Number Agents: Holiday Readings

During the holidays I have been following two blogs which are Number Agents and Longworth Education. These posts have been extremely thought provoking regarding the education of our five and six-year-olds in New Zealand. 

Since joining the Primary sector I have begun to really question what value is the quality of work that is expected from teachers to teach our young tamariki. I have experienced huge amounts of testing and pressure put onto tamariki and things are being asked of them that developmentally they are just not ready for. Asking them to provide writing samples, math samples and reading samples that just put undue pressure on them.

I worry what impact this has so early on in their school learning journey, is this turning them off learning and coming to school and how does it effect their mental health. I am seeing stressed tamariki and then I begin to feel stressed which I believe is counterproductive. From my observations tamariki in my class are most open to learning and new experiences when they are happy, feeling secure and supported and engaged in play-based activities. This is when I see great learning happening. Play Based develops social skills, provides leadership opportunities, teamwork, problem-solving and huge oral language development to name a few. I have now spent over a year and a half in Room One and was guided by another Junior School Teacher when I arrived, she too could see that as the curriculum was it just was not working for our young learners. I struggle with the idea of 'School Wide' termly topics and feel new entrants would be more engaged in interest-based learning, things that were more relevant to them.

I also believe planning is restricting learning, having to learn to timetables and missing out on teachable moments and where they might take us, and what investigations could have been made. All the reading I have done in the holidays say that planning and play-based don't mix its like to trying to mix oil and water!  I have begun looking at new ways to plan and track and hope to try some new strategies throughout the year.

This year I am going to make a stand, I am going to follow what my gut is saying, I am going to keep worksheets to a minimum and hopefully stop them altogether Through observations I am going to decide when tamariki are ready to read and write. I am going to stand up for my tamariki and be ready to articulate my beliefs if I am challenged.

I know I am only starting on the Play based journey and will take small steps to develop and refine my teaching practice, but I know what my class needs and will strive to give them what they deserve. 

Through futher reading on the Number Agents blog I have discovered planning using a 'Mind Map' format. This really appeals to me and I can see it being a lot more authentic and useable. I think for me for planning to be a successful tool it needs to be fluid and adaptable and something that grows with the interests and progress of the tamariki in my class. I am going to trial it for a couple of weeks and have a discussion with Aimee about it. I have complete my first one for week one and enjoyed the process and feel it better reflects the learning and tamariki interests in my class. I will also beable to track individual tamariki better, bringing their interests forward into the following week and plan my provocations better. 10.2.19