https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3 en-us 2023-05-02 22:44:29 UTC 2025-09-30 13:15:07 UTC hello@padlet.com ginadeonis https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2575851176 The book "Skin Again" (Bell Hooks, 2004) reflects discursive practices because, through the use of literature, classrooms can have discussions and inquiry over difficult topics such as race. The tagline of the book is The skin I'm in is just a covering. It cannot tell my story. If you want to know who I am, you have got to come inside and open your heart way wide. 

 I believe it's important to talk to children about the world around them in an age-appropriate way and that it's dangerous to assume children won't understand or that they are too innocent to hear about hard topics that already directly affect them at their age.

In my experience working as a camp counselor, I've found that children are generally very receptive to conversations about difficult topics. Many children are from predominantly white areas and often ask if staff members of color are sisters despite the fact that they objectively don't look much alike. Together, we have judgment-free conversations about what makes us different and what makes us similar and how the color of our skin makes us unique but doesn't define us or make us the same as others who share a skin color.]]> 2023-05-02 23:12:43 UTC https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2575851176 ginadeonis https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2575865533 I believe that transition times from one activity to another are an underlooked part of caregiving, but one that is present in almost every educational and caregiving setting. This article offers practices that can help make these times less stressful for both children and adults. For example, it can be highly effective to let a child know about a transition several minutes before it happens and remind them that it is approaching. Other strategies include playing specific music during transitions, using visual cues, and using positive reinforcement.

As a camp counselor, I worked with a child who really struggled with transition times, especially during shower time, and I worked with her in several ways to try to make these times as easy for her as possible. For her, this meant that she could be the last one to shower so she had more time to prepare for the transition than her peers and letting her pick a song she wanted to listen to during a shower. This was not always effective and sometimes she needed more support, but it's important to know that change is not instant and the more you apply these practices the more effective they may become. Another helpful strategy I discovered is (for example) not saying "5-minute warning until we have to leave the pool" but rather saying "Who wants five more minutes?!" to make the transition even more positive.]]> 2023-05-02 23:31:59 UTC https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2575865533 ginadeonis https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2575886144 This article discusses the material and aesthetic practice of "process art" or allowing children to create art from different available materials with little prompting and no end goal in mind, unlike with crafts. This allows children to be truly creative and create both their own art and their own knowledge as they freely explore the materials in ways they would not be able to do with a traditional "craft".

Maggie's classroom at the CYC constantly offers children the opportunity to create art and engage with art materials. During free time or playtime, access to art materials is unrestricted and there are few limits to what children can do with the art supplies. I have seen students explore materials by putting every color of paint on a piece of paper and seeing how they mix, making a 'control panel' to play with out of stamps and stickers, and creating their own book with drawings of basketball players. It is amazing what children can create when allowed to be creative. Through being creative, students can share their funds of knowledge and engage with other students through creative play.]]> 2023-05-02 23:58:13 UTC https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2575886144 ginadeonis https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2576989444 Ecological practices and outdoor education are highly prominent in a summer camp setting and as a camp counselor I wanted to find an article that explained the benefits of outdoor education such as building a love of nature and a respect of the environment. I feel as though children spend less time outside now than they used to, which is a shame because nature holds so many opportunities for learning and inquiry.  

As a camp counselor, I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to teach in an outdoor education setting. This ranges from just allowing children to interact with their environment (such as picking up and observing rocks or using sticks to build 'fairy houses') to teaching concrete skills such as orienteering and fire building. In addition, children are taught to respect and care for the environment by ensuring they pick up any trash they see, don't litter, and don't remove anything from the enviornment.]]> 2023-05-03 16:12:33 UTC https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2576989444 ginadeonis https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2577015480 Toys are an important part of play and the toys children interact with help shape their experiences. As this article on gendered toys states, toys marketed towards a specific gender often carry certain connotations or biases. For example, toys marketed towards boys are more likely to have violent connotations while toys marketed towards girls are more likely to focus on physical appearance. The article argues for more gender-neutral toys in education spaces which I agree with, but not fully. I am of the opinion that while toys might be "meant for" one gender, toys are toys and are not bound by and do not inherently have gender. For example, there's no reason why a little boy shouldn't play with or have some interest in a doll or a makeup kit or a little girl shouldn't have interest in action figures. I think providing a variety of toys and letting children have equal access to them is important.

In Maggie's classroom at the CYC, the toys are very gender neutral. Staples include various building materials, toy cars, small stuffed animals, a kitchen with pretend food, and a doll house with small plastic molded figures. I am curious if the children have noticed this or have thoughts on it. I am also curious because boys in the classroom greatly outnumber the girls, so I wonder if the classroom and play is slightly more geared towards boys.]]> 2023-05-03 16:33:18 UTC https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2577015480 ginadeonis https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2577035038 Calendar time is a popular schooling practice that isn't always beneficial or effective. While it can be argued that teaching children the days of the week or the months of the year while young is important, this article, Calendar Time for Young Children (Beneke S, Ostrosky M, and Katz L, 2008), points out that young children do not yet conceptually understand time in a way that makes the way we talk about it during calendar time understood. This is not because of the way it's being taught and more so due to congnitive development. Despite children not being cognitively ready to discuss time in a linear way, it is still an almost universal practice in many classrooms.

I used to privately teach a 4-year-old child. My stepmother was her teacher first, so I carried on with her practices (many of which were incredibly effective, for the record). As such, I carried on with her practice of calendar time and noticed that the child couldn't conceptualize linear time. I'd ask her what day of the week it was, but as the article above described, she would usually just guess. Sometimes she would follow up with questions like "Well, can tomorrow be Tuesday?" on a Friday or "Was yesterday December?" in May. She knew all of her days of the week and months, but couldn't yet understand the rigid order they followed or how long each one took.]]> 2023-05-03 16:48:24 UTC https://padlet.com/ginadeonis/a2x5aep4hta825e3/wish/2577035038