For Your Binder

An oldie but a goodie about messy play and art! #art #play #DAP #creativity #teaching #learning #parenting

Here's the backstory: The author, John Taylor, is a retired superintendent of schools in Lancaster, S.C., he offered this history about the essay he wrote while leading that district:  

The parody was originally titled "Absolutely the Best Dentists."  It was written and sent to every newspaper and legislator in South Carolina a number of years ago in an attempt to point out the absurdities inherent in South Carolina's then new accountability act which was focused on absolute performance and threatened retention for every child who couldn't meet very challenging grade level standards. (Not to mention severe penalties for "poorly performing" schools, teachers and administrators.) Since then it has traveled widely to the point that I have not been able to keep up with the uses; but I know it has appeared in teacher association publications in at least three Canadian Provinces and in Australia, as well as dozens in the USA. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) seems to have given the story a new life.  Thus: No Dentist Left Behind.

#pushdown #DAP #play #teaching #learning

From the horse's mouth! I first came across this as a stand alone article, I now see that it is Chapter 24 of The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence. #theorists #learning #teaching

When it feels like common sense and everyone should just "know it" (but they don't) it can be affirming to read about why it feels that way.  Bottom-up behaviors are instinctual and unintentional. Top-down ones are deliberate and intentional. There is a difference. And how we approach them needs to be differentiated as well! #teaching #learning #relationships #specialed #expulsion #environment

This link will bring you to a Master's Thesis from a Bank Street student. In it she explores (the lack of) play as a social justice issue. "Helping low income kids" often gets translated into "eliminating play" and we know this flies smack in the face of what the research (which she does a fantastic job reviewing!) tells us should be happening for all children regardless of socio-economic status. The paper is informative; her references are invaluable.  #DAP #play #equity #teaching #learning

From the Atlantic Monthly, March, 1987

The way a child wants to play is often very different from the way their parents want them to, the child however, knows best! #play #DAP #learning #teaching

Caring does NOT substitute or replace learning, caring establishes an effective culture for it to actually happen. #caring #teaching #learning #relationships

Subscribe to JSTOR for free if you are not able to access the link.

In the United States, we’ve decided that increasing academic demands on young children is a good thing. What we haven’t considered, are the potential negative effects. #DAP #movement #teaching #learning #pushdown

Whether you are looking to teach yourself or others, this is a valuable resource you will want to have at the ready! #equity #gender #teaching #learning

Policymakers persist in ignoring the huge discrepancy between what we know about how young children learn and what we actually do in preschools and kindergartens. #play #pushdown #teaching #learning #DAP

You can access the articles within The American Journal of Play free online or pay a nominal fee and have the journal mailed to you. The journal started in 2008 and is a scholarly yet accessible resource for your next college paper, deep dive into a specific interest area, or to show the wolves that, Yes Virginia, we are a scholarly profession!  And BONUS!  There is a search function within the journal section so you can drill down and get exactly what you were looking for! #play #teaching #learning #DAP

Boys were over four times as likely to be expelled as girls, and African-American preschoolers were about twice as likely to be expelled as preschoolers of European descent. Although a pattern of particular risk for expulsion with African-American students has been demonstrated during K-12, the pattern of disparity appears to begin much earlier.  #teaching #learning #equity #implicitbias #expulsion