Hands Up? A child's right to choose when to speak!
I aspire to co-create a community of learners that think, feel, inquire and play together. For this to be a reality, children and adults need to see value in their own ideas, wonderings, connections and perspectives, and those of others. Relationships and interactions are key to develop trust, respect and feeling safe with uncertainty. Learning needs to be valued! Not the kind of learning that requires students to fill in the blanks on worksheets, or complete exercises that require little thought. More important is learning how to learn, the process of learning, learning about oneself and others, and learning about complex and intriguing concepts through play and inquiry . The systems in place in a classroom can directly promote or deny opportunities to foster communities of thinkers and learners, in which children are listened to and their voices are heard, beyond when adults give permission for children to speak. For a number of years, I have not asked asked children to raise their ...