Letting go can mean losing something you were holding. But it can also mean blasting off to something new, you know, like that amazing climactic scene in Wicked when Elfa decides to defy gravity.
So yeah, I witnessed this very phenomenon in Lea Crongeyer’s PK3 class the other day. As in, the children themselves transformed from their chubby cute selves before my very eyes into steel and metal engineering marvels, rockets flying into the sky to the celestial destinations of their choice. From squatting on the ground in eager anticipation, to a crescendoing chant of 3-2-1 BLASTOFF, arms spread, flying around the room, imaginations primed to the max.
It was immersive and experiential and kinesthetic and effective, to be sure. But what really caught my attention was what prefaced the blast off, Lea’s masterful scaffolding of share outs using the prompt: “tell me which planet is your favorite and why?” Then round the circle we went. Early childhood share outs can be touch and go. Sometimes they can be magic, and sometimes the first kid gives one answer and everyone goes the safe route and lock-step replicates the exact same answer. But in this case, the children were ready to go. They loved Jupiter because it has a storm on it. They loved the sun, but wanted to point out it’s not a planet, but a star. They love Saturn because of the rings, and Neptune because only penguins live there and apparently it rains diamonds (?!), and Mars because it’s “the red one” and “it has volcanoes and what if it had dinosaurs on it?”
Lea has taught for a minute or two, so watching her engage with three year olds is a bit like watching a seasoned violinist coax musical magic out of strings. She’s mastered some favorite tag lines (e.g. “kiss your brain!”) and is a pro at just-in-time learning and “stretching” the learning just a bit from where they began. For example, to the child who loved Mars because it’s the “red one,” she quickly asked “what makes it red?” Some puzzled-thinking faces ensued, until one child yelled out “DUST!” and another yelled “ROCKS!” Bam. Two new facts added on to the red thing.
Sometimes we have to be reminded to find our circle manners because we are three and that was a really long share-out. But in order to fly off to new heights, you’ve got to surrender to gravity first. And that give and take is exactly what “permission to let go” is all about. I sat down with Lea to learn more about what she thought about our blog blast theme, and we found ourselves in territory that is familiar with any teacher who is keeping it 100%: student behavior. Here’s what she shared:
I want them to come in every day excited about what they are going to see and do, play on that sense of wonder that all 3 and 4 year olds have. But there have been years when I did have to let some things go, not be as loose in my teaching. Not as open. [Even] today I had to put the boat away. We couldn’t handle the boat. [In a class in the past] we were never ready to handle that level of freedom. When you get a class to the point, when you trust them and they trust us . . you can give them more space or freedom. . . When you can’t, you have to take it away; it can become dangerous that they cannot handle any freedom. I never used the rug for morning activities because that was too much space.
We used to hide eggs in the room and find what letter is in it and find a special spot for all the letters. Chelsea came one year to observe and it became complete chaos, because of two children. I have to give Chelsea Freeman credit. She said, “I know that you want to offer all these gross motor activities and these are so important, but maybe this year, fewer is better, less is better, throwing away some of the things you’ve always done.” I was offended at the time but “maybe this year . . . “ [felt like] permission to let go. [Sometimes we have to] shift from exciting things to routines that are safe.
Permission to let go can look a whole lot like adapting to the developmental needs of the youth that are sitting in front of you. It can look like realizing that the very cool conference session you attended won’t apply to a particular cohort of students. It can demand that you hang up your favorite assignment or center of all time until your group has demonstrated they are ready for it.
And they will be ready for it. Maybe not in the scope of your school year with them. But again and again, the children surprise us as they enter seventh grade, ninth grade, twelfth grade.
Thanks to you and the seeds you plant, there will come a day when they 3-2-1 BLAST OFF into their beautiful potential.