My co-construction epiphany...

November 1

Some reflections on my evolution as a teacher:

Sometime right around the start of our school year, I asked a small group of Rainbow Room children for some help. We were trying to line up in order to go outside. Near the safety gate, I noticed I had lost the interest of some children- they were distracted by something in the hallway and were lagging behind. I remembered from last year the difficulties with transitioning from the classroom to the playground: moving down a long, often crowded hallway to a child gate, then down a flight of stairs to another small set of stairs in an open room, then through a back door down a path before turning right in order to get to our destination- whew!- it's a really challenging journey! So in a flash of inspiration, I rallied the group and asked them for some help. How can I gather everyone's attention? We need to move as a group to get outside. How can we do this? I took the problem back to the group- co-constructed a solution. And I could never have conjured up an idea like their own. As teachers we have a certain number of tools in our belt from which we can regularly draw to address the needs and challenges of our students. These "tools" can be a result of personal experiences through trial and error, advice from our peers and mentors, information gleaned from parents and educational materials, or ideas sprung from faculty and colleague collaborations/discussions. But I'm noticing now that I haven't been tapping into the resource of the children themselves nearly enough! I've always marveled at the creative problem-solving children demonstrate in their daily school experiences on an individual level. Maybe I didn't have the skills until recently to facilitate a group discussion; I can't explain why I haven't brought our classroom challenges back to the entire group. But it's a liberating feeling: I don't have to have all the answers to a classroom challenge. In fact, I shouldn't. That's not the spirit of co-construction. It doesn't build community or fuel relationships. It's not particularly the best model for young children: how can I expect them to show flexibility, vulnerability, and engage in productive problem-solving if I don't show my own handling of these processes?

So, what suggestions did the group have for our dilemma? Jokes. Someone said I should tell jokes. Other individuals echoed the idea with delight. The only one I could think of at the time was the one about why 6 was afraid of 7...Anyway, this idea was an original suggestion that captured the interest of each child. They began telling their own unique jokes, the kind that tickle the funny bones of fellow preschoolers everywhere. It still took us awhile to get down the stairs- this transition continues to be a difficult part of being in a preschool on the second floor of Harry Potter-like mansion. But Rome wasn't built in a day. Not all ideas are successful; they may need tweaking, or abandoning, and nothing is set in stone. It's just more opportunity for co-construction and shared learning.