But I am also considering the academic language we use. I could do better I am sure, but things like "I can count from the largest number when finding how many blocks there are altogether". As I roam I can see this happening or facilitate it. I would love the students to be able to see the learning and record on their iPads independently and show others during reflection time.
I have found that the transition from moving from 'teacher directed' activities to 'free play' takes time. The students sometimes, don't know what to do and need coaching around the social nuances of social play. As a teacher, it feels weird. Scary. Heart pounding. What will happen if I just leave them to learn through play? However, when the students start to direct their learning through play, trust being given by the teacher and reflection happening around what learning is taking place, students flourish. There is so much happiness and engagement. It may take time to get this but eventually when it happens - it is magic - the students can learn a concept in 5 minutes. A concept that as a teacher you may have been trying to 'encourage them to do' through rotations, but they just weren't focused so they didn't get it. Not really, they may have mimicked it. Here's an example, a 6 year old student who hasn't shown any real passion for letters and words, has just had a break through. For a long time, letters and words were not of interest to her she was below national standards. She came and had a lesson with a teacher every day at school, mum tried at home to teach her, but the focus just wasn't there. Today though, a year and a half later, she came to me and showed me a sentence she had typed on her iPad. Six words, sounded out and carefully written. How proud was this child? Very. Engaged, very. She knew what she had done was something that adults wanted her to do. I hope she is beginning to understand the power written words can have. I think the process of hearing sounds and writing them down makes sense to her now.
From here I was able to say, you sounded out the words and wrote down what you heard. Fabulous. You are a writer. And she hasn't stopped.
Here is what I noticed last year. The students who wrote because they wanted to, who directed their own learning, wrote a lot and they made more progress than any other student. Internal engagement seems to be a key for learning fast. The problem is this looks different for every learner. And it doesn't always happen within the first year. My job as a teacher in a learning through play environment is to find that spark, to find the pathway, to provide equipment, provocations, opportunities and modelling so that each student sparks. Even when I do all of these things well, sometimes, it is a matter of time. I have to wait for the child to be developmentally ready. And nothing can change that. I could force them to 'do the trick' but really, it is not embedded into their lives in a meaningful way. I wonder later if that is why we see disengaged learners?
Another student who is also six years old, who spent a good six months copying words down from around the class on paper, whiteboards and using chalk, is now writing with clear well formed letters. Spaces and fullstops. We don't have teacher led writing every day in our learning community. But students do write, draw, record.
Another student, for whom reading and writing has been a struggle started to draw this week. For the first time. And when he started he couldn't stop. He drew five pictures.
This opportunity for young children to drive their own learning is the same for every part of the curriculum. We have found great opportunity to share some of our academic goals during kai time this year. The students sit down for a cuppa tea and kai twice a day. At this moment, I can model writing or number problems, I can read books to a captured audience.
As a teacher, I am loving this way of learning. I think the students are as well.
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