tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post3712045883324300654..comments2024-03-26T07:07:14.304-07:00Comments on Teacher Tom: It's Their ProcessTeacher Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606781724784785338noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932919.post-30516414803603269572015-11-22T09:49:20.276-08:002015-11-22T09:49:20.276-08:00I love this post. I remember the first day I saw k...I love this post. I remember the first day I saw kids squeezing glue bottles until they were empty. Then parents quickly refilling them so the child could get back to squeezing. I had worked in many preschools prior to my son attending Woodland Park, and I might have been fired for allowing this to happen! I was always taught to demonstrate how to use the proper amount and not "waste" the glue. Talk about a paradigm shift when I saw this!!!! At first, I gasped inwardly, but, along with everything else I learned from WP, I quickly SAW what was going on. It was the process, not the product, it was the moments of intense concentration, the feeling, the elation in their eyes of unlimited freedom to explore, to observe the glue as it cascaded down and everywhere, to see their physical effect on something, it was science, it was learning at its core. WP constantly challenged my thinking and opened my mind to the endless possibilities of learning. Needless to say I quickly bought tubs of glue and squeeze bottles to implement in my own educational play group. I carry these kinds of moments with me through parenting and through my own adult encounters (where more is MORE and less is limiting). Let those kids get messy if they choose, because (from my family's experience) before long many of them will be spending their days in public school elementary classrooms where these opportunities will be limited or simply not exist. It's hard to get messy when there are no mallets or plungers, or slingshot tennis balls... Just a pencil, paper, some crayons, colored pencils, and ... A glue stick.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02040122530995766018noreply@blogger.com