GENTLENESS AS A CLASSROOM STRATEGY
I always enjoy reading Michael Linsin's articles on behaviour management strategies. I felt that this particular one really rang true to me. I truely believe that children need to feel that their teacher loves and respects them. Children shouldn't fear their teachers. I try hard to be compassionate, kind and gentle towards the children in my class so that they feel safe to try new things and enjoy their time in my class. However, just because I am being "gentle" doesn't mean that I don't have high expectations for behaviour and learning in my class.
ACADEMIC VS SOCIAL EMOTIONAL SKILLS IN THE EARLY YEARS
This article really hit a spot with me. It talks about many of the issues our NZ schools are currently facing. It talks about how the children who were pushed to reach a high academic level early in their education often did not continue to succeed throughout their later schooling years. And it suggests, as I also believe, that the lack of social-emotional skills are the reason why they are "failing" later on. This helps me to feel confident that the importance I place on our afternoon "play" sessions that develop social-emotional skills is in fact justified. I will also keep remembering to teach those emotional literacy skills throughout our more structured learning time.
LOOSE PARTS ARTICLE
I love the idea of creating a Loose Parts play space for our kiddies. I came across this brief blog article that reinforced my ideas about using it.
I think the idea of giving our kids more opportunities to just explore and experiment with their world. So much learning takes place when kids just play. The little space behind our classroom would be a great place for this as it is tucked away a bit from the bigger children. It can also be seen easily out the window so children could use it during Free Play times in the afternoons.
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