At Elfinwild, our staff tries to keep up with the latest ideas, research, and best practices. We engage in professional development seminars and read articles when we can, however there is nothing like the immersive experience of attending the NAEYC Annual Conference.
Recently, six of our staff were privileged to attend this year’s gathering of over 7000 early childhood educators in Anaheim, CA. Our journey began in the predawn hours of a Wednesday morning, being chauffeured to the airport in the church van by Pastor Dirk! After a long day of travel that included 2131 miles, 12 hours, 2 planes, 1 sprint to make our connecting flight, 3 time zones, and 1 harrowing trip on the 5 (California’s 14 lane freeway), we finally arrived at our hotel, dropped our bags, grabbed some lunch (or was it dinner?) and headed to the Opening Session.
The hall filled with thousands of early childhood educators, characters from PBS Kids, flashing lights, revolving disco balls, and dance-move inducing music, all in preparation for the keynote address. How thrilling it was to be surrounded by so many others who not only understood the fun of play dough, the magic of glitter, and the promise of a new box of crayons, but the inherent value to growth and learning that can be found in these simple tools. The joy and excitement were contagious, only to be amplified with the keynote address delivered by none other than LaVar Burton. You might hear his name and think Kunta Kinte from Roots, or Geordi LaForge from Star Trek, but our connection was the wonderful literacy encouraging show, Reading Rainbow.
“Butterfly in the sky. I can go twice as high.
Take a look, it’s in a book, a Reading Rainbow!
I can go anywhere. Friends to know and ways to grow, Reading Rainbow!"
These lyrics, from the beginning of the show, outlined Mr. Burton’s outlook on the value of reading. His talk was inspiring and motivating. He spoke about his mother who was an English teacher, and who, above all else, encouraged reading in their home. “In our house, you were going to experience the written word one way or another, so either you opened one and read it or you were konked over the head with it.” He shared that she knew that reading was the key to opportunity and to having the freedom of choice...it was the key to going places in this world. He emphasized that because of her, he was the best reader in 3rd grade. And because of his 3rd grade teacher, who allowed him the space and platform to read aloud to his class, he became the incredible word reader, world sharer, and storyteller that we came to know on Reading Rainbow. He shared with so many children the magic and wonder of books. Just the week before, Mr. Burton received the National Endowment of Humanities Medal at the White House for his impact on the arts, literacy advocacy, and storytelling.
Even though, Mr. Burton’s vehicle was the screen, he emphasized the fact that “All media is educational. But what are we teaching? What do we want our children to learn?” This causes me to ask the question, what are our children exposed to? What are they learning? Are you previewing the games, videos and shows your child is watching? I encourage you to intentionally think about what is good for your child. Often as parents, we feel what our children have or are doing is a reflection of our parenting skills. If our child doesn’t have what the child down the street has, we have somehow failed as a parent. Please don’t buy into this…please, base your decisions on what your child needs. Not all children are the same and not all learn in the same way. How does your child learn? And what do they need to learn? One might need to earn how to sit still, while another needs to learn how to enter into a group. One might need to learn how to put on a coat while another might need to learn how to write their name. One might need to learn how to self-regulate while another needs to learn resiliency.
There are so many different things to learn and so many different ways to go about it. The Bible tells us “To everything there is a season…” and yes, there is even a time for screens. Care needs to be taken, however, that screens do not take the place of real-life interactions and applications. Children will learn math skills so much better when sorting and matching socks rather than clicking and dragging color puddles on a screen. The interpersonal interactions that would happen over that laundry basket will grow that child in other ways that a screen on the couch all by themselves could never do. What would help a child learn how to wait, share in conversation, and/or even learn the give and take of a simple game like Tic-Tac-Toe? Not having an iPad at the table in a restaurant! You might say that your child could never sit at the table while waiting in a restaurant, but think about it, what’s different from your child and those from not even 15 years ago, who were capable of sitting, waiting and interacting with family members? Maybe it’s our expectations. Maybe we need to evaluate what those expectations are and why we feel they need that screen to keep them occupied and entertained.
I’m afraid at this point that I’ve fallen victim to the lure of the screen and have gotten off topic of sharing our experience at the Conference with you…
The next several days were filled with classes, presentations, and activities that were thought provoking, idea generating, practice affirming and routine challenging, all at the same time. Everything was shared by well-learned, well-experienced individuals doing great thing in the world of early childhood education.
Though our time was filled with professional development, we took some time off for team building and fellowship, one evening enjoying a meal at Downtown Disney and another we made a quick dash to the Pacific Ocean as the sun set. Too soon it was time to return home, repacking our suitcases with lots of new resources, materials, and even Mickey Mouse ears (after all, Anaheim is home to Disneyland!)
We challenged ourselves to find at least 1 thing we could do on Monday in our classrooms, while working towards implementing others that would take more time. Another goal was to bring back information and knowledge to share with our other Elfinwild sisters so that all of our staff could benefit from this Conference.
Over and over, I am blown away by the group of ladies that make up our team at Elfinwild… the professionalism, intentionality and love that each one brings to school each day is amazing and once again was demonstrated by this group that attended the Conference. What a privilege it is to work alongside each member of our staff!
To God be the glory!
Kristin Coco
