Nadirchat

One of the most asked frequently asked questions is, "How do I know when and how to step into children's play and experiences without taking over?" This is not an easy task and requires a great deal of thought and practice. Teachers are hard wired to teach, lead, and direct.  Here are a few suggestions. When you are walking through the classroom does anyone appear to need your support?  If not, is there an conversation going on between children that could be a spark for a new exploration? This would be a good opportunity for you to step in and probe a little to see what their thinking is. You must tread carefully because your presence may change their play. Often times just standing close by is enough for the children to invite you in. These are golden moments. With time you learn to read cues, see all things in unison, and know how to ask good questions, key components in working in an inquiry based classroom. A child's simple story, a teacher's attentiveness and...

  When we reflect on teaching practices over the last hundred years, we recognize that, traditionally, the teacher's role has been to prepare lessons based on predetermined curriculum goals. For the most part many educational systems still function on this premise. This is not to say that there are not exceptional educational systems across the world that have broken this conventional mold. In Ontario,   The Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 , mandated child care centres to incorporate How Learning Happens, a plan with an articulate set of expectations to change the way teachers in preschool settings work with young children. Truth be told, much of the document reads like the Reggio Approach, it just finds different ways to express key principles. Here are a few examples of the key elements I found embedded in the new document that are Reggio Inspired: Respecting children as competent and capable contributors to the leaning process; Respecting that children are ci...