NZ Teacher

Bev Bos coined this phrase: The child is the curriculum. That really defines child-centered teaching & learning. We learn so much about our children when we interact with them and let them choose what they want to do in the classroom.  I like to define "curriculum" as 'everything that happens in the classroom'.  "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation"  - Plato  from   http://www.playcounts.com/

Curriculum  is the work of teachers.   We need to know what to teach & what to look for in our children’s learning. Teachers know the curriculum. Children know how to play. Play is the work of children – play is how they learn. Curriculum is the work of teachers. What if there was no curriculum? BTW: This was my classroom in 2014. Since then I have learned that too much clutter is distracting for the children. 

The children are always surprising us by doing something unexpected with the materials in the classroom. Who would have thought to make the letter P with the recycled drink bottles and toilet paper rolls? Who would have thought to make shapes with the marker pens?  Learning happens in a classroom where different objects are available for the children to use in a creative way. 

How can we ask the question "How many?" in an authentic context? There are tons of times during the day that children count how many, without the teacher needing to ask, "How many?" One of the 'not so authentic' times I use the question is at the beginning of the day, during our whole class meeting, when the leader points to the words and we read together "Today is Monday" and then "How many...are there?" It was gumballs (previously the chart was a gumball machine, before I went for the plain blue). I found some ducks with velcro on the back of them and it became "How many duck are there?". We say it with some rhythm which worked better when it was gumball.  In the picture you'll see that someone has matched the yellow ducks onto the yellow gumballs.  As a class, we talked about there being 5 ducks and 2 hens. There are also 3 more red gumballs. From focusing on this the children may see the different ways to make 1...

That's a lot of strips. I looks like more than 5 to me. Can I count them to find out how many there are? I'd like the children in my class to feel that we are learning together. I don't want to spend time asking them questions that sound like I am assessing them.  Questions like:  How many?  Show me one more?  Can you hold up 3 fingers?  The question "Can you hold up 3 fingers for me?" is one that makes me cringe. Why would a child want to do that? Would they want to do that to please the teacher (for me). It's not showing that we are learning together.  There are questions we can ask which are more collaborative. Instead of: Can you count the apples? I prefer to ask something like: Do we have enough apples for everyone? (in a group of 5 or 6). I think there are 5 triangles. Am I right? Let's find out. I think you've got more than me? Let's see if we can make the train tracks go all the way to the door. I wonder if we'll hav...

It's always there.  It's always available.  It's a popular part of the classroom. The art table is kept stocked with pens, scissors, glue sticks, sticky table, stapler and of course...tons of paper. Paper of different sizes, shapes and color. We add anything else we find that might be interesting for a child to use for an art project. When a child has finished their project they decide what they would like to do with it - take it home, display it on the wall, or give it to me, the teacher. There is always something going on at the art table. Something new, something creative, something interesting.

In a child-centered classroom there is a lot going on.  When we are looking at each child to see what is of interest to them, letting them become involved in what they find important, letting them choose what is on offer in the classroom, there is a lot going on. Each child has his or her own interest. The benefit of a classroom is that there are other children to create a dynamic environment where ideas are bounced around among each other leading to new ideas, new thoughts, new creations.  There is a lot going on. It's exciting, interesting and motivating for both children and teachers. It's a place of learning. It unpredictable and spontaneous. It's messy and can be noisy - although I find that the noise level rises and falls in a natural rhythm, if we let it.  If we want our children to be self-directed, independent and confident, this is the environment they need. This is the environment where they are using those skills. The skills we want to to dev...