zella said purple

the torch you carry

Today is the tenth year to pause and reflect on the tragedies of nine eleven.

It is a big day,

perhaps a quiet day,

perhaps a day to count blessings.

I am remembering the day it happened, going to school early for a meeting that was on my schedule with another faculty member. I had heard about the first plane when still home getting dressed; I heard about the second plane while sitting in the faculty meeting before school even started. Stunned.

We still had school that day. We didn't really know the magnitude of it all til a bit later, so we just still had school.

I was with my Young Fives class. When families started arriving, there was this 'upper level' conversation among adults with bewildered looks in the eyes and unsettled shoulder shrugs trying to communicate above the children "what just happened?" ... as in:
WHAT just happened?
what JUST happened?
what just HAPPENED?

We mostly had a regular day at school. Yet, at our morning meeting (circle time) with the students, I decided that we had to have an open chat to see what they knew, what they saw on tv, what they were thinking as they surely overheard their guardians speak of some NEWS.

We had a conversation.

We had honest information shared among 5-year-olds.

We made a prayer poster.

This is a copy of what I wrote in our newsletter that week, sharing with families what happened during our morning meeting with their children. The school is a religious-based school so God and prayers are integral for coping, offering support and seeking strength. The text:

"I have tried to speak to each family over the last number of days as we all deal with the tragic events of Tuesday, September, 11. Most of you know that we had a discussion in class that very morning. I wanted to know what the children knew so far and how they were understanding any of it.

Know that my intent in opening a discussion is never to lecture or inform on specifics, but to provide an arena for a young age group to talk together about something they may be trying to understand in their own way.

The sharing was diverse, with different energy from different children, with different pieces of the morning News: "bad guys flew a plane into a building!" "there was smoke and lots of fire!"

We talked about how it WAS bad guys who flew into the big worker buildings in New York, how it was NOT an accident, how it is a big problem and that the fire people and police and the President are working to help solve it. We looked on the globe to see New York and to see California. We talked about how we are safe here [at school] and in our houses.

And then, we really talked about how the people in the worker buildings got hurt and a lot of them probably died, how we could think good thoughts for them and say prayers together. We talked about making art to help have good wishes for anyone who was hurt and we thought about drawing [cheerful ideas like] rainbows, flowers and hearts. We displayed the poster on the blue wall in the block area. Please, come see." [to note: the poster remained displayed in the classroom until I left the school in 2007].

The students from this class are 15 years old now. They likely do not recall the actual day of the event or our conversation in class or anything. They probably have a newer, current memory made perhaps in an upper elementary grade when studying history; or via a thoughtful discussion with family; or via a course in high school.

But, the children WERE there, in the moment, and had emotions and opinions and prayers.

For today, I offer a memory of the tragic day that included young children with kind hearts and sincere worry for people they didn't know and for a world they didn't comprehend yet.

I hope you have important discussions with your young students - in the moment that they are important - as the memory ends up being the torch you carry for them & for yourself.

This is the irony of this blog based in reflections and narratives: my personal story of this huge historic tragic event is lodged with my experience with these 5-year-old students and the poster of rainbows, neither of which exist any longer.

Yet, I remain the storyteller, to carry the torch, to be their memory.

listen to me!

nathan calls to me about The Tigers!

One of my most powerful memories of Becoming The Teacher I Want To Be was when I first listened - really really listened - to my 2-year-old friend Nathan. Read the full story of Nathan and the Tigers here.

In the outside play yard one day, Nathan called to me...

"Come, come...come help me look for the tigers in the big tree! Come, come. The tree tigers are calling to us and we need to find them in the tree! Come, come, come!"

This calling to me changed who I was as a teacher, it changed my relationship with Nathan, it changed how I engaged with children for all the years forward in my career.

Nathan's calling to me made me start to deconstruct what he was telling me and understand better where he was in his development. I could start to hear Relationship, Imagination, Sense of Self, Focused Play, Role Play & Socio-Dramatic Scenarios.

listening to children is a treasure.

Last week in the college course I am instructing with a focus on Math/Science, we explored some quotes that I had collected over the years.

All the quotes had the "LISTEN TO ME!" content that teachers could use as base to extend into inquiries and projects.

Listen to the children to hear:

some math concepts,

scientific theories,

gaps in logic,

attempts at facts, cause & effect,

articulation of time & age,

explanations of things that change,

complex questions...?

"103 is a lot of fish, not a little. It is like 16." rose, 3yo.

"I am two and a half and my sister is seven pounds for a dollar." kevin, 2yo.

"My daddy's car is the color of Nestle's Quik...it is the color when you first put it in the milk." jessica, 4yo.

"Let me tell you something. When it is all gone, that means zero." evan, 3yo.

train your ear to hear children in Their language.

"What if everything in the whole world, even the planets and stars, were made of pink paint?!" shannon, 5yo.

"Here, read this book first. And, after that one, read this one first." andrew, 2yo.

"When I grow up, I want to be a seagull so I can eat garbage." alice, 3yo.

"Is yellow allergic to brown?" haley, 5yo.

"Medium is near lots, right?" matt, 5yo.

"Birds don't go up to Jupiter or Mars. They just go where the blue is." shannon, 4yo.

Start documenting your listening with children during their open play time. Really listen and you'll start to hear important concepts - real INFORMATION - that you can use to extend and deepen your students' understanding using intentional teaching methods. You can integrate exploration of these concepts into the richest context that is of value to children: their play.

Click here to read more about Starting To Document.

The children are telling us every day what they KNOW. It just happens to be true that a lot of what they tell us also has what they DON'T KNOW weaved strongly in, as well. It is our job to interpret and deconstruct and support. It is our job, yet really, for me, the partnership with children is what creates such a dynamic learning environment daily, weekly, year after year.

What are ways that you listen to and document what your children are telling you in their play?