This afternoon, one of my partners was the lead teacher as we took students through a Reggio-inspired provocation. Photos of interesting scenes encompassing a variety of topics and social issues, such as ecology, poverty, and the third world were distributed.  Students wandered around to pictures and discussed them, as well as the “wonders” they might have.  Meanwhile, the teachers circulated and documented the conversations and wonders that students expressed.  We then came together and discussed them as a group.

This style of inquiry was at first difficult for me to wrap my head around.  Was my job really just to record and document?  What if the conversations were shallow and did not elicit the depth we were hoping for?  How could I give up control of the process and big questions?  Would it work?

In the end, what I discovered was that, yes the students did mostly reach the depth of thinking we had hoped for. Indeed, we are now off on our way to a new inquiry question and topic and students simply came to it in a different way.  In most of the inquiry I do, the students are challenged with figuring out the principles that are already known to the adults. However, with this more open inquiry, the direction was less known.  As they continued to talk to each other they got to the places we wanted them to get to and it was all theirs.

Today I learned a little more about trusting students.

Chris Southworth (@atticasam) is an ADE, Learning Leader at Cranston School and Star Trek fan who has a passion for Wrath of Kahn.

This was the first full day of kindergarten for my students. Students walked through my doors in the morning wearing their emotions upon their faces. Some looked worried or anxious but for the most part my new students entered school looking hopeful. Their eyes wide, they exclaimed joyfully and without reservation at every new discovery in their classroom. They wanted to touch things, to physically get their hands on everything around them. I had so much information I had planned to share with them; expectations, rules, guidelines, all stuff these students will eventually need to know but instead we spent the bulk of our day following their joy.  They will have many elementary years learning to sit criss-cross applesauce so today we jumped up when we were excited. They will soon learn to listen and give their friends a chance to speak but today we talked over each other in our excitement. Later on the importance of cleaning up after ourselves will be stressed but today we dug our hands into some homemade playdough with glee, we mixed colours with abandon and we didn’t even wash the food dye off our finger tips. Yes, their ABCs and 123s are important, but so to, is their joy. My students walked in with hope and they left with joy. Today I learned that joy will be my professional goal in kindergarten, both for myself and for every student in my care.

Katrina Watson (@busybeakers) kindergarten teacher, science lover, momma extraordinaire, artist, cyclist, eater of good foods and thinker of happy thoughts.

What I learned in School Today

A lifelong learner never stops learning.  As a teacher I have learned many lessons.  Among them, this is  some of my most cherished learning:

• relationships are the backbone to almost everything that matters in school
  
•  all students learn on a continuum; teaching is now translated to that continuum
• assessment is a guiding principle to give me direction in my work
• what I do matters and makes a difference in the world
• having a big picture idea will benefit everyone
• start everything with the end in mind
• to do a little thing is not a little thing - make a difference in your teaching by going the extra mile
• students need positive learning models; most teachers excel at that
  
• the talents of individuals and the possibilities of success should never be underestimated
• teaching and risk taking work together and will benefit schools with major impact
• students will achieve when you raise the bar just high enough and support them; students  want a challenge for the most part
• school leadership is only as strong as the follower-ship that embraces it

While some of these may seem “rose-colored” in nature, it would serve us well to always be open to growth and change to meet, and exceed our potential.  The same holds true for the students whose lives we impact.  There must be joy and passion in our work with students.

Kevin Bauer has been a teacher for 33 yrs. Working in provinces and Europe, he has taught Pre-K to College. Currently, Kevin is a principal of an elementary school.