Environment as Third Teacher

In the quest for education rigor, academic performance and high stakes testing, the educational environment is easy to forget.

I'm talking about the actual brick and mortar building.

The classrooms, the playgrounds, the hallways, the bathrooms.

All of it.

Sure, it has to be safe. Everyone is aware of that.

No one (or at least I'm not) is going to send their kids to a school like the one in Matilda!

But if we want to reach students and help them to achieve all that they can be. Or let's face it, to just ENJOY the journey, we have to stop and ask what their daily environment looks like.

I really, really appreciate the Reggio Emilia approach of Environment as the Third Teacher. Interested in learning more? Click here is a fantastic pdf article on our teaching environments. What I see in this approach, besides acknowledging that the environment we live in is important, is that it levels the playing field a little between teachers and auxiliary staff members.

In fact, I bet the custodial team at my campus has never been given articles on environment and how all team members are CRUCIAL for successful schools. Sure, people are quick to stop these hard workers when something isn't done, but when was the last time I stopped Lilly as she is organizing the cafeteria and told her thank you and that she MATTERS! Shame on me.

So what am I going to do?

Well, I'm going to start by saying thank you and telling our maintenance/custodial team that they matter. Then I'm going to work on changing MY environment. A really good article on creating quality environments is "How the Environment Inspires Curriculum." 


And then I'm going to...

1. De-clutter. I'm going to look for and get rid of "unintenional knick-knacks."  (man just typing that and looking around my dining table, I'm like oh man. How about the Easter basket that is on my china cabinet? It's July. Talk about an "unintentional knick-knack")

2. Walk around the room/building and ask "What is the purpose of ___?"

3. Remember that the environment needs to be balanced. If I break the room into sections, have I balanced the space or will all of the students be forced into one area so that I can create a cool space that looks fun but rarely used. The idea of taking a section and placing it on a mental scale has me rethinking sections of my classroom. I have a ton of space designated for rarely used stuff, but for every day life with students, we end up crowded.

4. Create more FOOT space than SHELF space. (Boy this another ouch for me. I have shelves, shelves and more shelves. Both at home and at school.  I really need to get rid of some of my junk to make room for life!)

And once I've done that. I'm going to stop and brainstorm about the places that I like spending time in. And figure out what I can do to bring that about into my daily environment.

Here are a few of my favorite places.. these are just representative pics from google. I haven't necessarily been to Starbucks on at Downtown Disney. :)

 

So what do I notice about these places.. I love the contrast between light and dark. I love the different textures. I love the see-thru containers.

Stopping and brainstorming about my teaching (living) environment is pretty fun. I would have said that the lack of windows to the outside world was the hardest thing for me to overcome. But after some visual brainstorming, I have so many ideas! And ideas that I can implement! I can't cut a hole in my cinder block wall and put in a window for my classroom. But I can add contrast and texture!

This is where I am starting.  These are pictures from my classroom at the start of school last year.  It's pretty much the same.. maybe even less cluttered right now!

First up. Moving the big front table from the dominate position in the classroom. We use it primarily for holding supplies. So why does it get soo much space?? If I move the monster table to take up some wall space, I can open up a large section of the classroom for feet space. This would really help the traffic jam of students trying to get in and out from their tables.

And the half painted wall of cabinets? It bothers me, but I got used to them. Like we all do. We get complacent in our daily life. I'm not sure what color they will be painted, but something for contrast!

And that's one of the best things about summer. It's a time to rejuvenate our minds and bodies AND our environments!! Because I want my environment as the third teacher to be a ROCKSTAR.. not a teacher in need of assistance plan! ;)

Reggio Emilia: Progettazione or Projected Curriculum

Have you ever met a child that decides that he or she likes something and then wants to learn EVERYTHING there ever was to know about that subject or item?  Surely you have. :) 

Like the pre-kindergartner that can label and discuss all the dinosaurs.. 

Or like when my oldest daughter, Maddie was in early elementary and she learned about the Fibonacci number sequence. Maddie carried a notebook around with her for YEARS where she would add numbers to her sequence. She finally grew out of the phase when the number pattern would take up an entire line of her spiral. Really. She was adding 20+ digit numbers together. It was amazing.

This focus was done on her own and completely child paced. We helped her when she asked. Like she needed us to help her find out the name of a 24 digit number. Septillion. 

Anyway, watching a child totally engrossed in a learning is fun. The joy and concentration is amazing. 

So often as parents and educators, we forget about this innate quest children have to learn. We push and prod and poke for children to learn the way WE want them to learn. We fuss and threaten and then wonder why they don't care!

I really think it's because we have forgotten to engage their sense of wonder. Basically, we have forgotten about that they are kids and NEED to be be challenged in their own way. 

  

We want them to do math or science. From worksheets. 
And then we bemoan that they don't care and that test scores are low.

So how do we get them care? 

Well... what if we engaged their sense of wonder through the use of Projected Curriculum?

Projected Curriculum is a Reggio Emilia mindset that uses teaching strategies that challenge students to research and explore real world topics. Students decide on the topic (with a little supervision and direction), become the expert and share their learning with others. These investigations can be done in a small group or individually.

Some of the investigations include projects, but Projected Curriculum is NOT a series of arts and crafts days! (I know, my pictures that I have included look "crafty.")

Going back to the Reggio mindset, Progettazione means to project to the next steps.  Teachers are to watch, observe and listen FIRST and then a help students take the next step in a learning journey. This journey might take 10 minutes or it could take months. It's a flexible approach. Yes, I said the big bad word flexible.  So much of life in public school does not seem flexible.  But really, providing individual learning opportunities doesn't have to be time consuming. Nor does it have to be outside of the bounds of what we are already doing.

For example, as a late elementary student (4th-6th grade), I was totally obsessed with reading biographies on American Presidents and the President's children. I read all of the books our local library had and any others I could find. This was done completely on my own and no grades were ever given. I don't think my teachers even knew that I was interested in reading biographies. But can you imagine the tie-in to established classroom curriculum that I could have had if projected curriculum had been offered. 

So why this post? Because as I work through lesson plans and ideas for this next school year, I am going to be more flexible. That doesn't mean that I am going to through my curriculum bundles out the window! But I am going to be more intentional about OBSERVING and LISTENING to students in order to engage their interest and sense of wonder.

It's my job to make sure that when students leave my classroom that they have the knowledge of the subject. That's it. It's not my job to force all students to learn in a cookie cutter way.

Through investigation and exploration, I'm going to let students take the lead on their learning this year! 

And sometimes that learning will be take shape via arts and crafts. 

And sometimes science experiments LOOK like arts and crafts but really teach the scientific method and in the end make AWESOME digital art work! :) Thanks Lexi for a great science lesson on food coloring, dish soap and milk.


Want to read and learn more about Reggio Emilia? Here are some great links:

https://tecribresearch.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/progettazione-reggio-inspired-teaching-in-dialogue-with-the-learning-processes-of-children/
http://reggioalliance.org/  

Having too much fun to take time to blog!

We are in the wonderful busy time of the year called SUMMER!!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I'm still getting up around 6am most days to workout, but heck, the first number isn't a 4, so that's really sleeping in late for me. :)

Over the last few weeks I have been vacationing a lot and scheduling in my classwork in between and all around the fun.

Over the July 4th weekend, we went on our 11th Annual Lakehouse Vacation. We had so very much fun! As my girls have gotten bigger, this has become more and more fun for me. When they were little, it was good, but a beat down as relocating little kids to a lakehouse for a few days with 20 people and not very many bedrooms/bathrooms was hard work! But now... it's just fun!

Here's to 11 years of perfectly normal behavior!!! #maxwelllakehouse #awkwardfamilyphotos

A photo posted by emilymclemore (@faithhopeandart) on Jul 4, 2015 at 5:29pm PDT

Doug and Maddie missed out on the trip as they had other commitments, but the little girls and I played hard!

Then we came home, washed clothes, regrouped, and went to Galveston Island. Our girls had never been to a real beach or the ocean/gulf, so we surprised them with a trip! It was fun!! They knew that we had to be in a city 3 hours away for a wedding on Friday, so we told them that we would just go early and play. On Wednesday morning, we loaded up and headed out. When we got to our destination city and were eating lunch, Doug said what if we just kept on going and went to the beach. The little girls were shocked. Maddie had figured it out the night before as we were packing.

So after lunch, we loaded up and drove another 3 hours to Galveston.  It made for a LONG DAY. But totally worth it.

They LOVED the beach and the waves.

 

I enjoyed running along the seawall and doing handstands on the beach. :)

Galveston! Love. #handstand #healthymama #fitmom

A photo posted by emilymclemore (@faithhopeandart) on Jul 10, 2015 at 7:16am PDT

And if the beach wasn't enough, we played at the condo pool till exhaustion or hunger took over.

From Galveston, we drove back northwest three hours for a wedding. Kylie was the flower girl. The rehearsal was ROUGH! Kylie was not sure about this process. But Saturday dawned and a well-rested, full-tummied kid was ready for the day.

We even had time to visit Texas A&M for Maddie. I hadn't given it much thought..it was just a look see. Then as we were walking around the campus, she got mistaken for a senior on a real visit by a couple of male student workers in the library, and well.. this mom got a little teary!

And then it was time to get ready for the wedding. Kylie went from rambunctious kid to  

DIVA FLOWER GIRL!! She was adorable!!

Look at this girl.

My beautiful flower girl! #flowergirl

A photo posted by emilymclemore (@faithhopeandart) on Jul 11, 2015 at 5:01pm PDT

The reception was in at a vineyard. I couldn't pass up the chance to get some pictures!

We arrived home Sunday afternoon and went every different direction Monday morning.

And this week we even met with the builder for our house!! WOOHOO!! I really can't believe it. After talking about it for 15 years, we are actually getting ready to build a forever house.

Busy times. 

I wouldn't trade these moments for anything.

(Oh yeah.. and how are my classes? Well, I have a week and a half left of this semester, so let's just say I'm going to be busy. But six more hours will be finished! I'll have 18 graduate hours completed in eight months. wow. And only four classes remain. I can do this!)

Saying the Right Thing

I am a talker. I totally acknowledge that. But when conversations are tough or I am required to have a confrontational conversation, I struggle!

As part of my graduate course work, I am learning so much about good communication skills and how to have "fierce conversations." 

But one framework that has really stuck in my head is that of saying the right thing every time. Given that I feel like I saw the WRONG thing most of the time, I was pumped to read and learn about this process.

So here is much simplified version of Robert D. Ramsey's "How to Say the Right Thing Every Time".

I like it as it is similar to the THINK mindset, but more tailored to the professional world.

I will be printing/making this for my classroom! 

Wonder how big I should make it?! :)

I take more "selfies" that my teenage daughter!

Yesterday at lunch, I took a selfie. I was wearing a new shirt.

Maddie rolled her eyes and said "Mom, you take more selfies that I do!" I laughed as Lexi said that I didn't. That Maddie just sent her pictures via snapchat. I told her my friends didn't have snapchat, so I had to take pictures to text them or instagram them or facebook them!

Anyway, that got me thinking about my picture taking.

And here is what I have to say.

YES!! I do take a lot of pictures of myself these days. And I am PROUD of it! For years I hated the way I looked and avoided pictures. I didn't want a record of what I looked like or proof of what I wasn't doing!

But now, I am proud of who I am and my journey.

So here is a week in my life.. through pictures.

Today (Wednesday): This was taken after I ran an 8:15 mile. Woohoo! I'm making progress.

Yesterday (Tuesday): My lunch selfie! I am wearing a size small shirt here! I haven't been this small since 10th grade.

okay, one more selfie for yesterday.. :) Cause playing at the park deserves a photo spread!

Monday: Post run. Feeling the burn after four days of scrapbooking and binge eating! (Don't you love Kylie's photobomb!)

Sunday: At the pool. In a swimsuit.

Saturday: My 41st birthday!

Friday: Not technically a selfie..

How about this one?

Thursday: At retreat!

(Taking the panoramic photo was fun! After a bunch of tries, we got it. I started the photo with Mindy on the left sitting and after I passed her and got around, she took the camera and got me in the photo!)

And back to Wednesday. At the Japanese Gardens.

So yeah. I take a lot of pictures. And I am proud of it! :)