Well, hello and welcome to another episode of blooming curious.
This week, we have been inundated on our social media with all
the back to school stuff.
And in fact, last week, I actually did a episode on how we get sorted and
organized for going back to school in terms of thinking about setting up our
classrooms and also our lesson plans.
But I've been seeing so many teachers going back to their classrooms,
you guys in the Northern hemisphere.
And those classrooms are just so decorated.
The fortune that you people are spending on classrooms is just extraordinary to me.
And then I discovered in the comments that all American teachers walk into is a
bare classroom only with desks and chairs.
They have to you guys over there I have to spend your own
money to set up your classrooms.
I mean, this is just extraordinary.
In Australia, we'll certainly in the school where I am, we walk into a
classroom with yes desks and chairs, but there also are cupboards and
bookshelves and things like that.
And then of course we spend our own money unless there is stuff there
already cause very often when teachers vacate a room, they often leave some
of the stuff behind and then off we tootle and we go to Kmart or we go to
Ikea and we go and buy all our storage things and everything else that we want
or need in this classroom to set it up
so that is a beautiful space for children.
But over the years, My way of setting up a classroom has changed.
I guess it comes from you know moving countries several times,
moving houses several times.
You know, moving into smaller spaces often and then I can't take all the stuff
with me that I've hoarded over the years,
so I just have to let it go.
Give it to charity, whatever.
It comes from watching Marie Kondo.
It comes from looking at those guys that started the minimalist movement
and realizing that we hoard stuff.
We keep this stuff and it's almost like our baggage.
So I have been trying for many years to be a minimalist.
I am nowhere near minimalist.
My cupboards are bulging.
I don't know how they get like that, but every now and again,
I have to do a cleanup and I'm getting better and better at it.
But here's the thing.
One of the reasons I chose to do a podcast over a YouTube channel.
Was that I think we are so overstimulated now that.
We need less of everything.
Right.
So for a podcast, you seeing it as visual stimulation.
There's auditory stimulation.
There's the screen.
There's the flashing.
And I think a podcast is the minimalist answer, right?
You just stick on your headphones or your ear buds and off you go, and you
just got this auditory stimulation and your imagination is working.
You are creating the movie and the pictures in your head of
everything that you are hearing.
And by the way, that's how I grew up.
I didn't grow up with television.
Remember in South Africa, we were years behind, we got television
way later than everybody else did.
And there were black and white too when you guys and the rest
of the world all had color.
I grew up with radio.
And it was something I really looked forward to.
We listened to stories on the radio.
We listen to documentaries on the radio.
Radio was our entertainment and our place where we learned.
And of course I grew up with radio, I still value radio today.
And so to me, the podcast is also a way of reducing that stimulation.
And it's just so much simpler and you can take it with you and you
don't have to look at a screen.
You can just listen and carry on doing whatever else you're doing.
So that's one way of simplifying your life.
I think.
But when it comes to this classroom stuff, right.
I was thinking.
When I was a kid.
Our classrooms were pretty minimal.
There were desks and chairs that we had those old wooden ones with little inkwell.
Although by the time I got to school there were no more inkwells.
We were actually using pens.
Yep.
I'm not that old.
Um, but there wasn't a lot of stuff going on.
We didn't have things hanging off washing lines in the classroom, for example.
I do clearly remember having nice big windows and there being planter
boxes and growing plants in the window, sills, things like that.
And of course there were posters.
But the rooms weren't done up two an inch of their lives.
It wasn't like the teachers were on The Block.
We're not trying The Block by the way is an Australian TV show where couples
are all trying to outdo themselves.
Uh, by seeing who can decorate or redo, um, homes and houses and apartments and
whatever , better than the next person.
Classes of become this place of sharing
what good interior decorators we are.
Classrooms are not spaces to show off our interior decorating skills.
Classrooms are spaces where we're trying to get kids curious.
And if we think about how stimulated we all are and kids
are so overstimulated, right.
And that's why they bouncing off walls.
We should be creating spaces, that are minimalist.
And only have the bare essentials in it that are going to spark
curiosity for kids, but imagine you're walking into this class.
And it's just done up in this corner
there's that, and in that corner, there's that, and there's blocks and
there's play stuff and there's soft toys and there's books and there's,
I don't know, letters and numbers and pretend play and it's just going crazy.
There's just so much, I think we need to tone it down people.
Were spending a fortune on things that are going to end up in landfill.
Because let's face it,
this thing that we buying do not even last.
And kids play with them for five minutes and then they're bored.
So my thinking this week, My curiosity this week.
My question that I'm asking myself when I'm watching all of these teachers doing
these beautiful classrooms is this.
Do kids really need this to learn and be curious.
Because I'm thinking, I don't know about you guys, but I used to love, you know,
those old fashioned shows like the Brady Bunch and Little House on the Prairie,
I'm telling my age.
Yes.
Okay.
I was 59 last week.
And those to show those little classrooms, right.
And they were minimalist, it was just desks and the kids and the teacher.
We the teacher.
We are the stimulus.
The things that we do, our way, our pedagogy, the things that we do, the
things that we say, these are the things that stimulate kids and provide
curiosity, our questions, our enthusiasm.
Our values.
And then of course we bring that into the classroom.
And if you listen to last week's episode, you would have heard that.
And, you know, from, by previous episodes, I'm big into nature pedagogy.
So my classroom always has natural objects in it, always has loose parts
in it, different bits from trees and going on walks, feathers and
nests and whatever I can find, none of that stuff was bought in a shop.
That stuff I just found going on walks.
And then if you go to secondhand shops, like here in Perth, we've got
this cool place called Remida where schools can sign up and you go there.
I think schools play a minimal amount every year and you go there and
they've got all this recycled stuff, bits and bobs that they've found
or got from factories and wherever.
Everything from cutoff plastic stuff where I know factories are making
plastic staff, they've got blocks, they've got pieces of fabric and
leather and all sorts of textiles.
They've got containers.
Anything that you can think of, I promise you it's there.
So my suggestion would be go to op shops, go to secondhand stores, go and look for.
Interesting objects, things that will make kids curious things that you
could put in a central question to.
Like, what is this thing used for?
What do you think people used to do with this?
What do you think you can make with us?
We need things like stones and blocks and Lego and yes some
pretend play, but you know what?
I never spent money on buying kids' costumes for my classroom like I see.
I used to take my old blouses, or old.
Um, blouses from or dresses or tops.
Dresses are too long for kids, but just blouses from secondhand shops.
My husband's old shirts.
I used to cut off the sleeves quickly just sew an just edge it.
And put stuff like that.
And old hats, kids love hats from a secondhand shop that's what I had in
my pretend play dress up corner in a basket, and kids could just put that on.
There's no need to spend money on costumes people.
Don't spend your money on that.
Spend your money on things that will last.
Spend your money on going out for a beautiful meal with your family.
Don't spend your money on things that kids aren't even going to be interested
in after 10 minutes, or that's going to be broken by the end of term one.
Seriously, you don't need it and kids don't need it.
They not interested.
Kids want attention.
They want your time.
They want to be able to play.
If you're going to spend any money, any money at all buy Lego.
And when we you've got more money, buy more Lego and you've got
some leftover buy some more Lego.
Lego is the one thing that I have noticed the children die to want to go and play.
They could play Lego all day if you let them.
And so my message to you in this podcast episode is.
What is your why?
I spoke about it last week.
Why are you doing it?
Why are you setting up your room the way you are?
Just ask yourself that over and over.
Why am I doing this?
Why am I putting this here?
Why am I buying this or that thing?
Are kids actually going to be curious, is it going to spark
their curiosity and their wonder?
Is it going to make them use their imagination?
Are they going to play in an imaginative way?
Spend your money wisely.
And really, I honestly feel that our classrooms are
places now of overstimulation.
We've got stuff hanging from washing lines.
We've got stuff covering the windows.
You've got stuff covering the walls.
It's just too much.
I think we need to pare things right back.
Let's have a learning wall that shows our progression of our learning,
the children's learning journey
their questions how we've got to our answers.
Let's show that.
Let's show the children's work.
But when it comes to providing toys and our provocations and
our invitations let's be real.
Let's be intentional and let's be mindful.
And let's stop buying stuff.
Okay, let's stop buying stuff.
How about we see what we can do with as little money as possible?
. Because I really think that we need to put children first.
That's why we were educators because children and their
education matters to us.
You know, you've got people homeschooling now.
They've got minimalist stuff.
We've got a whole.
Movement going towards nature pedagogy and keeping things simple and natural.
You go watch kids playing outside,
they look for a stick.
They're not looking for expensive toys.
They're looking for a stick.
These are the things that really matter to children.
Things that are open-ended.
So, instead of all the pretty stuff.
Just get loose parts and Lego.
And with that, I'm going to leave you and I'm going to leave you with this question.
Think about your, why?
Why are you doing things?
And with that, I'll ask you one last favor and that is if you like the
content on blooming curious and you think that other teachers and other
educators and other parents would benefit from blooming curious or that
blooming curious might spark curiosity in you, that it will get you thinking,
then do me a favor and hit that share button and share it with as many friends
and colleagues as you can think of.
And I'll see you again next week.
Same time, same place.
And until then, stay blooming curious.