Freedom of learning: Flexibility and Assertiveness

1. Symbolic Play during scribbling stage's class 2. Form and Color matching in scribbling stage class

Inquiry is not so much seeking the right answer -- often there is none -- but rather seeking appropriate resolutions to questions and issues. --Albert Einstein

During our group teaching project on "Scribbling Age (2-4)," the first picture of Valarie and Megan playing with small pieces of paper put on the plate happened in my session on the symbolic play stage that scribblers get engaged with. Likewise, at that level, young children also start to name their scribbling, which is not totally recognizable for adults though. I gave the class the materials, telling them that they were going to create a symbolic play of their own. Like we see in the picture, Megan and Valarie had the different symbolic plays with the same materials provided -- Megan arranging the paper pieces around the plate, and Valarie scattering the pieces from above like snow falling. In the second picture, the classmates were getting engaged with the activity of matching color and form, like scribblers start to create these similar matches; our group member, Shannon, was leading the class. Each student was provided with the two materials of different forms and colors, and they went around the class, and looked for the materials that matched theirs in the form or color; once they found them, they requested for the trades, so that at last everyone had the two pieces of the same form or color. Third, Albert Einstein's quote that I attached really portrayed my reflection on the two above activities. Both symbolic play and matching activity did not have right or wrong answers, but appropriate answers that the students figured out to the given class activities.

As I described above, when I gave the activity of symbolic play, I did not expect the class to come up with the same "right answer," although when I planned of the activity, personally I thought of the play of snow like Valarie. The class created the different plays -- Jenna shared her idea of playing with the sand out of the white paper pieces. We also saw in the picture Megan putting all the pieces in circle at the edge of the plate; it is hard to say what she was thinking at that moment, though we noticed that she had a specific plan for her play. Similarly, I think kids of 3 years old scribble their mommy or puppy with the mind set in these figures, but definitely different scribblers would draw differently, according to their motor skill development and imagination. Despite their unrecognizable scribbling to adults, like we cannot figure out what Megan was playing with just by looking, kids' scribbling does have meaning to them. The fact that amazed me most is freedom that the activity allows for the class' creative inquiry, based on my little instructions on symbolic play of scribbling stage. The class did need to push themselves to figure out what their plays were going to be, which was the goal of education, I think. But this brain engagement was not what I did not get in my Burmese education system, which focus on accuracy over creativity, so as a teacher I would most love to have young minds mold with similar education of inquiry. Next, I would like to talk about the second picture -- mostly based on what I observed during the activity and Einstein's quote. Like I have discussed I really love the flexibility of mind in inquiry learning. But what I heard during the matching game a little bit surprised me, but I think it was also worth learning. After Shannon giving the class different materials of colors and forms, the class started to go around to find the matched ones. At one point, I noticed Megan confused -- she had traded one of her stuff, but could not find a material matched her rest one. Like we see in the picture, she had the two rolls of different colors -- one yellow and one purple. For me they two had the same form, so I told her that she had a match, but she replied no -- interesting to me. Now reflecting on this, I pondered, "Probably we two have slightly different perspectives on forms. And Shannon stopped by and agreed with Megan on that hers still made no match yet. I reflected that as a planner of this activity, Shannon knew exactly what two materials should be matched, so that at the end all the given materials matched. But I still can't help, but wonder, "Can't we allow the students have the matches of their own although they are not exactly what we as teachers thought of or planned?" This inquiry also reminded me of what we discussed a lot in class this term about the role of students' initiation; as students, "Are we always looking for what a teacher wants or fly our mind and create what we think will be best for an assignment?" Bobby did not encourage at all the first one. I think her expectation does match what inquiry means -- not seeking for the right answer, but appropriate or creative resolutions. So this matching activity did help me to reflect well on the role of flexible mind in the journey of inquiry.

I include this entry in the community of inquiry because it is seeking about different possible answers to one activity. The communication between Jenna and me helped me understand what she thought for her symbolic play with the plate and white small pieces of paper. Likewise, my talk with Megan during the matching game also made me see that we had different perspectives for form. These activities made me reflect that there is freedom of different thoughts and creativity in inquiring about an issue, and then through communication in a community of inquirers, we learn to understand one another's perspectives. This process does require flexibility of mind, despite our need to be assertive with what we figure out is right. As a teacher, I am very willing to learn to work through between flexibility and assertiveness when I am leading my class of inquiry.

Movement Integration for Learning

Movement activities provide opportunities to cross the body's midline. Doing so requires the left and right hemispheres of the brain to communicate across the corpus callosum. This integration of the brain's hemispheres is essential to the ability to read and write. – Rae Pica

1st Photo: A classroom being involved in Braingym 2nd photo: Me learning to juggle

The first attachment is one of the 10 Reasons to Promote Emergent Literacy through Movement & Active Learning. I found this good information while I was googling on how physical movement can enhance learning in school-age children for my CFS class’ presentation. My juggling picture was taken during my class, PEH 220: Health and Movement for Elementary School Kids. Learning to juggle is a cross-lateral integrated movement, which coordinates left and right side of the brain, and this activity has also helped me to focus again after my tiring studies. My instructor’s lecture power-point stated that eye-tracking during juggling reinforces reading ability of children. The last picture is a class of elementary school kids and teacher doing a Brain Gym Program -- a physical exercise program comprised of movements that have been found effective to activate and build new pathways for improved cognitive readiness and academic performance. I used this last attachment photo for my EDS 227’s Mobile assignment of a teacher I want to be, because through my PEH class and presentation research on my CFS class, I have been convinced that physical movements do help develop mental abilities by building neurons in the brain.
As I mentioned above, I learned to juggle – I am still not very good with three-ball juggling though I am getting better – and now I keep the balls on my study desk. Once I feel my brain and eyes tired and slow to absorb whatever I am studying, I stand up and do juggling for a few minutes. And the activity always helps. So I really want to teach my young students how to juggle; first children start learning with scarves which move slower, like Coach Kelly used in his first teaching of juggling to us. But now I wonder how I can bring the activity of juggling into the class once kids have learned to juggle -- between the lessons? My teaching experience with kids at Shannon Johnson as a PEH class’ assignment told me that kids can get wild after being physically active. In our group teaching of Matter States through movements, some of the boys left the designated carpet area and moved around the classroom as liquids, and one boy kept rolling on the floor in his pretense to be a liquid. I was shocked. So I reflect that classroom management strategies are necessary to get attention again once I need to; however, I recognize now that physical activities should serve children to be themselves. I also need to practice my authoritative voice as a teacher while leading any physical movements. The next thing that I would like to include in my classes is Braingym, which basically allows children to cross the body’s midlines, giving a chance for the left and right hemispheres of the brain to communicate across the corpus callosum. In my class visits to Berea Community School and Shannon Johnson, both of the classroom teachers start their classes with Braingym. I observed the fourth graders not fully awake yet at 8am, and the classroom teacher initiated them Braingym movements at the carpet area. After moving with the music, I saw the difference in children and their brain alertness – they were energetic and responding very quick to the teacher’s questions. So I am also determined with Braingym activities in my classes, but I feel that I don’t know a lot about them yet. In contrast, my interest has been ignited in Educational Kinesiology (EK), a comprehensive science and language of movement as it relates to learning. So I really hope to pursue my interest through more reading and research. Now reflecting I asked myself, “Do you want to be a Physical Education teacher then?” The answer said no; I only want to infuse movement to enhance my students’ learning.
I put this entry under the professional development because I think incorporating movement activities like Braingym and juggling will be part of professional skills as a teacher. Like my attachment pictures, my reflection above described my inspiration through my own physical movements, in-service teachers’ practice, and presentation research of movements for learning. These intriguing experiences will definitely lead me to polish my knowledge about Braingym for mental abilities. Also I have heard that Braingym is also beneficial for children with ADHD, and I would love to bring this benefit to my children of different learning styles and abilities. I really hope and feel confident that this entry is a good ignite for me to learn more about EK in the future, and along this journey of learning, I will remember the important landmark of this entry for my professional development with movement integration for learning.

Creation and Development of Blogspot

http://khaingzah25peacelynn.blogspot.com/
(the blog address on my thoughts on education)

As my EDS 227 class' project, in September, 2008, I created my above blog to develop my educational thoughts with the well-instructed guidance of Bobby, and Dorothy's technological help. First I would like to mention the ingredients of my blog. Right now, my blog postings includes the labels of Berea College's Education Program Goals -- a community of inquiry understanding subject matter, authentic learning, the foundations of education, cultural diversity, technology, and professional development -- as well as the labels of my thoughts on reflection, philosophy, lesson planning for scribbling stage, and ramp and ball. My recent postings are longer and much more deep in thoughts than the earlier ones, though they all share the procedure of describing the attachments, reflecting on my learning through these attached experiences, and connecting the entries with the representative labels. In addition, my blog has been connected with my classmates' under the name "Followers"; in this way, we can share our blogging styles and our thoughts on education.


The creation of my blog was not that difficult, despite some troubles with my new postings in the beginning. Honestly, due to the initial adversity, I was a little bit reluctant to explore my blogging at first. But Bobby's encouragement to take risks rang in my ears very often, so I pushed myself to be navigating in my blog -- playing with the different choices of templates, tagging my photo, and writing up my profile. Once I managed to manipulate the technology almost as I wished, I felt capable, and fast -- I started feeling like my thoughts raced with the speed of the technological advances. However, there were also times that I took technology for granted, so I ended up feeling miserable with its occasional unreliableness. In one of my postings named "Learning with brain and heart," I added my three attachments and wrote up my long well-thought description, reflection, and connection -- the typing of my reflective thoughts took me about 3 hours. Then after licking "Publish Post," I discovered the end of my world. Probably because of the Internet connection's unequal speed, and the long time spent typing up, most part of my entry was not saved at all. As a result, I could not view my posting in my blog. There was no translation for my dismay. Very frustrated, I wrote up my entry again -- but this time at the Microsoft Word, reminding very often to save whatever I finished. I did learn that technology could be uncooperative and lead your frustration, despite its handiness and incredible speed for the users of knowledge and experiments. Moreover, my blogging has helped me learn to get help from capable hands when I am in a unknown territory of technology. During my last posting "Creativity for Learning," I did lots of experiments with my attachments that I used from a weblink, and part of a photo. First I copied the poster of Creative Writing Workshop for Children, and also cut only my painting "Expression" of the current posted photo. Then I pasted them at my Word document, and wrote up my entry. But when I posted the attached pictures and writing, only the writing appeared. After several trials, I learned that my attempt was in vain. So I tried to be flexible with the whole photo attached pointing out my focused picture. Also I went to the URL that I got the poster and saved the poster as a picture -- it worked. Then frustratingly I saw that my posting did not show up although I again and again pasted my entry and clicked Publish Post. I also tried the refresh button. At last I gave up on my unsuccessful attempt, and decided to email to Dorothy for her suggestions. She replied to me to try out Firefox, instead of Internet Explorer. It worked! Do you imagine that I have sometimes wished for only Word typing and Saved files, which is my more comfortable territory? Thinking of this wish now, I questioned myself, "Don't you think that people in the past were also frustrated with the Word -- perhaps forgetting to save the file before their expertise with the use? I do imagine my precessdors experience the same as I am now with blogspot. Afterall, don't I feel pleased with my pictures and thoughts on my blog, and sharing them with my friends? Yes, of course! Do I also feel more and more confident with the use of blogspot after all these risks and experiments? The answer would be nothing, but yes.

I include this entry under the label of technology because my blog creation and learning through its development has helped build my confidence in the ability to exploit technological tools. So as a teacher I can support in return my students' employment of technology for their skills' development and better understandings of subject matter. Definitely, I would encourage my young students to create their own blogspots as a reinforcing tool for their own learning, and for the expanded web learning among the classmates as a community. Like my blogging as a class' important project extend my technological knowledge and skills, I am very positive that blogging will bring the same benefits to young students. Also I will try to embrace any better technological tools in the future; my risk-taking experience with this blogging has told me, "I can do!" I have also learned not to hesitate to get help when necessary :).

Creativity for Learning

1. Focus on my painting "Expression" of inner moods through curves (the one behind Stephanie)

2. The Workshop that I got involved at Madison Library

I created the first attachment of the painting “Expression” as a class assignment of Understanding Children and Ourselves via Art Exploration. We were given the different colors – but one color at a period of 3-4 minutes. Through the painting process, I explored my moods, letting my brush strokes freely follow these moods; different moods created long, curved lines, a smiling circle, and short closed curves. I told myself not to conform to any conventions, but I often heard myself telling what color represents what – for example red means bravery or daring. This art exploration without the determined right or wrong “answers” helped me confidently see my metacognition and understand myself. Next, I attached a poster of Children’s Creative Writing Workshop in which I was involved at the Madison County Library as a two-hour service-learning project of my creative writing class this semester. Our project had the kids be engaged in the writing games of placket poem, of character descriptions, and writing inspired by pictures. I basically worked with a girl, who was interesting to me. Her spelling skill was fairly weak for her fourth grade level. So she told me her ideas, and I wrote down for her. I also questioned her so that some of her ideas became well-developed.
The purpose of this reflection is to explore the benefits of these two creative events, – one that I experienced, and the other, me helping a kid experience creativity – and how to choose a developmentally appropriate creative activity for kids of different age levels. After my experience of painting “Expression,” I wrote a journal on that;” I included what I was feeling during the process, and what colors and strokes represented for me. Now reflecting again, I saw a new perspective: how my previous concepts of colors were automatically retrieved at my sight of these colors. And it was also good to reflect that I made my choices of each creation with the purpose, like gluing a green dolphin to represent my independent good friend, who loves dolphins and green. Also I am very glad to see that I created the paintings that were meaningful to me – for example, the green color reminded me of my love for grass and its quality of relaxing me. This reflection helps me realize that children would be painting things that means something to them. So their creative art works will definitely help me understand them as individuals. I certainly remember how much I felt good after this painting project; therefore, I am determined to implement creativity into lessons for my kids, which will really good for their spirit. Second, in the creative writing workshop for children that I got involved, the girl whom I worked with had very good imagination; she chose her story character to be a fairy who guarded the water body of the Kentucky River from pollution. The other girl who worked with my friend wrote a little piece including the music beats which were from her grandmother’s piano and her uncle’s guitar. I was amazed by their creative imagination. In contrast, through this experience, I reflected in the eyes of a future educator that children need more help with their spelling skills first to let their creative ideas fly in their writing. My fourth-grade girl did show her uneasiness with her weakness of spellings at first, so as I described earlier, I took over the writing role from her who let out her imaginative great ideas. After our writing of the story, the girl started drawing her fairy picture with special details; her painting did not need to have spelling errors, and no one was going to point out that her fairy should not be this way or that way. Therefore, reflecting on this experience, I recognize that as elementary school teachers, we should encourage young children more to write their creative ideas, so that their writing is more natural, and they are not scared to do more experimenting with their vocabulary. These two creative events led me think of the importance of creativity both in children’s learning and in teachers’ understanding of children’s thinking.
I included this entry under the foundations of education because it helps push my scope on how to implement creativity into my lesson planning which will give developmentally appropriate learning experience to my young students. My experience of painting “Expression” helped me feel my creative and mental growth: it did give me a chance to explore my understanding of metacognition, which would also become of a great help understand my young students’. Gazing at my fourth-grader being engaged in her detailed drawing of the fairy during my creative writing workshop for children, I questioned myself why drawing was more satisfying than writing for her; her development in spelling could not allow her to have correct spelling for any details flickering in her mind. But now I keep exploring what I wondered in one of my journal entries – why do some people hate writing, despite my strong passion for that? What do I associate the word “writing”? I inquire. The words come to me are meaningful, reflective and creative. So I strongly feel that I would best love to help my young students feel positive with their writing, and then they will overlook their occasional spelling errors in their enjoyable creative writing process.

Learning with brain and heart

Competition

She is my competitor now.
Why? No more friend or classmate?
I need to be able to answer
the question before she does.

Okay, is the answer yes or no?
No! I don’t know!
I must decode this logic question.
No! I don’t know!
Is she going to slap the answer
with her blue bendable ruler now?
No… please!

I know that I can do that.
I solved the same puzzle before.
Oh, is she going to slap the answer now?
No… please!
I’d like to show that
I am smarter than she is.
I will choose the right answer before she does.
But what’s the correct answer?
I don’t know. Is it yes or no?

Oh, she chose yes
as her team member from
the back of the class shouted.
She got a point.
Why? She could not answer the question either.
This point was not hers.
I read this in her eyes.
My soul sank, and my head down.
I wandered back to my seat.

Is it an activity to learn?
No, not at all.
But is it an assessment?
Even so, should it be under
the speed pressure?

Do I feel good after this?
Does she?
Is it learning?
Why should this activity be in a class?

I attached the pictures of a brain, heart, and my poem because in my experience of the poem, I only wanted to beat my competitor; I no more have a feeling of sharing or kindness to my classmate. As a result of lacking heart, my brain under competitive tension shut down its proper cognitive process. My poem's experience was during an EDS's peer teaching class. The teaching group was giving a review or assessment on the Piaget's Formal Operational thoughts and Concrete Operational thoughts at the Gang Age stage. Each member of the two teams came up in front of the projected screen, and slapped the right answer of the quizzes with the provided bendable rulers. Every time a question popped up on the screen, a teaching member read the question very quickly, and the two participants tried to slap the correct answer out of the two options. The first one who chose the right answer earned a point.
This poem experience led me to write some journals, and the attached poem was the second product out of the journals. I reread the first version of the poem after a few days later of writing, I was aghast by the phrase “my opponent” in the poem; I questioned myself, “why wasn’t she seen as my friend or classmate anymore?” Then, after setting aside the current poem one day, I reread it and was also appalled by my thoughts of “I’d like to show that I am smarter than she is.” Now reflecting on the poem experience, I recognized how these unhealthy thoughts out of my desire to beat her blocked my cognitive process of decoding the question. This experience put me into again the experience of my previous summer’s Intro: to Statistics Class. Since my Burmese Education system trained me to do lots of Math, I was almost always the one who gave the calculation answers first to the instruction’s questions. I sensed that other students felt inferior or not good enough with their capabilities. But like in the nature of all the competitions, I could not always be the one who got the answer first, and would definitely feel bad like in the poem. So after the summer class, I yearned for a writing class where individual ideas or perspectives are celebrated. I understand that people have different intelligences – not just the logical one which Math applies. Honestly, I do want all learners to feel good with their capabilities of learning. However, I questioned myself, “Does it mean that I am not going to teach my young kids Math where there is only one right answer, and some students got the answers earlier than the others?” Of course not. I think what matters is how I help them learn Math. So writing this entry, I remind myself that there are different ways to get to right answers, and my kids of different cognitive processes. And my classroom lessons will reinforce the cooperative learning environment where students’ sharing and kind human disposition is encouraged. Then their neuron fibers will keep running for their learning in their emotionally healthy classroom.
I included this entry under the authentic learning because the poem experience had no time for us to process the information, rather to compete for the right answers. Under this time pressure, students’ cognition could shut down like me. Also the competitive situation brought emotionally strain to the students for their capabilities. Learning from this peer teaching’s lesson, I am determined to create the authentic learning environment for kids where they have a chance to cooperate their brain power with their caring disposition for one another. My classroom lessons will more focus on students’ critical and creative thinking, and they should feel good about their own abilities.

No tension for learning, please

Competition

Holding the green bendable ruler
And standing up in front of the board
Like my opponent classmate
I read the question,
But the words were just words to me.
My ability to decode them halted.
I slapped back and forth on
the answers “yes” and “no”
Without knowing what to choose.

I heard the classmates at the back shouting “yes.”
I ran through the words again
But a simple logic question made
No sense to me.
Feeling rooted and gazing at the question
I wished for vanishing.

The opponent slapped on “yes”
When her team member continuously shouted for it.
She got one more point.
I lingered back to my seat
With my head down.

Leaving the classroom,
I slumped myself in a chair
And read a children’s book
To keep my frenetic thoughts
Slowly at bay again.

I wrote this poem based on my experience at a group teaching in the class. I feel the tense feeling during competition not only in me but also in several other students. I know that the purpose of this activity is to assess or revise what the group leacture on Piaget's Concrete Operational or Formal Operational thoughts. I remember, as a first student from my team coming out in front of the board to answer, after reading the question I know what it meant, but under the pressure to slap the answer more quickly than my opponent, I slapped on the wrong one. Again, to answer the logic question in which event the above poem mainly focus on, Valerie's fast reading aloud the question sentence to us "enhanced" my tension to slap the answer as quickly as possible, so I felt this tension shutting down all of my cognitive doors. Like I described in the poem, my oponent was also just slapping the answer without thinking much or even understanding the question. This experience deeply have me think of how the this or that question type does not help us learn anything about the concepts that teachers want to get across. Although I still don't want to say that any competition is no good for learning, I truly tell myself to be more considerate whenever I exploit "competition" for their learning. I put this entry under authentic learning because the activity which put the learners under the speed pressure, so bring so much tension to their cognitive process really call my attention on what learning means to my kids.

organized classroom

This picture was taken during my PEH 220 class' obervation at Berea Community school. In the picture the kids were engaged with different tasks -- some with reading books, and some with writing. At the literacy session, the class teacher, Lori, instructed her students the different activities that they would be involved in. Listening to the long lecture, I at first thought, “So many instructions for young kids to remember.” But once they started their activities, I realized that the kids knew what to do, and these activities seemed to be part of the classroom routines. And I also noticed that there was an interactive communication in which the kids asked Lori the questions to clarify, before the actual activities resumed. The physical classroom itself was well-organized with different colored spots for the groups of students. There was a spot for their independent reading, the mailboxes for the students’ completed writings, and the assigned baskets for finished works. During my close observation of the small group’s guided reading led by Lori, I saw that Lori had some quiet kids speak up for their opinions, which I think is very important for kids’ emotional and social well-beings. So this classroom's structure and enviornment helped me reflect on a good organized classroom which let children feel like they are in charge of their learning. I include this entry under foundations of education because this well-organized classroom is a result of a teacher's systematic planning of lessons and creating the learning routine -- which is especailly good for kids who works best when they are in a reliable routine.