What are we doing?

This is a Tuesday Slice of Life for Two Writing Teachers. 

Check out their website for many more reflections on teaching.

I have been obsessively watching the New York Times “undercover video” at a NYC public charter, which shows a first grade teacher berating her students. There have been several great pieces written in response to this article, including Michelle Goldberg's on Slate.com and two pieces in the Huffington Post - Alan Singer and John Thompson. But I need to vent a bit, too!

What stuns me, what I can't quite shake, is what is revealed by everything in the background of the video, everything behind the scene of the teacher and the young girl. These things stay the same even when the teacher isn't yelling.

I'm talking about the classroom environment, the classroom community, the classroom itself.

Look closely.

The room is sterile. I do not see any children's work on the walls, I don't see anything personal. I see many charts written by the teacher. I see a large flag for a university. How much voice do children have in this environment, when everything in the room is of the teacher? There is a permanent calm down chair. (And you go to this not when you are worried or sad or upset, but when you make academic mistakes.) What a sad routine in a young child's classroom.

Most importantly, look at the peers of the young girl. Throughout the video, the young children sit calmly, quietly, cross-legged, hands folded in their laps, perfectly still. Is this healthy, for children to not even flinch when an adult raises her voice? When a peer is chastised? What has led them to such a state of dullness? They do not flinch when the teacher rips up the young girl's paper. They quietly raise their hands, when the teacher insists "Somebody come up and show me how she should have counted." The teacher is upset, the young girl has been disciplined, and no one in the classroom looks sad or particularly concerned. In fact, they are ready to simply do it better than the young girl did...to ignore her issues, pass her right by, conditioned to step right over others  and take care of oneself. This sends chills up my spine. This is the classroom community. This is not a healthy learning environment. What about children's emotions? What about being part of a community, working and learning together? What will these children be like as adults, as future citizens?


How many schools operate like this?


What are we doing?


Chilling.

What if we changed the room around?

It is Tuesday and this is a "Slice of Life" (SOLS) for Two Writing Teachers.  Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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Melissa and I changed the classroom around.
Not just one bookcase or some small corner - but, the entire room.
This isn't something I typically do in the midst of a preschool year.
Yet, there were so many things that weren't working with the old arrangement - the arrangement that worked so smoothly for me all last year. (Isn't it strange how each group of children has its own unique personality and needs? How what works in one classroom one year might not work the next time?)

So many things weren't working -

• there was the cubby near the doorway where some children hung their coats (and all the other children seemed to trample all over them),
• there was the quiet corner [or is it "peace" corner? No, "calm down" corner? or is it "comfort" corner? I seem to use all of these interchangeably!!] ...this was located too near the low table (and this low table had somehow become a hideaway from monsters, which is not exactly conducive for peace and quiet.)
• there was the large gathering carpet at the back of the room, near the blocks (which was turning into the favorite location for all the children to be during centers - making for a loud and rambunctious room rather than a building and engineering area)
• and more....

Something had to change.

I can't say that we took the most planned approach to this...we spent a simple hour after school one day, yanking furniture this way and that, thinking about what we hoped would happen once we were done. 

What did we want?

We wanted children to be more intentional in their play and less like "pinballs" - less zooming, more lingering. 

Pushing furniture this way and that, we created more small group areas - more defined centers, if you will. We moved the gathering area to a more central location, along our wall of windows, encompassing our dramatic play area (giving a defined space to this whole body, theatrical play) - and we surrounded this carpet with our small group areas.

We have had three awesome days of school since this room change!

Whooo hoo!

The children were initially surprised - astonished - by the room's differences, but they embraced them.  They began investigating every part of the room, seeming to re-discover it. We had a great discussion about what was the same and what was different - noticing the details, like all writers, scientists, artists, scholars, thinkers do!

We see children playing in a whole new way. 

Yes, they are much less frenzied and much more focused. 

Children who were stuck doing certain challenging behaviors have not yet repeated them in this new space - for example, a couple children would hide at whole group time. Well, the new room means that those old hiding spots are gone (and they have not yet discovered new ones!). The new arrangement has caught them off-guard, allowing them to join us...and I believe they have discovered that whole group time is fun. 

Now, when we dismiss the children to centers, they first share aloud where they plan to start their fun. This simple, orchestrated act of choosing a center helps the children work with a sense of purpose in each area. We find ourselves, as teachers, being the "guide on the side," standing back and observing - a sign that the environment is working for the children. 

It is right for them.

It is just the change these children needed at this time of year.

It is just the change we teachers needed, too!