by Barb O’Neill
Conference Creator, Host and Interviewer
(NOTE: this is a numbered list but the order is random, not based on order of importance).
You can buy a puppet for $.25 and make magic in your classroom for the rest of your life.
Whaaaaaaaat!? YES. Jamie White told us that she paid $.25 for her magical bird puppet Betsy and not only has she used Betsy for years and years to teach both virtually and in-person but a cartoon version of Betsy is even in Jamie’s Play to Learn Preschool logo and can be found all over the internet! You don’t need a fancy puppet to make magic.
Learn more about Jamie and meet Besty here:
Oral Storytelling is an anti-bias strategy we can use to support children of color and Black children specifically.
Um, call me the ignorant white girl on this one cause I did my dissertation research on oral storytelling and I am the hugest proponent of “putting the book down” and telling oral stories and I knew it was supportive of children from certain cultures including Indigenous cultures…but somehow missed that it was in essence and anti-racist and anti-bias strategy that could be used to support Black children specifically. Thank you, Dr. Iheoma Iruka, thank you.
Check out Dr. Iruka’s book, here:
Vivian Paley style Story-Acting is alive and flourishing in certain parts of the world.
I know some of you are too young to be familiar with Vivian Paley’s work but when I was new to the field in the 90s I read each and every book of hers I could get my hands on in a matter of month (like 7 books?). I’ve always thought of her wonderful memoir style books as the beach reading of early childhood. She teaches a specific method of taking dictation from children as they tell you their made up stories and then reading it back to them and having them lead a scenario where members of the class help them act out the story. IT IS BRILLIANT. It seems that the pressures on educators to teach children to write their names has pushed these practices out of favor but I swear if these practices were more widespread children’s interest in learning to write would skyrocket! Luckily for the programs she works with Trisha Lee is keeping the practices alive and well in the UK (and beyond!) Learn more (and watch an introductory video) here:
makebelievearts.co.uk/helicopterstorieslettingimaginationfly
Persona Dolls are even more powerful than I realized and we could be using them to help children process grief, loss, difficulty, or just simple daily occurrences that have happened during the pandemic.
Yesssssssss! This will help your kids so much. Phelisa Manyisane-Somcizaand Kim Andreoli shared some ideas at the conference but luckily the two of them and their colleagues at Persona Dolls Training, South Africa wrote out actual tips and scripts you can use for this. You can read them here: pdt.org.za/covid-19.html
Children who push to the front of the line may be experiencing sensory processing challenges.
This is the one I mentioned last week but I know some of you reading this may have missed it so I’m including it here. Read more HERE.
You can also check out Jamie’s book here: https://www.routledge.com/Creating-Sensory-Smart-Classrooms-A-Practical-Guide-for-Educators/Chaves-Taylor/p/book/9780367501013
This got so much lengthier and more thorough than anticipated when I started writing it!
I know you’re busy (um, me too - ha!) so I will continue it next week with a Part 2.
Any new information for you here?
What was the most impactful?
...or, even better, if you participated in the 2021 Transform Challenging Behavior Online Conference tell me in the comments below what some of your take-aways were!