This blog is meant to be a space where teachers engage in discussion about curriculum, the role of the teacher, investigation, drawing, and the barriers surrounding the implementation of the Project Approach.
The Nature of a Project
Project work promotes "children's intellectual development by engaging their minds in observation and investigation of selected aspects of their experience and environment" (Katz & Chard, 2000).
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Two questions
The two questions posed this time are 1) How do you keep children of all ages interested in the project? 2) How do you get the time to document and plan?
How do I find time to do circle time or gross motor time? These are carried out because many teachers feel these are important times of the day for the children in their classroom. Maybe the next step in documenting and planning is also to find the reasoning why is important and beneficial. Until then, there will never be time.
Documentation and planning are as important as circle time and gross motor time. The problem we have with finding time is not having coverage to pull out to do these. Circle and gross motor time is with our children and thus doesn't require extra coverage.
Having the time to document and plan the project is difficult especially when other things take precedence. Such as creative curriculum and observations and lesson plans etc. However, if we focus our time on documenting what the children are learning from the project first, it just fits nicely into creative curriculum goals and objectives. As well as, planning the project fits into the lesson plan..So its kind of a two fold. If that makes sense.. focus on the project and planning for it and the rest will fit into place. When nap time doesn't seem to be enough of a work time or things start to fall behind I just simply asked my supervisor for a sub. A day to get out of the classroom and catch up. She was able to provide that for us and that helped out immensely.
I agree that we as teachers need to realize the importance of documenting and planning. That means anytime you do have time to do "teacher work" you should include documenting and planning as a priority. That being said, I think supervisors and higher ups also need to realize that if we (teachers) don't have that time built into our regular schedules, they need to provide us with subs or some way to give us time to get this work done. This has always been an issue for child care staff since there are potentially children present from open til close each day. I think we as teachers need to use our time wisely, but there are times when we need assistance to get our work done in a timely manner.
I strongly agree with the last comment made. We need to have planning time given to us from the higher ups. I was getting very frustrated looking at the comments earlier about just making it a priority or just letting your supervisor know you need a sub. This is a sore subject at our center right now due to a staff member who has been absent more than present this month. We have pulled staff from other areas to make ratio, there is no "extra." I want to document, I even have pictures piling up in the closet, just no time to step out of the room except on lunch break!! Sorry, but I am feeling very upset with this situation right now.
I can see that the question of time has definitely taken precedence and definitely has an emotional component for all of you. There will never be enough time, but we need to work with what we have and make the most of it. One comment was making documentation a priority which is true, we often give priority to those things we think we have to do and documentation keeps being put off to the side. Trust me I know this as I feel I am always falling behind on my documentation and never adequately keep track of all I do. With this said, the reality is that often there are things that require our attention. In addition, there often just is no time. I think the issue of having the entire staff on board is something we need to address more intentionally and purposefully by posing the question of how to work around the need to hold documentation time as sacred. It can be very frustrating when you plan to document only to arrive at work and find things have changed. I think this is something we should pose to the study group and continue to have dialogue. If it only becomes a complaint, the problem ceases to be addressed and we never come to a solution. Just as we need to work to develop persistence in children, we also need to be persistent in stating the needs for time to document. There is some literature from Reggio that also discusses the importance of having quality time to document, dialogue and plan which we can investigate. I have one question at this point: Do you think having Fridays set aside will provide adequate time for documentation or are you feeling like that time will also be taken away from you?
In our classroom there is a wide range of age groups. We have many 3 year olds, with short attention spans. We use enthusiasm to get our class motivated. We use proper terms for the activities (ex:cement, morter, brick, stone, boulder etc.) and hands on activities to keep interest levels high, especially for the younger learners.
How do I find time to do circle time or gross motor time? These are carried out because many teachers feel these are important times of the day for the children in their classroom. Maybe the next step in documenting and planning is also to find the reasoning why is important and beneficial. Until then, there will never be time.
ReplyDeleteDocumentation and planning are as important as circle time and gross motor time. The problem we have with finding time is not having coverage to pull out to do these. Circle and gross motor time is with our children and thus doesn't require extra coverage.
ReplyDeleteHaving the time to document and plan the project is difficult especially when other things take precedence. Such as creative curriculum and observations and lesson plans etc. However, if we focus our time on documenting what the children are learning from the project first, it just fits nicely into creative curriculum goals and objectives. As well as, planning the project fits into the lesson plan..So its kind of a two fold. If that makes sense.. focus on the project and planning for it and the rest will fit into place. When nap time doesn't seem to be enough of a work time or things start to fall behind I just simply asked my supervisor for a sub. A day to get out of the classroom and catch up. She was able to provide that for us and that helped out immensely.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we as teachers need to realize the importance of documenting and planning. That means anytime you do have time to do "teacher work" you should include documenting and planning as a priority. That being said, I think supervisors and higher ups also need to realize that if we (teachers) don't have that time built into our regular schedules, they need to provide us with subs or some way to give us time to get this work done. This has always been an issue for child care staff since there are potentially children present from open til close each day. I think we as teachers need to use our time wisely, but there are times when we need assistance to get our work done in a timely manner.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with the last comment made. We need to have planning time given to us from the higher ups. I was getting very frustrated looking at the comments earlier about just making it a priority or just letting your supervisor know you need a sub. This is a sore subject at our center right now due to a staff member who has been absent more than present this month. We have pulled staff from other areas to make ratio, there is no "extra." I want to document, I even have pictures piling up in the closet, just no time to step out of the room except on lunch break!! Sorry, but I am feeling very upset with this situation right now.
ReplyDeleteI can see that the question of time has definitely taken precedence and definitely has an emotional component for all of you. There will never be enough time, but we need to work with what we have and make the most of it. One comment was making documentation a priority which is true, we often give priority to those things we think we have to do and documentation keeps being put off to the side. Trust me I know this as I feel I am always falling behind on my documentation and never adequately keep track of all I do. With this said, the reality is that often there are things that require our attention. In addition, there often just is no time.
ReplyDeleteI think the issue of having the entire staff on board is something we need to address more intentionally and purposefully by posing the question of how to work around the need to hold documentation time as sacred. It can be very frustrating when you plan to document only to arrive at work and find things have changed. I think this is something we should pose to the study group and continue to have dialogue. If it only becomes a complaint, the problem ceases to be addressed and we never come to a solution. Just as we need to work to develop persistence in children, we also need to be persistent in stating the needs for time to document. There is some literature from Reggio that also discusses the importance of having quality time to document, dialogue and plan which we can investigate.
I have one question at this point: Do you think having Fridays set aside will provide adequate time for documentation or are you feeling like that time will also be taken away from you?
In our classroom there is a wide range of age groups. We have many 3 year olds, with short attention spans. We use enthusiasm to get our class motivated. We use proper terms for the activities (ex:cement, morter, brick, stone, boulder etc.) and hands on activities to keep interest levels high, especially for the younger learners.
ReplyDelete