SPRING HOLLOW EARLY LEARNING CENTER
NOTHING WITHOUT JOY!
The mission of Spring Hollow is to help nurture and raise loving, happy, and confident students in a safe, inviting and beautiful learning environment; through activities that encourage accepting, collaborative and creative expression.
4207 Arno Road, Franklin TN 37064 (MAP) 615-794-9343
Exploring Spring Hollow Inspirations Visible and Not So Visible Differences
Katherine Ratliff Moon, Director
There are three teachers in the child's world. Firstly, the children are teachers. There is the child and there are the child's peers. Secondly, there is the environment. Thirdly, there is the adult, the teachers and the parents.
The children are autonomous. Children are intelligent, kind, make choices, discover, explore and invent. When the environment and teachers accept their roles, children's autonomy is fostered. Children are able to exist to their full potential. Children are given the right to freely express symbolic representations to clarify existing theories. With an inviting environment and an environment which depicts the journey of children through displayed symbolic representations, children can connect new knowledge to old knowledge and better extend upon theories. Children obtain ownership of the environment through helping to create the environment and then are able to revisit, study, and expand upon accomplishments. Children and adults collaborate with each other in the role of teaching and learning partners to research theories. Through discussions and revisits to documentations of their journey, children gain a higher understanding of their existence. Children learn best by recreating the world children already know and have experienced.
The environment is beautiful and inviting for the children. The environment contains more history, art, mirrors, documents, and photos to enhance the exploration of the study of self, social interaction, and the understanding of others for the teachers as well as for the students. The environment invites hands-on exploration so that the children's symbolic representations of their theories can be expressed and valued through drama, drawings, collage, clay creations, story telling, sound effects, etc. No list is exhaustive of materials and their purpose to be used e.g. recycled material, clay, paint, blocks, etc. These are the materials necessary for the children to express theories beyond verbal communication. These are their communication tools. The environment is inviting for all the languages of communication and provides private spaces for privacy and solitude. The environment is easy for a visitor to read. It is a visual representation of what the children experience in the environment with or without the children present.
The parents are a vital part of the school. They are the thread that holds it all together. In a curriculum which works toward accepting the whole child, it is necessary that there are strong connections between the home and the school. It is necessary that parents step beyond focusing on their individual children and see their children's connection to others, the school environment, and understand the relationship between home and school. It is important that the parents be involved in some way so that their children feel that school experiences are valued by the parents. Ideally, it is beneficial for parents to spend volunteer time helping within the classroom. If this is not possible, parents can accomplish tasks that benefit the school outside of the classroom, e.g. preparing document boards and materials for creations and inventions by the children. The parents' point of view should be respected and a valuable addition to the evolution of the school. Once the parents understand and value the goals of the school, their point of view and suggestions are a valuable part of accomplishing these goals. Tools for open communication should be available. Such tools as a private website, a notebook between home and school, meetings, and get-togethers are important tools toward mindfully building a strong community to support our children. Since the parents are invited to spend time in teacher roles inside the classroom, it is important that parents understand the role of a Spring Hollow teacher. This is achieved through study, observation, experience, reflection, and role modeling the teachers.
The teachers respect the whole child. Within training to become teachers, they have heard over and over again that they must teach the whole child. They cannot separate the head from the heart. Everything is connected in some way although this may not be visible to the adult point of view. Children not only have outlets to express academic theories but outlets to explore emotions. Teachers openly discuss feelings of social inclusion and exclusion with children in order to actively teach social skills and acts of altruism. Teachers create opportunities to celebrate all differences, those which are visible and not so visible. First and foremost, they create an environment so that all points of view are valued. Teachers pay close attention to the child. Teachers use all forms of listening skills: attentive, door openers, reflective, and active listening. Teachers ask questions, clarify, give specific encouragement, and explore children's existing and evolving theories. Teachers pay close attention like detectives to children's discussions, actions, behaviors, and conversations to uncover all the clues to understand the meanings behind the actions. Teachers intervene only after thoughtful consideration. Teachers document by recording observations of children, theories expressed by children about their creations, personal reflections, and photos.
When entering into the process of learning, teachers enter as an equal partner to the child, helping the child to the next level of thought. Teachers do not disrupt the child's natural evolution of learning. The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator. Teachers trust the children to follow their interests, respect children as equal partners in the learning process, and accept children as teachers as well as learners. Teachers "web" with the children. They allow children the right to solve problems. Teachers evaluate and reflect upon their own values and prejudices so that these will not non-consciously be imposed onto children. Teachers propose and invite, and do not impose and limit solutions to challenges. Teachers accept negation as well as acceptance to their academic invitations. Teachers think before acting, know when "to hold and when to fold", when to intervene to enhance exploration or for a need of discipline and when to let the children proceed with their problem solving with peer collaboration. In this way, "think starters" and not "think stoppers" are created. Teachers separate behavior non-choices from academic and emotional choices. Teachers let the children have continuous input as to how the subject is studied and allow the direction to emerge from their questions and theories, real or imagined. They "project only in the sand, not the stone". Teachers respect where children are, not where they want to take them. Teachers allow the children to be "gatherers" of knowledge.
Teachers help to dissect information along the path of knowledge growth so that children are not overloaded with information. The key to constructivist curriculum is to allow the children to research with teachers as learning partners, most of the time taking the lead role. Teachers slow down. Teachers do not teach in segments, nor are regulated by a predetermined time frame. Teachers avoid being on a straight path, but are aware and honor all the different ways to get to the same point which then becomes a beginning to another destination. There is no final destination. Teachers value the process more than the product. Teachers will be confused, ask questions, dig deeper, and make their own symbolic representations of the knowledge they are learning with various material. Teachers reflect and collaborate with their peers, as like the children do with their peis understood in a deeper and more meaningful way.
Beyond Creatives 2009