“To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge.” –Paulo Freire

After teaching virtually during the pandemic, the concept of knowing what to teach and how to teach it has reinforced my core ideals of pedagogy in early childhood:

• Knowing the whole child

• Understanding cognitive growth and social-emotional development 

• Instilling a love of learning and the confidence to adapt and grow

• Questioning and thinking as powerful learning tools

• Creating an environment where it is safe to make mistakes

• Nurturing every child’s intellectual, social and emotional growth. 

• Collaborating with colleagues in planning a child-centered curriculum

• Assessing students and differentiating learning to meet the needs of students with learning differences. 

• Inquiry-based approach to the rich social studies units was a perfect fit with my developing  educational philosophy and fine-arts background. 

Professional development opportunities continue to inform my teaching. The summer workshop that profoundly transformed my pedagogy was Project Zero at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, a research center that explores topics in education such as deep thinking, understanding, intelligence, creativity and ethics. At Project Zero I met equally passionate educators who raised the level of my intellectual curiosity. I was introduced to the concept of Making Thinking Visible, and the Reggio Emilia approach.  It was impressive to see how they valued the role of the arts, and how the arts can be used to foster creativity in all disciplines. 

From my continuing study of the Reggio Emilia approach I am developing a more nuanced understanding of the teaching process and how to best adapt parts of it to school curricula:

• How to observe and listen to children more closely

• How to create and differentiate new learning opportunities

• How to introduce the idea of research to our youngest students

• How to allow students to take the initiative, yet guide them in productive ways

Weaving elements from both the research work of Project Zero and the Reggio Emilia approach this year, I am focusing on collecting documentation through the practice of observing and recording. I am then interpreting the data I gather to support student learning, as well as to support my learning as an educator.  A key part of this inquiry-based work is the Project Zero thinking routine of See Think Wonder: What do you see? What do you think about that? What does it make you wonder? 

Literacy

I began using this thinking routine during art explorations that related to story elements: Who is in the painting?  What are they doing? Where are they? and How are they feeling?  The power of this routine is that it allows students to look closely and share their thinking, and most importantly, ask questions - especially when students may not have the writing skills yet to express their thinking.  By listening to each other share, and giving students wait time, other students were able to take risks and expand their thinking. This work also extends to various reading and writing lessons, where students use information books in order to independently conduct their own research.

Math

In time, I was able to adapt this routine to exploring mathematical concepts in a study of geometry and cubist art. In sharing what you see also connects to lessons from Number Talks, seeing quick image of dots: “How many dots do you see? How do you know? How do you see that number? - then comparing it to how others might see that number. As students progress in their literacy skills, they are able to share their thinking in their math journals with words , pictures and numbers..

Child Development

Ultimately, developmentally based teaching is the center of my educational practice. The heart of being an authentic teacher comes from a deep understanding of how children think, learn and develop at every age. This requires extensive and on-going research on child development, and specifically the early childhood years. Knowing what children at each age are developmentally capable of doing physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively enables respectful, successful teaching of all children no matter their life circumstances or cultural background. 

My experience teaching in an integrated co-teaching kindergarten class where I worked with a special education teacher. We collaborated on curriculum planning, designing innovative and multi-sensory lessons that are adapted and modified towards the varied learning styles of both the general education and special education students. Becoming aware of the neurological differences in our ICT classroom has altered my perceptions surrounding learning differences. We assembled a plan to help each child succeed in school, with the main focus is on students meeting their goals. Diagnostic labels are used to explain the diverse ways of thinking, learning, processing and behaving. As with all people, we each have our talents and challenges. I believe we should also embrace neurodiveristy by showing students the strengths and extraordinary gifts they also possess. 

The experience has given me a greater understanding of a wider range of students’ social and academic behavior through both a developmental and neurodiversity lens.