After Social Isolation, Preparing Our Youngest Students to Thrive
My latest for Edutopia
When the school doors opened last fall at Bunche Montessori, early-grade teacher Katie Gerdts quickly realized it would be a tough year.
“That moment when you go to redirect a child—normally not a big deal—and the child just flips out, throws their work,” she recalled, incredulously. “And it just kept happening over and over again with different children, screaming and yelling, massive toddler tantrums.”
Without the benefit of much (if any) normal preschool or day care because of the pandemic, many students in Gerdts’ mixed-age classroom were simply not ready to learn and struggled with basic tasks, social skills, and self-regulation. It wasn’t just the academics—Gerdts and her colleagues at the Fort Wayne, Indiana, magnet school knew to expect lags there—it was skills like sharing classroom materials, taking turns, unpacking backpacks, or sitting still for even short periods of time.
Read more here
Hi all -
In the past year, this little newsletter did not receive enough attention. I was spread very thinly across social media, blogs, and multiple newsletters, and was overwhelmed with parenting issues. The needs at home have lessened, so I’m planning on writing more about education issues both here and in mainstream publications this fall. I’ll be able to do more after Labor Day, when my special needs kid starts a new program.
In the meantime, I’m sharing this piece that I did for Edutopia this month. There’s a lot of backstory to this article. I’ll write about that soon.
Thanks for your patience! Laura