Caterpillar changes now begin - body and wings take shape within.
When it's time, each case is torn - wings unfold; new butterflies are born!
We've been waiting for wings!
from Waiting for Wings, Lois Ehlert
http://kids.librarypoint.org/node/6554
Elijah brought a pink stone to school today, and as we passed it around the circle and examined it, a question came up:
Is Elijah’s pink stone from nature, or is it man-made?
We took a poll. Originally, there were two ideas to choose from. “From nature” or “Man-made.” As we voted, a third idea was suggested by one of the children: “From nature, but painted by a person.” Children wrote their name under the idea that best represented what they thought.
We looked at the results of our poll and wondered…
How can we find out the answer to our question (or any question like this?)
The children had lots of ideas:
- Ask the person at the store you got it from. They might know.
- Ask someone who might know (an expert)
- Go to the store and see if the two stones match. If they do it’s not from nature, because in nature nothing is the same.)
- Look it up on the internet
- Get a book about that kind of stone to see if it’s from nature or man-made.
- Go on a field trip to the beach to see if you can find one.
- Look to see if they have one at New Seasons. (My mom sells lots of different kinds of flowers there, so maybe they have different kinds of stones too.)
This is what scientists do! They wonder about something, take a guess about what they think the answer might be, then do research to gather more information. When we ask questions and try to discover the answer in this way, we are being scientists.
Several weeks ago I stumbled upon an article called "Seeing the Best in Every Child: The Importance of Neurodiversity" and have been thinking about it ever since. In introducing the concept of neurodiversity, author Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., asks us to imagine for a moment that people are flowers. A psychiatrist, who is a rose, examines a child who happens to be a sunflower. After careful testing and considertion, he determines that the sunflower is suffering from a case of hugism. "It’s usually treatable if caught in time, but I’m afraid in your case we didn’t catch it early enough.” The sunflower leaves the room with his head drooping. The next child to see the doctor is a tiny bluet. After some time the doctor determines that the bluet has a growing disability. He informs the child that it is a genetic disorder, but that with appropriate identification and treatment he can learn to live a successful life. The bluet leaves the office feeling even smaller than before.
This analogy may seem strange, but it makes the point very well: We love flowers, in part, because each one is so unique. We understand that diversity is inherent in the natural world, and we celebrate it. Can you imagine it any other way? Would you even want to? Aren't we, as humans, part of the natural world? And if so, why is human development measured using such a narrow model of normalicy?
The number of categories of illnesses listed by the American Psychiatric Association has tripled in the past fifty years. As more and more people fall outside of the "norm" of what is considered to be typical neurological functioning, we are becoming what Armstrong refers to as a "culture of disabilities." Armstrong proposes that it is time to change the way we look at neurological challenges and shift our paradigm to one of "neurodiversity." This is a fairly new term, only about 10 years old, and has been defined many ways, one of which is: "the whole of human mental or psychological neurological structures or behaviors, seen as not necessarily problematic, but as alternate, acceptable forms of natural human difference."
We are all wired differently, with different strengths, weaknessness, and abilities. As living organisms, we need environments that support our growth, that are inclusive; that take our abilities and needs into consideration in order to help us fully flourish. Yes, we all need to get along and live in this world together, but it seems to me that part of this is truly understanding and appreciating, not merely tolerating our differences. Each of us has as our own paticular challenges, as well as our own perspective to contribute to our community. In shifting our paradigm to one of neurodiversity, we enable ourselves to appreciate the unique contribution of each person to the whole rather than viewing people through the lens of disorders and labels such as "challenged," "gifted," and "special needs."
The week after I read the article we began doing our observational drawings of flowers at school. I was moved by the beauty of each and every flower created by the children. Every drawing gives us a glimpse into the unique perspective of the child who created it. What I found most striking, was observing two children sitting side by side, examining the same flower and depicting it in dramatically different ways.
Each drawing shows us the flower as the child saw it on that particular day and gives us a peek into who he is at this time of his life. The children are unconcerned with the wild variations in their renderings of the flower. They strive to more accurately articulate their own particular vision of the flower, not to make it look more like each other's. Why would we want to make them look alike? They are unaware of the notion that there might be one right way, one "best" way to do it. I believe that idea does not ocurr to us naturally...it has to be taught. Young children have a special connection to the natural world and it's innate biodiversity. Because of this, they hold an understanding and appreciation for diversity that can inspire and inform those of us who may need reminding.
Angela
A few sunflowers, as seen through the eyes of the children:
Link to the full article:
Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. is the author of the book The Power of Neurodiversity, Unleashing the Advantages of Your Differently Wired Brain.
His website is: http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/
Friday evening, several parents braved the chilly winter weather to come to a parent evening here at school. (Thank you!)
It was a lovely evening, and in the spirit of inclusion I wanted to offer a brief recap. We started off with a talk about social constructivism, inquiry based learning, the work being done in the schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, and how this all informs our practice at Rowanberry School. I spoke about traditional educational approaches, and how schools that hold inquiry, social constructivism and collaboration as core values challenge that old system of thinking. To illustrate how these principles might look in action, we showed a video taken this week at school. In the video, two children are playfully exploring materials together using the overhead projector. Their curiousity and delight was clearly enhanced by their collaboration, and the social element of sharing their experience with each other.
The parents then had the chance to sit in small groups together while exploring color mixing, an activity we have been enjoying this winter with the children. We regrouped afterwards to discuss what we noticed and what we wondered about while working with these materials, a common practice in an inquiry-based classroom, and one familiar to us.
Then we watched Sir Ken Robinson's "Changing Education Paradigms" video, discussed it, and ended the evening with a playful light painting session. It was so fun to explore the relationship between light and color with the parents like we have been doing with the children for the last several weeks.
When the children come back to school, we will share documentation of the parents' work with them. I think they will be inspired by the results of our light painting experiment...I know we were!
We began our journey this year by asking ourselves the question: Who am I? Who are you? Who are We? And while we continue to explore these questions, and the answers will change over time, we have made a discovery. We are Tinkerers. We are Designers. We are Builders.
Some of us like to play around with things and see how they fit together, and how they come apart. We are thinking about how things work. We are tinkerers. Some of us are designers. We can put our ideas down on paper and then bring those ideas to life. Some of us love to put things together and see what can be made. We love the way things can be constructed and deconstructed, and then the parts can be used again in a different way. We are builders. Some of us are a combination of these things, but all of us, every last one of us has abilities, and interests that relate to these concepts. As a community of learners, we have spent the last several weeks building together, using magnetiles, blocks, K'nex, cardboard boxes, cones, and anything else we can get our hands on. What joy!
We have been thinking deeply about what to bring to the children to help them to continue and expand this exploration. It is clear that they require time to explore, materials to use, and a space set up to support this work. With this in mind, we created a tinkering station and a construction corner where the construction magic could take place. We introduced it to the children this week, who immediately set to work constructing spaceships, race cars, "Thingy-ma-bobbers," airplanes, and so much more. They are excited to share their creations with their friends, and to learn about the work that others are doing. It has been the source for much collaboration and connection for the children.
After purging SCRAP, Goodwill, and our own basements for building materials, we are hoping to acquire more from all of you, the families. Anything sturdy, interesting, beautiful, unusual, or useful that you have laying around could be just the thing someone needs for their project. We are thinking spools, tubes, gutters, piping, empty containers...but you'll know it when you see it. Surprise us!
Here are some glimpses into all the constuction realted work that has happened in the first weeks of school. Look for the Magna-Tile Mouse Traps (worked on for several days by a growing group of children) that started it all!
My old friend Professor Banjo, or "Teacher Paul" as I knew him, stopped by to play music and tell stories to the children today. We danced, and sang, and got just plain silly in the autumn sunshine. He sang a song about beards, and even had a few to share with us!
Here are a few glimpses into our playtime with Professor Banjo.
Paul lives in Vancouver B.C. now, but comes back to town now and then to visit. When he's here he often plays at Mississippi Pizza for the whole family to enjoy.
You can find out what he's up to at his website: http://www.squaredancepaul.com/
See you next time Professor Banjo!
Hello Rowanberry families,
I hope you are all settling into the new school year. The first two weeks have been buzzing with energy...the excitement of so many new children and a new teaching team has been simply electric. The children seemed so tired on Friday, and we were too! The start of a school year is always exhilirating, and also such hard work.
We are going to be using this blog as way to connect and communicate with you all, our larger community, more frequently. There is magic brewing this year at Rowanberry. We are on a path of re-creation, re-invention, and we would like to invite each of you to join us on our journey. The children have such a natural curiosity and a delight in the world that we don't have to invite them; they are already walking alongside us. We are honored to be working and wondering with each and every one of them, and each and every one of you. Welcome. Let's see what there is to see.
There are a few changes you may have noticed in the classroom this year. We have a larger, more user friendly writing area that holds a message center with mailboxes for all of the children (and the teachers too, by Ryder's request!) They have been enthusiastically writing and sending mail to each other, and checking their mailboxes to see if they have received messages in return. This is such a meaningful way to develop literacy skills for young children. Accuracy is not our goal for this stage in children's development, it is simply to introduce the concept of writing as an enjoyable form of communication. How can I use paper and writing tools to communicate with my friends? How can I decode what has been written to me? We are supporting them in this exploration, which will undoubtably continue to unfold throughout the year.
Once a week a little cooking station will appear in the classroom. On these days, we will be having a Community Kitchen day and bread, soups, applesauce and more will be prepared by the children for morning snack. This fall we will be making lots of soup, so we will be asking for vegetable and herb offerings, as well as copies of some of your favorite soup recipies to share. We will be adapting the recipies to the food sensitivites of the children at school, so if you have substitution ideas or favorite allergy-friendly recipies from your family please do let us know. In the month of September, Fridays will be our Community Kitchen days, and in October, it will be on Mondays. We are delighted about this delicious opportunity to deepen our connections with each other and build community around food.
We have been sending each other messages, making connections over magnetiles, exploring natural materials, looking at our reflections in the mirror, and creating self portraits using object arrangements in the studio. The questions that seem to be just behind all of these early explorations by the children could be categorized as "Who am I?" "Who are you?" "Who are we?" Whether you are new or returning to Rowanberry this year, these are questions we could all ask ourselves as we define ourselves in the context of our new school community. How do I see myself? How do others see me? Once I know a little more about these things I am ready to figure out who we can be together. What challenging and wonderful work!
We will be spending lots of time outdoors, so please do dress your child warmly, and bring a rain coat, rain boots, and a couple of changes of clothes to school as soon as you are able. The fall weather has arrived, and we do not want anyone to be cold or uncomfortable during our outside play and out of doors adventures. Tomorrow (Monday morning) our class will be venturing out into the neighborhood to enjoy the changing seasons and to gather natural materials for the classroom. We are hoping to spend a good portion of our day outdoors, so please dress your child accordingly.
We are going to go to a tote bag system to shuttle lunches, artwork, dirty clothes and other belongings to and from school each day. A New Seasons sized shopping bag is perfect for the job. We are also offering eco-friendly Rowanberry School tote bags for $10 each. They depict a line drawing of an owl by one of last year's students, and I must say are quite spectacular. The bags are in a box next to Simon's cage; if you would like one (or more,) just take what you need and slip your payment in the tuition box. Whatever bag you use, please label it with your child's name. It will come to school with her/him every day and go home with them at the end of the day. This will reduce the number of lost items, and keep things better organized. Yay!
I would like to give you a friendly reminder to please keep toys, trinkets, money, stuffed animals and the such at home. It is so nice for children to enjoy their time at school without personal posessions to keep track of.
I am hoping that one of you who has a child at school with an epi-pen can stop in one day after school to give us a 10 minute training. I have done the practice shot before, but am feeling like I need a refresher. If you are willing to do this, just let me know. I'll find a day after school that all three of us can be there. Thank you!
Also, thank you all for being so prompt in the morning and at pick-up time at the end of the day. It contributes so much to smooth transitions for the children. When some of the kids are having a difficult time joining the class, as they often do in the beginning of the year, it is critical that we have all the children here and the parents gone so we can start our circle time. Once the circle time starts, the children who have been feeling anxious begin to settle into their day. With this in mind, please help your child to wash their hands (if they need or want help,) and then say goodbye right away. Thank you so much for your support.
Our first parent evening of the year will be Friday September 23rd from 7-8:30 p.m. This will be an orientation of sorts, and will be a fun and informative evening for all parents. We will give you a walk through of what we are doing here, talk about our daily rhythm, and answer any questions that you might have. Please be sure to have one parent attend. Thank you.
We are looking forward to a wonderful year with you all, as we discover who "We" are together.
Warmly,
Angela
