Making meaning out of all we do...

 What is the goal of teaching alongside and with children?

Yesterday I was standing outside of my school greeting children as they walked in.  Interestingly, the night before I was reading an article about Early Childhood Centers. The article mentioned that Early Childhood Centers are about children making meaning of life.  

I began to think about the words “meaning making,” and what does that mean to me, to our students, and to the staff I work with each day.  Sometimes as I try to extend my knowledge in Early Childhood by reading articles, the language used in those articles is so difficult, I am not even sure if I am understanding what they are saying!  And then on this particular day, a Pre-K student named Teddy walked by.  I said, "Good morning," with my usual smile, and Teddy said, "Miss Robin, why are you always so happy when you are working?"

MEANING MAKING DEFINED!

Teddy is thinking about adults and jobs and feelings connected to work. He may be wondering if people who go to work should not be happy. Is he wondering about his parents, his grandparents, other family members, and himself? What does he know about jobs? He is making meaning about feelings and their connections to our jobs.  

Teddy's question made me think so deeply about the words "meaning making," and our job as educators in honoring this as part of our education for these intelligent and thoughtful young children that we engage with daily.  

We are teaching letters, numbers, and all kinds of math and literacy experiences are happening all around us and of course so much more.  We teach phonics and syllables and print awareness as is needed, yet what is the focus and attention we give to meaning making?  How important is this to us and our children? What is the importance in Teddy's question? Children ask so many questions such as these each day. Are we listening? What do we hear and how do we encourage conversation and thought around these meaning making questions and ponderings of the young children around us?  Because learning does not happen in isolation! Therefore, we have a great opportunity before us.  As they make meaning of life in their experiences and wonderings in the classroom we incorporate reading, writing, math, and science and everything that we want to expose children to in our schools. 

In a classroom on another day a group of children were sitting at the snack table when another child came to join.  One student said, "Sorry, the snack table is for 4 students only, and you make 5." Another student said, "Well I am here giving out snack, but I am not eating snack, do I count in the 4?" I was thinking, “this is a debate!” These 4-year-olds are wondering so many amazing things about what it means to live in a Democratic world or in a community! Do we have to follow the rule of only 4? Who decides this? Who counts in the numbers? Where is the gray and the flexibility to look at these rules? What if the rule is 4 but if there is room for 5 and plenty of snack to go around, can we change the rule? I sat back watching and listening as they debated these questions.  Meaning making happened at the snack table!  

Our Early Childhood Center is focused on listening, observing, and supporting children as they make meaning of the world.  Together we are constructing, reconstructing, and questioning what we know while seeking information on what we don't know so that we can think critically. Opportunities to make meaning arise in experiences in the school setting constantly. Do we give attention to these experiences in the same way we give attention to other areas of learning? If children are in debate, do we end the debate for circle time? If children are wondering if people go to jobs and are happy, do we research this alongside them? Where do we direct our attention and focus on the education, we expose our students to each day? 

We want our students to think about what it means to be happy at work.  We want them to one day walk into their own job with a bounce in their step, a smile on their face, a new thought in their mind and perhaps a bit of gratitude in their heart. 

Our students will be able to read and count like many parents ask us, and at the same time we need to facilitate learning in ways that help them build their identity through all of their experiences that value and give credence to their questions and wonderings as they make meaning out of life.  Our role if we are valuing that involves slowing down in our own practice to lean into these kinds of explorations alongside them in our classrooms.

Shout out to my daughter for giving me this adorable purse! She wanted to support her friend's mother who is selling these and she wanted to give me something unique!  How adorable is this when you live in South Florida?!