Avni's 5 Ingredients

I think a good five ingredients for an active learning classroom are:

-Safe environment that enables a student to explore their surroundings
-Structure yet flexibility
-Materials/toys at a level that lets a child reach it
-Choices are a good thing because it sort of builds the idea in a child that
they have a say. They matter. Builds self esteem and all that good stuff. It's
just a great thing to allow choices because imagine being a child and not
having choices, would you like it? How would it make you feel? I can certainly
remember. Just having choices empowers a person and keeps a person excited and
enthusiastic as opposed to making the student feel like they have to do
something and letting it be a drag.
-

The reason that I believe the above ingredients are important is because
children learn through play. Through playing they can explore but of course
common sense has it that the environment needs to be safe. Along with that
piece, children still need structure in their lives. They can not just be
playing all the time, it needs to be structured play (if that makes sense). As
I say that, I'm thinking of the teacher/parent meetings we role played in
class. I remember a parent being concerned about their child constantly playing
and I remember Lani or Beth explaining that it was play but in that the children
had choices. EX: If a child were playing with colored blocks, the teacher could
throw in math while playing with the child, "Here are 10 red blocks, if i took
away 3, how many red blocks would be left"....you get the point of how
colors/math can be added into play time.

Ok, need time to think. I shall finish this in a bit...

My 5th ingredient was care/compassion/empathy....

It's difficult to stick to 5...

Anyways, each child needs a sense of belonging and to know that they are
respected and their beliefs are accepted along with who they are as a whole.
With compassion/care/empathy everyone should feel safe and confident that they
can be themselves and feel comfortable enough to explore and learn

When I say care, I mean a lot of things and a part of what I mean is letting the
children know that you as a teacher don't always know the answers, your not
perfect, your human.

Empathy is also important when working with the families. Empathy is always a
huge thing for me in any environment, setting, situation, etc. I feel that it
really is a huge thing and I'll leave it at that.

I mentioned the ability to explore earlier and I would also like to add in that
exploring means feeling safe and making sure the environment is indeed safe for
the children to play. Play/exploring also mean getting creative.

Children need to be loved and believed in, to know that they matter and what
they have to say matters
Teachers should love their jobs and give it all they have. They should try their
hardest and be the best that they can be. Don't do it just to do it....do it for
the passion and love. Do it for the genuine feelings deep within.
Schools should listen to childrens inputs....Schools should also support their
community of students and staff and make sure everyones opinions are taken into
account

I had more...technology went haywire on me so I had to start from scratch!