Welcome to Relationship based Early Education (The Little School)

15 Parts

1. Welcome to Relationship based Education By: Little School San Francisco CA, 1m 51s duration
Welcome to the Little School and to learning about the importance of relationships in education. In the following videos you are about to see how one early childhood center of education has put research and theory into the practice of how young children are taught. You will meet the Little School director, Leslie Roffman, who narrates an introduction to the guiding concepts in relationship-based education.

2. Opening the door to self-awareness By: Little School San Francisco CA, 7m 23s duration
Understanding a child who is extremely sensitive and assertive requires special understanding of the sensory and motor processing challenges faced by the child. In this segment, Lisa, a teacher at the Little School, illustrates how a teacher becomes an ally for the child by acknowledging the child’s feelings and experience. The teacher’s knowledge of the child and her empathic responses open a door to self -awareness for the child, and to trying new experiences.

3. The value of private communication By: Little School San Francisco CA, 1m 45s duration
Teacher Alan illustrates the importance of speaking to a child privately to help the child develop strategies for coping in a complex classroom environment. The private conversation avoids the risk of making the child feel shame for some reaction or behavior beyond their self- awareness or control.

4. Building self-esteem By: Little School San Francisco CA, 2m 57s duration
Building self –esteem depends upon how a child thinks others view him, and his view of himself. Teachers can prepare a child for experiences the child finds challenging; thereby teaching the child techniques for self- regulation, but also maintaining the child’s view of himself as a person well thought of by his teacher.

5. Respecting individual differences By: Little School San Francisco CA, 16m 35s duration
This segment highlights the importance of observing and getting to know the child’s personality and individual profile for learning. When teachers turn to parents as the experts on their child, a working alliance develops that increases the parents’ trust in the school and gives the teachers tools for comforting and engaging the child. The teachers show how non-verbal communication works to develop reciprocity and communicative intention when teachers’ watch and wait.

6. Bridging peer relationships By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 6m 0s duration
Some children wish to become part of their peer group but do not know how to join play, or have more subdued affect and lower arousal, which inhibits their capacity to join with peers. Other children have a hard time communicating their intentions to peers. They remain on the periphery of child- initiated play and often appear to be onlookers, lacking in play skills. Care giving adults can become a bridge to the peer community for children who are shy, withdrawn, or slow to warm up.

7. Transforming negativity into pleasurable play By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 3m 57s duration
The busy, noisy classroom is not the most comfortable environment for some children. Youngsters who struggle to feel competent in their own bodies or determining their own actions may adapt to the classroom by becoming territorial or inflexible or aggressive. In this segment Cassie shows us how a teacher can join the child’s wish to be competent and turn interaction with potential negative effects into interaction that is safe, fun and satisfying to the child.

8. Teaching problem solving By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 3m 37s duration
Two children want the same toy at the same time. It happens many times a day in every childcare and preschool all over the world. How can the teacher help children learn to resolve conflict at this young age? The segment shows how a teacher plants the seeds for problem solving in very young children.

9. Conflict Resolution By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 5m 6s duration
Two children want to play in the same space. They get into a conflict that turns physical. Patiently supporting the children to solve the problem helps them develop their own solutions and learn to negotiate. The experience builds the children’s capacity for empathy and helps them learn to think about another person’s perspective.

10. Using circle time groups to teach self -reflection and problem solving By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 3m 44s duration
The process is more important than the product. When we support children to work together to communicate with each other to resolve a conflict, the outcomes are often surprising. The children find a solution that works for them using their own original thinking and emerging reasoning skills. The real lesson for the children is in the process of learning respect for others’ ideas, listening before judging, and allowing oneself the flexibility to be satisfied by an unexpected solution.

11. Bridging Home to School By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 5m 14s duration
Bringing parents into the classroom to share family traditions and special events creates a community of shared experiences and shared cultures. Parents feel pride as they witness their child representing their family traditions with their peers and teachers. Parents strengthen their emotional ties with the teachers and with the school through shared multicultural experiences.

12. Teaching how the world works: Building Community Values By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 4m 23s duration
Teachers are imparting ideas about how the world works whether consciously or unconsciously throughout the day. This segment shows how to make these values explicit to children by capturing opportunities in the natural moments of shared experience.

13. Developing a passionate connection to learning through relationship and creativity By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 5m 42s duration
Creative and cognitive development in early childhood lays the foundation for critical and analytical thinking in later life. In this segment you will see how one teacher inspires his students through hands on creative projects. The ideas and the creativity belong to the students. He is surprised every time by what they discover and create.

14. Learning through Problem Solving By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 5m 28s duration
Cognition develops through trial and error experimentation with materials. This segment shows how meaningful learning evolves. A student tries multiple avenues of exploration to arrive at a novel solution to his problem.

15. Bringing all the concepts together in everyday play By: Little School San Francisco CA, 11/7/2013, 9m 56s duration
Children who feel safe, respected and valued members of their community are ready to become confident and capable learners. We look at education as not just learning the letters and numbers, but as development of a competent person in the context meaningful relationships. Relationships allow the child to move beyond him or herself into learning about the world.

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