The tendency can be that we want to start winding down as year end approaches. Several things start getting added to the ‘too hard basket’, where at other times of year they would feel manageable. Our home lives are getting busy heading into the Christmas season and we’d quite like to just cruise through our final month, biding time until we can close the door for the year. That would be ok if this work we did was about us. Sure we matter too, but we aren’t the focus.
Giving full attention and the act of multi-tasking
Here is an activity for you to do. Either at home or at a staff meeting! Get yourself a pen and paper and a timer/stopwatch. Time yourself or get some one else to time you whilst writing down the following on your piece of paper, from top to bottom, as fast as you can:
A1, B2, C3, etc, all the way down to Z26.
The rule is to write each letter with the correlating number next to it, before you go to the next letter.
Centred in the heart - ten change making qualities
Pause the teacher - let the child lead
A passionate heart-centred teacher is one you have to search for when you enter a room. They are not a dominant force, and you certainly don’t hear their voices rising about the children’s hum of activity. Imagine if all teachers of young children had this same way about them? Children could grow and learn in a relaxed, peaceful environment that gave them time to think and be.
Embracing change - tools in our team toolkit
We need to find a healthy balance between being a “change junkie” and being set in our ways. Frequent change is unsettling, and change for the sake of it tends to only skim the surface before the next change is made. This is not what our ECE settings need. The reverse is also not desirable - places that sail along, doing as they’ve always done and not ‘rocking the boat’ with any new thinking. What we really need is hearts and minds willing to embrace change if and where necessary.
How do we do it? - the art of pacing
A qualification of the heart - what’s in the heart matters more than what’s on paper
The company we keep has a huge impact on our experience and emotional well being.
The people we surround ourselves with can either lift us up with their presence, or bring us down. We know this and are usually careful about choosing our friends. We look for ‘our kind of people’, build our tribe and enjoy our relationships.
Want to be a role model? - be a real model!
Perhaps the most influential tool we have in our ‘teacher kit’ is our own example. Our children take far more from how they see us living, than from anything we tell them.
How we interact, approach tasks, and manage our emotions all provide ‘lessons’ for our children. They notice these things, whether we wish them or not, and build them into their own default settings.
Let them lead, let us follow - who’s in the driver seat?
Heart centred teaching asks for us to be humble, focus on the child, and leave our adult agenda at the door. It ask us to stop ‘doing’ and focus on how we are with the children.
Let them lead, let us follow. Both approaches call on us to really tune in to the children, really making them the teachers and not us.
Remove your adult glasses - ordinary moments can be amazing
Find joy in the ordinary. These wise words bring a sense of peace to us. They reconfirm what we believe and give us the permission to follow our hearts, and offer children what we really feel they need.
Young children need security. They need to trust in their environment. This feeling comes from familiarity and a sense of ‘same old’ so they know what to expect. In this way the daily happenings become the ‘ordinary’, the staples of the programme that the children come to know and anticipate. They feel empowered by knowing, ‘this is what we do here’.
Going the Heart way - THIS is what is important
“And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, “This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!” And each day, it’s up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart and say, “No. This is what’s important.” ― Iain Thomas
Isn’t this absolutely the way with our teaching?
Big little things - the unseen little touches
It really is the small things that make the difference. Tiny little touches set apart the ho-hum “just fine” ECE settings from the really special heart filled ones. There may be big differences in size and dollars spent across the sector, but the no price tag items are the things that speak volumes.
A loving inner voice - a gift to the child
"The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice." - Peggy O'Mara
We also believe this powerful (and true) statement is applicable to the way we talk about children in their presence.
We have a society that speaks so negatively of children without even realising, and sadly this is often done in the child's ear shot.
The power is in US - For, not against, is what we need more!
One word - a goal that helps you anchor your actions
How can the adult-you enjoy Christmas?
At the Heart School we are passionate about creating beautiful and meaningful Christmas memories for young children. When they have long hours in care, and less at home or out in the community, it is really important our settings provide them some of the childhood magic that is the festive season. But what about our adults? Couldn’t they do with some Christmas magic of their own?