June 2020
Everyone Gets a Front Seat
Teaching and learning in our Early Childhood Center are always informed by best practice and by what we know about how young children develop.
Whether in the classroom at 20 Academy Road or in our own homes, constraints in the environment sometimes limit our ability to provide the best for every child. For instance, a teacher may be reading a high-quality book, with many literacy lessons embedded. As she reads and shows the pictures and asks appropriate questions, there is usually a cacophony of “I can’t see,” “Show me the picture,” “I didn’t hear.” I have considered this scene often as I join our students in their Zoom classes. Everyone can see the picture clearly; everyone can hear the teacher’s voice (thanks to the mute buttons). When the teacher asks a question, she can literally spotlight the student who wants to speak and share her ideas.
As one teacher shared, “Everyone gets a front seat!”
Although our current situation is not what we would have hoped for, it has certainly given us new ways to honor children and their learning. Every human being wants and needs to be heard and seen and valued. The intimacy of the face-time calls and virtual meetings has given teachers a new way to assure that each student is heard and seen and valued.
When children are in the classroom, teachers are charged with looking for evidence of learning. Teachers’ observations of children in their play allow them to measure the transfer of learning and understanding. As we see children applying the lessons we have taught to their work, it serves as an indication that they have internalized the knowledge and made it their own.
While we are engaged in distance learning and bringing families into our greater classrooms, we have had more of a chance to see the evidence of learning in new ways. Teachers have been presenting challenges — mix blue and yellow together, trace your shadow outside, or find a cozy place in your house to calm down. In turn, through sharing photos and videos and bringing objects to Zoom classes, teachers have gotten more immediate evidence of learning and integration of knowledge.
As a school, we look forward to having more time to reflect on this experience and see how we will be able to use the lessons we have learned and integrate that knowledge into our teaching as we continue to move forward in the virtual domain, as well as back at 20 Academy Road as soon as possible.
Every child deserves a “Front Seat,” and we are honored and humbled to be the people who provide that seat.
