School-Ager Training

This morning I (Ms. Rabia) went to an awesome training sponsored by Child Care Connection. The theme was "School's Out: Now What?!" The focus was on how to best serve school agers during the summer months. Considering the fact that we only have two more weeks of school before we take a break for the summer, this was a very timely training.
We were greeted with a keynote address by Todd Bale, the executive director of the Harrisonburg/Rockingham Boys and Girls Club. We then broke up into three groups and rotated between topics.
The first topic I attended was called "Conflict Transformation" by Vesna Hart. She taught about how important it is to teach conflict resolution to young children. She described a story in which two children are fighting over an orange. The teacher swoops in and cuts the orange in half, giving each child half. The first child eats the fruit and throws away the peel, while the second child throws away the fruit and uses the peel to make cookies. Had the teacher taken a moment to listen to both sides of the story and get to the bottom of the argument, both children could have gotten what they wanted without the need for compromise. How often do teachers (and parents, too) step in to "fix" a problem without really taking the time to find out what the problem really is? The things we do every day model to our children how to solve problems. Are we teaching them to think things out, to walk away, or that the biggest person always gets their way?
I actually had a student this week that gave me a great chance to teach about conflict resolution. A boy came over to me at the table during center time. He was crying and visibly upset. He said that she wouldn't give him a pony to play with. I calmly asked him what he had already tried. "How did you ask her?" He looked at me and said, "Oh! I forgot to ask!" I laughed (gently) and suggested to him that he try that and see what would happen. Sure enough, as soon as he went over to her, she let him have his choice of ponies. It was a very easy problem to solve, but he just didn't know how to get started.

The second session that I went to was about dealing with problem behaviors by Pat Kennedy. I have been to this session before, but enjoyed going again. It is a good reminder of how to look at all sides of a behavior issue before trying to solve it. The facilitator's main point was to try and find the underlying causes of a problem behavior. She pointed out that children at this age do not really sit at home at night thinking of ways to get on their teacher's nerves! There are always reasons for their behaviors, and if you take the time to think about those cause, things become easier to deal with.
Another thing Pat brought up was the importance of being consistent-across days, across children; between teachers and parents. Children are quite expert at what I like to call the "Mommy-Daddy game." If one teacher (or parent) will not give them what they want, they usually know they can go to another person and get a different response. As teachers and parents, we need to work together to ensure that we are consistent in our expectations and our consequences. It has to be a partnership to have the greatest benefit for the child.

The third session I went to was, by far, the most FUN! It was taught by a PE teacher from Montevideo Middle School. We spent 45 minutes running around the gym playing group games. He talked about the importance of building a community within your group. He had lots of great suggestions for how to keep the kids busy and having a GREAT time. He also had a handout with lots of awesome game suggestions. It was fun running around like a kid again, and I was glad I had worn tennis shoes!