Tag: teaching

Community support during COVID-19: resources and ideas for supporting 0-18 year olds’ learning at home #BetterTogether📚💛👩🏼‍🏫👩🏼‍💻

Kate Newton OakleyLeave a comment

**FEEL FREE TO SHARE – LIST IN COMMENTS IS PUBLIC** And so the world has begun homeschooling/digitally educating children en masse. If you need assistance with understanding something that has been assigned for your child or if you need more resources, please let me know. I am a teacher and will be more than happy to help answer questions. We’ve already set up a high school study group for students in our family and I’ve got stacks of learning resources/activity ideas for children aged 0-8 – I’m sure we can find a way to make it digital! (I’m also a dab hand at turning Disney films and BBC documentaries into relevant learning 😉) #BetterTogether📚💛👩🏼‍🏫👩🏼‍💻
— Read on m.facebook.com/story.php

Ask Kate: reclaiming the word ‘classroom’

Kate Newton OakleyLeave a comment

I’ve recently been asked why I refer to our woods as the “woodland classroom” and why I insist on calling our infant unit a classroom too. The question had overtones of “let children be children” but actually, my reasoning for using the phrase “classroom” to describe the environments my pupils spend their time in is both full of reverence for the importance of early childhood experiences and an attempt to communicate that.

This is not about schoolification, this is about reclaiming the word ‘classroom’ to communicate in a way that is readily understood by laymen that children are learning in my setting. Babies, toddlers and older children are learning (through play!) all the time, in all environments (even when you don’t want them to!) – and the word classroom in its purest form is a place where you learn, gain experiences and engage in experiences. Yes, my pupils also benefit from warm, responsive staff in classroom who carefully scaffold their learning – but we also have the ethos that no child can grow and learn until they feel safe and secure first.

In the same way that Forest School uses the semantics of the word ‘school’ to communicate the important ‘work’ (Maria Montessori definition) children undertake within that space – so I use words to raise the profile of the incredible development, growth and tenacity my children exhibit every day in my classrooms. Until early childhood is universally understood to be vital and foundational to all other learning (tied up with early years profession’s perception, worth and value – I suspect!), I use the words that communicate this.

Let me know your thoughts on this – do you have particular words in your setting that you use for their wider meaning rather than their perceived restrictions?