Term 3 Week 1

Boost 1
We had a great time in Boost this week.  This term we are focusing on knowing ourselves, and we began by looking at different personality types.  Allison Mooney was a speaker at the ILT teaching conference in the holidays and the four personality types that she defines are playful, peaceful, precise and powerful.  (for more information go to www.allisonmooney.co.nz/ms/pressing-buttons).

We discovered which personality type we are and talked about how important it is to have all four types in society. 

We then talked a little about James Nottingham's theory of learning.  He talks about the need for confusion for learning to occur.  If we are never confused then we never actually build on our current knowledge.  James calls this confusion 'the pit'.  We want to put learners (of any age) in 'the pit' because getting out of the pit can be tricky.  You need skills such as persistence, finding humour, remaining open to other opinions/learning and drive, to make sure that you get past that point of confusion in to figuring out the new concept.  When we get out of 'the pit' and the new learning makes sense again, that sense of achievement at getting there on our own is a proud moment.  According to James, this is where children gain the most satisfaction and joy out of learning, and I agree with that theory.

 

So, today we started some philosophy questions.  Discussion and justifying of ideas is a great way to get kids into the pit!  The question this week was 'What is a toy?'  I had a great time with this discussion and the children loved it too.  The kids defined what a toy was to them but their statements were challenged.  For example they said that a toy is something you play with.  I started throwing a pen around and said that I was playing with the pen, does that make it a toy?  The response was, no, a toy needs to be something that you actually play with like a doll or a toy car, you actually use your imagination when you use it.  I asked them if that meant that skipping rope was a toy because I don't have to use my imagination with it.  You can see that the discussion became extremely interesting, and the children were becoming more confused as they tried to define a toy.

I think next time I will have to video the conversation as there were so many great statements about the kids thinking.  e.g. 'I thought I knew what a toy was but now I don't!', and 'I am sooo in the pit!'