EY Connect - Sept issue 2024

Good morning! 😊

I hope everyone has had a great start to the school year. I'm eager to jump back into this monthly passion project of mine as I invite educators to engage with content that inspires and advances our thinking and breathes new inquires into your teaching practice. As always, if you read something that resonates with you, share it with your colleagues, bring it to planning meetings, and extend the learning for the collective.

1 REFLECTION

During the beginning weeks of school, we know that relationship building is the priority. A child's relationship to teachers and peers, but also their relationship to the physical space, and to materials old and new. Relationships are the bedrock upon which everything else is built. 

I was helping a K1 child with toileting last week, and he said to me "Don't talk to strangers". I replied, "Hmm.. am I a stranger?" He smiled and said "no!" Unfortunately at that time I was too busy to further the conversation, but thinking back, I would've wanted to ask "What does a stranger mean? Who am I then?" This little memory highlights for me, the importance of community, and the way we make children feel, even though they may not yet know our names. Children know when an adult is kind, loving, and, in his words, not a stranger!

This links directly to a discussion I had with some teachers around the concept me vs we in this article by Mara Krechevsky. 

Does children's egocentrism shape the way they develop their self-identity? Or do their interactions with the community inform how they view themselves? It is highly probable that it is a balance of both depending on circumstances. How can we as educators create opportunities for children to develop a sense of self through their own and others' perspectives? 

Leaving you with an excerpt from the article:

People might say “child-led” or “child-directed,” but not child-centered. To her and her colleagues, the center of education was not the child, but the land, the earth, and all living things. “Child-centered” is a common value in progressive education, particularly in early childhood. Yet the term is steeped in the Western culture of individualism, consumption, and capitalism. “Child-centered” implies education that is focused on the individual. What might an alternative look like?

1 IDEA .. a few more than usual 😆

Peps Mccrea is an educator who is dedicated to helping teachers and school leaders approach their work in an evidence-informed way. I've introduced him before through Evidence Snacks—a weekly 5-min email that helps 10k+ teachers keep up-to-date with thinking and research around effective teaching. 

Over the summer, he put together a 2023/24 Year in Review video (13 min) to summarize some recent findings in education research. Some takeaways more relevant to EY and primary:

• Children from lower socio-economic backgrounds scored 16-18% lower when presented with math questions that were linked to real-life situations (a stark reminder for us to make sure learning is contextual and inclusive!)
• Children offered empowering help (prompts) to more competent peers, whereas they help less competent peers by giving direct instructions
• Children who have robust general knowledge demonstrated better reading and writing outcomes. The effects of this are particularly strong when content is revisited in a spiral-structured curriculum

These technology findings, whilst not applicable to the early years, is significant to consider in the bigger picture:

• Smartphone bans in school improved mental health particularly in girls and led to better learning outcomes
• Generative AI can harm learning - children did well using chatbots during revision, but had lower exam results (so AI might be helpful in the short term, but not in the long run)

1 RESOURCE

Noise = student engagement yes, but sometimes, you also just want to quiet them down so they can practice listening! The article has tons of resources and examples, including:

• Pass the Quiet - a circle time strategy
• Too Noisy - free teacher version (the meter changes based on the live noise level of your classroom) or bouncyballs.org

1 WELLBEING

The Zen has been popping up a lot in my social media. It's a series of minimalistic meditation built by Tim Holman, designed to calm you down via the power of small, captivating, mildly amusing and oddly satisfying activities.

1 QUOTE

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."-   W. B .   Y E A T S

Until next time,

Brenda 

Currently reading:

Nerve by Martha Piper & Indira Samarasekera

Know My Name by Chanel Miller