EY Connect - May issue 2024

Morning everyone 

Keep your wellies and umbrella with you this week, it looks like it'll be a rainy one! ☔

1 REFLECTION

I've been thinking a lot about time. Especially nearer the end of term, a lot of conversations I've been having with educators are around time - the lack of, the slipping away of, the constraints of. It has always been a tricky layer in education. Educators make time for what they value. What you see happening in classrooms is a direct reflection of the values, beliefs, and culture that is cultivated in that space. However, teachers' autonomy over their use of time does seem to decrease as we move up year levels, as whole school timetabling trumps the individual teacher's preference for when and how long their children engage in playful learning. 

Recently, both Shelley Moore and Fiona Zinn have got me thinking about possibilities when we reframe time as rhythms. 

The topic of rhythms offers a generous and fertile space for our consideration - it nudges our thinking away from ‘the problem of time’ and asks us to think about our relationship with the clock, what we do and what we value, how we get into flow, and what might be possible if we focus on the experiences in front of us rather than the schedule on the wall. 

❓What does our pedagogical rhythm feel and look like when we truly take the child's lead? How will this align with your values?

❓What is worth letting go of, and what do we hold onto, when making that mindset shift from time to rhythm? How do we do this within the school timetable (in which we have limited control over)?

Read the full article here - Finding Time - The Rhythm of our Routines 

1 IDEA

In education, there are a lot of ideas about what is 'best practice' (a term that I personally do not like or use). I prefer to think of it as effective practices, which change with research and environmental circumstances. I also love rethinking what (I thought) I knew, so this article Education Myths Not Backed by Research is super exciting. Some myths they bust:

• Doodling improves focus and learning
• Reading aloud improves fluency
• Talent beats persistence
• Background music always undermines learning
• Grades are motivating

The best part of it is, every myth has a "how to fix it" section, so we can go away with some practical strategies. 

1 RESOURCE

Music with Shannon is one of the best IG accounts I've discovered recently, with tons of video clips of songs, fingerplays, and use of simple percussion instruments. Find Shannon here!

*A takeaway from my recent read The Music Advantage - children's ability to keep a beat predicts their ability to read later on! 

1 WELLBEING

Dr Madeline Wishart recently presented at The Three Ecologies ESF-wide CPD day. She ran a session on distress tolerance which applies to both children and adults, and put together a skills pack full of resources such as calming visuals, mindfulness scripts teachers can use in the classroom, mindful coloring sheets, and more. Some examples from the pack:

A calming strategy that is simplified from the 54321 senses:

For all ages - how to change your body chemistry to reduce extreme emotions FAST:

1 QUOTE

“Attending to what we love, what we are astonished by, what flummoxes us with beauty, is such crucial work. Such rigorous work. Likewise, studying how we care, and are cared for, is such necessary work. It makes the world.” - Ross Gay

Until next time,
Brenda 

Currently reading:

The Music Advantage by Dr Anita Collins

The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper & Gloria Vanderbilt