I work in the toddler room. My co-workers in the 3-5 room have taken on a challenge for themselves and are narrating not only the children's experiences but their own learning experiences as well. I was inspired! I think you will be too...
Saejin had the idea to do a pedagogical narration on why we take our children on outings. She completed her PN entitled “Beyond the Field Trip” and after reading it, I knew we had to expand on this. We talk a lot about encouraging the children to take risks in order to develop deeper learning and the same goes for us, as adults. We realize that the easier thing to do would be to stay in one of our yards every day but we have challenged ourselves to provide the children with meaningful experiences outside of the centre and in turn, both us, and the children have benefited. We decided that all four educators in our program would complete a pedagogical narration involving on/off campus outings. We hope you enjoy reading them and finding out more about how your children spend their time with us.
Sincerely,
Mary Sr. Teacher in the 3-5's, Saejin, Noeleane, Alex
Pedagogical Narration #3
"Passenger" - Mary Bennett
When Saejin told me that she wanted to do a Pedagogical Narration involving conversations that arise on field trips, I thought “what a brilliant idea.” You see, during our outings, we are the only teacher with our group and I have often thought about all the important learning that happens when we bring our children out into our community.
Just recently, on an outing to Pineview Valley, the children were commenting on the people that were coming on the bus after us. “Hey, look. He has a back pack. I think he is a student.” I said, “Many passengers have back packs because they need to carry their stuff with them and they don’t have a car to leave their things in.” The children wanted to know…“What is a passenger?”
We talked about what a passenger is and how it is something that we can all be but not all the time. What a concept to talk about with young children! They had so many questions and wanted soooooo many examples. Every single time someone got on the bus, one of them (or all of them) said “There’s another passenger.” After a while when people left the bus, the children would say, “He’s not a passenger anymore.”
We then talked about how you can be a passenger on the bus but also on the airplane, a vehicle, a train…etc. When we got to Pineview Valley Park, the children naturally continued this newly found fascination into their play. They pretended to be on trains, collecting tickets and used the word “passenger’. This is how children navigate their world - through play. They experimented with this new word and meaning. They took turns being the passengers and then not being passengers. This abstract idea that you can be something and then not be that anymore.
When I got back to the centre and we had all eaten our lunch and the children were all settled into their beds, I sat down to send pictures and had time to reflect on all the learning that had happened while on our outing. I was reminded, once again, that is was during their play that they really grasped what being a passenger was. There is no worksheet that can do this for children. They need life experiences and the opportunity for free play. This is why Saejin called her Pedagogical Narration “Beyond the Field Trip.” - it is so much more than meets the eye.
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