What if we just let them play?

 What if we just let them play?

That's it. That's my blog post this week. 

What if we let them play, and we were there to encourage? To nudge? To take advantage of small moments to guide them, but not to teach them? What would happen?

What if we just let them play?

This is the question I keep coming back to, time after time...

What if we just let them play?

Comparison *IS* the thief of joy: Stop sabotaging your happiness!

Smiling before the race- these two are rock star teachers and runners, btw!

I ran in a "real" race last Sunday. The first one since the pandemic hit. I've run in virtual races, and I've done some fun runs with my running besties, but this was the first official race running with people I didn't know. It was cold, and when I woke up my first thought was, "What the hell are you doing?" But I am so glad I ran! 

After I hurt my knee in 2019, I spent some time in physiotherapy. Once I started running again, I had a goal to always be 10K ready. That means that, if there was a 10K I wanted to run in, I could sign up at the last minute and be fine. I don't want to train anymore. I want to run because I like running. I want to run because it is fun. I am over the competitive aspects of running. And that's where I am going with this post.

Here's the thing- I could look at that race from two different perspectives. The first one- I was the first place finisher in my division (and I was)! The second perspective- I finished second to last of all competitors (and I did)! Both of these statements are true, but my reaction depends on what I choose to focus on. And, I choose to focus on the fact that I ran 10K in the cold, while most people were at home in their lounge wear. I ran my own race. I didn't worry about where I was, or who was ahead of me or behind me. And, I finished with a fairly decent, for me, time. 

End of the race- still smiling!

In the past, I would have tried to keep up with the pack, I would have worried about whether or not people thought I was a good runner, I would have worried about my pace. But now? Now I love to know I can run 10K whenever I want, and I can put it in cruise control and enjoy the view. What's the point of running if you can't have fun, right? Instead of comparing myself to the others in the run (who were all younger than me, by a few years), I focused on what I could control, what I could do.

I think about this in relation to other areas of life. As the saying goes, "Comparison is the thief of joy"- and it is true. How many times do we feel like we are doing the best job, that we are focused on being the best teacher we can be, only to feel deflated because someone goes even more over and above than you do? I admit I do feel that way sometimes. But what we should be doing instead is recognizing the work we are doing. Recognizing that we are doing the best we can. 

So, the next time you start to compare yourself to someone else, ask yourself, "Why?" And answer that honestly. Don't let someone else's success steal the joy from your own success. We really aren't in a competition, unless it's a competition of 1- a competition of bettering *you* because you want to.

After the race- still smiling!

Keep running, keep smiling, keep on doing your thing- because you are good enough!

 

Echo In The Canyon and What It Teaches About 21 Century Learning

Those who know me, know I have a slight obsession with music documentaries. From 20 Feet from Stardom to Clive Davis: These Are The Songs Of Our Lives, to Echo in the Canyon. Today, I want to talk about Echo in the Canyon and what we can learn about 21st Century learning from 1960 rock music.

Echo is about Laurel Canyon and the community influence on the explosion of music in the 60s. At the beginning of the doc, Jakob Dylan (Bob Dylan's son and former Wallflower and successful artist in his own right) is interviewing some of the influential music makers of that time. All of them talk about how, everyone living so closely, all having like minds, sharing and collaborating, made for some of the best music. And not just the best music of the day, but music that has lasted over time. The Beach Boys, The Mama's and the Papa's, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Jackson Browne, all of the individual artists that came out of these groups, and more. Even the Beatles were a part of it, and were heavily influenced by The Byrds and The Beach Boys.

Their legacy shows us this: Music is more than sounds, more than entertainment. Music teaches us, influences our thinking, and the process of creating music, good music, can't be reduced to a mere check list or data program. Good music is a product of communication, of collaboration, of creativity, and of critical thinking. All of the markers of 21 Century Learning. 

Do we ever notice this in our classrooms? Do we notice how a group discussion can grow from a simple thought into a fully developed idea because more and more people add their thinking? Have you ever watched a group of students in pretend play build a whole world based on a simple box? It's the creativity and the creative flow that happens between 2 or more people that grow it and embellish it. While that can happen alone, but it becomes a fuller version when you add others' thoughts into the mix.

I think of students playing in the block area. One may begin building a simple structure, but soon another joins in and adds their idea. The structure becomes complex, more complex than if they were both playing alone. Once we add other children to the mix, we begin to discuss how we can make that bridge work, how tall can we grow that building without it falling over. We practice, we fail, we build again. We think about the laws of physics in a critical way, and before you know it, we understand the importance of all those teach us. We may not have the fancy words or explanations, but we have the experiences. And those experiences are the foundation for our learning- not just in blocks, but in many other areas. Vygotsky would call this "scaffolding". That, "learning occurs through purposeful, meaningful interactions with others." 

All of these are interconnected, these ideas of critical thinking, of collaborating, of communicating, and creativity. While they can work in isolation, they are at their best when they are together. I think we need to realize this, and remember this. We can't teach them as subjects, they must be infused in all we do. Learning is a social endeavour, and humans are social beings. We cannot live, nor can we learn, in isolation. If we want society to be the best, the fullest, it can be, we must work together, and we must allow our students to work together. I know that in the age of Covid and social distancing this is difficult. But, wherever possible, we need to be thoughtful and creative ourselves and find ways to provide this type of environment.

I'm going to add a 5th C- one that is interspersed through all of the 4 C's: Community. When we put all of the 4 C's together, we get Community. and when one of the 4 C's breaks down, our community breaks down. What happened to the music of Laurel Canyon? What happens to everything eventually, there was a breakdown in the Community. We spend much time in Kindergarten creating community. Community is the heart of what we do, and without it, we cannot raise competent children. 

I realize the "hot topic" in education at this very moment is face to face learning vs. online learning. Everyone agrees that face to face is best, but what if "face to face" means we are all sanctioned off in our own spaces, never touching another student? Can we do all of what we are talking about in that type of situation? I have seen that we can, but it isn't easy. Can we do this with virtual learning? I have seen what some have done, so yes, but, again, it isn't easy. But "hard" never stands in the way of quality teaching, and if there is anything we've learned over the last year, we can do hard things- we were meant to do hard things! 

Some of the best music was written in community. People living and working together, sharing ideas, letting others influence them. How can we take this lesson and apply it to our lives and our classrooms today? Don't make the mistake that, because we must be apart, that we still can't be together. Building community is more than an idea today, it is a necessity. And the longer we have to deal with this pandemic, the more important it becomes.

Resources used:

Vanity Fair: Oral History of Laurel Canyon

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding