Classroom that reflects bicultural practice

In the PL meeting today, we watched this video on the importance of bicultural practice in Aotearoa school by Janelle Riki-Waaka.

Watching this video really inspired me and made me think about what I do as a teacher to ensure that there is bicultural practice in my classroom, and how much I value and use tikanga and te reo Māori.
In the video, she asks "How would I know that I am in school in Aotearoa?"

Interestingly, I was thinking and reflecting about new Maori children visiting my classroom this morning with their mum. They were participating in our morning at time where I sang many Māori songs and did some dances as usual. I was thinking how the mother felt listening to the songs and watching our children really enjoyed singing and dancing to our kapahaka song. For me, as a teacher, I want to make sure that I create a learning environment that respects and value our Māori heritage by practicing it. On our wall, it is obvious to know that this classroom reflects the biculturalism as our wall display include many Māori words/phrases, and children have understanding of what these represent and the importance of it.

Our children know the school whakatauki "Stand tall, Reach high, Tū tangata, Tū māia", and its meaning and significant linking to the beautiful redwood tree at school. Our children are learning about their pepeha and some of them introduce themselves confidently.

Our children are familiar with ngā ātua Māori, and love listening to 'In the beginning' stories. They have great curiosity in Maori legends' stories and have great understanding of Maui.

I use te reo Māori as much as possible in my class, but I think there is room to strengthen my te reo as well.

Reflecting on this video, what Janelle discusses has really inspired me and really encouraged me to think more reflectively on my bicultural practice and move further within my practice.

I will keep working on an increased use of te reo in my class, introducing new waiata to the children, read te reo Maori books (which our children really enjoy especially the books written by Peter Gossage), and adding more sentences for our pepeha.

Changing the learning environment

Throughout teaching in ECE settings, we have always said that the environment is the third teacher. I have always believed in this statement as I know how important our learning environment is for our children.

It is so important to set up our environment so that it is inviting for our children. I want the children to feel that they are comfortable in the environment and that they want to play and explore with the materials and resources that are set up in the classroom.

During the term 1, I really struggled with the fact that we did not really have an inviting reading area. Due to the limited space, I placed some books on top of the puzzle shelf. I never really saw children reading or looking through books, so I would display a couple of books in a basket so it would look a little more inviting, and this seemed to work as I saw a couple of children reading or looking through the books.

I thought that this really needed to be changed as I felt that it was really important for me and the children to have a reading corner.

With the help of our school care taker, I was able to make some space in the corner of the classroom. The bookshelf that we have is a little hard to use for our small children, but it still looks inviting. I placed a couch in front of it as well so they can sit and read books there.

I also wanted this place to be a calm area where children can come and have their own space. It is important to create a space where their privacy is respected, but also at the same time the children know how to manage themselves in this area as it can be hard to see when I am at the jellybean table teaching a group of children.
I placed a doll house with new dolls in this area too.

As we came back in Term 2, some girls were immediately drawn to this area and really enjoy spending time here. I saw our teaching assistant spending time with some children reading, and many children love this area to play with dolls in the doll house, or little teddy bears that I got recently.

I would like to place a mat on the floor for comfort and possibly put some cushions around so that it can be comfortable for the children.

I feel that this change of the environment was quite successful as I see children utilise this area much more than before. I will provide a mat and some cushions in this area to see if that changes anything. I hope to see more children engaged in reading as well.

Since the last post about settling a child into the class

Since the last post about the child struggling to settle into the class, I am happy to say that he has transformed himself. It is almost like he is a different child now. He loves to come to school with a smile on his face and actually does not want to leave the class in the end of the day.

On the last day of the term, we sadly did not have an assembly, but I gave him a toolkit award for his developing independency, being able to manage himself in the classroom, and making friends.

During the term 1, I have developed some strategies to support him.

The first thing was it was important that his mum does not stay too long in the classroom so that it does not give him too much anticipation for him. When mum come to drop him off in the class, she says a simple goodbye, and a hug, and tells him that she will be back. Although he used to cry when mum left, but it did not take much time at all for him to engage in something.

I have made a book for him to take home. The book was consisted of things that he was doing at school. I had photos of him and simple sentences of what he was doing. I had one in the classroom so that he could have a look whenever he wanted.

With another teacher's suggestion, he brought a soft toy of a panda bear everyday. It was important that first he develops a sense of belonging in the classroom. When there is no sense of safety or security, children do not learn. I asked if he wanted to bring a small soft toy or something that belonged to his mum, he chose his item of the panda bear. It was really nice to see the panda bear always sitting next to him giving him emotional support everywhere.

One of the things that he struggled was coping during morning and lunch break. It must have been quite an overwhelming experience as a number of children play in the playground and the court. I made a chart of duty teachers as he kept asking who would be the duty teacher for a break/lunch break. I could see that he was worried about it so having a visual chart helped him cope with his anxiety and calm him down a little bit. He would hang out with a duty teacher rather than children, and it took a while until he made his own friends and started to play together. Thanks to all the children who have supported him settle into the classroom, it encouraged him to develop really good friendships with his friends.

When he first started, he would use words like "I can't do it", "I want you to stay here."  It seemed like he wanted all my attention, and he felt just uncomfortable or not able manage his feelings when he was doing thins on his own. I would tell him that I need to spend time with other children too, so I would come back in 5 minutes and have a look at what he is doing.

Now, he is able to work individually, and he spends a lot of time on a task that he was given to achieve high standard work.

A lot of efforts went into making such big changes in his life. Lots of practices of many things like coming to school, sitting on a mat, playing together, managing his belongings, working together, getting to know other people in the classroom, and trying something new.

I am so happy that he is now settled into the class, and I hope that he can support new children coming into our class next term.
We often talk about how it felt on the first day of school, we might feel scared, nervous, or shy, excited....whatever we felt, it is ok to feel that way, and we are all here to be kind and support each other.

What is resilience? and How to develop resilience in children...

My recent teaching experiences in supporting a child transition into the class has made me think about why some children have resilience and others might not and how the resilience can be developed in children.

I have been supporting a child and his mum in the transition to the class. The child has never been to early childhood centre so this has been very challenging for the child as well as the mother who has not separated from the child for a long period of time.

First step was for the child and his mum to know that this is a safe place. It is important that the child develops a sense of belonging in the class so that the child can learn. To do this, it was significantly vital that I develop a secure relationship with him and his mum.
I have made a book about coming to school which included what he could do at school, who was there to help him, and routines of the day.

Te Whāriki (New Zealand Early Childhood curriculum) talks about the importance of the link between the home and the centre (school), so I talked to his mum about him bringing something that can comfort him, this could be mum's scarf, teddy bears, or something to snuggle with.

A part of the Well-Being strand from Te Whāriki discusses the development of confidence in independency, and positive attitude towards self-help/self care skills, and without feeling safe and comfortable, children will find it very hard to manage themselves.

I have been buddying him up with his friend to go to the toilet, and letting him know about what will happen today at morning tea/lunch break as I have found that the routine changes can upset him.


I have read the article called "Building resilience in children" by Beyond Blue Organisation, and collected some ideas about how to support the child and his family.

What is resilience?
Beyond blue defines reliance as "managing and responding to emotions in a healthy way".

Talking about feelings and children able to articulate those feelings are important.
-Ask open ended questions.

•  "What's the best thing that happened today?"
• "What was the toughest thing....?"

-Talking about feelings and acknowledging those feelings 

• "I can see you are upset/sad."
• "It is ok to cry." 

Children need to be able to identify their emotions. 

-Regulating their emotions

• Putting in words to how others are feeling 
• Develop healthy thinking habits (positive self-talk, self-compassion, sense of optimism, positive attitude). 

*Beyond Blue defines "healthy thinking habits" as "looking at the world in a balanced way". 

Healthy thinking teachers children to know how their thoughts affect problems and feeling in everyday life. 

Since reading this article, I have changed the rest time routine to a meditation session where positive talks are encouraged. We sit together in a circle and meditate. We listen to the music and clam ourselves down.
We then talk to ourselves positively. Words we use are "I can do it." "I keep trying." "I am giving it a go." I use examples of what I saw that day where a child was trying or giving something a go. I talk about how we can solve a challenging situation when we feel frustrated or feel like a negative thought was in our heads.

We have recently incorporated some yoga poses into the meditation session too. The children really enjoy this.

2 weeks has passed since the child has started the transition to school, and the progress that this child has made is astonishing, and it is all about practicing, getting used to the routines, having the strategies to cope with some challenging situations, and most importantly developing a secure relationship with the child and his mum. It is amazing to see the change in him. No more tears in the morning!!!

Mindfulness

I have been trying something different after the lunch play time. We have always done resting after lunch as children come back into the classroom after their big play.

Last week, some children saw a photo of a child meditating and they pretended to meditate. Then, I thought maybe we could do a meditating session in the classroom.

So one day last week, I put on a piece of meditation music, and sat on the floor with my hands on my knees just like the photo they saw. Before I even say what we were going to do, one boy called out and said "Meditating!"
We sat in a circle and stayed silent. We listened to the music.

I talked about feeling quiet inside us, and relaxing our body. We talked about seeing ourselves in a positive lens. We say to ourselves "I can do it." "I keep trying." "I am giving it a go." 

I talked about a situation that I saw that day in the swimming session where a boy said "I can do it!" after trying so long to achieve his trick. 

In order to develop children's resilience, they need to view themselves in a positive way. When something is challenging or difficult, it is important to keep trying and perhaps try in a different way. We can take a break and come back to it so we can see things so it might give a different perception. 

After our meditation, we moved on to a writing session, and I felt that the children showed great focus and worked very hard. I wondered if meditation had something to do with it!? 

Trying a different approach to writing

I have often wondered how I could make the writing process for the children more fun and engaging. Often, when children come to write, they struggle with coming up with experiences or ideas that they would like to draw and write.

I have come across this amazing teacher's blog called Number Agents by Leslee Allen, and read her writing sessions with children, Storytelling-A way into writing and Exploring greater depth in writing, and I have really enjoyed reading both of them and it really resonated with my teaching through play philosophy.

The next day in the writing session, I sed Leslee's ideas of storytelling and told the story of a princess. The children were very captured by the story and were really interested. As I drew one picture, I told a story, then another picture along with another story. I talked about how the story had the beginning, middle and end. I gave the children their writing books and talked about where the pictures go. After that, the children were on their own creating their own stories.

After they drew the pictures of their stories, I asked them to come and tell me their stories. It was just amazing to hear so many wonderful creative stories. I really enjoyed this process. For some children, I wrote the story for them, and for others I encouraged them to write the story on the next page. They are familiar with this idea. One of the children naturally just wrote a story before I even asked him to write!
It was great to see some children who are not used to work independently work on their own and tried to work through this. When they brought the book to me, I could very much see their logics of writing.
Leslee talks about the pressure that children feel at a writing session, and I felt that this session worked really well because children were not pressured to do something that they were not able to do. Like she says, children were allowed leave the session if they wanted to, but because there is no resistance to leave, they stayed much longer than I thought they would have.
I like the idea about how this was developmentally appropriate. I know it was and it needs to be, so that I can support the needs of the children appropriately.
Most importantly it was so much fun. In the end of the block after their play, each child shared their story with each other, and this was amazingly wonderful. I loved the focus that children had on listening to their friends' stories.

With our focus this year being writing and using digital technology to support children's writing, I was wondering how I could do this. Can I use the Ipad as a tool to tell a story? or to use it as a tool to give us ideas to write stories? (silent cartoons), Can children use Ipad to take photos and write stories? Something to think about for my inquiry.

I will keep using this storytelling idea for writing, this term and see how it will go. It is also important to think about how I can support children during this process.

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