Wonder in the Classroom

 This week's article summary is How Experiencing Wonder Helps Kids Learn. Its focus is how critical a sense of awe is in learning.

Our students are at the onset of a new grade: through this newness they will experience awe as they’re exposed to new knowledge, content, and classroom expectations. 

These elementary years are so enjoyable because student learning and growth is so dramatic and visible.

While we may think awe in humans is primarily an emotional experience, it also occurs in the cognitive realm. I still remember an a-ha moment as a sixth grader when I finally understood how to add and subtract negative numbers; I had struggled for days with this concept and then in an instant a light switch went on in my brain. I experienced both awe and relief (as I was the last kid in class to understand this concept).

Our students are innately curious, yet a sense of excitement and wonder help them maintain interest and motivation to learn new things.

As many of us know, for new information to be retained in long-term memory, it requires frequent reinforcement. Hearing or seeing something new one time rarely results in the information being remembered. Awe helps us find new ideas intriguing, but then it’s up to practice, including retrieval, to store it permanently.

Awe is the impetus, or, as the article states, “awe motivates people to explore things that stretch their understanding of the world.”

Our young learners are eager and excited to learn. Our responsibility is to offer them experiences and ideas that stimulate their awe.

Thank you for a great start to the school year!

Joe

----

Awe is perhaps our most overlooked and undervalued emotion. It is what we feel when we encounter something vast, wondrous, or beyond our ordinary frame of reference. It is the feeling that washes over us when we hear a beautiful song, watch a flock of geese fly south, or see images from the new NASA telescope.

Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley who has spent two decades studying this emotion, describes three ways you might know you are experiencing awe: tears, chills, and “whoa.”  For example:

• Think of a moment when you watched your child do something beautiful, and your eyes got misty (tears).
• Think of a time you heard a song or a story on the radio, or read a passage of text, that gave you goosebumps (chills).
• Think of a time when you saw a stunning sunset or vista that prompted you to utter, “Wow!” (whoa).

For kids, especially, I would add this: wide eyes. I love seeing a young child’s eyes pop with amazement when they encounter something brand new—like a chicken hatching out of an egg, an ocean wave, a parade, a street performer, or a baking-soda-and-vinegar volcano. 

We can all find the extraordinary in the ordinary  -- the wonders of life are so often nearby.

Awe is more than an emotion of the heart. It also improves our thinking. That’s because cognitive accommodation is a feature of awe. Put simply, when we learn something new, we alter or expand our existing mental schemas to make room for it.

Cognitive accommodation is at the heart of good education: It is what allows students to build on prior knowledge to revise, expand, and deepen their understanding of a concept. 

Awe is sometimes described as a “knowledge emotion.” Paul Silvia, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina describes knowledge emotions as “a family of emotional states that foster learning, exploring, and reflecting.” These emotions include surprise, interest, confusion, and awe and stem from experiences that are “unexpected, complicated, and mentally challenging, and they motivate learning in its broadest sense.” According to Silvia, awe is a powerful educational tool because it motivates people to explore things that stretch their understanding of the world. 

According to researchers, curiosity has a “fundamental impact on learning and memory.” When kids are curious, they are more motivated to learn and more adept at retaining information.

This is news teachers and parents can use. Engaging with kids’ big questions and helping them discover what sparks their curiosity is a concrete way to support their learning in general. The challenge is not to make them fall in love with all subjects. But what if we nurtured their curiosity with one or two? What if we paid close attention to what sparked their interest, what inspired their awe, and nudged it along?

What Fulfills People?

Thank you for an uplifting and productive first week of preplanning! So much productive energy, camaraderie, dialogue,  consistent messaging, and ample time to prepare classrooms -- especially in the EED -- and plan with classroom and grade teams.

For me, there’s always a mix of excitement and worry as we begin prepping for and putting the finishing touches on what’s needed for a smooth start of school. I feel the same when I host Thanksgiving or Christmas!

Yet, preplanning is professionally fulfilling with its opportunities for to learn, grow, collaborate, and socialize together.

This year there’s special aura of esprit de corps. Let’s continue to build on this momentum and inaugurate the year with energy, positivity, purpose, and, of course, fun!

For those of you new to Trinity, most Fridays during the school year, I send out a summary of an article that piqued my interest and that I hope provokes thought in you as well.

I don’t agree with every article. In fact, I  especially enjoy the ones that challenge me to reflect on my educational beliefs and even confront my educational biases.

This week’s article summary is What Makes People Flourish.

Finding personal and professional happiness and fulfillment is the life goal for most of us. Teachers are selflessly dedicated to their students, yet we need to ensure we’re attending to our needs as well. 

The French philosopher Voltaire is often credited (somewhat erroneously) with the aphorism perfection is the enemy of the good. I know we strive to be perfect in all we do for our students, but as we gear up for the start of the school year, let’s accept there will be times when good enough will have to do. Give yourself grace to not be perfect every day of the school year.

According to the article, happiness and fulfillment (human flourishment) comprise six key dimensions:

• Life Satisfaction and happiness
• Physical and mental health
• Meaning and purpose
• Character and virtue
• Close social relationships
• Financial and material stability

As head into the new school year with responsibility for 602 students, think about how you help develop and support these flourishment dimensions in your students (excluding financial stability), colleagues, and especially yourself!

Enjoy the final weekend of summer break!

Joe

--

What does it mean to live a good life? For centuries, philosophers, scientists and people of different cultures have tried to answer this question. All agree that the good life is more than just feeling good − it’s about becoming whole.

More recently, researchers have focused on the idea of flourishing, not simply as happiness or success, but as a multidimensional state of well-being that involves positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment − an idea that traces back to Aristotle.

Flourishing is not just well-being and how you feel on the inside. It’s about your whole life being good. Things such as your home, your neighborhood, your workplace, and your friends all matter.

An international collaboration called the Global Flourishing Study annually surveys people to find patterns of human flourishing across cultures. Do people in some countries thrive more than others? What makes the biggest difference in a person’s well-being? Are there things people can do to improve their own lives?

The survey asks people about their lives, their happiness, their health, their childhood experiences, and how they feel about their financial situation. It looks at six dimensions of a flourishing life:

• Happiness and life satisfaction: How content and fulfilled people feel with their lives
• Physical and mental health: How healthy people feel, in both body and mind
• Meaning and purpose: Whether people feel their lives are significant and moving in a clear direction
• Character and virtue: How people act to promote good, even in tough situations
• Close social relationships: How satisfied people are with their friendships and family ties
• Financial and material stability: Whether people feel secure about their basic needs, including food, housing and money

Some countries and groups of people are doing better than others.

We were surprised that in many countries young people are not doing as well as older adults. Earlier studies had suggested well-being follows a U-shape over the course of a lifespan, with the lowest point in middle age. Our new results imply that younger adults today face growing mental health challenges, financial insecurity, and a loss of meaning that are disrupting the traditional U-shaped curve of well-being.

Married people usually reported more support, better relationships and more meaning in life.

People who were working tend to feel more secure and happy than people who were seeking jobs.

People who go to religious services once a week or more typically reported higher scores in all areas of flourishing – particularly happiness, meaning, and relationships. It seems that religious communities offer what psychologists of religion call the four Bs: belonging, in the form of social support; bonding, in the form of spiritual connection; behaving, in the cultivation of character and virtue through the practices and norms taught within religious communities; and believing, in the form of embracing hope, forgiveness, and shared spiritual convictions.

Your early years shape how you do later in life. But even if life started off as challenging, it doesn’t have to stay that way. Some people who had difficult childhoods, having experienced abuse or poverty, still found meaning and purpose later as adults. In some countries, including the U.S. and Argentina, hardship in childhood seemed to build resilience and purpose in adulthood.

Some countries are doing better than others when it comes to flourishing.

Indonesia is thriving. People there scored high in many areas, including meaning, purpose, relationships and character. Indonesia is one of the highest-scoring countries in most of the indicators in the whole study. Mexico and the Philippines also show strong results. Even though these countries have less money than some others, people report strong family ties, spiritual lives, and community support.

Japan and Turkey report lower scores. Japan has a strong economy, but people there report lower happiness and weaker social connections. Long work hours and stress may be part of the reason. In Turkey, political and financial challenges may be hurting people’s sense of trust and security.

One surprising result is that richer countries, including the United States and Sweden, are not flourishing as well as some others. They do well on financial stability but score lower in meaning and relationships. Having more money doesn’t always mean people are doing better in life. In fact, countries with higher income often report lower levels of meaning and purpose. 

The Global Flourishing Study is helping us see that people all over the world want many of the same basic things: to be happy, healthy, connected, and safe. But different countries reach those goals in different ways. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to flourishing. What it means to flourish can look different from place to place and from one person to another. 

Thank You for a Great 2024-25 School Year

This year's final article summary is Teaching is Hard. Why Teachers Love it Anyway.

As we come to the end of another exemplary school year, all of us are exhausted and more than ready for summer break.

This final summary is a reminder that no matter how fatigued and frustrated we can get during a long school year, our jobs still provide us with much fulfillment.

When I was about to start my senior year in college, I remember talking my dad talking to me one night as we watched a Yankees game on TV. We generally didn’t share our feelings and stuck more to topics like sports, but for some reason he was in a more reflective mood that night.

From out of nowhere, he said to me that wherever my post-college career took me, he wanted me to be happy and fulfilled. He said that as a dentist, he had been able to provide financially for his family but that the job of dentistry was more a chore than a passion for him. He told me to try to find an occupation in which I loved getting up in the morning and going to work. 

At that point I had no idea I would become a teacher. I was a history major at a small liberal arts college and assumed I would head to law or medical school after my undergraduate studies like most of my classmates. But during my senior year, I just wasn’t excited about going to either law or med school. I was a little burned out from my studies and decided to take a gap year to re-energize. 

It was a freak coincidence that I was offered a job at an independent school teaching middle school English and coaching middle and upper school soccer, basketball, and baseball.

Within two weeks of working with kids in the classroom and on the sports fields, I knew I had found my calling and purpose – the epiphany moment in life we all hope to get!

I don’t think my dad thought teaching would be my career, but I am ever thankful to him for his advice and support. 

45 years later I’m wiser, grayer, and more experienced, yet the passion I had as a 22 year old is still present.

I hope you’re as fulfilled as I am working in schools in general and Trinity in particular, as there’s no school I’ve worked in or visited that is as magical as Trinity.

Thank you all for a another great school year and enjoy summer break!

Joe

-----

There is no shortage of stories about how teachers have a difficult job. They work long hours for not a lot of money, and they are expected to meet a wide range of student needs – physical, academic, and social-emotional—physical, academic, and social-emotional -- with limited resources.

But the job can be beautiful, too. There are special moments unique to the profession—the inside jokes with a roomful of tweens or teens, the moment a student’s face lights up as they grasp a difficult concept, the feeling of making a real difference in young people’s lives.

 Education Week asked teachers on social media to share their favorite part of teaching. Dozens of teachers weighed in, with thoughtful, heartwarming responses about what makes the job worthwhile.

 The Lightbulb Moments: One of the most common responses from teachers was that their favorite part of teaching is when a student suddenly gets it. The times when students are curious and engaged in a lesson are what one teacher called “magic moments.”

• When you convince a student to not give up, and it is followed by a moment of insight leading to happy success, and then eight years later that student shows up to give you a hug and show you her doctorate...that is a heart-melting thrill!
• Seeing the 'I get it!' moment. Teaching math is tough but these moments make it worth it.
• Seeing my 5th graders' faces light up when they understand a math concept after trying many times. It is very emotional

The Relationships with Kids: The research is clear: Strong student-teacher relationships are key to student success on practically every measure schools care about. Those bonds and connections also constitute many teachers’ favorite parts of the job.

• Recess. Going out to play with the kids. Chatting with them about stuff, like movies, and pets, and vacations, and places to eat....you know, getting to know them as people.
• When kids get really into a book, movie, or video game that I share with them.
• Spending my days with kids. They are so much more fun than adults. So much hope, and intensity and excitement. 

The Instruction: Teachers spend a lot of time in meetings and doing administrative work. But there’s nothing like the actual work of teaching, teachers said.

• Preparing lessons! No kidding. I dream about my lessons in anticipation for enthusiasm from my students.
• Actually teaching! There’s so much on our plate these days with testing and more testing, dealing with behaviors. I love just being able to teach. And forget about all the other stuff.
• Seeing students' lens on a topic, their questions and wonders, their perspectives and curiosities—a collaborative learning experience, so to speak, where you teach and they teach you with their curiosities.

The Subject: Many teachers entered the profession because they are passionate about a subject—literature, math, science, art—and want to share that passion with students.

• The read aloud! That moment when you go to close the book and the kids beg for "one more chapter, please!!!" For me, it's a great bonding time; and I love developing a love of stories.
• I'm an art teacher because when I was a kid, making art was the only area of my life in which I had any sense of control. I enjoy providing a safe space for students to express themselves while also learning a discipline that will benefit them later in life.
• I’m a music teacher. Allowing students to express themselves, learn collaborative teamwork and responsibility, learn to both give and take constructive criticism in a safe environment where it’s OK to make mistakes and try again….while having fun (and still learning a hundred standards that need taught). It’s gratifying to watch students create performances through music from start to finish and seeing them light up at the progress they have made. It was one of the things I enjoyed coming to school for each day, and I want to share that with my students.

 The Lasting Impact: Many teachers said their favorite part of teaching is the knowledge that their work matters—and makes a difference in students’ lives for years to come.

• When they contact me long after graduation to let me know how much they learned in my classes. Really anything that expresses that my effort was not wasted.
• Seeing former students as successful adults. It reminds us why we do what we do.
• Seeing students apply the standards in my classroom to their own lives and seeing them succeed because of it.

The Benefits of Teacher Read-aloud in Classrooms

This week's article summary is Make Time for the Read-Aloud.

As most reading is done silently, children don’t get much opportunity to hear an adult (teacher or parent) read with clarity and intonation. 

There are many benefits to reading aloud to children, no matter what age. As the article states, the benefits of reading aloud to children has been supported by countless research studies for decades.

While engaging them in the joy of reading, reading aloud also helps children begin to understand how writing is structured.

They also get to hear the correct pronunciation of words and, if they are following along with the text, they can see how punctuation supports word syntax.

The article below provides some ways teachers and parents can prep in advance to ensure their oral reading not only engages kids but also helps them enhance their own literacy skills.

Joe

-- 

Reading aloud to students during class time may sound like a quaint endeavor from a bygone era. 

But literacy experts insist that it’s every bit as relevant now as ever, and they urge English/language arts teachers—especially of early elementary students (although many experts espouse the practice as meaningful throughout K-12)—to make the ritual part of their daily instructional practice.

The “read-aloud” requires a significant commitment by the teacher—beyond simply committing to the act of reading aloud to students routinely. In its most effective form, the read-aloud demands thoughtful advanced preparation. It’s time well-spent, say literacy experts.

“I would argue that, of all components of reading, read-alouds have one of the longest-standing research bases. There’s a lot of data showing the power of read-alouds,” said Molly Ness, a former teacher, reading researcher, and vice president of academic content at Learning Ally, a nonprofit organization that supports educators.

Ness’s perspective isn’t new. The Commission on Reading, in 1985, declared read-alouds “the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading.”

The rationale behind support for the read-aloud is simple: The activity offers an engaging way to pack a big literacy “punch” into a single classroom activity, particularly regarding reading comprehension. 

“The read-aloud increases vocabulary and background knowledge, which increases comprehension. And the better you can understand, the more likely you are to read, and it becomes this cycle, an upward spiral of a literary trajectory,” Ness said.

Below, literacy experts and teachers share three strategies on how to plan for read-alouds that ignite a passion for the joy of reading while also boosting literacy skills.

Examine texts for literacy components: Ness recommends that, well before picking up a text to read to students, teachers consider its potential obstacles and opportunities by asking themselves questions like: Will the vocabulary present a challenge? Do students have the background knowledge to grasp the text’s content? Weighing these elements beforehand can help teachers plan a developmentally appropriate read-aloud accordingly, she explains. Try to choose texts whose content matches what is being taught in other classes. This strategy mirrors an instructional strategy a growing number of districts are implementing called “knowledge-building curriculum,” which is intentionally designed to grow students’ knowledge about topics they’re learning in other classes, including in social studies and science.

Choose texts that unlock the joy of reading: While read-alouds aim to boost literacy skills, their goal of sparking the joy of reading is perhaps equally important. Not every student will be attracted to the same text, but there do seem to be some common features in literature that children find engaging. A 2023 Harvard study assessed factors that contribute to “story absorption”—the mental state a reader experiences when fully immersed in a story. Students prefer information presented in a narrative format, regardless of whether the text was fiction or nonfiction. Mysteries and fast-paced plots proved to be engaging genres to young readers. Respondents said they were also drawn to characters who are misfits as well as those to whom they could personally relate.

Make seating arrangements a high priority: Seating arrangements can impact students’ learning experience. At the very least, all students should be able to see and hear the teacher with ease. To promote the read-aloud as a special ritual, teachers may consider emphasizing students’ physical comfort, some proponents of the practice suggest—perhaps allowing them to stretch out on a rug or use pillows or bean-bag chairs. But ultimately, teachers will need to assess their students individually and as a class before determining how to balance the twin goals of creating an environment for the read-aloud that encourages comfort yet supports students’ ability to focus on the learning activity. Presenting a read-aloud differs from a standard classroom presentation. Appropriate prosody—reading with expression and meaning, which includes elements like correct pronunciation, appropriate pace, effective pauses, and adopting different dialects—takes practice. Doing it daily, as literacy experts suggest, allows for plenty of practice.

“There are so many reasons to read aloud to students,” Ness said.

Are Educational Apps Valuable For Learning in Early Childhood

This week's article summary is Can Young Children Learn from Educational Apps?

Last summer, I spent a week with my grandkids in Hilton Head. Most of the time they were either on the beach or in the backyard swimming pool. In the early morning and late afternoon they played various card and board games with my wife and me.

What was interesting to me was during the entire week they never asked to watch TV or to use any technology. On the five-hour drive from Atlanta, they had used their iPads, but once they got to the beach, they ignored technology.

Even though my grandkids never asked for technology, we adults occasionally offered them technology as a distraction, so we could have some adult time. (You can only play so much Uno after all.) 

What further amazed me was how quickly my grandkids laser focused on whatever app they opened or You Tube video they watched. They were transfixed until we physically yanked the iPads from them. 

So, the article below intrigued me. Do younger children (my grandkids are now 8 and 6) learn from technology?

With certain parameters and enhancements, educational apps, including video games, can result in student learning. 

The article refers to the Sesame Street ‘video deficit’ effect: kids don’t learn lessons through TV shows, even if they’re ostensibly educational. They need human interaction, dialogue, and explanation to have lessons from TV or educational apps stick and transfer to real life. 

So, the lesson for parents and teachers is there is certainly a place for technology to support young children’s learning but nothing as of yet is a substitute for human interaction. (Take that, ChatGPT!)

I’ll remember this article this summer, as I endure never-ending games of Uno with my grandkids rather than tempt them with an iPad!

Joe

-------

Parents often hear about the dangers of screen time for children, but rarely does there seem to be a distinction among different types of screen time. 

In particular, apps on smartphones or touchscreen devices for children seem to be growing in popularity, even among young children. 

In fact, research finds that 90% of children aged 2 to 3 years use a touchscreen device and that infants and toddlers on average spend 10 to 45 min per day on touchscreen devices.

Many apps claim to be “educational” and some apps are used as part of the curriculum in elementary school classrooms. 

Can young children actually learn from this technology? Are apps more educational than TV shows and movies? And if parents allow their children to engage with apps, which apps are best?

Research broadly finds that young children can learn from interactive apps, but it remains unclear the extent to which this learning is transferable to the real world. A meta-analysis found that most studies involving children five years and younger show an overall positive impact of touchscreen apps on learning. 

Another study found that children under 6 years old can learn from interactive apps, particularly in math skills. They also found some evidence that apps may improve phonics skills, teach science facts, and improve executive functioning. 

The review failed to find evidence that apps improved social communication skills.

Although we have consistent evidence that young children can learn from apps, it remains unclear the extent to which they can transfer this knowledge to the real world. It is well documented that young children (particularly children under 3) do not learn as well from video as they do from real life interactions and do not transfer learning from video to real life, referred to as the video deficit. However, there is some evidence that children can transfer learning when screen time is more interactive such as Facebook or video chat.

So, research finds that it is possible for children to learn from apps and that engaging in apps with them may enhance the transfer of learning to the real world, but does this mean they can learn from just any app? How can you determine which apps are truly educational?

A recent study evaluated 124 popular “educational” apps and found that 58% of popular apps were “low quality” in terms of how they promote learning.

The researchers evaluated apps based on the following:

• Active learning – whether the app requires critical thinking or intellectual effort versus a simple cause-and-effect
• Engagement in the learning process  – whether the interactive features enhance or distract from learning, including whether the app has unnecessary visual and sound effects and distracting ads
• Meaningful learning – how relevant what the child is learning in the app is to the child’s life and existing knowledge
• Social interaction – the extent to which the app encourages children to interact with characters in the app or with their caregivers while engaging with the app

The following apps received the highest scores in terms of promoting learning: 

• My Food – Nutrition for Kids
• Daniel Tiger’s Stop & Go Potty
• Toca Life (Neighborhood, School and Hospital)
• LEGO DUPLO Town
• Zoombinis
• Measure That Animal
• Math Shelf
• Know Number Free
• Endless Alphabet
• Letter School
• First Word Sampler
• Word Wall HD
• Pocket Phonics
• Skills Builder Spelling
• Phonic Monster 1
• ABC Touch and Learn
• Bee Sees
• Kindergarten Lite
• Starfall
• Super Why

This research provides the following tips for parents related to apps: 

• If possible, wait until your child is at least 3 years old before trying educational apps. Research finds that although children younger than 3 can learn within an app, they may be less likely to apply this knowledge to the real world. 
• Engage in apps with your child. Provide some help and assistance without doing the task for them. Help the child to understand the instructions and pay attention to relevant features.
• When engaging with apps together, use a lot of language to help to explain the task to the child. Offer frequent praise and encouragement.
• Choose apps that require the child to think critically rather than simple cause-and-effect, such as an app in which they have to choose the correct answer rather than an app in which they simply press a button and an animation plays.
• Avoid apps with irrelevant or excessive features or advertisements that are not related to the learning process.
• Look for apps that teach children skills that they can easily transfer to real life and that are related to their existing knowledge, such as an app that teaches about letters of the alphabet.
• Choose apps that encourage your child to interact with the characters in the app and/or with you or other caregivers while engaging with the app.

What is Reggio Emilia

This week's summary is Everything Parents Need to Knoe About the Reggio Emilia Approach, and it’s follow up to last week's article on Maria Montessori.

Reggio Emilia pedagogy (so named for the town in Italy it originated from and where a number of our Early Learners’ teachers will visit this summer) began after World War II in the mid-1940s.

A Reggio Emilia approach, primarily in the preschool years, has become especially popular over the past 20-25 years.

As you’ll see in the article, the qualities of a Reggio Emilia classroom are time-tested pedagogy that, similar to the Montessori approach, respect children as innate, inquisitive, learners. 

Some of the key aspects of a Reggio Emilia classrooms are as follows:

• Trust the child as a capable and motivated learner
• Utilize project-based learning activities to give children opportunities to be critical and creative thinkers and problem solvers
• Document the students’ process of learning
• Provide a classroom environment that is rich and stimulating and that encourages exploration and discovery
• Involve children, teachers, and parents as partners in a child’s learning process

This article is a reminder of the educational values we esteem at Trinity. As you read the article, even if you teach upper elementary grades, look for the parallels in your classroom, i.e., emphasis on child-directed learning, creativity, and collaboration, and see to what extent you provide similar experiences for your students.

Joe 

-------

Anyone researching alternative schools and/or non-traditional curriculums will come across the concept of the Reggio Emilia approach or schools inspired by the philosophy, as it continues to become more and more popular across the US. 

But, what is the Reggio Emilia Approach, exactly and what makes this model different from others?

Reggio Emilia is not a person, it is a city in Italy where this educational philosophy and pedagogy originated after World War II and is most commonly used in preschool and early elementary classrooms. 

Unlike in traditional-model schools where lessons are teacher-led, educators that follow the Reggio Emilia approach let the students lead the way and offer guidance, knowledge, and direction as needed. Teachers closely observe children to help them in planning and offering learning opportunities that will connect to their interests or questions. This shows the children that their ideas, thoughts, passions, experiences, and preferences are valued.

Even though they aren’t leading a class in the traditional sense, teachers are still observing the students’ academic growth and evolving their classrooms as needed to ensure students have the tools they require to master benchmark skills. Teachers are consistently documenting the learning and making it visible to children, parents, and the community. Documentation provides the opportunity for children to reflect and revisit learning experiences and reflecting with the children allows them to make meaning of the work and helps plan for future learning experiences.

Reggio Emilia-inspired curriculum is hands-on, collaborative, and taught through projects, exploration, and play. Because of this, the classroom’s setup is very important. The environment is set up as the ‘3rd teacher’ so children can independently engage and learn in a space that has been intentionally set up to be beautiful, engaging, encourage investigation, and promote relationship building. Materials are carefully chosen based on sensory elements and kept within reach of the students, and learning spaces are set up so that there is enough room for multiple kids to work together.

The Reggio Emilia approach falls somewhere between Montessori and traditional classrooms, in that there are still daily routines (like the traditional model) but the actual learning is student-led (like Montessori), so it’s the best of both worlds. However, unlike traditional and Montessori schools, this approach gives kids the freedom of demonstrating their knowledge through various methods. Children tell the teacher what they know as they build, dance, draw, paint, sculpt, create, explore, read, write, observe, investigate, experiment, garden, dream, engineer, talk, act, cook, etc., which illustrates that there are many ways for children to express themselves outside of writing and speaking.

Other benefits of the Reggio Emilia approach include:

• A relaxed learning environment that encourages exploration 
• Teacher-student relationships that are rooted in respect
• Students build social skills through a collaborative environment
• A student-led approach allows consistent opportunities for problem-solving
• Kids develop a strong sense of community
• Emphasis on creativity and artistic expression
• Adaptive curriculum means lesson plans are created based on what the students need to master a skill (as opposed to standard curriculum that continuously moves forward and can leave some students behind)

All of that being said, the most important benefit is that children are shown that learning is a joyful experience.

Maria Montessori's Impact on Education

This week's summary is How Maria Montessori Transformed the Realm of Children's Education.

Most of us have a rudimentary idea of Maria Montessori and her impact on education philosophy and practice.

Much like John Dewey, Montessori was a pioneer of progressive education tenets that shifted schooling away from a mechanical pedagogy of lecture, worksheets, and rote learning to a more child-centered, process-oriented, problem-based focus.

Even though the roots of progressive education can be traced to philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s book Emile in the mid-1700s, it was Montessori and Dewey in the early 20th century who put children’s innate curiosity and desire to learn at the forefront of the classroom.

Rather than viewing the child as a blank slate whose brain needed to be force fed with knowledge, Montessori put trust in her students and developed classroom pedagogy and activities (many of us are familiar with her pink tower) to engage children’s natural instinct to learn. A major belief for Montessori was to allow a child to learn at his/her own pace.

While today she is primarily associated with preschool grades, her beliefs influenced changes at all levels of education.

The article below is a short introduction to her life and influence. For a more comprehensive picture of her, you can read the recent biography of her, The Child is the Teacher.

 Joe

----

Maria Montessori stood before a crowd of 60 underprivileged children, her students. It was January 6, 1907, and the 36-year-old educator was opening her first school: the Casa dei Bambini or “Children’s House,” a preschool that would revolutionize children’s education.

Today, the legacy of the Italian woman behind Montessori schools lives on in preschools around the globe. 

But at the time, the theory that providing children with stimulating activities would help them more than rote learning and academic drills was revolutionary.

Though her innovations inspired a movement in young children’s learning, Montessori saw her work more simply. “I did not invent a method of education,” she wrote in 1914. “I simply gave some little children a chance to live.”

Montessori was passionate about education from a young age. Born in 1870 and raised in Rome, she took a path that defied the era’s expectations for women. Montessori studied engineering, then applied to medical school at the University of Rome, telling a professor during her interview, “I know I shall become a doctor.” The school refused her, so Montessori enrolled in the general university; studied physics, mathematics and natural sciences; and reapplied to medical school. She was finally admitted, becoming the first woman to enter the university’s medical school, and in July 1896, she became Italy’s first female doctor.

Montessori’s medical work led her to the University of Rome’s psychiatric clinic. As part of her job, she visited asylums for children with mental disorders, searching for patients eligible for treatment at the clinic. It was here that her interest in child development intensified.

In 1898, Montessori spoke at the National Medical Congress in Turin, advocating that lack of adequate provisions and care for children with mental and emotional disorders caused them to misbehave. She continued her advocacy at the 1899 National Pedagogical Congress, where she proposed special training for teachers working with special-needs children.

Montessori’s interest in early childhood education strengthened over the next few years. She developed her own teaching materials, and in 1907, she opened her first school.

Her method revolved around engagement. Though Montessori introduced her students to many activities and materials, she retained only those the kids were interested in. She realized that activities could help children socially develop, and she theorized that, surrounded by such activities, students could educate themselves. Montessori’s self-dubbed “auto-education” approach soon had the 5-year-olds at Casa dei Bambini reading and writing.

News of Montessori’s success spread quickly, and by 1908, her name was known around the world. By the fall of 1908, five Case dei Bambini were operating in Italy. Her method soon crossed borders as kindergartens in Switzerland adopted her methods. 

A couple of years later, Montessori published a book, The Montessori Method -- over time, it would be translated into 20 different languages. In the following decades, Montessori schools and teacher training programs sprang up around the world.

Before her death in 1952, Montessori lived to see her educational theories enacted around the globe, as more and more “awakened” children—as she called activity-stimulated students—successfully learned their letters.

As Montessori biographer E.M. Standing notes, Montessori proved that the “awakened” child “develops a higher type of personality—more mentally alert, more capable of concentration, more socially adaptable, more independent and at the same time more disciplined and obedient—in a word, a complete being—a ready foundation for the building up of a normalized adult.”

“This is Montessori’s great achievement,” Standing writes, “the discovery of the child.”