And lots of thoughts. I am going over the dents made by the screws that I have already driven in and covered with compound. However, the compound dries, and shrinks in the process, so I'm doing it again. Hopefully only once more. I also am doing the tape in the corners that I didn't do. These will be a little tougher as this time really counts. If I add too much compound I will have to sand extensively. If I add too little, I'll have to do this again. Practice counts.
But I do feel some degree of growth here. The repetition has improved my technique at the angle I put on the compound. I get a pretty big glob of about three table spoons on my trowel, and then spread it on at about a 60 degree angle. The idea is that it leaves nothing but the hole patched. I'm getting better. But this part isn't rockery surgery as they say, so I can think as I work.
All of this has me realizing all the processes I've gone through in getting here. No, not from the beginning of this class, but from when I was a kid, learning from my parents. I believe I have gained confidence to even take on this task because I experienced success after repeated attempts, at the insistence of my mother and father. In reading the text this week I saw both my own children's development and my own, from infant to toddler to preteen to adolescent to adult. Each stage took similar, yet different approaches from my parents to get me to the next. That is definitely the case for me as a parent.
I, as well as all my children, have been self directed learners but that was orchestrated all along by my parents. I in turn have taught my children of this. The readings this week have really driven home the value of play, and talk, and routines in developmental growth for children. Though I have always admired elementary teachers, my mother a teacher's aid for 25 years as well, I don't think I really grasped the value of all they were doing in making learning look like play. I've been thinking about that a lot recently. And I have also been thinking about how I do not need to apologize for kids having "too much fun" in my class.
As I dip my trowel in another helping of compound I feel like I'm playing, and I see that though it's novel, and that I'm liking the results, I am not just motivated by this class or the desire to get my living room. I really want to learn this. The need to feel like I'm learning is a powerful thing, though often it's in the form of work, or play. We learn step by step, with increments supported by the scaffolds we create or those created for us by others.
I know I scaffold for my students all the time, but often I'm thinking as I'm doing it, "I'm scaffolding". It is so natural to young mothers they don't even realize they are doing it. In my home as a child and a parent the "question" game was played often. What's that, and where's that, and who's that, were adapted over the years into games like, "20 questions", or "I'm going on a Trip", what's the capital of ___________, or name the presidents. Of course we didn't start with those questions. We started out with picture books, as mentioned in the readings, talking about the pictures. We also had conversations about what we saw on the road, or hear on the radio, or on TV. We discussed our opinions on food, birthdays, people, pets. We compared favorite everything. We also worked on coloring books, counting money, making Valentines from scratch, playing barbies, cars in the sand, and mudpies in the mud. My parents and my brother were not just awesome playmates, they were great school mates, though at the time I didn't realize it. I was ready for school way before I had to be because of these games, and experienced a lot of positive self esteem from my successes throughout school years. And of course just when I got good at something, the ante would be upped, and the scaffold adjusted to intensify the challenge.
After reading about differing cultural norms for how children are raised really caught my attention. I was fortunate enough to have had or been taught those multi-faceted interactions with children. It was not our culture to not be included into adult conversations. In fact, as children, we were the center of attention as our responses to their questions were pretty entertaining. This was the case for my own children. Kids and their learning is always intriguing, and often hilarious. The motivation to interact verbally or socially with children is that hilarity and just part of what I and all my relatives do. I now recognize the need to teach this sort of interaction to my students, not just as a method of communication, but as a way for them to communicate with their younger sibs or future children.
I've also begun looking at babies as little sponges as opposed to just cute little cherubs I want to play with. My playing with them, is fun for me, but it's vital to them. As I am now on the road to becoming a foster parent, and (hopefully) a grandparent now that I have one married off, I will continue to look at play for children, as well as for me, as the basis for not only cognitive development, but cognitive maintenance, so that I'm the funnest and sharpest foster mom and grandma around. And so that those kids who are around me become a little bit smarter everytime they are.
Next week sanding and mudding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKt1M58bdM4
No comments:
Post a Comment