This is a journey...

I feel very privileged to be in a position to readily embark fully on this play-based journey and now into our third year I am beginning to feel like I'm really starting to 'get it.'

I can confidently stand behind the decisions I have made regarding our learning approach in the juniors and feel backed by research.  I know my why and feel absolutely confident within that. 

But just like everyone, or school is not perfect, our children are just that, children.  We have worked incredibly hard on our culture, it has been and continues to be a journey.  I walk with pride around our school, watching the creative play with all year levels working together, I listen to the hammers creating yet another hut modification and I brim with pride when parents speak about how happy their children are....but don't be deceived it is not all roses at our place either.  Our children do  make mistakes, we as teachers make mistakes, we have bad days occasionally,  just like everyone else. 

Things do not always go the way I would like them to go, I still doubt myself (although the old voice in my head that believed in academics all the way, is becoming faint.)  Even Number Agents, as fabulous as I believe it is, doesn't always hit its mark the way I wanted.  My agents are not always angels ...😁

What I am trying to convey here is that for those thinking I have it all together, please remember that we are all human and like everything we have our ups and downs. 

But should this prevent us from trying...no, it should make us even more determined to do better.  I hate to hear comments that relate to child and teacher competency as a reason for not embarking on this exciting adventure of play and creativity.  I hate to hear "but my children couldn't do that." 

If there is one thing this journey has taught me is that all children are competent , competency looks different from individual to individual.  What they are all very good at, is making us feel incompetent at times.  It is these moments that have taught me the most, when I have had a difficult time of it, when I can't unravel the mystery that is the child in front of me, when I can't find the switch, when I feel quite incompetent, it is in that moment that I can choose to find a way back, it is in these moments that I learn the most about myself and the children that I work with.  It is in these moments, that if I allow myself some time, I have my great lightbulb moments.  In fact in all honesty Number Agents was born out of a feeling of incompetence.  I hated my maths programme, felt like I was failing to meet the needs of my learners, and boom, had a moment of inspiration that has changed my  maths teaching forever.  What was the key?  I had to admit, I didn't know what to do next.

So if you are feeling a little incompetent, if you are feeling a little lost, swamped or maybe more like overwhelmed...please take a little reassurance from me...we all feel like that sometimes, go for a walk, embrace that feeling of 'not knowing' and see what lightbulb moments you have...I know this is one of the ways I work out where to next. 

This is the place I go...where I do most of my thinking at least twice a week...I walk and think and forgive myself for my mistakes....this is the place my ideas are born and where most of these blog posts are written in my mind.

What I really want to get across, is even those that we view as 'most competent' have our moments...we question ourselves, but the difference is, we use these as learning experiences.  Please know that you are competent, and that frequent feeling of incompetence?  Well it is normal and should be embraced...don't let it defeat you.

An example of this for me within our play-based class can be found within this story:

We have a small group of children that would go to the same play, with the same materials each day.  There seemed to be a construction and trajectory urge going on...basically they would build something and then just throw cars at it.   From what I have learned from Sarah and Longworth Education I knew to just let them go with it...I took faith in knowing that although it looked the same to me, they would be doing different things within this play.  Over time a few of these children moved on, but I had one who was stuck, this was all he wanted to do.  I will admit, I started to doubt myself and this process.  I began to feel quite incompetent...perhaps the old me needed to take over and just tell him what to do?

I will admit I walked on this one...I walked and thought about it...what could I do, should I do something, or nothing at all.

And then it occurred to me that within this activity was a version of construction.  Our children had shown an interest in building barricades as part of their 'war' games.  They had also shown an interest in other types of structures, thanks to the other children and their huts.  I took a punt and set up a few provocations around castles, just a few pictures and books, and a lovely castle made out of a tv box (not my creation, but my lovely team.)
Now whether this sparked something within this group or not I will never know.  But my patience in just allowing the play to take its course was rewarded with this...

A stadium

A football ground

The play changed, the construction urge became more interesting and the whole group once again came back together with a different task in mind.  No more throwing cars, they started creating various structures.  Hey, they didn't go the castle way...but they did take up the tiny little hint about structures.

So for all those out there with children that do the same thing, day after day, just let it run...eventually it will morph and change, it must just be what they need to do for now.