a wonderful life

wow, it's been awhile...I can't let 2011 go without one last post, so here it is....

Rapunzel and the demon digger

We have had a WONDERFUL holiday season--and yes, it is the whole season we celebrate--really beginning in October with autumn and Halloween (our annual Halloween party and tricks & treats w/the Clarkes & Traftons), then Thanksgiving (more autumn: beeswax leaves, pressing leaves, collecting insane amounts of leaves,

dipping leaves in beeswax

dipped leaves

creature adventuring

turkey trivia, turkey day prep--recipes & such, and thankfully even this year, 'twas the night before thanksgiving at Salts' Stew day)--OK OK--I did tank this year and the bird/meal in general was less than spectacular...I'm allowed a bad one, aren't I?, plus Wampanog studies for homeschool this year--much fun!), and THEN, December....

honestly, that is a weird pic of daddy--he's much more handsome!
gingerbread A-frame dream house

Jingle our elf came to visit leaving notes & treats and special kindness missions for the three weeks leading up to Xmas eve.  We had a successful yet impromptu visit with Santa at the mall--unbelievably Seven actually sat on his lap!  We spent a lot of time on homemade gifts this year and handmade cards (55 to be exact!).  We also took our time decorating our tree, un-decorating and playing with all the ornaments, then decorating again, drank eggnog, made LOTS of cookies and ate lots of cookies, and wished for snow.  We enjoyed many candlelight dinners in honor of Winter Solsitice, and learned about latkes & the dreidal game & Hanukkah.  Christmas Eve was lovely with Grumpy & Tutu, Auntie Mel, and Uncle John--now known as Four's "sweet prince", and we had a glorious Christmas day at home, eating pancakes and staying in pajamas all day, while enjoying the amazing cardboard castle Daddy made and all the new toys...so many new toys!  We joined friends for a fantastic performance of The Snow Queen and decadent hot chocolate in Harvard Sq, and another lovely post-Xmas celeb with Nona & Pops.

Exhausting, busy, but so nice...so very, very nice, which brings me to what I really want to write about.  Since my last hot, sticky, uncomfortable day as a teacher last July, things have felt...weird.  This is something I have been dreaming of (at least in some form) for a long, long, long time--a change.  A change that specifically would allow me more time to focus on my family.  And when it was suddenly there, I freaked out.  I mean seriously, how do you handle having a dream actually come true?  actually getting everything you want?  It's unsettling.  Really, it is.

Let me be clear, we are broke and "struggling financially" is putting this mildly.  We live in the city, in a too small condo with no yard and a leaky roof (but wonderful neighbors).  Our car was broken into & vandalized over Thanksgiving weekend--so I guess there are also some not so wonderful neighbors.  My husband teaches art in the public schools--tell me, is there anything society values less in schools than the arts?  the answer is NO, so his job is stressful and frustrating more than rewarding, and he works  with a very URBAN population--teacher translation: kids who need the most and get the least.  And I am navigating my way as an adjunct professor, which believe me I love--but that doesn't mean it's easy--it's hard!!!!!  So things aren't what I'd call perfect by far.  BUT....I said it was a dream come true, and dreams aren't always perfect, right?  It's the perspective.

I spend more time each week with my children than anyone else.  I am witnessing their social, emotional& academic growth first hand, every day.  I make my own schedule for the most part.  I am knitting like a machine, painting, writing (oops, OK not so much in the blog lately, but I did make the submission deadline for an article), planning learning experiences for my own kiddos and actually have the time & energy to do them, (hello, once a week apple picking in September!), and I'm visiting with friends so much more than I've felt able to for several years.  I am delighted to grocery shop on Friday mornings (with the kids even!), and fold laundry after lunch.  I am cooking healthy, varied, good meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I'm being more thoughtful about when I spend money and what I spend it on--even where I spend it.  I'm walking the dog more--although I could be better about that.  My husband and I have several joint projects in the works.  Our family time includes games, playing, creature adventuring, and yes, movies.

My favorite holiday movie is Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life--all time favorite movie, and yes, it is also perhaps the sappiest, but I love it.  I love George & Mary Bailey, Zu-zu's petals, Clarence the angel, and the "wonderful old Building & Loan".  This was the first year we all watched as a family, and I had done some prep work--talking about the story of George Bailey and what would happen in the movie.  We got all set up with xmas lights, hot cocoa, and popcorn, and I interjected here and there with explanations or clarficiations for Four & Seven, who BTW sat through the entire movie--which is a freaking long time!  This year, watching it was really different for me--I practically wept through the entire thing--happy & sad, which drove Seven crazy, but I just kept saying, "I can't help it! I love this movie!"  It was kind of the same for The Muppets' Christmas Carol too.  So I started to think about why I was so emotional, and I think it has something to do with my new situation, which now, 5 months later is not so new.

I feel a bit more settled into this new life...finding a rhythm that works for all of us and accommodates the things we HAVE to do, and I feel like it's OK to be happy.  I have so much to be happy about, but maybe it's that old Catholic guilt telling me: "you should be fearful, you should be worried, you are not good enough".  It's hard to block those negatives out, and I think you have to make a choice every day to do it...whoa, am I getting too analytical/shrink-ish?  I just feel like the message of those movies, those truly good stories, is resonating with me deeply this year, and that is: success is how YOU define it.  We are not experiencing financial success right now, and may not for quite some time, but putting money aside, and defining success as happiness, I am swimming in it.  My husband is the most amazing person I ever met, before meeting Four & Seven, who are, respectively, my sun and my moon.  A sweet, curious, mischievous, imaginative, wonderful little fairy princess and a brave, creative, inquisitive, unconventional, kind, remarkable naturalist, are the two people my world revolves around.   And it really feels like a wonderful life.


Here is to 2012, which I hope will bring more joyful time as a family, some peace (week at Spartina), adventures, growth, and maybe, just maybe a new home--bringing us that much closer to perfection!

Happy New Year and warm wishes to all!

when it's important

Ahhhh, Four.  Four is my enigma kid.  I know Seven inside out--he is me--thinks like me, reacts like me--sometimes I feel like we can read each other's thoughts, or at least we know each other's "looks".  Four is so different.  I often find myself in situations with her where I have to just pause because I am so dumbfounded as to what the heck the trajectory of her thinking is or just simply what she is trying to communicate.  But today I figured something out, and it's something that relates very much to all children, and "doing".  It's something I know...it's essentially the role of engagement...anyways, here it is:

I am constantly tearing my hair out over Four's complete lack of regard for her toys, clothes, posessions in general.  Out of the four of us that reside in this household, FOUR is solely responsible for the majority of things broken, damaged, misplaced, lost, and just plain leaving things all over the place.  She is my sunshine and I adore her every breath, but truth is truth.  She changes outfits at least 4 times a day, which is comical because despite producing the majority of laundry, she is actually  running around the house in her undies most of the day.  Many of the wardrobe changes involve her collection of princess dresses, and her new Rapunzel dress is a daily favorite.  The dress came straight from Florida via Grumpy and will also be her Halloween costume, so I have been cringing every time she's wearing it, in fear of the certain damage it will undergo before the official wearing of the costume for tricks and treats.

We had a Halloween party today--very messy business, and so when the dress came out, I immediately shook my head and as always in this recurring situation, I said, "That dress is going to be destroyed by Halloween."  Then someone commented on the good quality of the dress--(and believe me you pay for that in Disney!), and I stopped for a moment and realized the dress was still in near perfect condition.  hmmmm.....

It is well-made and good quality--worthy of the price.  But that isn't the only reason it has upheld it's new condition.  It's Four who has been careful to hang it up every night--it's the one dress I never find lying around.  And it's Four who the other night asked if she could change while she ate her spaghetti so "my new dress won't get dirty".  And now that I think about it, there have been several instances where she was wearing the dress, and then of her own accord, changed outfits before diving into something messy. This is not typical behavior for Four, so what's the difference?  The dress is important--to her.  And not only that, it's important that the dress stay clean and beautiful and undamaged.  She wants it that way, and is aware of and willing to do what it takes to maintain the dress' condition.  She has other belongings that are important--very important--take ghung-ghung for example (her stuffed cat--basically Linus' blanket).  It doesn't matter if ghung (spelled phonetically) gets dirty, as long as she's always there, but the dress is important in a different way.  It's like a prized possession, a luxury...it has different status.  And the way it's important to her is what motivates her to take great care of it and to love it in a special way.

I know, I know...it's a dress, but it also serves as a good example of something present in all kids, really, all learners--regardless of age: when it's IMPORTANT, it's worth doing.  So I'm thinking about that in terms of learning to read, practicing math, listening, creating, investigating....and becoming responsible for personal belongings.

always something new to learn, always a new way of seeing the world....

kudos auntie mel

progress update

Nature class is going soooo well!  We've had lots of talks about feeling nervous around new kids, and Seven is definitely adjusting and exhibiting so much enthusiasm for these classes!  He's learning so much too--new vocab, understanding food chains, habitats, and using journalling as a tool for observation and study.  LOVE IT!!!  Same with swim class--making lots of progress--Four went completely under water and was so proud of herself!  I am just so grateful to be sharing these moments with them!

Another exciting development is Seven's reading--yes, he's reading!  He's still in the emergent stage, but is showing more interest and finally PRIDE as he recognizes words and reads familiar texts.  This is such a tricky issue for me, as I have to keep myself in check--the public school teacher thinking, "where should he be by state standards?" and the TEACHER, knowing that in the most literate countries in this world, formal reading instruction begins just about now (ages 7 and 8), and that the most critical aspects are confidence and motivation.  When parents talk about their 3 year olds that are reading, it's nice, but I also know that the overwhelming majority of those readers plateau at about this age, and read at the same grade level as their early start peers.  So is there an advantage to early reading?  Maybe in some ways, but at what cost?  What parts of the brain are NOT developing because they are so focused on reading skills?  We never ask that question in public ed, and it's a really important one to consider.  There are clear deficits in our students--yes, even early readers, executive function is a big one--HUGE actually, and I am not afraid to say that more attention to the development of other parts of the brain (rather than the sole literacy focus), would serve all students much better.  But I'm sure the federal and state policy makers know better, right?  And of course, the big corporations that make zillions off reading programs are only motivated by their deep desire to help kids learn to read--not the fat checks they collect from school districts as they update their "perfect, one size fits all" programs in a box.  HA!

So we are reading, and working on measurement, number sense, scientific observation, recording data and using it to learn about living things, and we are playing--A LOT.  And through this play, I am assessing growth and learning, in a way I just could never do in a classroom of 20+ primates.

Today we are continuing our fall celebrations with a focus on Halloween--my favorite holiday!  more later!

Here are a couple visuals from recent adventures:

celebrating fall in the city--yes, we have leaf piles too!

observing geese at the apple orchard

flashback: mother eagle

I have so many things I want to write about, but for some reason this morning I realized I never wrote about our eagle experience last school year, so I'm stepping out of the home school classroom for a moment and back into the public school classroom.

In March 2011, my friend (and principal--nice that I can say that), sent me a link to a live web cam of a bald eagle nest in the Norfolk Botanical Garden in Virginia.  There were three just hatched eaglets being cared for by their mom & dad, and we could see it all on the Internet.  My whole family fell in love with this eagle family, and very quickly it became part of our routine at school too.  Each morning I would log into the cam and we would observe the mom and dad bringing in food, tearing it up, and feeding the babies.  And each day the eaglets grew and changed.  I would just leave the cam on all day and primates would periodically check on the eagle family.  We wrote and drew in our nature journals, asked questions on the moderated discussion, painted eagle pictures, and read lots of books.  It was an amazing learning experience for all of us, and such a unique view into a very private, secret world of nature.

In late April, after returning from lunch, I clicked on the cam, and read that an eagle had been killed by an airplane in Norfolk.  For the rest of the day I was quietly glued to the computer to see if it was one of OUR eagles, and sadly, it turned out to be the mom.  I still get choked up thinking about it.  The entire community of eagle watchers were as stunned and saddened as we were, and one of my toughest days of teaching was telling the class.  I had many students who were watching not only in class, but also at home.  It was heartbreaking in the following two days to observe the dad still bringing in food for the confused eaglets, and even worse, when scientists made the decision to remove the eaglets from the nest and take them to a wildlife care center until they were ready to fledge.  We watched the eaglets be removed, and the dad visit the empty nest for a day or two, until they turned off the camera.  Eventually they installed a cam at the wildlife center and we were able to continue to see them grow into juveniles.  Two days before school ended, we watched the release of these majestic birds, back into the wild.  So lucky to have shared this final goodbye together!

We read reports from observers that the dad was doing well, though he never returned to the nest after that first week, and the hope is that he will find another mate this fall.  The mother and father had been together for almost a decade, and had raised many eaglets together--observed and monitored by wildlife experts.  The interactions we observed were incredible--the mom would push the dad aside and show him how to feed the babies.  They would take turns keeping them warm, hunting for and feeding them, and the best times were when the whole family was together--just surviving.  It really was an experience I will never forget.

There is so much crap on the Internet, and in many ways I am saddened by the negative influences of technology on childhood and society in general, but this was a beautiful example of the marvelous possibilities technology holds.  We connected with people, classrooms, and families from all over the world through watching the web cam, and most of all, with this family of eagles, in a unique way.

At the end of the school year, one of my students gave me a beautiful necklace and pendant of a nest with three eggs.  I wear it everyday, and it reminds me of this wonderful experience I shared with my primates, and my family, and so many others.  I don't know why this is on my mind this morning, but I'm glad I'm recording it here in the blog, because it's a great example of real world learning--intimate, sad, and joyful--all at the same time.

"American symbols" are a required curriculum topic in our state, and I can't tell you how boring and dry a topic that is for little primates.  But the eagle cam allowed us to inject life into learning about THE symbol of our country, and helped us feel a part of a greater good, a diverse community that we belong to and shared a common experience.

Miss you Mother Eagle!  And so very grateful to have known you in your time on this planet.

a nature journal sketch of mama eagle in the nest

my husband's art students constructing an eagles' nest from sticks and grapevines

sleeping eaglets by one of my primates (markers)

mama sitting on her eaglets by one of my primates (markers and pencil)

eagle's nest constructed by my primates outside our classroom

model of mother eagle and her eaglets in the nest made by my husband's art students--they also made the dad eagle (not pictured, but flying next tot he nest, which is perched on a trunk of grapevine (ironically destroyed in a storm in my parents' backyard and repurposed in this exhibit at the school)

visuals

I am finally getting to downloading all of our pics and doing something with them.  I'm a documenter by nature--I can't do anything without taking a picture, writing about it or drawing it.  But finding the time to organize all this data is my weakness.  Somehow I thought home schooling would allow me more time for this, but I haven't quite been able to accomplish that--YET.  There's one of my goals!

I just want to share these pics with captions for now.  The photos begin during our last family trip to NH over Labor Day weekend, because what I am finding more and more, is that successful home schooling for us is more about expanding on and delving deeper into things we already do as a family vs. trying to imitate some model of what school "should" look like.  Hope the learning shines through with these visuals!

 sunflowers we planted at Grumpy's last spring..we dissected them last week and identified 

parts of a flower

 exploring and hiking in NH

 we each painted rocks (water-based, all natural pigments, of course) and left them hidden around the forest in appreciation of all the beauty this day offered us

what the heck is this????  well, it's our Golden Mystery Snail sticking out some very long and worm-like appendage that we have yet to identify.  you don't want to see this first thing in the morning--yuck!

 Street Art scavenger hunt in NH last week with Uncle John--soooo cool!  Seven took about 50 pictures of sidewalks, street lamps, and blank brick walls, and when I asked why he wasn't taking pics of the street art instead, he replied that he planned to upload and print his pictures and then use markers to draw on his own street art...(a current work in process!)

 ok, ok--kudos to me--is this cake cool or what?  Snake Cake as requested by Seven for his 

birthday party

 apple picking and grasshopper hunting

 Four pooped out as Seven continued his endless search for grasshoppers

 nature journalling at a local museum (giant sea sponge and turtle skull featured center)

 hands on alligator exploration

 exiting from swim class this week

 if you look closely (my macro lens isn't working) you will see Seven's finger touching the wing of a beautiful firefly this morning at nature class ( a home school class we are taking at a local 

wildlife sanctuary)

 Seven found a leaf hopper (pictured here), tons of grasshoppers, a cricket, a bright green & orange caterpillar, wasps, and many, many bees.  Their first day began with some interactive "get to know you" activities that included making nature collages and up close observations of specimens, such as a bird-eating tarantula, praying mantis, and moths.  Seven was less than thrilled with every aspect other than "searching for bugs and sketching" (direct quote), but the class is amazing and made up of about 20 home schoolers with two wildlife expert teachers.  I was so impressed with their care and attention to establishing the group as learners and including the kids in the process of defining expectations for behavior.  I am hoping once he settles in, Seven will allow himself to enjoy this experience!  And I look forward to dropping him off for a bit and taking Four for hikes through the woods while we wait!

at home, smashing strawberries for strawberry jam--canning summer goodies is part of our "Farewell to Summer" celebration this week

Looking at all of this reminds me of all we are doing and how meaningful each day is....

messing about

I noticed something interesting today about Seven...something I wouldn't have noticed without having spent so much time together.  He's obsessed with all thing insect/bug/arachnid related, and that's the topic he chose to "study" for home school so we've been making a special point o notice bugs as we've been out and about this week.  Through this science-based, experiential exploration is where I noticed something about him as a reader.

Learning is constantly happening--as humans, we are constantly observing and interacting with the world and those around us, and these moments, are, in fact, when we learn.  This is the basic idea of my philosophy of teaching and learning, and so it's also the premise I use as a teacher--home school or not.  Instead of the more traditional route of gathering a bunch of books and activities on bugs, I'm approaching this differently with Seven and Four.  I know Seven is very motivated and already knows a lot about this topic, and Four is mildly interested--maybe motivated by the fact that her big bro is so enthralled--but the reasons for motivation don't really matter as long as the desire to know more is present and active.  I have two very different learners at different levels of motivation, age, and background knowledge, and this is what teachers face in the classroom, only times about 10 and usually all the same age.  While the numbers in this scenario are different, how similar can the approach be?  how different does it have to be?  Still thinking like a teacher, I'm reflecting on this from both perspectives: homeschool and whole group teaching.

Anyways, we practiced writing the letter B on Monday and drew some bugs in our lesson journals, and brainstormed other words with the B sound--beginning, middle, and end.  Just thinking about the letter in print and sound.  We saw a live Black Widow spider and other insects and arachnids at the museum, and on the following day while visiting my friend in NH.  Seven found a stink bug, grasshopper, tons of caterpillars in a huge nest full of eggs too, and a bright green and yellow caterpillar on its own.  Wednesday we did some sorting by color and counting using small plastic bugs, and pretended to be "grasshopper hunters" at the apple orchard.  Should I say pretended?  We really "did the work of grasshopper hunters"...steathly moving through the grass and sneaking up on them, trying to catch them and being very careful to release them, and we counted 14 plus one katydid, before Four pooped out in the grass--it was pretty hot at the orchard.  We stopped at the dollar store on the way home to pick up a couple of extra bug catchers to keep in the car for future occasions when they may be needed, and that night Seven wrote an amazing story in his Adventure Journal about our day.

Thursday and Friday we had some conversations about the grasshoppers, and did some casual drawings, but were also busy with doctor and dentist appointments, and grocery shopping.  Seven told me he found a centipede early in the morning and tried to catch it, but it was too quick and got away.  He also used a flashlight to check my husband's head for lice before bedtime (most likely inspired by my rantings last school year as we were pretty infested for awhile and I may have been a bit crazy about sleeping in a shower cap full of olive oil every night...aka the salad hat...but I'm digressing!).  I'm just trying to remember all the bug related instances over this past week, which brings me to today.

We went to a local museum today for a nature journalling presentation by a fabulous wildlife artist and also a Curious Creatures live animal show.  The show included snakes, a skunk and a rabbit, turtles, a tarantula, and an alligator.  I now know how to tell a croc from an alligator!  Seven leaned over to me during the show and whispered, "Mama, I love this!"  He was in his glory, and Four was always first to reach out and touch these creatures, and she completed a whole nature journal booklet!  Her fave was the bunny.  We picked up a cool insect field guide in the gift shop, and as we looked though it tonight, I really listened and watched Seven as he went through every page.

I noticed that he (remember: a non-reader) recognized many insects--mole cricket, leaf and stick bugs, thorn beetles, katydids, and more.  Some of them seem obvious--the thorn beetle looks like a big thorn--but others are much more obscure, like the mole cricket (looks like a plain old cricket to me), and the assassin bugs.  When he got to the assassin bug page and named them, I asked, "How do you know these are all assassin bugs?" (there were four different ones pictured on the page).  He replied by pointing out similar characteristics on each of the four bugs, so that even though they all looked different, the close observer could see these certain similar traits.

I was really amazed, and it made me think about how he is essentially "reading" these creatures--he knows the distinct features and has identified them as symbols, which basically is what readers do, only the features are the lines and shapes that make up letters and the patterns of letters that make up words, and we assign sounds and meanings to these symbols.  This is what I found so interesting, and I truly don't know yet how that information will guide my teaching, but I do feel it's a significant observation, especially from a naturalist intelligences perspective.

This week was "messing about"--first stage in teaching in learning, allowing us to just "play" with the topic, review and assess schema, and lead us to our next stage: "diving in".  Seven knows all insects have 3 body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), he knows arachnids are not insects and have only 2 body parts and eight legs.  He knows about different bug habitats: webs, trees, dirt, under rocks, our house:).  And he clearly understands and knows about some different characteristics and adaptations of several distinct species.  That's pretty much the benchmark expectation for first grade curriculum in our state.  Now what?

I have some yoga and movement activities up my sleeve that are insect related, and I think Four will really enjoy them, so I'm planning on those for next week, along with continued conversations, exploring outside, and reading the field guide.  The yoga/movement will get us thinking about getting inside the head of insects--what do they think about and why?  Maybe we'll do one of my favorite poems, The Spider and the Fly with an activity...uh-oh, am I relying on the good old traditional stuff?!  We can practice writing in the form of labeling our drawings (the way scientists do).....much to ponder about this next step, but I'm looking forward with much excitement!

Just a note, in a group of 20+ primates, there's no way a teacher could assess and observe each student this closely.  But that doesn't mean this knowledge and these skills aren't developing in each of them, so allowing this important time to "play" with the topic, "mess about", IS worthwhile, and can offer the teacher a wealth of perspective on those s/he can observe in a group setting.  The group also offers many opportunities to observe the primates teaching and learning from each other--basic principal of multi-age education.  One of the things I love most as a school teacher is eavesdropping on the conversations that conspire while primates are solving problems and creating products--you learn SO much about what they know, who they are, and what they need in this way.  Now THAT is assessment that can drive instruction in a meaningful way, (vs. a spread sheet with students ranked and sorted by a bunch of abbreviated catch phrases and numbers--this is what we do in American public schools).

Forgot to mention we are reading, James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.  I love this adventurous tale of a sad boy who finds himself while adventuring with a gang of giant bugs.  This was the last chapter book I read with my class in July, so there's some sentimentality attached to this, for me.  There have been lots of role plays between Seven and Four of the different events in the story as we read several chapters each day--in the morning and at night.  Lots of drawings of the different characters with alternate story lines too.  While Four is often distracted and involved in princess play as I read, she is still engaged with the story, and Seven and I always do a re-cap before reading in order to catch her and daddy (only there for the bedtime readings) up.  Lots of cliffhanger chapter endings which has them begging for "just a little more please!!!!" and opens up room for discussing predictions, which Seven struggles with--that fear of taking a chance he'll be wrong.  These fears seem so silly and unnecessary to me as an adult, but when I think like a child, I know these fears are deep and real.  And as an adult, I have to figure out how to very delicately lead him out of feeling afraid.  I feel like we are on a good path.

This post is so long, but I also just want to talk about Seven's sudden interest in temperature.  We've been keeping a daily graph of the weather in our "ploffice" (playroom/office/storage room), and on Tuesday, I put up a window thermometer in the livingroom.  I introduced it as a tool to measure how hot or cold it feels outside, and we discussed the numbers and lines, the mercury, how to read it, and what the different temps feel like (100 degrees=really really hot, 20 degrees=really really cold, etc).  Each day since, Seven has repeatedly checked the thermometer and reported the temp, which has varied from 60 to 80 all week.  In those moments, I've asked what we notice about our clothing and how we feel, are the windows open or closed?, and that as we enter the autumn equinox, the weather will change to cooler temps than in summer.  I think this might be a good time to begin formal nature journalling.

Here's what I want Seven and Four to learn from this bug experience: that we are all connected to eachother and the world around us--every living thing.  That's not in the state frameworks, but it's an example of the freedom in home schooling that I am growing to love so much!

Hurt No Living Thing

Hurt no living thing:

Ladybird, nor butterfly

Nor moth with dusty wing,

Nor cricket chirping cheerily,

Nor grasshopper so light of leap.

Nor dancing gnat, or beetle flat,

Nor harmless worms that creep.

by Christina Rossetti

re-cap

We had a great day yesterday--over an hour at the park and a trip to the Museum of Science with a friend from Waldorf, where Seven and Four attended kindergarten and preschool last year.  It was a beautiful day--I love this time of year!  Seven wrote in his adventures journal last night, and is currently working on a huge creature mural with drawings of the volcano we saw yesterday and some of his favorite creatures.  Four began her own flower mural, but has left that activity to dress up as a princess and re-enact a wedding we recently attended uses her horses as the bride and groom.  I love her imaginative play!

At the park we searched for bugs, as that is Seven's chosen theme of study.  It's a topic he feels pretty comfortable with, so I'm not surprised and actually am feeling a bit thrilled to be following his lead.  His Waldorf friend is also being homeschooled, so we made plans to meet up regularly.  The boy's mom commented on how relaxed and outgoing Seven seemed yesterday, compared to the painfully shy & reserved boy she knew last year.  I really think the relief of the social pressure he felt from a group setting has, ironically, allowed him to be more relaxed and outgoing.  Hoping this trend will continue.

Four had a blast "zooming" all over the museum yesterday.  We met a little friend (only 2yrs old) at the park last week and she was there again yesterday.  It's interesting to watch Four interact with her.  Not a lot of talking, but she wants to "show" this little tot all of her "pretty things", so of course we left with a shopping cart full of jewels, etc.  Lucky she was there!

We are off to do some visiting today....more later!

OWL

Ok, so here's something I was completely unprepared for: everywhere we have gone this week, we have gotten weird looks and questions from strangers regarding, "how old are you? shouldn't you be in school?" and "what?  Skipping school already?", etc., etc...

The thing is, I don't feel like getting into a whole discussion of the problems with public ed right now and why we are choosing to home school and the merits of a home school education and how, yes, we are addressing the social aspect...blah blah blah.  Not with strangers.  I'm just working on figuring things out for myself, and dealing with other people's misconceptions, rude opinions, and lack of understanding is not something I care to deal with, quite honestly.  But it's bugging me, especially since I know this is something we will encounter every time we are adventuring around during school hours and I wonder what impact it is having on Four and Seven...what message are these people sending to my kiddos?  what message am I sending to them by avoiding a response or saying something completely lame?

On a lighter note, our fried rice dinner was delish and I was truly amazed at Seven's culinary skills.  He did everything from gathering, washing, chopping, measuring and mixing ingredients--even stir frying the rice in the wok...(man was I sweating through that one).  We both burned our fingers on the wok, but as Daddy said, " Now you're a real cook!".

Best part of the day: just after dinner, Seven suddenly said, "Mama, I want to show you a word I know."  He got a piece of paper and a marker and wrote: "OWL" and proudly showed me.  And he read it.  No idea where that came from--certainly not from anything I did with him this week, but that's what is so spectacular about teaching--it's not about the teacher showing the learner or telling the learner or making the learner do--it's about the learner teaching the teacher.

Happy Weekend!

fried rice

Day 2 went soooooooooooooooooo much better than yesterday, and it's all because I just moved to a rhythm rather than followed a schedule.  We had a cozy morning in bed while the rains poured and wind blew outside...then made breakfast together, ate, brushed our teeth and got dressed, made my bed together, recorded the weather and the date, read an alphabet story, discussed different letters and words and sounds, played an alphabet game that also served as an informal assessment of where Seven and Four are phonemically speaking, wrote the whole alphabet and names, and then had snack and play time.  It was wonderful.  There was no complaining, everyone participated, things were accomplished, and we had fun.

We looked over our schedule (initiated by Seven, who was very excited about a lunch date with Auntie Mel), and then Four realized her sick toys were missing and Seven found the note.  We looked high and low, over and under, everywhere, and each time we found one, we lined them up, counted them and also counted how many were left to find.  Seven was surprisingly enthusiastic about the counting and Four predictably loved the active search.

We agreed that we'd each be allowed three complaints a day.  I had none, Seven had 3, and Four had just one tantrum--which really was auntie Mel's fault, ;).  After a very pleasant lunch we were off to Grumpy's so I could teach my college course.  It was a great day, and instead of doing worksheets on letters and numbers, we used letters and numbers in hands-on, real world ways.  Primates learn by observing and doing.


Cut to the fried rice....Seven is a really picky eater so mid-August (after watching him eat hot dogs for three days straight while we were vacationing), I asked the family to think of some things they have never done and suggested we take turns trying each person's thing together.  One of the challenges I see with Seven is that he is not a risk taker, and this is so hard for me because I am the exact opposite... I'm not into bungee jumping or anything, but I love trying new things and I know that curiosity & willingness to experiment are critical characteristics of a successful learner.  I think one of the reasons he's hesitant to read is because he's afraid to be wrong, and I've seen this a million times in kids.  It's one of the toughest hurdles for a learner, and building confidence is the only way to get past it.  Not an impossible task, but one I had hoped to avoid as a parent.

Anyways, we are starting with trying new foods, (by luck my new thing got 'randomly' picked first:)), And it's been really great!  He's eating carrots now (sliced as chips vs sticks) and fried shrimp (loved when he said excitedly, "I've never eaten a crustacean before!"), and earlier this week he asked if we could make fried rice.  The agenda tomorrow: read the fried rice recipe we found on line, check to see what we need for ingredients, make a list, visit the grocery store, and make fried rice for dinner.  Just before bed, Seven said, "I'm so excited about the fried rice Mama!"  Me too.

We'll be reading, writing, using money, measuring, mixing, and taking a risk by eating a new food!  And the fact that it was initiated by Seven makes the whole plan so meaningful...something I know will stick with him.  He's engaged in this learning and that is giving him the freedom from fear to try something new.  Cooking is one of his favorite activities, so using something he loves to lead him towards something new is how I hope to build his confidence.  Eventually that will transfer to reading...but until he leads me toward that, I have to patiently wait and seize every possible opportunity for me to provide an opportunity for him to step in that direction.

And it is so wonderful that Four is the yin to his yang, because her enthusiasm for the reading activities and the new food challenge is contagious.  It surprises him at first, but I can see it also motivates him.  Of course, many times the motivation is a just a big brother/lil' sis thing, but you work with what you are given!  And I am amazed at her interests and skills, and the way she plays out "scenes" and conversations with her toys to process her thinking..for example, the pink snake told his mother, Angelina the mouse, that she would not wear pants today.  Angelina replied, "It's cold outside honey and you have to wear pants."  and it went back and forth for quite a while until finally the snake agreed to wear pants.  


I seem to recall a similar situation earlier this week regarding a long sleeve shirt on a cold day...however in that scenario there was much more screaming and stamping of feet and crying before the mother got her way....interesting, very interesting.....

taking flight

Much has changed for me since last September, and it has been quite a roller coaster ride leading to today: my first day of school as a home schooling mom.  Home schooling...wow...not something I really ever imagined myself doing, and yet here I am.  It's HARD.  I mean teaching in  general is hard--really hard--it drains you emotionally, physically, mentally, even spiritually at times.  I feel like the societal and political trends, attitudes, and (misguided) expectations of public education have dominated my spirit as a teacher over the past two years, and that can make a hard job unbearable.

The past month has allowed me some much needed distance, and I am at the point where I am free to remember the joy, magic, and art of teaching and learning with a group of students.  Today was the first day for my former students and colleagues, and I have to say they have all been on my mind all day.  Teaching never leaves you...when it's real, true teaching.  You share your life, vulnerable moments, failures, successes, tragedies, celebrations, families, experiences.  That's why it's worth all the drain, all the hard.

But now I'm home schooling a first grader and a preschooler, and today was our first official day, and I made the most ridiculous rookie mistake a new teacher can make: I forgot what teaching and learning is. I have been so unbelievably excited about the prospect of focusing all my energy and attention to my family (with no drain, no need to balance), that I somehow ended up on a strangely familiar, yet very uncomfortable path.  I have no idea what I am supposed to do as a home schooling mom--I mean, I've read lots of books, made lots of notes (filling two whole journals with ideas and plans!), researched a zillion blogs & web sites, but all my preparation and experience led me to a first day of many examples of what NOT to do.

I had my house organized, schedule posted, plans and materials ready...all those things teachers do before the first day.  So where did I go wrong?  Well, there was no group.  There was Seven and there was Four...all amped up and confused about what the heck home school is, and there was me, all amped up and confused about what the heck home school is.  Now don't get me wrong, we had some really amazing learning moments that I am proud of, but it's what I learned that truly is the success of the day.

After the fifth, "This is boring" from Seven, (who is the least motivated emergent reader I have ever met), and the third meltdown from Four, (who is the most reluctant to transition from free & easy summer living), I almost felt zapped back into the stress of public school teaching.  And that's when I realized my rookie mistake.

I'm not teaching in the public schools.  I'm not teaching a group.  I'm teaching Dr. Suess' Thing One and Thing Two in my own home, and to top it all off: I am madly in love with them both--even after the "I'm bored's" and the tantrums.  I'm calling the shots here, and for the first time as a teacher, I can fully embrace what I believe about teaching and learning.  It's just a very different atmosphere....but a very special one.

While I expect to spend the entire year unravelling the mysteries of home school education, I so look forward to our "curriculum": learning about the world and ourselves, and how those two things fit together......hey, there's our year long curriculum arch--who am I in this world?  mmmm, nice and juicy--lots of room for inquiry, reading, writing, computing, puzzling, laughing, crying, socializing, and risk taking there...

So I'm taking flight, which is a fitting allegory to my last year as a teacher and how significant birds became (more on that later...).  My former eaglets have all fledged the nest, and now I am tending a new nest, and have adjusted my perspective, am not wasting my mistake, and approaching tomorrow as Thursday--a day which will include some reading, some writing, and some computing as needed in our real world setting...a day full of possibilities...a day chasing rainbows with Four and catching worms with Seven, and a day that will yield some poignant teaching and learning moments I look forward to writing about in bed.

My teacher prep tonight included hiding seven of Four's little stuffed animals that have been "very sick with the sniffles" as she's played doctor to them all week.  They are all over the house with tails and whiskers peeking out, and I left behind a note written in pictures and words from an evil fairy who takes credit for this dastardly deed and challenges them to find all seven.

Nothing like starting the day with a magical mystery to solve....and at home school, we consider that "time on task literacy/math/imagination fusion"!

tough day

ugh, today was tough. A couple weeks ago I informed my class that I will not be returning as their teacher this fall.  I'm taking a leave of absence for the year...more on that later.  After lunch today, we all journeyed over to the cove we've been visiting all year for one of my favorite stories, "Everybody Needs A Rock"...the author escapes me now, and then we visited the cove and I allowed each student to choose a special rock to remind us of our wonderful year together.  Very nice.

Then we rushed back to school for "move up"--the time when 2nd graders visit their new third/fourth grade classes, and the rising 1st graders (now kindergarteners) visit their new 1/2 classes.  And this year, my class also met their new teacher for the fall.  The 1/2s were fine--their new teacher is great (I am so happy with my replacement!), but my primates who are moving up to 3rd grade had a really emotional time--even before knowing where they would be going.  I think the idea that our group is changing and splitting up just suddenly became so real for everyone--me too.  I also see how tight a group of children this is--and I do believe that our experience as weavers last year, along with a class tragedy, really influenced their reaction today.

Change is always uncomfortable at first, and there is a sense of loss with this change as I am leaving the school, and the school is relocating for renovations in August.  But more than even that, this collection of 13 personalities, friendships, challenges, strengths, and interests, is changing.  We are all going separate ways, on to new adventures, and stepping outside our safe, warm, loving environment that has been a huge part of our daily lives for what feels like a long, long time.

They will survive--we all will.  Children are resilient, and despite the sadness and difficulty in this moment of change, it is all for the best and will soon feel very normal.  I know this.  Today struck me deeply too.  I may return after a year, but there is also a possibility that this is my last class in the public schools, and while I am excited and ready for the big changes I am facing, I feel a definite sense of loss and saying goodbye is very difficult.  I love being a teacher, and I have loved my time at this amazing school.  I think back to when I first entered as a student teacher and the feeling of home I immediately felt.  I knew from that day I had to be a part of it, and over the past ten years of many successes, many, many, many challenges, I've become a mother, a real grown up (well, almost!!), and a better, more confident teacher.  And I am forever grateful for that--to my fantastic colleagues, my first principal and my current principal, and all of the families I have had the honor of working with towards the goal of educating children.

(sigh) I think it's important to allow oneself to be sad when necessary, so tonight I'm sad.  But the sun will rise tomorrow (along with the temperatures!!!), and I am ready to appreciate every single second I have left with these primates, who have touched my life by allowing me to touch their lives in some small way.  Gratitude and warm thoughts to all!

intrinsic motivation

It is so late and I have had a crappy day, BUT, I just have to write about an amazing thing that happened today in the classroom.  Something that, for me, provides the intrinsic motivation I need to do my job and is a premium example of authentic, meaningful, real world learning--thus beautifully illustrative of MI teaching and learning.  Now bear in mind, this story includes mistakes--but that is how we, as humans, learn--and it also includes solving problems that matter to society--which is what intelligence is.  So, here it is, with a little background to start:

At the beginning of the year, I planned to do something exciting and different and meaningful with "weather" this year.  I included it as one of our class jobs, but as September closed in, I got derailed by a thousand other more pressing matters, and never actually came up with a concrete plan--or even idea for what that something would be.  The year started, and as I introduced class jobs, I simply stated that I hadn't figured out what that job would actually entail so the weather people could take a break until we came up with something.

Weeks and months passed and weather was not a popular job choice, obviously because it wasn't really a job.  In January, I decided this situation was ridiculous, and I had to come up with ANYTHING, if for no other reason than to save face with my primates.  I am always very careful with making promises.  Breaking promises to children does not build trust, and if I'm going to get them to learn, they must trust me.  So even something as insignificant as defining the weather job can go along way with building trust--because I had, at one point, promised I'd do it--and they know I don't throw that word around.

At morning meeting one day, I brought the subject up for discussion and was honest in saying that I just didn't know what to do and needed help.  A few primates offered suggestions....nothing really exciting, but as a group we agreed that the job of weather would be to record the daily temperature on the calendar every morning.  Our next problem was how we would gain that information, every morning.  I asked them to name ways to find out the daily temperature and we made a list: watching the news on TV, looking at a thermometer, checking the dashboard of a car, the Internet.  We decided the Internet would be a good option, and one of the primates suggested our school secretary announce it every day like when she announces birthdays.  We wrote a letter to the principal and to our school secretary, asking if they would please announce the daily temperature with the morning announcements.  The secretary came by later that day and reminded us that she doesn't do morning announcements anymore--only afternoons.  OK, mistake--how did I not notice that?!?!?!?!

Anyways, we were forced to find another solution, so I offered to check it on my computer with the weather kids before morning meeting.  And so we did.  For about 3...maybe 4 days.

Reality enters and the usual monsoons of the 8-8:20am time period prevented this from happening regularly.  One morning, realizing this and not wanting to let it go, I mentioned that I noticed the temp on my car dashboard that morning read 28 degrees Farenheit and the weather primates quickly recorded it on the calendar.  A few days later, I noticed that each day since had a temperature recorded and I asked the weather primates how they got that information.  They replied they had heard it on the news before school and one said he had asked his mom on the way to school.  Hmmmm, I thought--very impressed with the fact that they had taken it upon themselves to do this, and relieved that the weather job was something I could let myself not feel guilty about anymore!

It's been weeks and many, many snow days, and even a vacation since then.  Here and there daily temp recordings have been missed, but ALSO here and there, they are recorded.  Leading me to today's events, and I do apologize for the length of this entry, but context is very important.

So I'm in the midst of a bad day--just one where a million things go wrong and circumstances beyond your control make things THAT much harder, and I'm preparing to leave early in order to address some family matters, but I have 30 precious minutes with the primates and I'm determined to make them count.  As I describe the task I'm requesting from the primates, (a continuation of a drawing assessment/lesson that I will describe in full detail another day), I notice there is no temp recorded for the day and I ask, "Does anyone know what the temperature was this morning?"  Suddenly a sluggish group of primates just returning from math and an hour before lunch, are excited raising their hands and spouting stories of....the day's temperature and how they got that information.  "My mom's car said 6 degrees F!"  "My alarm clock tells the temperature and this morning it said 9 degrees but I heard on the news 2 degrees!"  "I asked my dad and he said 8 degrees!" and on and on and on....and I was suddenly shocked silent.

Here they were, my primates, actively engaged in a discussion of temperature that included accurate vocabulary, varied stories of actively using resources in their real world, taking something from the classroom into their lives outside school and bringing their lives outside school into the classroom.  Here they were, in a complete stage of engagement and meaningful, purposeful learning.  And it all began with the problem of coming up with a class job for weather.

In my geekishly, teacherly mind, this moment was a significant experience.  This is theory to practice in that as the teacher, I presented a problem, guided them through making mistakes, failing, finding solutions, and ultimately inspiring inquiry and taking responsibility for their own learning.  I feel pretty confident that my primates understand the purpose and uses of temperature, and that they are able to transfer this understanding to a variety of contexts--including how temperature is used in the real world.

There's no script to this kind of teaching--no book or program that will tell you every word you need to say,  there's no guarantee that somehow attempting to replicate this experience in another classroom, with a different group or teacher will produce the same results.  But the truth is, if such a program or book existed that actually worked 100% of the time with 100% of learners, schools would be using it.  Teaching, real, authentic, inspired, good teaching HAPPENS.  And just as we know that as humans, we learn from mistakes and failures much more often than we learn from easy success, good teaching comes from time, patience, mistakes, failures, and that intrinsic motivation to experience moments such as this.

everything begins with a line

We have been exploring lines in our world--in drawings, paintings, nature, objects, and here we searched our classroom for lines of all kinds!  These are a few we found:

One primate noticed angles on the easel left behind after someone painted a picture 

and missed the paper!

Lots of lines on the American flag--straight, diagonal, horizontal, vertical...and angles on the stars.

Primates worked on a unifix cube train that circled the entire classroom and at some points showed curved lines, such as this.

Another curved line on the edge of the table.

Mac the turtle also showed many lines on his shell--curved, straight, diagonal, wavy, 

horizontal and vertical.  We also found lines on his tank, light, and water bowl.

Primates are expanding their vocabulary, using and learning about directional words (which will be helpful not only in drawing but also as we work more with mapping later on), they are recognizing simple shapes and lines in things they are drawing, which enhances their artistic skills as well as observational skills.  Primates worked in partners to find lines in the room and we shared our findings as a whole group--making sure to be specific about what type of line we found and where we found it.  This activity, which I consider a "messing about" activity, uses experiential, foundational, aesthetic, and social entry points to engage learners, and provides a foundation for future drawing lessons.

catch up

ooooh so busy this session!  The season of assessment, (well, at least one of the many these days) is nearing end.  Report cards are done, ridiculous mid-year math tests, and developmental reading assessments, and oh, how could I forget, DIBELS....all done....for now.  I read an interesting quote recently about the test mania that has taken over education (thank you Arne Duncan & all those making millions by abusing the educational system in this country).  The quote went something like this: "In this country we think weighing the cow is far more important than feeding the cow."  Think about that for a minute.  I think about it as I look around at my students, starved for real learning experiences, and then consider all the time I've had to waste weighing this session.  Plain and simple, it sucks.

Amidst all this weighing, there have been six blissful snow days that we will pay for dearly in July, and a few valuable, wonderful learning moments.  Weather conditions have prevented trips to the cove, which is really a bummer because I so wanted to experience regular trips in the winter.  Hopefully we'll get some more melting and be able to head over after Feb break.

I've been forced to get quite creative with indoor nature journaling.  One project is a series of guided drawing lessons I borrowed from my art teacher hubby which we will complete tomorrow morning, so I'll post details and pics later.  Another is exploring dragons.

One of our required themes for the year is a geography focus, and since I have a wealth of dragon literature to draw from (my son's a dragon maniac!), I decided to follow dragon stories and legends around the world.  We find and mark places on our world map as we read various stories and legends.  We discuss continents, oceans, habitats, the differences between fiction and non-fiction, and various literary genres.  Lots of different entry points for primates to engage in as we cover required content.  We are reading one of my favorite chapter books, The Dragon of Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp, which includes three stories from various parts of the world and has entranced most of the primates.  We'll finish up this week, and I did hear some moans and groans (we're still reading this???) yesterday, but for the most part, they are enjoying the book.  I have also overheard on several different occasions, primates discussing vocabulary from the book, dragon "facts" they've learned, and lost of predictions about what will happen next in the story.  These discussions are happening without any encouragement from me--usually over snack or when they are doing something else that reminds them of something in the book.  It's wonderful to observe the primates relating to a book collectively and in their own ways.

One primate has lent us his Dragonolgy book, and also a Wizardology book, because, he stated, "Wizards are kind of mythological too."  Nice vocab word that is thrown around quite a bit these days!  We have read a few other dragon books and are exploring several dragon field guides.  We have built dragon models, sketched and named different types of dragons, and earlier this week we wrote dragon riddles.  Today we each invented our own fictional dragon creature, ie, cat dragon, chicken dragon, dragon shark, etc.  I was inspired to continue the riddles project when during my instruction of how to write a dragon riddle, a primate asked if she could do a dragon shark and another asked if she could do a dragonfly.  I paused and said no, but those questions had just inspired a new idea that we would discuss the next day--today.

So we invented our creatures, but primates also had the option of choosing a non-fictional creature, such as a komodo dragon, sea dragon, or dragonfly.  Primates made two lists: one of characteristics of a dragon, and the other of characteristics of the creature they chose (frog, shark, pig, etc).  Then they drew their creature on the inside of a folded piece of white cardstock.  Tomorrow we will use our lists to write the riddles.  I'm hoping we can share these with an older class on Friday--if we finish.  They are coming along beautifully, and as usual, more than I expected from a last minute project idea.

One thing I love about blogging is that it allows me concrete reflection time to assess my own work as well as the primates'.  Looking through an MI lens (using entry points), I see:

* exploration of the concept of fiction/non-fiction in several different ways (aesthetic, narrative, foundational, logical, social)
* learning about geography--maps, continents, oceans, organization of the world (aesthetic, narrative, foundational, social)
* analyzing characteristics of living things--OK, so maybe in our adult world dragons are not living things, but in the imaginations of 6-7-8 year olds, they are very real and primates will (hopefully) transfer this learning to actual living creatures when we resume our trips to the cove--(logical, quantative. social. foundational, experiential, aesthetic, narrative)
* identifying and creating different types of writing--legends, fic/non-fic, riddles, lists--and using them for different purposes--enjoyment, research, organization, discussion (social, narrative, foundational, quantative)

We have continued our established routines of nature journaling--even though we're drawing non-living things at times, we've maintained interest in a long story over a period of several weeks, we've accessed logical/experiential entry points through building dragon models in small groups, we've made logical predictions, discussed & explored topics socially through discussions & inquiry, we were able to follow a thread of child-directed curriculum, and everyone has been engaged in learning in different degrees at different moments.

Well, now it seems like maybe we had more than just a few valuable learning experiences this session despite the obstacles of snow days and mandated testing!  I am sure if I wasn't writing through exhaustion and anticipation of my fave show Survivor's new season--(great examples of MI can be found in the challenges!!!), I'd be able to analyze this more coherently, but hopefully I've painted a picture of MI learning & teaching.  From here, we will delve deeper into legends, sharpen our observation and sketching skills through more dragon related activities, continue to explore fiction/non-fiction, living/non-living, and develop more understanding of geography...along with many unexpected and authentic learning experiences! Pics to come!

thoughts...

My usual elation regarding a snow day is subdued tonight. Can't get into why...but I feel the need to share a poem I wrote last summer, inspired by a poem written by Loris Malaguzzi of the Reggio Emilia Preschools in Italy, (widely regarded the best in the world).  I'm posting both--Malaguzzi's first, followed by mine:

The Hundred Languages Of Children
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.


Loris Malaguzzi
(translated by Lella Gandini)

The Teachers Know

The hundred is there!

The hundred is there!

I am a teacher

and I know this secret:

The child has 100 languages.

My job is to observe and discover,

document and guide,

provide and inspire,

encourage and push.

This is the only way to unlock the secret

and once unleashed...

The power is limitless...

obstacles are overcome, lights shine, the earth moves...

The teacher must find precious uninterrupted time

to watch and play

to imitate and wonder

to laugh and cry

to hurt and heal

to discuss and imagine

To develop thoughts, concerns, inspiration and motivation.

And the end of this beautiful journey

takes place at the beginning of another.

Each member of this marvelous group moves on 

to different paths on which to share their languages with others...

and the power ignited by unleashing those

languages has added

a hundred hundred hundred more

But the teacher must know the secret

know it in every interaction,

every choice, every gaze, every time:

The hundred is there!

The hundred is there!

The hundred is there!

-KG

June 2010