Number Agents

Well we have just finished our first full week at school.  Seven days in it is like we never left and although our class is now made up of nine new children (27 in total) the play at our place has just continued seamlessly. I have already learned so much over the last week.  Thanks to Marc Armitage for giving me the confidence to know that for the most part, we really need to stay out of the play and just tune into what is going on.  I had started to get there last year, but his words have given me that last bit of confidence to just let go. What we have noticed this week is how little we are needed and how with the different mixture of urges in the class, the play has changed from last year.  We have a lot of children with connection urges, so the items that largely went unused on our shelves last year have been out in force.  We have spent the week realising how deep and rich the play already is, and how little attention the children pay to us.  We ...

Something I have learned over the last four years of this journey is that as teachers we have a huge role to play in how children define successful learning in a classroom, this is no different in a classroom based on play.  Children notice every nuance, every facial expression, everything we say and do not say.  They notice how much weight we give to certain activities, how much positive attention we give and they seek to please us by choosing to engage in these activities. What I have noticed over the 20 years of my career are that most children are people pleasers...particularly girls and they deeply want to do the right thing.  If they perceive that a certain type of 'play' is more desirable than another type, they will engage in this preferred type, even if it is not what they are interested in.  Children are largely taught to people please, from the moment they pick up a book and get a huge smile from their mother or father and copious amounts of praise...