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Curtis, D., Brown, K. L., Baird, L., & Coughlin, A. M. (2013). Planning Environmentsand Materials That Respond to Young Children's Lively Minds. YC Young Children, 68(4), 26.
Paley, V. G. (2007). HER classic: On listening to what the children say. Harvard Educational Review, 77(2), 152.
Sitton, T. (1980). The child as informant: The teacher as ethnographer. Language Arts, 57(5), 540-545.

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I came to graduate school with questions, "how is the best school?" "What is the best practice of teaching?"

This course and my observation of the six schools helped me learn that no "best school" exists. Each school has its own strengths and focus that can help students with different characteristics and potential. As parents, knowing your children and finding schools that could support their children best is an important task.

Even though there are no best schools, schools and teachers should always strive to support all students regardless of their gender, race, or culture. We as an educator should strive to celebrate and develop learning based on the characteristics, behavior, and culture of our students. With that, I hope that students can learn authentically, have agency, be respected, and be confident in themselves in their learning. Most importantly, we should strive to make students enjoy and be happy in learning!

I am so grateful to be able to learn through all the observations. It was an experience I won't forget, and I will always look back to this class.

Thank you so much, especially to Lara! <3

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Insight 5: Language is powerful, and children are powerful as well!

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Insight 5: Language is powerful, and children are powerful as well!

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During my observation, something I recognized the most was the importance of language. The language itself and how we speak the language (the tone, the volume of our voice) are really important in education, especially as a teacher.

I saw how dual language schools like Dos Puentes and Avenues allow children who speak the other language than English (such as Spanish and Chinese) some sense of belonging in the classroom. Not just that, students whose mother tongue is Spanish and English can receive better support in their learning. Students can feel more motivated in their learning, more engaged, and happier in their learning (and I actually saw the big smiles!)

The tone and the way the teacher speaks are also important, especially in relationship building between teacher and students. When the teacher spoke in such a soft, understanding tone, students seemed to be more comfortable in their learning. They know that even if they made some mistakes, the teachers would not talk in such a hostile tone that would make students afraid.

The content teacher says is also crucial. I saw how in City and Country, language was a vehicle to give trust and support to students, rather than physical intervention. By asking the students their opinion, or scaffolding in the form of questions, teachers show that they trust their students to be able to decide and behave for themselves. It was such a powerful episode that I will remember for a long time.

Lastly, I was so surprised to see just how quickly students learn the language! Children as young as 2 were already bilingual. It reminds me to not see children from a deficit perspective, and how children can learn the way they can. I am happy to be able to work and observe children.

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Insight #4: Environment and materials are powerful

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Insight #4: Environment and materials are powerful

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I was particularly enticed when I saw this display in Avenues. Sensory play by touching various kinds of textures through beans and food was a large part of my pedagogy. Then, I always put the beans on a tray, and I allocated some time for the students to touch and feel the beans with their hands and feet. Then we would move on to the next activity, and I saw some of my students cry as they really loved the tactile activity and wanted to play longer with the beans and rice. But then I needed clarification on how to give the children more time to play with the texture after the activity ended, as it was messy.

When I saw these bags of beans and food, it was like an Aha! moment. We, as teachers, could utilize the display as an opportunity for students to keep still engaged with the beans and rice even after the sensory activity ended by putting them onto a display like this! Children can explore the textures by themselves during their leisure time by engaging with the display like this. I now realize the importance of carefully and thoughtfully providing materials and simultaneously providing the students the opportunity to engage and explore the materials, just like how was discussed in an article by Curtis, Brown, Baird, and Coughlin (2013).

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Insight #3 related: More celebration of diversity through displays in the environment

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Insight #3 related: More celebration of diversity through displays in the environment

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This display too, celebrates various skin colors of the students!

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Further representations related to Insight #3!

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Further representations related to Insight #3!

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This was the display I saw at Teachers College Community School. My heart was touched when I saw this. Students of color, especially Black, must feel represented in their school when they see this display. Especially as the school was located in Harlem, with many Black population!

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Insight #3: Celebrate the diverse culture through through decorations and displays 

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Insight #3: Celebrate the diverse culture through through decorations and displays 

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When I came into Beginning with Children 2, I noticed the various flags in the hallway. I learned afterwards that some of the students were immigrants, and they might came from the countries which flags were hung on the hallways!

Hanging some flags might be simple, but then it helps student who came from the countries feel belong in the school. They would feel like their identity matter and not marginalized in the school.

To be really inclusive, we as teachers have to make sure that the flags of all countries that student came from are represented, so no one feel left out :)

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In a classroom in Dos Puentes, I saw how the students were learning about the alphabet M by writing their classmates' names. The students then needed to draw a portrait of M and draw things that M likes. M was made an expert that day in the class; students started coming back and forth to her to ask about her favorite colors, favorite foods, and so on. M, too, explained her interests excitedly to her friends in both Spanish and English.

I saw how that was such a meaningful activity for the students: they learned about the alphabet, learned how to write, they socially interacted with their peers, learned how to ask questions respectfully, and they learned how to honor their friends' interests and backgrounds! The students learned by building on their community member's characteristics. The learning was relevant to them.

What's more important is that M was able to learn that she matters in the class and that she, too, had knowledge that could contribute to the class learning. I saw this situation as related to the piece by Goodman (1969, in Sitton, 1980), about how children have a culture or body of knowledge about creating and understanding behavior. True to what Sitton said (1980), teachers too should "approach children as an ethnographer approaches culturally knowledgable informants". Children are not passive learners but active contributing members of their own and their peers' learning!

(Using a purple background for this insight as M's favorite color was purple!)

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Further investigation on Insight #1: Insight from Avenues!

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Further investigation on Insight #1: Insight from Avenues!

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After I thought of insight #1, I had some questions running through my head: Would art in the form of painting like in City and Country be enough? Would children be bored with the activity if painting is the only choice? Is deciding on a theme such a bad thing? What can I design in learning so that children can learn new themes but at the same time have the freedom to explore and express themselves through art?

I felt like I found my answer when I went to Avenues! I saw this display of children's art in the form of favorite food. They all created the art in the same theme, food. However, children have the freedom to create the foods that they want with varying materials! They can color the food with various kinds of coloring. They can use paper and other materials. I was so fascinated when I saw this display.

More than just freedom of expression, students can represent their own culture through this activity if the students decide to make an art of their traditional food! They can learn about other people's food, letting them represent their cultures. I think this is such a great activity for social skills if the teachers let the students see and ask other students about the food they make.

Moving forward, I plan to design my class's arts and craft activity in a similar philosophy to these food arts in Avenues.

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Exhibit related to Insight #1: The product of the arts activity I used to make

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Exhibit related to Insight #1: The product of the arts activity I used to make

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This was one of the art products of my students back in 2019: we were learning about body parts, and one of the body parts we learned about was mouth and teeth! In line with that theme, I designed an activity where the students would create art of mouth and teeth in a worksheet. All children would create the same art. I, as a teacher, would instruct them step-by-step on how to create the art (for example, "let's now create the teeth!"). The time for creating the art was only ten to fifteen minutes.

In such an activity, there was not much room for students to be free and explore their environment. It might benefit their motor skill development, and students did enjoy this activity, but I now believe that students need autonomy in their learning as well! We, as teachers, should facilitate students by designing activities that allow them to voice out their interests and take control of their own learning.

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Insight #1: Freedom and autonomy in the form of art and learning activities

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Insight #1: Freedom and autonomy in the form of art and learning activities

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When teaching my toddler class back in Jakarta, I always believed I was engaging my students in play-based education. As a teacher, I would decide the class's themes each week, and I designed the learning activities to that theme. One of the recurring activities in my class was arts and crafts, where I prepared various materials to make art related to the theme.

When I observed City and Country, I was pleasantly surprised at how different their approach to the arts and crafts activities was. The teachers did not predetermine the art or theme the children would create. They let the students explore and mix the colors, use the brush, and paint the large papers.  Students can paint whatever they want, take as much time as they want, and the teachers celebrate their art by hanging the paintings on the wall like in the picture above!

I realize that art can be a form of freedom of expression for children and a tool for developing autonomy and decision-making. I then wonder if I had been stripping children from the freedom of exploration from how I rigidly determine the theme and the time of the arts and crafts activities. Rather than building the learning from students' behavior, talks, and response like what Paley (2007) did and described in her piece "HER Classic: On Listening to What the Children Say," I might have put too much power and instruction from myself as a teacher.

This revelation is eye-opening, a great insight to move forward!