This summer
I had to change schools. This was a great change for me for I had
been teaching an AM and PM kindergarten class traveling between two
schools. The room I received was a small one, and I was not given
a budget. The walls had bulletin boards encircling it, each panel
painted with the primary colors in their strongest values. The walls
were shabby, shelving needed sanding and painting and I did not like
the arborite counters either.
I had good things going for me though. One my principal. I asked her
if I could paint. She said yes and simply left me to it. She also
got me a new floor (lino) and rug that I picked out for the block
group area. I also have been teaching for many years and have materials
of my own. However, I did not have house funiture tables or chairs
etc. I
began the second week of July, with the sanding and prep work on the
walls. I am not an expert designer, painter, etc., but I literally
lived this project through the summer.
Past parents
came in to help me and as one wall was finished being painted I found
I could strip off some of the arborite and then sand and paint the
wood. I had to reface a sink area and waterproof it, paint shelves,
furniture, find furniture and design it. As I went along I became
a daily visitor to the paint store, retreiving information and sharing.
The same thing happened at the hardware store.
For fun
I ended up painting a shape collage on the house corner table and
doing soft leaf prints on a table I found and painted from one of
the furnace rooms. I lived at Ikea™ and purchased furniture to
help make a modern fridge (Kampe unit wih the rationalle fittings)
and even buit my own kitchen sink area. I installed shelving that
held every container I could find for the materials I wanted to make
accessible to the children, and I found out how to drill into metal.Mirrors
came next, then shelving units, bulletin boards for dividers on the
back of shelves, mailboxes for the children, etc.
I chose
the softer hues of all the colours. The wall is actually a beautiful
yellow called light toast. It goes with every colour imaginable. The
shelves and bulletin boards were painted apple peel white (a warm
white). For the art studio I outlined one of my shelves with a poppy
red and the other shelves were painted poppy red. I have poppies in
a vase standing there and the sand table is the same. These areas
call to the children and are "theirs".
The room
looks twice the size and is bright and beautiful. I have suggested
a loft to the parents as that is my next goal. A parent project for
them as well as the children and myself. It was the unpacking and
moving that nearly did me in and it is only now that I can reflect
on the experience and begin some sort of catch up work.
One thing
did come through. If I had not studied Reggio principles in the last
4 years or read books like the Atelier, have visited Reggio etc. this
classoom would not exist as it does in its present form. Three years
from now it will probably be a bit different again. Change is not
always visible to ourselves. It can occur so slowly that perhaps we
are unaware of the true impact of this study of Reggio that so many
of us have embarked upon. Sometimes we get lost in the struggle and
cannot measure the markers along the way.
One thing
is now clearer to me. The classroom had to be shaped and designed
this way because of the kind of work that is now taking place within
it. An adoption of new understandings, an enlightening and giving
up of 'cultural knots', a designing of the environment so that it
can be a teacher, so that it can highlight the documention the work
that goes on there, so that children can make it theirs and invent
their own wishes, desires, creations within it, a place we can call
ours. I have changed and the classroom reflects much of what I owe
to so many others. It is kind of like a tiny revolution happening
all over.
September
2002
Contact
Terry at starko@shaw.ca
