Week #7
Surprise! We had our dean of Fleming and course coordinator come and visit today and the feedback was fantastic! Tanya our coordinator spoke of how proud she was of us and how she witnessed such a positive and meaningful set up when she came to visit. She said, “I was in tears when I left, I had to call my husband right away because I was so proud of you all” (Tanya Pye, personal communication, October 16,2019). That feeling of recognition for all the hard work we have put forward this far was a sense of pride, relief and confidence boost that many of the students needed; it felt amazing. Often the stress of aiming high and striving towards something that has a lot of unknown can be scary, but I feel that we are learning and growing with each successful day we are one step closer to becoming meaningful educators.
On top of great feedback, I got to build a meaningful connection with a boy who was new to the program this week. Elliott is 2 years of age and when he first entered the program it was evident that he enjoyed throwing and bouncing objects. I watched as he took these wooden doll heads and rolled them down the slide in the centre. Curiously, I went and grabbed a large bouncy ball and gave it to him. “Ball” he said as he pointed to a sticker of a ball on the slide. I validated his comparison and watched as he rolled the bouncy ball down the slide. He continued this a few times before he started to bounce the ball off the ground. It was a great moment that gave me the chance to reflect, to deeply think about what had conspired. Was Elliott interested in the distance the balls were travelling down the slide or was he interested in balls as an item? Maybe the sticker had prompt him to roll the ball down the slide because the stickers were on the slide and he connected the two?
This deep thinking is something that I haven’t yet had the opportunity to experience. I plan to explore Elliott’s interests further because if I’m honest I don’t know what the ball represented and what his true intentions were. I know he is interested in balls that I gathered and that gave me the motive to create some provocations and explore further on his thinking. I am excited to share in this learning experience and put Elliot’s interests into focus. It is the first time I feel as though my role as an educator is truly having a meaningful impact and I’m bursting with excitement.
