Teaching the Whole Child and Social Emotional Learning

It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self. D. W. Winnicott 

What is it to Teach the Whole Child, and how does that equate with Social Emotional Learning? 

Teaching the Whole Child is about embracing every aspect of, not only what it is to be a child, but a fierce advocate in your own classroom and schools of the individual child. This does not just begin in Pre-K, but it extends on to the 19 year old student ready to graduate or face dropping out. 

Social Emotional Learning is putting into place those key ingredients so as to help form not only the Whole Child, but to prepare each child for developing the tools necessary to be kind, caring, altruistic, self-supporting, self-loving, giving, and at times their own fierce advocate. 

Long before the contemporary terms Whole Child, Play-based Learning and Social Emotional Learning were being used, we were doing "play" as a regular process in our schools. I remember going off to kindergarten and the classroom was set up with a play kitchen and a grocery store. The focus was on how to work together, how to take turns, how to care for toys, how to open up our own milk carton, how to lay quietly so as not to disturb the others in the room, and yes take a nap. We were learning how to function in a our own mini-society. I can smell the paste, crayons, and Mrs. Smith's perfume. I recall what it felt like to learn how to trust another woman (person) other than my mother as she created a place of mutual love, support, trust, and caring among children who were not my brothers and sisters. All of that was me becoming independent from my familial unit. Play allowed me to grow as an independent person and trust a bigger world. (I am still friends with some of those children I met in kindergarten.) 

Teaching the Whole Child - Defined 

TWC is a sensory experience; all of the child’s senses are accessed in order to create a meaningful learning experience

TWC challenges a child academically

TWC engages a child and elevates them to a new understanding of themselves and the world in which they live

TWC provides a safe, secure, healthy, relational reality.

TWC guarantees that a child is prepared as a 21st century learner

Simple ways you can embrace the Whole Child into your learning environments and infuse Social Emotional Learning: 
Don't be afraid to read your students stories to get them thinking. Children's literature is a profound way to get your kids thinking, feeling and responding. Patricia Polacco is a provocative story teller, who gets to the heart of the matter. Imagine being the next TED presenter in your own classrooms or schools. 

Take your students off campus and have an organized, intentional, purpose-filled lesson planned. Don't just go to a park to play, but go to a park with a lesson on civic responsibility in mind and clean up the park. Help them experience the world around them and other than the cost of the school bus it is a free field trip, filled with amazing lessons. 

Invite professionals into the classroom to not only talk about what they do, but how they help other people, give to others and integrate literature, music and art into the lesson. 

Infuse STEM into your lesson planning. STEM integration leads a child into understanding the interconnectedness of the world and themselves. So, if science is the study of nature and mathematics is the universal language used to explain nature, than play is the universal exploration of the unknown that leads to scientific understanding and ultimate explanation. 

Play as the continuous evidence of creativity...play as both a child's language about interpreting the world, cut them off from play and the child is lost in an unintelligible environment. D.W. Winnicott

The picture at the top of this blog is me at the ripe ole age of 5. You can see the joy that is expressed in the faces of my cousin Scotty age 4, brother Ricky age 3 and myself. We were all about play and creating our own world. This is one of my favorite pictures because it reminds me of the wonderful childhood I had and how filled with wonder and experience that we had. It is why I am an educator, because every child deserves the right to freely experience great joy and discover the self!

In closing Teaching the Whole Child and Social Emotional Learning is all wrapped up in a beautiful Play-filled bow! 

Edmentum Educator Summit Recap - GROW

"Innovated to something greater!" and " We don't want to be left out of learning" are two things that resonated with me profoundly. Those words were spoken from the heart of Ja'Davion a High School Junior and a participant in the round table discussion that took place on June 14th, 2019 at the Edmentum Educator Summit, held at the Edmentum headquarters in Richardson Texas.

Ja'Davion like many of the educators who were included in the world of Edmentors was asking, "why can't we do better?" If you are an educator at some point you have used the phrase, "I was called." You see, being an educator, a shaper of lives, a giver of knowledge, you must be called, as it is not a profession for the weak, or apathetic.

For two solid days, my peers and I were given the royal treatment by an organization that leads by example, walks the walk, and talks the talk! (please pardon my cliches) #EducatorsFirst.

But wait, why not children first, or students first? After spending time with Edmentum superstars, Winnie, Dave, Christy and the Dallas team, I can tell you why; they get it! Like the flight attendant on an airplane will tell you, "if this plane loses pressure, place the oxygen mask on yourself before giving it to the child sitting next to you!" WOW, absolutely! On the way home from Dallas I had a boy about 11 sitting next to me and traveling alone. The attendant said, "remember, place the mask over your nose and mouth before offering it to..." At first I had a horrible pang of guilt, and then I remembered why the stronger of the two individuals must have the ability to save others.

Edmentum had the oxygen flowing, (along with incredible food!) and was filling us up with a renewed sense of purpose, belonging and importance. I had forgotten how important it is to engage in "self-care." The Educator's Summit was a spa, Ah, Ah Ha moment for me. I grew over those two glorious days.  As I sat in amazement watching outstanding leaders from neighboring states laugh, smile, joke, cheer each other on, support, high five, and "shake hands" (don't look too long or squeeze too hard!) I sat back and said, "yes, I do belong, these people are my tribe!"

We were encouraged to reflect, plot, plan, set goals, and in the end, put #educatorsfirst with the support of truly committed professionals. Page six of the Educator Summit handbook "Making the Most of Your Summit Experience" is wildly important because I keep going back over it and reminding myself to breathe deep into the survival mask and "innovate to something greater!"

As I was pondering the profound work that Principal Dr. Zach Bost and Principal Kristopher Byam are doing to transform their school communities I wrote a note and pasted it to my handbook "GROW - Gaining Rich Opportunities Within." I realized that it is not just about me and the experience, but what I know and dream of bringing to whatever learning community  I am called to lead.

To answer a couple of the questions that were included on page six: Why am I Here? WOW, we often ask ourselves that question from a literal to a metaphysical perspective. The questions: What is my purpose? "My purpose is to connect, discover, grow in understanding and emerge renewed. Learning from others is meaningful, and purposeful, and seeing things grow is what moves me." What are my strengths? Knowing your strengths and standing upon them makes all the difference. "I know curriculum and instruction and how to connect the dots. I am a life-long learner who looks back at the end of every day to see what I learned, did or experienced that was new.  I dig deep. I am a trouble-shooter and look for "gotcha's" before moving forward. I love improving systems and people. I am a project specialist. I am good at growing things. I am an elevator and a servant." How do I want to Grow Professionally? "I want to impact the lives of as many individuals as I can. I am working methodically on my garden. I have been toiling away at it for a few years now, systematically arranging perennials, interspersed with annuals for the sole purpose of moving to a point of minimal effort and greater enjoyment as I see all of my babies grow to fruition. I have been toiling away in my educator's garden for more years than I can count as a first teacher to my amazing adult daughters, then as a professional educator. Like my perennials, I know what is an immediate aha, and what is a perennial that I will draw upon in years to come.  How can I change my perspective? (have you ever noticed they always save the hardest question at the end?) I need to emerge from my place of fear and stand boldly upon the answers to the preceding questions and GROW - Gaining, Rich, Opportunities, Within!

Remember - Less Time, More Time, ponder that one. Oh and it is okay...#EducatorsFirst 

American Kids Are Still Testing Below the Fifty Percentile

Here is a great article that highlights some of the issues plaguing education and why we continue to have sagging reading scores. The chart below is relatively misleading. Imagine if the 100% was visible in this chart as opposed to having it stop at 60%, and then imagine if it were turned to represent a horizontal depiction as opposed to vertical. The results are actually staggering!

Percentage of U.S. students proficient in reading

My Immediate Response:

It is still shocking that only 36% of our nation's 8th grade students are reading at grade level. That reality has not changed very much since 1974 when nationalized testing began. Here are a few thoughts on that issue:

School has become about far more than giving our kids the basics necessary to survive in a world dependent upon common symbolic representations of language. When Nationwide testing began in the early 70's it was discovered that in theory the majority of the USA was illiterate or maybe, the testing did not really measure the actual ability of the 3rd/5th grade test taker. Nothing has changed! At that time millions - now billions of dollars has been invested into research to understand that our 3rd/5th grade students have not really progressed over the past 40 years, because the research is ignored!

First and foremost, all teachers need to be diagnosticians with the time and support needed to help identify our struggling learners. Additionally, we need to eliminate or at the very least reduce the quantity of standardized testing and all the many tests that do not diagnose issues, but merely give a level of data that only shows a commonality among the students. Assessments must be meaningful, pertinent and purposeful.

It is an imperative that parents along with teachers and association/unions come together to fight the insanity that has become standardized education. I have said for as long as I have been in education "follow the money" therein lies your answers." Then, listen to the warnings out there about the overuse of mobile devices, internet and social media, unless it is purposeful and advancing a student's learning. Failure to do so is setting our kids up for failure. The overuse of testing is taking away from our student's ability to progress. Remember - "Tests do not teach," only one on one time focused on what needs to be learn teaches humans. Data can be used to identify growth, but only when a person is actually being measured specific to what has been taught and that is not necessarily appropriate by way of standardized testing.

https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read