Learning Conversations

My youngest one is starting Kindergarten this Fall and on Friday, we attended a PALS (Parents As Learning Supporters) session at his new school. I love that the school is bringing in parents/guardians to see what kids will be doing in their classrooms and talking about the approach to learning – that we shouldn’t expect a highly academic focus, that children this age learn best by learning through play!

There will be four session in the PALS series – this first one was focused around the alphabet. We used stamps to make name tags, then stamp whatever words the children wanted. We made letters out of playdough. We played a matching game of upper case to lower case letters. And then we used “fishing rods” (with magnets at the end) to pick up “fish” (letters/pictures with paper clips on them). My son loved it all!

Then the children were ushered off to the community kitchen while the adults got a short lesson on preparing children for Kindergarten and the importance of reading. The speaker told us about making a point of talking about the parts of a book, of pointing out the title page, and of showing that we read left to right, starting on the left page. We heard about the importance of letting kids see us reading and having books in the house, so that they know that it’s a valued activity in our lives. And that, no matter what the language at home, just keep reading aloud to our children so that they are exposed to the rhythms, vocabulary and ideas that come from a variety of books. All wonderful stuff!

And then the speaker started talking about the importance of limiting “screen time” for our children – that good old fashioned books are critical for children…

I bit my tongue – didn’t want to be “that” parent on the first day, I guess!

But as I reflected on the morning’s experience, I put together some feedback via email to the Principal of the school (who I know quite well). I thought about learning through play and the role of technology in a primary classroom.

I completely agree with the importance of reading and also believe there needs to be a balance of appropriate screen time. But a recent post from Will Richardson got me thinking about what “balance” really means – particularly that balance isn’t about excluding technology…

It made me thing about the fact that, to this generation, “play” includes technology – and it should, because it is an important part of being a literate citizen. My children are not literate if they do not know how to read, write, communicate AND search for/assess the validity of information. That means that comfort with technology is just as important as comfort with writing instruments or any number of other tools that we equip our kids to use.

My point, to make a long story short, is that I believe it’s important to start shifting our attitudes to include technology as a part of play and learning, right from the beginning. Penny Lindballe tells the story of lingering societal prejudices against technology well in this post – it’s worth a read too!

There’s a reason we don’t wait until middle school to introduce a pencil, isn’t there? Time to treat technology the same way…

Having been a project manager for many years, I’ve long believed in and experienced the power of diverse-group decision making.

Inevitably, teams of people, each bringing their unique perspectives to the table, come up with better, more complete, more creative and more successful solutions.

Here’s a video from YouTube that talks about this phenomenon:

In the educational realm, I think everyone has been off trying to come up with solutions by themselves – educators, administrators, District management, Government Ministries.

Why is it that we don’t talk to each other as much as we could? From the outside, I get the sense that there’s a bit of that “leave it to the professionals” attitude.

Is it too much effort to try to coordinate schedules? Are we worried that it takes too much effort to include people uninvolved in the day-to-day operations of our schools? And then they can’t add value anyways? After all, what do parents know about what it takes to run a school? Or a District? And what do students know about what they really need from education?

And it’s hard to have completely open conversations and doors – because that might expose your weaknesses, or open things up for criticism. We are, often by nature, defensive – we want to put our best foot forward, not parade our challenges and weaknesses out for all to see! Do we really want the world to know that we don’t know how to solve a problem? Doesn’t everyone expect the “experts” to have all the answers? And really, doesn’t everyone have enough to do without opening another can of worms by asking people their opinion??

But are we sure that external partners don’t add value? Why would we think that kids are incapable of contributing to solutions about their own education? Another quote from Starbucks is that “the person who sweeps the floor should pick the broom!”

How much effort is it worth to come up with solutions that work? What if we had increased odds of finding successful ideas that everyone is invested in and working together on?

What if it resulted in kids engaged in their own learning? What if they were excited to come to school – to learn and create and work together?

What if parents felt involved and knowledgeable about what was going on in classrooms? What if they were passionate about supporting their children’s teachers? What if they could support and reinforce at home what their kids are learning in school?

What if teachers felt trusted and safe to make mistakes in their own learning and change efforts? What if they felt supported and valued by the parents instead of judged and attacked? What if they already had relationships with all the parents in their class and could easily call one up to discuss their child’s learning – without it feeling like “cold calling” someone you don’t even know (and who doesn’t want to hear from you!)?

What if Principals had time to build the team and the learning community relationships instead of being overwhelmed by the myriad of administrative tasks that swamp their days? What if they could do the same thing that they used to do with their classrooms (encourage, support each child’s learning, coach, bring out the best in everyone)?

How much more powerful would that make our education system?

And, as a result, how would that change education (having something taught TO you) into learning (participating in the learning process and learning WITH you)?

The way I see it, we can keep complaining about how the Government just doesn’t get the whole picture.

We can complain about how they just don’t understand that you can’t measure successful education using standardized tests.

We can gripe about how the teacher’s not helping MY child and nobody cares.

We can shake our heads at all the parents who never even come to parent-teacher interviews.

We can work all hours just trying to get all the forms filled out, the lockers assigned, the reports completed, the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed.

Or we can choose another way and actually TALK TO EACH OTHER!  BUILD RELATIONSHIPS!  COLLABORATE! AND LISTEN TO EACH OTHER!

It takes more effort, but isn’t it worth it?
For them?

I came across a guest post on the SocialMediaMom blog by Jonathon Fields - talking about how his daughter’s interest in Twitter inspired him to ponder “what if there were a secret internet for kids?”

He writes:

“The whole experience makes me wonder how powerful it might be to have a twitter that was devoted exclusively to fostering conversation among kids around the world in a safe, monitored environment.

Imagine the impact.

Millions of kids, forming impressions, bonds and experiences not through information filtered and colored by the grown-ups who provide access, but rather by their own, direct experience. Imagine them simply having the ability to invite friends from all over the world to hang out and chat. To ask questions about life, relationships, values or even simple daily activities.

To me, if there is a killer application for social media, it doesn’t lie in the realm of grown-ups. It’s not about business or marketing or content-sharing. It’s in the opportunity to allow kids from radically different cultures around the world to connect, to form their own opinions and break down barriers that have created artificial separations for decades or even centuries.

How different, I wonder, might the next generation be if we could foster such an experience?”

That’s some pretty powerful stuff to imagine, isn’t it? It’s easy to poke holes in the idea – like how would make sure only kids can sign up (not predators pretending to be nine years old!), or how would we make sure they weren’t bullying each other and the experiences were positive?

But I’m more interested in how we COULD make this work?

Could we learn something from Zoey’s Room? They’ve figured out a process of verifying who you are (which is why only American’s can sign up there – they don’t have access to the same verification methods for Canadians, so we’re just not allowed).

Or what about the amazing work that NotSchool.net has done? They’ve found ways of empowering the teenagers – including them in hiring of staff and much more!

What would you do to create a safe, open environment for kids to share and learn?