interview with shara-lynn and amy

7/28/2019 Interview With Shara-Lynn and Amy

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1. Can you share with our blog visitors a little bit about yourselves?

We are a DECE/teacher team working in a Full Day Kindergarten

classroom in Vaughan, Ontario. We have just finished our second

year working together.

Amy: Hello, I am a RECE, working as a DECE for YRDSB. Wow, that’sso many acronyms. I have been interested in educating young

children since I was in high school. I took a cooperative education

course in high school and requested to be placed in a Kindergarten

class. I had placements in a Kindergarten and Grade One class and

a school library. I also worked as a summer school assistant getting

children ready for kindergarten. I then continued to study child

development and graduated in 1999 from Humber College with my

Early Childhood Educator Diploma. I started my working journey

right away. I experienced working in Non-Profit childcare centres,private childcare for profit and a workplace child development

centre. In September 2010, I started my journey with full day

Kindergarten. I met Shara-Lynn in my second year and have had

the pleasure of working alongside her for the past 2 years. We were

a team from the beginning and starting as “WE” is so important. We

always were sharing ideas, observations and thoughts. We

respected each others’ individual professional contributions in the

classroom and valued each others’ strengths and personal

experiences. I feel this is what makes a great team. I am grateful forthe professionalism I have experienced this far in my journey into

FDK.

Shara-Lynn: Prior to being paired with Amy, I had been teaching full

day, alternate day kindergarten for a number of years. I moved to a

new school in order to be a part of the second year of Full Day

Kindergarten implementation in Ontario. I am so grateful to have

had Amy as a partner for the past two years. She has such a wealth

of knowledge and experiences that I have learned so much fromand she is always willing try and learn new things alongside me.

2. The two of you make a very powerful duo! I admire your

teamwork and the courage that it took for you to document your

classroom environmental changes through a video journal. Might

you be able to share with us how this experience helped to shape

the physical space of your classroom?



Amy: Many early childhood studies and evidence points to the

power of considering the learning environment as the third teacher.

This is something we both felt strongly about and wanted to focus on

in our learning environment. Being part of a video journal during the

first year together, in a brand new school, gave us the ability to

reflect monthly on our environment and challenged us to

intentionally make decisions about our classroom environment. Weoften would discuss what we wanted to repeat, rethink or remove

from our environment. To some the word “environment” solely

encompasses the physical environment. However the Full-Day Early

Learning environment is much more than just physical. When we

think of the environment, we think of space, time and materials.

Shara-Lynn: The video journal really focused our thinking and

encouraged us to reflect as a team. We always wanted to ensure

that we were able to explain any additions/changes to theenvironment and that we were able to make clear links back to our

program document. Our natural inclination was to focus on the

physical space, but being a part of the video journal served as a

constant reminder to also think of time and materials as a part of the

environment as the third teacher.

Amy: Open ended, natural and found materials are available for the

children to explore daily. They can be a provocation to lead into a

natural inquiry or a simple investigation. As the children engage withthese materials they make connections and express their prior

knowledge and current wonderings. This opens the gates for a

responsive educator to use their knowledge of the Full-Day Early

Learning-Kindergarten Program document and expertise to support

and extend the learning or assess for future purposeful planning.

These pictures were taken inside our classroom and outdoors on the

playground. The children had the natural curiosity to explore these

materials and they had rich conversations that provide educators

with valuable assessment data.

Three children worked on thiscreation. They discussed their ideasand planned with each other until it

was just right. Then they came overand explained “This is a nest holdingan egg. It is smooth, soft and ovaland if it falls it won’t break.”



Amy and Shara-Lynn: When we set up the physical layout of the

classroom, we worked hard to create clearly defined areas in the

classroom to help focus children while they play. We also worked

hard to include as many natural elements as we could…we wanted

to bring some of the outdoors inside. We noticed that our studentswere particularly interested in plants and decided to use a climbing

vine to create a living wall and ceiling to define and highlight our

Dramatic Play Area. It took us over one year to gather the materials

and make it happen. We used water jugs and fallen birch poles and

netting. The birch poles were of great interest to the children and

became a provocation to create pictures using water colour paint.

The vine is pictured below in its’ early stages.

Shara-Lynn: When considering time in the classroom, we have

worked hard to think about how to create a flow of the day that

maximizes opportunities for learning and minimizes transitions.

We’ve also worked to ensure that the amount of time children spend

in large group activities is kept to an appropriate amount. We have

tried to ensure that there is time for us as educators to facilitate

focused small group instruction and to observe, document and

interact with students during their “playful learning” time. Our flow of

the day is included below.

Child: “This is a dog!”

Mrs. D.: “Really? Can you tell memore about it?”

The child went on to explain all thedetails about the dog she created.

Now, imagine what it looks like fromthe side. If that conversation didn’thappen, most would not recognizethe creativity and vision this child was



Time Activity

9:10-9:25 Entry Activities

• Organize belongings

• Hand in mailbags, library books etc.

• Sign in task (e.g., question)

• Browsing Boxes

9:25-9:45 Morning Meeting

• Shared Reading Focus

• Planning learning for the day

• May be whole group or two groups (one with DECE, one with

teacher)

9:45-11:45 Playful Learning Time

• Small group instruction (read aloud, guided or shared

reading/writing, oral language)

• Open snack time

• Students choose from literacy activities/classroom learning

areas

• Inquiry Groups

• DECE break time (whenever it fits into the flow)

11:45-12:10 Group Meeting Time• Read aloud and/or shared/interactive writing (may link to any

larger group inquiry)

• Sharing of learning

• May be whole group or two groups

12:10-12:50 Outdoor Play

• Weekly rotation between fenced kindergarten yard and field

area

• Supervised by DECE

12:50-1:30 Eat Lunch in the classroom

• Supervised by DECE (12:50-1:20)

• Supervised by teacher (1:20-1:30)

• DECE lunch (1:20-1:50)

• Children choose quiet reading/writing activities after eating

1:30-1:45 Quiet Reading Writing Activities continued from lunch time

• Guided/shared reading (one group)

1:45-2:15 Math Activities

• Larger group activity (may be whole group or two smaller

groups)

• Small group/individual follow up activities

• Group sharing of learning

*2:15

(2:40 on T,

W, Th)

Classroom Clean Up/DPA/Distribute Mailbags

• DPA 10 minutes (10 additional minutes are included in

transition times throughout the day)

2:30-3:30

(2:50 on T,

W, Th)

Gym-Health/Library/Music/Drama with Prep Coverage Teacher (2:50

-3:30 T, W, Th)



3. What were some of the major changes in your environment?

Shara-Lynn: We were in the unique situation of starting our journey

together as an FDK team in a new school. We spent a long time

talking about our vision for the classroom, and started off with a fairly

empty classroom with basic furniture and a small amount of learning

materials. This meant that there were not many major changes inour environment, rather we slowly moved to towards our shared

vision as we selected materials and furniture to add to the

classroom.

One addition to our classroom that did have a significant impact on

learning was the addition of a second carpet. By adding the second

carpet we were able to create an additional meeting area that is

comfortable for the children. This has allowed us to each work with

larger groups of children at the same time. In addition, it hasenhanced the Building Area in our classroom. In the past, the

children would naturally bring building materials to the carpeted

area, but they would often need to clean up structures that were in

progress because we needed the meeting area for other things. The

children now have a carpeted space to build on, and it is a large

enough space that they can save their structures to add to them

over time. This has resulted in structures that are much more

complex!

We were also able to make a significant change to our environment

in terms of time this year. We were fortunate enough to make some

changes to the timing of prep coverage and our recess breaks in

order to minimize the number of transitions in the day and provide

large blocks of time for the children to engage in learning activities.



We found that this change has meant that the children are able to

“go deeper” into their play and inquiries with fewer interruptions.

4. How are the children involved in co-constructing the learning

space with you?

Shara-Lynn: The children are very active participants in the

construction of our learning space. They have created labels in the

classroom, brought many materials from their homes, organized our

Reading Area, created our Word Wall and created the borders for our

bulletin boards. We try to ensure that all the things on the walls are a

reflection of the learning in the classroom. Most things displayed in

the room are created by or with the children. A few examples of

student work, paired with some of our own reflections are pictured

below.



Amy: The children co-construct with us as much as they can. They

make labels for almost everything! They are avid writers and love to

use all the materials that were handy to label with. Tape is a favorite

labeling material, and I have found you can never have enough

tape or paper. The children are responsible for maintaining the

Creative Area supplies and refilling the paper shelf that they labeled

by colour.

In the Dramatic Play Area we ask the children to generate ideas and

vote on what they might like to transform the area into.

We also work with the children to generate a list of materials needed

for the area. If they feel that they need more information to create

the area they help to research what they might need. When we

created a library they visited another classroom’s pretend library,visited our school library and explored books about libraries. They

made lists and took pictures of items they would need and began to

collect materials from the classroom and their homes. They created

labels, nametags and signs for the area. As educators, our role was

to help collect materials and brainstorm with the children during this

process and to document thinking and plan next steps to extend

learning. It is a fine line to know when to interject and when to

The children created the labelsfor the math manipulatives onthis shelf.



observe and listen, but if you listen carefully you will become aware

of when you should step in or out of the children’s learning through

play. The children pictured below are working to create a pretend

ice cream shop.

We had no idea the children were so aware of our classroom

environment until we had our new couch arrive and we needed to

decide where to put it. We decided to let the children think about it

and make a plan (drawing or writing or both), convincing us where

we should put the couch. They were so excited to do this. Some of

them had the same ideas and worked together on the plans. Once

we came back together they shared their plans and then discussion

was happening amongst themselves why one idea might need

revising. They thought of and articulated all the reasoning we had

for wanting to place it in one area over the other and flow of the

classroom. We were shocked at how they articulated exactly our

considerations and their level of thinking.

5. What advice do you have for new teams who feel ready to

consider "the environment as third teacher?"

Shara-Lynn: Using our observations of the students in our classroomwas a simple way for us to begin. We were able to use our

observations to make decisions about where we could give children

more opportunities for independence, what areas students were

most engaged in, and how we could introduce provocations to

capitalize on our students’ natural sense of wonder.



We didn’t try to do everything at once. Instead we thought about our

goal for the end, and tackled things one at a time. By starting small,

and going slowly, we were able to be very deliberate and thoughtful

about each change.

When we were planning our environment we found it helpful to use

the model “Repeat, Re-think, Remove” to frame our thinking anddecision making. We chose to repeat those things that were working

well for the students in our classroom. There were some things that

worked at the beginning, but over time we needed to re-think or

modify as the strengths, interests and next steps for our students

evolved. For those things that were not working for the children in

our classroom, or successfully contributing to the overall vision we

had for the classroom, we removed them.

We also referred to a variety of professional resources as weestablished our classroom environment. A few of our favourites are

listed below:

http://www.eccenb-

sepenb.com/uploads/Website_Assets/Making_Environment.pdf

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/

CBS_ThirdTeacher.pdf

http://journal.naeyc.org/btj/200405/ConsidertheWalls.pdf



Amy: Use natural materials and collected materials. Children create

wonderful things out of just about anything. Try and plan ahead,

take your time and relax. Enjoy the process in small steps and get

adventurous. It took us a year and a bit to get to where we actually

felt like it was where we wanted to be and now it is minor changes

with the children as they change.

I look forward to learning for life and love what I do. I learn

something new with the children in the class each day. I never will

know everything and that is exciting to me! Thank you to Shara Lynn

for being “we” from the start and for being so open. Thank you to

Joanne for posting and creating such a wonderful learning space.

interview with shara-lynn and amy

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