When Autumn school bells ring, my thoughts drift across the ocean to the American International School in Accra, Ghana. I think of seventeen second graders holding twenty-one passports and enough talent and personality to fuel a rocket to the moon. Over the moon, not an exaggeration, the children and I could not wait to enter our magical laboratory for learning.
I particularly think about the year I taught second grade in Ghana anytime I have the opportunity to talk to a K-2 teacher in Carteret County, NC, where I now live. My eyes light up when she tells me that she is a teacher. I ask her what learning centers she has, how well the children navigate the classroom, and where lies her joy? She looks at me as if I am a visitor from another planet. "We don't do that anymore," she will reply. "The curriculum is standardized and there are so many tests. We have no extra time beyond the basics."
"Like math and literacy worksheets?" I ask.
"Lots of them."
"What happens when children finish their deskwork? Are there enrichment centers where they can read, explore art and science, and build visual reasoning through puzzles and blocks?"
"We do not have learning centers."
When I studied early childhood education in the early 1970's, the focus was on developing the whole child. The classroom structure was an open classroom, with multiple hands-on learning centers that invited children to take initiative for their own learning, to explore and to talk about, write about, and draw or build models of their discoveries. Messy but ordered places, those children love.
For example, my training demonstrated how first and second graders can perform complicated math equations using blocks such as Cuisenaire Rods, reason through advanced geometry using Pattern Blocks and Geoboards, and understand measurement at the water or sand table. I was taught that children in a classroom could all be doing different things at different times and it could hold together like a symphony.
The current trend to advance STEM (Science, technology, and Math) has re-introduced the idea that children need to build critical thinking skills and understanding, above memorization, and that manipulatives contribute to reasoning. However, teachers today use them differently, in directed lessons, rather than free and guided exploration, the methodology I was taught.
Young children learn by doing, and from each other. Moving, talking, singing, manipulating and collaborating are essential. Their brains and bodies are roaring to go. Young children will undertake complicated tasks if their curiosities are aroused. When trapped in a desk, the dread of school and the behavior problems ensue. The most formative period for learning to learn, loving to learn, is squandered.
Here were some of my principles and how I accomplished them in my second grade classroom in Ghana in 1995.
#1. Teaching and learning are not synonymous. Children learn by doing. A good teacher sets the stage for learning and then coaches from the sidelines – gathering and displaying materials, asking questions to provoke curiosity and discovery, and showing sincere interest in what the child has to say about his or her work and life. Asking children to articulate what they learned is essential for helping them consolidate and apply information they learned through discovery.
I was taught a radical idea - telling a child something does not translate to understanding. A year's success is not measured by how much material the teacher thinks she covered, but what understanding is generated within the children.
For example, color theory is best taught by letting children explore with bottles of colored water or paints in primary colors. Ask them to make and document their discoveries, one by one over several days; and then share these in a group meeting. It is efficient to tell children about color theory but that is equivalent to telling the ending of a suspenseful film. Children understand and remember what they work through for themselves.
Hands-on; mind's on. Every center had objects to manipulate and opportunity for choice. When children can talk to each other as they work, their thinking is challenged by other's ideas and by having to articulate an idea that is forming in their brain.
Manipulating objects without thought is of no educational value. So I asked questions and they asked questions to each other and to themselves. I taught the children to freely talk but in quiet voices, just above a whisper. I told them that outsiders who look into a classroom, judge it by how quiet it is. A noisy classroom indicates chaos to people who do not know better.
The teacher who sets up a classroom for intellectual growth is also growing her own thinking skills. She or he has to think about what materials will arouse curiosity and teach skills appropriate for the children's age and learning level.
[Are all rocks the same? Explore these stones and document how they are alike and different. Notice stones in your environment. Bring some for the display that are different from what is here. See if you can find the names for the stones in the resource books. What more do you want to find out about stones?]
#2. Children should see themselves as writers, have a passion for writing, and publish their works at an early age. They should learn the power of diary writing to heal sorrows, celebrate success, and to document their life. They should learn the power of writing fiction for entertainment; and non-fiction for thinking about thinking and documenting what they find out.
In our classroom the first activity of the day was journal writing. It was one of the few times in the day that they did the same thing at the same moment. I gave each child a hug and greeting at the door. They grabbed their personal journal and curled up somewhere in the room to record their thoughts while they listened to classical music.
No one was allowed to talk, to interrupt thinking. After about 15 minutes, the children put their unfinished journals in the writing center to be completed later in the day. On Fridays they picked their favorite entry from the week and worked with a friend to make at least two edits. They also read the entry to me and received one or two suggested edits. Then they copied the entry with edits in their best handwriting into a hardback blank book along with a colorful illustration.
Parents often told me that their children were silent on the ride to school until suddenly they squealed out, "I know what I am going to write in my journal!" Before the morning school bell, other students played on the grounds, while my students stood at the door eager to write in their journals on their own cushion, eager to unleash what was in their head.
Since documentation is so important in the learning process, I taught very young children, starting at age four, how to write the letters that they hear.
It is surprising how easy it is to capture the meaning of this: I mxd rd an yelo. It md ornj. Beneath their writing I rewrote one or two words with actual spelling. I made charts of words they might need. I also provided tiny slips of scrap paper that children could come to me for spelling of a word. I could do this simultaneously while working with another child. Even this writing process gave the children opportunity to think, not copy, and even the youngest explorers could keep records.
#3. Children's learning speed and individual learning styles should be respected. Learning is ongoing, never stops, no finish and wait for others to catch-up. Children's time should be respected. The classroom should not only teach concepts and skills, but also develop responsibility and initiative. The classroom design or layout is shaped by what the teacher believes about learning.
After the quiet journal writing period, boosted by soft classical music, the children located their work folder and went to one of the centers. There were six centers: math, science, social studies, art and construction, writing, and reading. A photocopied chart with a box for each learning center was stapled on the folder cover. I put a dot on the chart to show which center the child would start that day. After that they chose wherever they wanted to work, taking into consideration the designated number of children allowed in a center.
Each center had two required activities and many optional activities. Everything was fun. After completing assignments in all centers, the child could return to a center to do more. Learning never stopped. No child's work was compared to others, only to her or his own over time. At the end of the week the chart and work samples were stapled together and children took these home to show to their parents. Parents were encouraged to ask questions; inviting their children to remember what they did over the course of the week.
I was keen not to waste children's time. Meetings were held just before breaks to playground, lunch, etc. not at the beginning of the day or when they returned from lunch or enrichment classes, because at these times late arrivals cause others to wait, losing precious learning time. Our group meetings were used to let the kids read excerpts from their journals or share their learning discoveries, for me to introduce new center activities or read to them from an award winning children's book. To sing and dance. To hug each other and say goodbye.
#4. Children's interests and parents' skills are free curriculum tools for the classroom.
Many of our social studies explorations came from the children's interests. For example, the children liked to pretend they were pirates on the weekends at the beach using the fishermen's dugout boats that were pulled up on the beach on Sundays when the fishermen took a day of rest.
So we set up a center called "Treasure" where children could make treasure maps, plan sea routes, learn about famous pirates or shipbuilding, build boats and explore concepts of floating and sinking, and put together small treasure boxes to hide along with written clues for finding them. We learned about undersea archeology; and talked about the meaning of "treasure". With an array of visual and written materials, the students are able to approach the topic in their own way, producing a booklet or annotated project to display what they learned.
One of the students, Natalie, was a born naturalist. Natalie spent long hours in her lush African garden, undeterred by a highly venomous boomslang snake once found in her playhouse. She brought us many natural wonders to study throughout that year, including a jar of caterpillars after she noticed one forming a chrysalis. Other children joined the search and soon the science center was lined with jars of caterpillars.
The children noticed differences, drew pictures, and kept detailed records. To our complete amazement each distinct butterfly or moth chrysalis emerged together on the same day, and the wonderment unfolded over many days as each new species took flight. It offered a very profound lesson that beneath all nature's profound beauty lies perfect clockwork. Natalie was a great teacher. Her enthusiasm encouraged other children to also notice their environments and bring interesting objects to class.
At the beginning of the year I asked parents to sign up for a 30-45-minute session to demonstrate something they know how to do or to teach about their country of origin. In our case the parents were our geography and cultural studies resource. I mounted a world map at kids' eye level marked with all 21 countries represented by their passports. The parents were enthusiastic to organize materials and activities to reveal interesting things about their culture.
In all cases, parents have skills to teach based on their work, hobbies or cultural heritage. A few guidelines or suggestions about how to engage the kids versus "demonstration" helped the parents to prepare exciting sessions that the children loved. On their presentation day, I asked each parent to come a bit earlier to observe their child in the classroom. This was another tool for marketing my approach to learning because it was evident to any viewer that this new way of teaching far outweighed the "traditional classroom" approach.
#5. Emotional and relational education should be taught at an early age to combat gender, racial, and winner vs loser stereotypes. There are no bad children, only those longing to be regarded as good and worthy of love. They should practice loving one another; and resolving conflicts by explaining how something that someone did made them to feel, to talk through the root of disagreements, and to plan better ways to resolve conflict.
I believed in generating positive discipline and love. I kept a mental checklist in my head to make sure I gave each child a hug, complement or chance for a one-on-one chat. At the first parent meeting, I told parents that could expect their child, at some time during the school year, to report that she or he is my favorite student. That is my solemn oath as a teacher, making every child feel that special.
This was especially important because my son, Chas, was also in the class. What an honor to watch your child in a classroom setting for one year, but also a responsibility to ensure that he did not get added attention above the others. A reminder to avoid selecting favorites but attempting to make each child my favorite. Teacher's should be aware of their own biases and give every child a chance to shine and feel admiration.
In the beginning, there were children who were less appealing to me than others. I paid attention to my thoughts and behaviors. I paid extra close attention to the children I least appreciated. I developed a mental strategy to pretend that this child was going to grow up to be a world leader, scientist, writer, artist, or parent although his skills for doing so were currently hidden from me. I must find out what they are and encourage development in a way that I will contribute to this child's future role in society. It became an interesting game for me, and you guessed it, I ended up falling in love with the child.
Children can be trained to observe and respect the success of others, moving from ego-centric to other-centric, able to take joy in others accomplishments. At the close of the day, my students were encouraged to complement a child they saw doing something kind or smart during the day, something beyond the norm.
For each of these, I put a tally on the board. If the total tally reached a designated number by Thursday afternoon, then we celebrated Fun Friday. Fun Friday meant we did a deep dive into one topic for the entire day: Bird watching; a zoo trip, performing a play; or recreating Jurassic Park. In planning for the activity, I made sure that all the basic skills of reading, writing, creative and critical thinking were practiced. The kids thought "Fun Friday" was a party, but who says learning shouldn't be fun?
Children also learn emotional and relational skills by observing interaction of adults with each other. I was blessed to work with Wede Williams as my teaching assistant. Wede was a refuge from Liberia, a talented singer, and a deeply spiritual young woman that bore life traumas with faith. The children observed how Wede and I respected and cared for each other, drew on each other's talents and skills, and laughed and cried together.
#6. The classroom allows an important opportunity to learn how to cope with loss. A school year ending or the loss of a best friend who moves away are the first experience with grief for most children. Rituals can be put in place to comfort them for a lifetime.
I once read and often observed that a global nomad lifestyle puts children in a state of perpetual mourning, and may encourage children and adults to develop reluctance to make friends at each new post, only to lose them in a short time as families move to new postings. While this was a unique problem for foreign service families and those in international businesses, it has implications for coping with friends who move away, and loved ones and pets who pass away. Teachers must have keen radar for detecting sadness and giving comfort.
I guess I passed this on to my students and in turn they helped me to cope with my sadness when this magical year came to a close.
At the end of the year, the parents chose a blank book just like those in which the children published their edited journals on Friday. The book had a beautiful Kinte cloth cover, a symbol of Ghana. The book was produced by UNICEF and one of the parents, Seema Agarwal Harding, was able to get these for the entire class. The parents passed the book from household to household, inviting each child to write a thank you to me and a farewell message. They presented it to me on the last day of school. The book is one of my most treasured keepsakes. I still read it through tears.
I worked overseas for thirty years as a consultant developing early childhood and parenting education systems for under-served communities in twenty-nine countries. My year teaching second grade in Ghana was my lowest paid and most rewarding work. I know that is true because when I dream a "Happy Place" dream I find myself in that classroom surrounded by those adorable, brilliant children, and wake with a smile.
My second best happy place dream finds me in a village, working with parents to make educational toys from junk or working with village teachers to set up classrooms remarkably similar to my second grade class. I plan to talk about that in a future blog, "Building brains from junk."
In 2009 my son was visiting us in Beaufort from Asheville. He urged me to join Facebook. By doing so, he was now in touch with former classmates from around the globe. He told me that some of my second grade students wanted to get in touch with me. So with his assistance I sat down and opened a Facebook account. Within a short time, the posts popped up from one, then the next and the next until I heard from most of the children in my Ghana classroom.
Like my son they are now successful and attractive young adults working in a range of fields. As I looked at their photos and read their posts, I recognized the little ones I knew and loved. Each confirmed that, yes, these were an exceptional group of children bound for great things, and just maybe I made a difference in their lives.
So what is the lesson I share from the opportunity to talk about my teaching philosophy and practice?
Whether a teacher, parent, grandparent or neighbor of a young child, we must approach a child's development not as a random act, but the most important work on earth. The early childhood years lay the foundation for learning to learn and loving to learn. Young children need stimulation from the environment and interactions from adults who help them to see and discover our fascinating universe. And most of all, they need to feel loved and validated as capable to do anything they dream. They are our most important investment in the future.
These are the beliefs I carried into my classroom of second graders at Lincoln School, Accra Ghana, and I'm pretty sure I made a difference. If nothing more, we had a heck of a lot of fun, and a year of joy is a good thing in anyone's life.
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