C4T#3

Teacher Tom's Blog
I have enjoyed Teacher Tom's so much. He is so real and passionate about helping kids learn in ways they NEED to learn. He truly believes that kids need to be kids and they are going to mess up, make messes, and get in trouble but that is how they learn. He disagrees with the Common Core State Standards because they are set standards and do not allow kids to get curious about their own questions. Teacher Tom makes such great points and I agree with just about everything he says. I throughly enjoyed my C4T#3 assignment and will continue to follow his blog posts.

October 15, 2013
"Without Some Grown-Up Yelling At Us"

Teacher Tom is a Preschool Teacher from Seattle, Washington. He is the author of “A Parent’s Guide to Seattle”. He has been an employee at Woodland Park Cooperative preschool for 11 years. He has the kids as 2-years olds and keep them until they turn 5-years old and leave for kindergarten. On October 15, 2013, Teacher Tom wrote a blog titled “Without Some Grown-Up Yelling At Us”. I loved this post and couldn’t have agreed more with what he was stating. He stated that there is way too much nagging, drilling, and coaxing instead of playing for these younger grades. Children should have the chance to let their imaginations go wild, get dirty, and even get in a little trouble playing with neighborhood kids because that is what being a kid is all about. Yes, kids need structure and discipline, I COMPLETELY agree with that. Kids also need time to play and be a kid though. This is how a child figures out their hobbies and their favorite activities. This is how a child becomes an individual. Schools and parents are so worried about their children failing at something, that they forget to let them just be a child. I very much enjoyed his blog post and thanked him for reminding bloggers to let children be children, because that is what they are designed for. Tom ended his blog with this, "When we take away their free play, we take away their ability to learn life's most important lessons: to take responsibility, to persevere, to create, to make agreements with others, and yes to get back up when we fail without some grown-up yelling at us for having fallen."

October 22, 2013
"Out Of The Box Curricula"

Teacher Tom had a surprise shipment one day from a stranger. It was a random board game that he had never heard of, had been previously used, and contained no instructions. He put it up on a shelf and forgot about until he shared with us this blog post. One day, he simply gave the game to the kids and told them to figure it out. Once the game was sat down, curious kids came to see what it was. A rotating group of children put their heads together for an hour working on this game, They discussed, debating, experimented, and struggled, but eventually, had some “ah ha” moments. One child even came up asked for tape to make some repairs to some game pieces. When it was time to leave, one child had devised a set of rules for actually playing the game the next day. The children spent one hour engaging with one another on creating a game, and hadn’t even gotten to the actual playing yet.

Teacher Tom stated that people ask him about his opinion on the Common Core State Standards, and he doesn’t not like them simply because they are standardized. This does not give children time for the type of learning they experienced while working together to create rules for this board game. In most classrooms, students are expected to learn specific skills and bits of knowledge. If students don’t learn these standards and the level and time that they should be, then it’s just too bad and they are made to feel inadequate. Maybe these particular students who “misbehave” really are eager to learn but maybe not this way, at this time, or in this certain manner. By letting the students figure out this board game, Teacher Tom was showing that he trusts the students with their own education that allows them to learn exactly what they are curious about learning, when they are curious about it, and in the best way the satisfies their curiosity. Education is just easy when it is based on the children’s curiosity because education through play is the most efficient way to grasp their attention and make them be interested.