A recent Boston Globe article caught my eye on Monday, February 6 exploring a Harvard program that looks at how people learn. Eric Mazur, physicist, offered a lecture to his colleagues on how and why atoms move after asking the question: Does the hole in a metal plate grow, shrink or stay the same, when heated --in a microwave? How do you think a group of Harvard professors responded? They grappled with the question, yet needed more time to reflect before arriving at the correct answer. Now it’s your turn to press the pause button. Hold onto your thoughts while I share with you more about how your children’s teachers work behind the scenes.
Along with my colleague Judy Weinberg, I have the privilege of working with each of the teaching teams at Temple Beth Shalom Children's Center. As educators who take the business of interacting with, guiding, and teaching children life and learning skills very seriously we entertain key questions. My role is similar to Mazur’s. As a consultant and coach I ask the teachers open-ended and often provocative questions. At the same time I try to create a safe space to grapple with responses over time. Together, we delve into the art and craft of teaching and learning. We grapple with the wide range of unique learning styles within each classroom – our own and the children’s. I support teachers to become skilful observers, researchers, scribes, stage managers, mediators, play coaches and learning guides ask they look through the lens of each child, colleague and parent.
We call this work Reflective Practice. The Reflective Practice Cycle for each teaching team involves three steps. We first meet to discuss the team’s agenda and hone in on current important issues, times of day or areas of concern. Next we set up a time for me to observe in their classroom, follow specific children and the whole group. Afterwards we meet to discuss the observations.
In the pre-observation meeting we discuss a wide range of topics including:
What age-appropriate skills do the children need to master? Where are they now and how will we support them to be successful players, problem-solvers, negotiators, expressive artists, builders and sensitive human beings? How does the schedule of the day impact each child? How much choice and responsibility do we want the children to have? What external, predictable structures does the classroom need in order to establish and maintain healthy boundaries to create physical and emotional safety for every child to thrive?
We focus on the strengths and interests of each child. We examine the skills each child needs to enter play scenes with peers, engage deeply in new learning situations and negotiate a respectful exit from dramatic situations as s/he transitions to another activity or group of peers.
During observations I look at the
What happened today?
So, what do a group of science professors at Harvard have in common with your children’s teachers? We both understand that learning comes through asking questions, playing with different possibilities, reflecting on what we have done well and what needs work, as we problem-solve to find fresh and effective ways of doing things.
Along with my colleague Judy Weinberg, I have the privilege of working with each of the teaching teams at Temple Beth Shalom Children's Center. As educators who take the business of interacting with, guiding, and teaching children life and learning skills very seriously we entertain key questions. My role is similar to Mazur’s. As a consultant and coach I ask the teachers open-ended and often provocative questions. At the same time I try to create a safe space to grapple with responses over time. Together, we delve into the art and craft of teaching and learning. We grapple with the wide range of unique learning styles within each classroom – our own and the children’s. I support teachers to become skilful observers, researchers, scribes, stage managers, mediators, play coaches and learning guides ask they look through the lens of each child, colleague and parent.
We call this work Reflective Practice. The Reflective Practice Cycle for each teaching team involves three steps. We first meet to discuss the team’s agenda and hone in on current important issues, times of day or areas of concern. Next we set up a time for me to observe in their classroom, follow specific children and the whole group. Afterwards we meet to discuss the observations.
In the pre-observation meeting we discuss a wide range of topics including:
What age-appropriate skills do the children need to master? Where are they now and how will we support them to be successful players, problem-solvers, negotiators, expressive artists, builders and sensitive human beings? How does the schedule of the day impact each child? How much choice and responsibility do we want the children to have? What external, predictable structures does the classroom need in order to establish and maintain healthy boundaries to create physical and emotional safety for every child to thrive?
We focus on the strengths and interests of each child. We examine the skills each child needs to enter play scenes with peers, engage deeply in new learning situations and negotiate a respectful exit from dramatic situations as s/he transitions to another activity or group of peers.
During observations I look at the
- Classroom as a stage set: How the room offers structure, elements of intrigue, aesthetics and adventure; what is available to the children and also what is not available; what supports foster deeper engagement in each learning station; which visual and audio-cues provide balance for healthy individual, small group and large group activity.
- Transitions as activities: For toddlers and preschoolers the whole day functions like one big transition until pick up time, and all the little transitions in between… from the first moment at drop off time as the child separates from mom, dad or nanny, through each change to a new activity. How do you feel when you enter a room full of people or begin a new job? What makes you feel welcome, safe and willing to take on a new challenge? How do you prepare to make a change?
- Children as unique human beings in their on-going relationships with peers, adults or materials: as children struggle to succeed in mastering their environment, and relationships, they often show signs of vulnerability and sometimes regress in one area of development before leaping to a new level of mastery. Through different ways of ‘seeing’ we can offer a new perspective on and respect for the dynamics for each child. The way we support one child can and does impact how we support all the children.
- What is working and what needs work? Overall, the dynamics in each classroom emerge from how closely expectations for each of the activities matches the children’s development. The challenge for each teaching team is to find that delicate balance between meeting the individual needs of each child while addressing the needs of the whole group and vice versa.
What happened today?
- When adults provide consistent, clear structure all through the day, then children know who is taking care of them, what is happening next and in addition they will demonstrate their competence with varying ability and vulnerability, across all developmental domains.
- The teachers and I reflect on careful documentation of each child’s engagement in classroom learning stations with peers, on their own and with adults. We explore which strategies and what scripts best support the growth of basic life skills including: self-regulation, perspective taking, communicating, making connections and thinking critically, taking on challenges, making mistakes and learning from them, and ultimately engaging in meaningful, self-directed learning and work. With much respect and love, we find the most fitting way to allow every child a chance to demonstrate his/her success.
- Teaching teams invite children to preview what will happen next, be fully present as they do an activity and then take time to review what happened. We all learn by doing. Through practice children master new skills and make them their own.
So, what do a group of science professors at Harvard have in common with your children’s teachers? We both understand that learning comes through asking questions, playing with different possibilities, reflecting on what we have done well and what needs work, as we problem-solve to find fresh and effective ways of doing things.
Mazur continued challenge his colleagues to grapple with the original question of how heat impacts a metal with a hole or what do you do to open a jar when it is stuck? So he asked them to stand up and form a circle…something we ask children to do in preschool all the time. Then he invited them to move their body in response to someone they didn’t want to be with, so they made the circle wider…. Yes, that’s it! The professors experienced the principle of expansion and understood how atoms move in response to heat. They engaged in Reflective Practice, a process of learning together.
Sherry Grossman, Developmental Educator, Gateways: Access to Jewish Education
Sherry Grossman is a developmental educator who works with our director and faculty. As the Community Special Education Services Director for Gateways: Access to Jewish Education since July, 2009, Sherry consults, coaches, provides professional development and grants management to area early learning centers, congregation and community schools.
Sherry’s career spans generations. In 1988 she founded Gan Yeladim Children's Garden, Newton, MA for the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston (JCCGB) and served as the first Director of the JCCGB Early Learning Centers forging new directions bringing the early learning center programs into the 21st century. She earned her B.A. in Developmental Psychology from Simmons College, a M.Ed. from Tufts Eliot Pearson School of Child Study, and MAJS from Hebrew College. In private practice, Sherry supports positive lasting changes for individuals and families as a certified professional co-active coach [CPCC] and recently became a trained Health Rhythms Facilitator. She is the proud mother of two grown sons and one granddaughter! Feel free to contact her directly with your questions, ideas or concerns via sherry@jgateways.org or 617-630-9010x108 or sherrygcoach@gmail.com
Sherry Grossman, Developmental Educator, Gateways: Access to Jewish Education
Sherry Grossman is a developmental educator who works with our director and faculty. As the Community Special Education Services Director for Gateways: Access to Jewish Education since July, 2009, Sherry consults, coaches, provides professional development and grants management to area early learning centers, congregation and community schools.
Sherry’s career spans generations. In 1988 she founded Gan Yeladim Children's Garden, Newton, MA for the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston (JCCGB) and served as the first Director of the JCCGB Early Learning Centers forging new directions bringing the early learning center programs into the 21st century. She earned her B.A. in Developmental Psychology from Simmons College, a M.Ed. from Tufts Eliot Pearson School of Child Study, and MAJS from Hebrew College. In private practice, Sherry supports positive lasting changes for individuals and families as a certified professional co-active coach [CPCC] and recently became a trained Health Rhythms Facilitator. She is the proud mother of two grown sons and one granddaughter! Feel free to contact her directly with your questions, ideas or concerns via sherry@jgateways.org or 617-630-9010x108 or sherrygcoach@gmail.com
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