Dear Shai
Your mom has invited me to present a session to student teachers in the Masters program where she works. She wants me to inspire them to focus on learning, beyond the content and methodology of their teaching.
All I need to do is show them a video of you going about your daily business. At 20 months, you are inquisitive and fearless, and you are actively learning almost every minute of the day!
Observing your self driven experimentation and learning might help them value and encourage these qualities in their learners…
- curiosity
- independence
- persistence
- initiative
- enthusiasm
- creativity
- courage
- resilience
And it might encourage them to think about the process of learning…
Does learning best take place through sitting and listening, waiting for instructions or permission, responding to the teacher and demonstrating compliance?
Or will the students learn more through…
- active engagement and interaction
- imagining new possibilities
- experimenting and exploring
- making connections
- constructing meaning, individually and socially
- seeking and solving problems
and, even in high school students…
- playing and creating?
Thanks for being my inspiration,
Love,
Granny xx
What Ed Said 
Research states: ‘A child’s most formative years are their youngest — from birth to age 5.
About 90 percent of a child’s brain develops in that time, according to studies. And 85 percent of a child’s intellect, personality and social skills are developed by that age.’
Granny is clearly fascinated by observing her grandson learning and exploring his world.
This is the wonder of PYP!!!!
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All children are born geniuses and we spend the first six years of their lives degeniusing them.” – Buckminster Fuller (no relation, unfortunately).
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Well said! What an awesome way to communicate these ideas to students. Unfortunately, too often the Fuller quote is true… I hope that those of us who are working hard to do just the opposite are making a difference.
As a mother of a toddler I can appreciate there must never be a dull moment at Shai’s house 😀
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As infants, each one of us were explorers. Crawling around, making discoveries, and learning by experiencing; “Ooh that’s a wall,” “Ouch, I shouldn’t touch that red glowing thing.” Eventually, we discovered speech, and picked up question words. Our methods of research now advanced. By asking questions, we learned a tremendous amount about everything around us. By asking questions we transformed from exploring and observing to understanding and learning.
However, at some point in our lives we all begin to take things for granted and stop asking the questions that led us to such important, life altering discoveries.
Why is that?
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