You can eat the tape, but please don't swallow it!

Hi everyone!

I know it has been a while since my last visit, but I warned you that I was going to be busy! School is going well, my class for BHU is great, the second graders in my Sunday school class are amazing, and I went to the NAEYC conference in Dallas a few weeks ago. Finally I have a few moments to chat....

Last Wednesday was one of the most amazing days. Vivian Gussin Paley, the author of a dozen books on storytelling and play, came to Baltimore to speak to a group of teachers. We had been reading her books over the past 4 months, and were rewarded with a chance to see Vivian in action, as well as time to ask her all the questions that have been floating around our book club.

Oh-My-Gosh!

Wow!

Whoo Hoo!

Holy Moly!

I think I could easily sit here and write about the awesome feelings I had while watching her with the children, or while listening to her give her view on time out ("it really has no place in the early childhood classroom!"), but I know you want to hear all about what happened. So, in my best photographic-mind-weirdo-powers memory, I will recall it all for you.

First, I have to back up and tell you about the call we had (29minutes and 8 seconds) the day before she came in. I was sharing with her that the classroom we were going to visit, the one she would do storytelling in, was a 3's room. She said to me, "Do you have an older class?" I told her we did, but we had a few children for whom we haven't really gotten around to understanding their behaviors, and were worried. She reponded, now wouldn't that group give much more interesting stories? So, needless to say, our demonstration was with the 4's!

We met in a room other than the classroom, (there was a weird smell in the room due to some roofing work), so the children were actually in a conference room. I walked one of the children over to "meet my friend Mrs. Paley", and Vivian quickly shared with me "I'll take it from here, thanks." This is a teacher who knows what she is doing!

She began by telling the children that she was going to build something with the tape. She started to lay out the masking tape, and, having a bit of a time getting it to stick, she pulled and stepped and pulled until the tape was in a straight line about 8 feet long. The children were trying to guess what she was doing. Vivian stepped on the tape to make the adjacent stripe on the carpet. "I think she's making a square!" "No, I think it's a rectangle!" Vivian says, in her quiet, unassuming voice, "well, I guess we'll know soon, but one thing is for sure, it will be either a square or a rectangle."

Once the stage was completed, (Yay! A rectangle! That's what I thought it would be!) Vivian asked 4 children to please sit on the short side, helping them learn how to sit, and how to skooch back so they can have the tape in front of their feet. "Please scoot back a little bit so your fit are not on the tape, but near it.") Once that group was on the carpet, she settled the other 12 children on the other 3 lines (cool how that worked out), and sat down and began talking.

"I have a few stories here that were written by some children in my classroom. This one was written by Joey, and I believe Joey is 4 years old." She begins to tell a story about a mountain lion trying to climb mountains. After she told Joey's story (about three sentences long,) she asked the first boy on her left, "could you please be the mountain lion?" The little boy nodded his head and got up to the middle of the stage. He started walking around in the 'downward dog' position (both hands and feet on the floor, tushie in the air). I think he thought he was a mountain, not a mountain lion. Anyway, Vivian asked each of the three next children if they could each be a mountain. They stood up tall next to each other. Then she said to the mountain lion, "pretend that you are crawling up the mountain", and did a climbing gesture with her hands. The lion did just that, and then Vivian said, "Great. That was a good story. Let's go to the next one."

That's it. No applause, no bowing or standing ovation, just simple closure and continue. I can see where this type of almost nonchalant message helps even the shyest child feel comfortable about participating. It was kind of a "no big deal but let's see what else there is" kind of attitude. Brilliant. This woman is brilliant.

Vivian continued with this same activity, and while this was going on, a little boy began to pull the tape off of the carpet. The children were going crazy. "Teacher, teacher, he's pulling the tape. Teacher look!" Vivian was very busy giving a storyteller her chance to speak, (or maybe just ignoring the children), when finally she had no choice but to acknowledge the problem. She walked over to investigate the situation said something like "Well, it looks like we have a little problem. It looks like you all are going to have to just IMAGINE that there is a line there." She continued on as if nothing was odd about a little boy taking the tape off of the carpet. (Truth be known, there really wasn't anything wrong with it. This little boy wanted to do something while he was waiting, the tape was there, put two and two together people!)

After a few minutes, the little peeler put the wad of tape into his mouth. Off go the child alarms. "Teacher teacher! He's eating the tape!" Vivian slowly looks in the direction of said eater, walks up to him and quietly says, "You can eat the tape, but please don't swallow it." I almost cut a hole in my mouth biting my lip. What a great answer. What. A. Great. Answer. She sent several messages with that one sentence. To the child who was eating the tape, she's telling him that he is OK, that eating the tape is not an awful thing to do (provided it's non toxic) and that the real rule surrounding this is that the tape cannot be swallowed. To the rest of the class she is tacitly saying that everyone belongs in this clas, and just because something odd just happened, it doesn't mean we can all gang up on the odd one. And to the teachers who were observing, she sent the strongest message of all. Relax. Not every odd behavior has to end in punishment or humiliating consequences. This is one great lesson.

I will continue to add more Vivian comments soon. Just wanted to get this one out. See you all soon!