What If...?
4/10/2020
Since schools across the nation shifted to distance learning, I have heard educators wonder, "What if this is our chance to reimagine schools?" It's no secret that many schools focus instruction on preparing for standardized tests and "covering" curriculum and standards. It made me realize yet again how PNA has already reimagined school for our sweet students and their families. Social-Emotional Emphasis: In my opinion, all good educators know that connection with and among students is a key component of teaching. As distance learning began and stretched on, it became clear that some students had greater social-emotional needs as a result while others had more academic needs. This is true in the classroom setting as well. Fortunately, PNA understands this and addresses the social-emotional needs of all students. It is why we emphasize the social-emotional aspect of education daily in addition to the academic aspect. It is built into our everyday routines, like Morning Meeting and Closing Circle. It is the foundation for our approaches to discipline, which include understanding, logical consequences, and the opportunity to learn from mistakes. It is the motivation behind building our classroom and school communities and the reason we dedicate the first six weeks of school to cultivating our classroom environments and building relationships with and among our students and their families. Without the connections and community we had built, distance learning would have been nearly impossible. Foundational Skills: Foundational skills are the fundamental skills necessary for student success. As their name indicates, foundational skills provide the foundation on which subsequent learning is built. When distance learning began, schools and educators had to decide what was truly essential. Teachers at PNA did this as well when we moved to the distance learning platform, but we also regularly evaluate to make sure our students have the foundational pieces for future success. These include explicit phonemic awareness and phonics instruction (in addition to time spent authentically reading and and participating in experiences to make reading a fun, special activity); learning to express one's thinking and collaborate with others; visualizing math concepts; handwriting and sentence structure (in addition to genre studies and time spent authentically writing and "publishing" books). As educators, our main goal is for our students to be successful, and we know they need a strong foundation in order for that to be possible. Focus on Understanding Concepts: I have taught in many public schools, so I can attest firsthand to the fact that there is immense pressure to "cover" all of the standards and curriculum. In the educational world, this is referred to as "breadth vs. depth." Breadth refers to covering many subjects and concepts on a surface level, whereas depth means diving deeply into a topic, delving into its richness and nuances. Of course, we use standards to drive our instruction, but we also use student interests and developmentally appropriate practices. Because educators at PNA have the freedom to pivot in order to meet our students' needs, we can delve deeply into topics and spend more time on topics in which students seem particularly curious or interested. As we explore topics deeply, our students not only develop a greater understanding of the specific concepts, but of the process of learning. They develop the ability to express their thinking, listen to and learn from others, and study and explore any topic deeply. (You can read more about this here and here.) Authentic Learning Experiences & Project Based Learning: As an educator of young children, one of the saddest things to me is hearing students ask, "Is this going to be on the test?" and then checking out if the answer is no. Children come to us naturally curious and asking questions; they should leave us even more curious and full of questions. One way that PNA makes learning engaging for our students is by providing authentic learning experiences and using project based learning. As I mentioned above, authentic learning experiences include reading books and writing and "publishing" books. We also use project based learning to provide students with rich and authentic learning experiences. PBL reframes learning. Instead of studying a topic because it is next in the curriculum or the standards, we study topics because they are inherently interesting, because there is a question to be explored or a problem to be solved. It honors the way humans learn as well as the fact that our world is an inherently interesting place full of topics to be explored and problems to be solved. We are not learning for a grade on a test, but to solve a problem or explore a topic together. While a public product is part of gold standard PBL, PBL itself also honors the process of learning rather than over-emphasizing the product. (If you want to learn more about the power of authentic learning experiences and PBL in kindergarten, you can read my posts here, here, here, here, here, here, and here... and in many more of my archived blog posts!) When we switched to distance learning, kindergartners continued to engage authentically with learning through reading, writing books, and inquiry studies. Specials: As the emphasis on standardized testing increased, students opportunities for enriching and essential instruction decreased. Schools across the nation cut art, music, PE, and even recess so that students could spend more time preparing for standardized tests, despite evidence that increased opportunities to move and the arts actually enhance student achievement. One of the things I found most refreshing when I joined PNA was the emphasis on enriching activities. Music, Art, PE, Spanish, and free play are part of our students' everyday routines. Enriching activities are so fundamental to PNA's core values that specialist teachers continued to meet with students during distance learning. (You can read more about the benefits of music specifically here.) What if PNA educators use their reflections from distance learning to make the PNA experience even better, to enhance our vision for our students even more? "A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions." |
Saania AliMs. Ali graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. She specializes in Early Childhood Education, ESL, and Special Education. Her hobbies include traveling, reading, and painting! Archives
April 2021
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