Butterflies going home

What interaction is happening?

Dear Lina,

During outside time you were near the butterflies interacting with children asking questions about why the butterflies were outside today. You intentionally set up the butterflies in a space where children were invited from both classrooms to ask questions and engage. In this interaction you were actively listening to the children's questions and comments. Martha approached you and said, “Why are they outside?” You responded by asking, “where have you seen butterflies before?” Martha then responded by sharing a story about seeing butterflies in her grandma's garden. You acknowledge the story Martha shared and you then added, “why are these butterflies different from the ones in your grandma's garden?” Martha then shared how our classroom butterflies were growing in our classroom not outside. Martha added, “it is time for the butterflies to go home like the butterflies in grandma's garden, butterflies like the garden” In this interaction with Martha and with the other children your questions allowed children to make connections to their own experiences by providing open-end questions and opportunities for children to think and respond.

What does it mean?

Lina in today's interaction you were engaging with Martha and the other children in different elements of the CLASS. Your ability to authentically listen to the children shows the positive climate, and regard to students’ perspectives. When Martha asked you a question you gave the opportunity to extend thinking, when you encouraged her to apply and explain her understanding of what was happening. This provided an opportunity to engage in quality feedback loops. These quality feedback loops, shows your ability to use questions to extend children’s thinking. After Martha was able to explain her understanding and make connections you then provided a follow-up question for Martha to compare and contrast what she has experienced and what was happening today with our classroom butterflies. In this interaction you were specifically showing elements developing her concept development by making connections to her real-world experiences.

Reflections and Next Steps?

Reflections with Teacher Lina during nap time the next day:

I am curious, what do you think about this observation? It is nice to see the change in my interactions with children. I think it is funny you captured this moment because I was thinking about the questioning techniques that we have previously talked about. Looking back at this I do want to share that it was hard to pause and think of questions because sometimes I do want to just give the answer. Can you make connections to other resources for extending children’s thinking? In the part that you are sharing what does it mean, I notice that it connects to the big questions book. This is the piece that I am still working on is extending children’s thinking through questions. This section lets me make a connection to the book we are

How do you like this format to documenting your learning and engagement in the classroom? It took awhile to get this process and it was through you as a mentor to learn what is appropriate practice with children when you were my head teacher and mentor in the classroom. It will support my learning and practice, the learning and connections to our trainings and workshops makes it real.

Do you see value in documenting your learning through a story? I see my strengths, I was able to stop and think with children, IT MAKES ME FEEL PROUD to see these moments. I also really like how personal you can make a story. I like that I can make really connections of what we talk about in our reflection meetings and then actually get to see it in practice.