe in the importance of developmental appropriateness, and in an era of "push-down curriculum", more and more is being expected from our 5 and 6 year olds. 

Here is an analogy I share often with preschool and kindergarten parents. I don't remember the origin of this, so I am unable to credit anyone.

When a child is learning to walk, the process can begin as early as nine months of age or as late as 14 months of age. We've all watched a child in their journey towards mobility, and one thing I think we can agree on is that the process cannot be rushed. If you take a child who is not yet ready for their first steps, and stand them up, they will fall down. No matter how many times you repeat this process, the child will tumble as their bodies are not yet ready to support this new progression. Conversely, I know that you can't get in the way of child who is ready and determined to take those first steps. Look out, because here they come!

My daughter walked at nine months of age, and her cousing didn't walk until fourteen months. They are now both adults, and no one has ever looked at them as said, "She is a good walker! She must have been an early walker! Oh, look at him. I bet he didn't walk until after he turned one." 

The answer is a resounding no. They each walked when they were developmentally ready to do so, and it wasn't the result of pushing the process along or helping my daughter to walk early. Both children had bouncy seats and walking toys to support them along their journey, but "extra practice" was not the difference.

This analogy also applies to reading. We must provide rich experiences on the road to reading, through exposure to books and words and print, but the pieces will come together on their own time. For some children this is in Kindergarten, but for most it occurs in grade 1. For a few students it may not happen until second grade. The important thing is for us as educators to be there to support our students, picking them up when they fall down.

Now that brings me to the importance of play and other experiences as Jennifer spoke about in her blog. I firmly believe that Kindergarten needs to continue to be a place of readiness.

It's a time to develop important social-emotional and executive function skills.

A time to play, wonder, explore and question.

A time to make friends and learn to understand differences.

A time to follow directions, cut, color, paint and glue.

A time to learn about numbers and patterns in the world through meaningful, real-life experiences.

A time to draw and learn how to properly hold a pencil as they practice forming letters and numbers.

It's a time to rhyme, learn letters and their corresponding sounds, and concepts about print.

All of this is in preparation for learning to read, write, and develop number sense in first grade and beyond. Accelerating this process will not produce "better students", but can impact their sense of wonder and lead to frustration for those who are not developmentally ready.

We need to stop pushing down curriculum, but work to make experiences developmentally appropriate and rich with real-world applications.

Let them play, for it is through this that a true learner will emerge. One who never stops wondering, questioning, and persevering.

Shifting My Lens...Looking At ACEs In Our Students

At the start of my summer, I participated in #EdCampVoice, a 24-hour EdCamp using Voxer. One of the groups I joined was title "Trauma Informed Instruction". I was interested in this topic because I have been noticing more and more students in our schools who have experienced trauma in their lives that I could never even image. In the youngest of the grade levels I supervise, much of what these children have been experiencing has been manifesting itself in behavioral difficulties. What I've been most concerned about lately is that that our amazing teachers, who would do anything to support and care for their students, didn't have an understanding of why some children were behaving in specific ways, and more importantly, what to do about it. Our schools seem to be receiving some students we are ill equipped to support.
Through this EdCamp group, I heard about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) for the first time. This was a mind-changing discovery for me. ACEs outlines specific childhood experiences, 10 to be exact, which have been strongly correlated to long-term health risks, violence, and other life effecting consequences. The more of these traumatic experiences a child has faced, the greater likelihood their adult life is affected.
There is a great deal of information available about ACEs and several long-term studies that have been conducted, and I will link some of these resources below.
Getting back to my EdCamp experiences and ACEs, you can imagine what a lightbulb moment this was for me and my concern about the growing number of students having social and behavioral difficulties in our classrooms.
Fast forward to August, when I was fortunate to attend a screening of the documentary "Resilience" in my school district. This documentary shared studies conducted on ACEs and I was touched by the stories shared by people who have experienced a high number of ACEs.
My lens has changed this year. Instead of looking at a child having a meltdown or behavioral difficulty in school with the thought of "why are you doing this?", I have shifted to "what could have happened to you"? Spending the time to get to know students, their background, and even past traumatic experiences, can open the gate to support and understanding for our students. Sometimes our students can ask for help in the most unusual ways. It is our job as educators to make sure our students feel safe and secure, because we know learning can't happen without that. We also have a critical role to support our students, and realize we can never know all that they have experienced outside of our classroom or school building. We can change the path for students who have been affected by ACEs...it is our obligation.

There is so much more for me learn about this, and information can be readily found. Here are just a few links to get you started if learning about ACEs is new for you.

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/index.html 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/when-students-are-traumatized-teachers-are-too 
Find your own ACEs score: https://acestoohigh.com/got-your-ace-score/

RESILIENCE: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope - Trailer

Summer Learning... I want all the things

Summertime...educators stand at the end of another school year, which in my case is always June 30, and look ahead at the weeks stretching in front them with hope and anticipation.

We think about all of the things we want to accomplish, both personally and professionally. If you're like me, the list likely consists of a combination of things like "clean out and organize my closet" to reading a growing list of the latest professional books, spending time with family, and just getting some R & R. 

In other words, we want to do what my friend Elizabeth's daughter calls "all the things" during our time away from school and our students as we recharge for a new school year. 

The problem for me is that my list usually far exceeds the time I have actually have available. 

I started the summer joining 6 professional book studies. Yes, I definitely overextended myself, but definitely with the best of intentions. 

Communicating daily with my #4ocfpln guided my learning this summer, through daily conversations equal to the best professional development sessions I've attended, along with A LOT of professional and personal reading, a blog challenge, and even a FitBit challenge. 

Last month, in the middle of August, I was fortunate to once again organize and host a 3-day summer institute in my district. The teachers who attend this conference are coming on their own time, during their summer hiatus. These are teachers who want to learn and refesh for the upcoming school year, and I am always warmed by their passion and enthusiasm for their learning. These teachers also want to do "all the things" during their summer, and are including their own professional development as part of that. 

Summer gives us a time to focus on what Jimmy Casas calls "life fit", while recharging and learning something new to implement during the new school year. As educators, we are fortunate to have this time. 

Did you attempt "all the things" this summer?

I certainly did, although I never did clean out my closet. 

My "Life Fit" this summer...

Family 💗

Professional Learning 😃