Our New Normal, Volume XIX

Even if they have a connection to the school, they’re all first-time students on North Mooreland Road, meeting new classmates and teachers, enjoying new experiences, learning new lessons that will prepare them for the next step in their educational journeys, and, this year, also reaping the benefits of new facilities and reconfigured open spaces. 

Welcome, folks, to the latest offering in the Our New Normal series, a look at changes that have occurred around campus since Covid reared its ugly head 19-plus months ago.

On this beautiful, cool fall morning, we’re standing beside a giant sycamore tree located beside the Watt Library and Technology Building near Nunnally Hall at the southeast corner of campus talking to Rives Barksdale, the JK grade-level chair.  Children are scurrying about. High-pitched voices and laughter fill the air. These are blithe-spirited four- and five-year-olds, after all. 

“It’s very busy with JK students,” Rives said.

As we were talking, Andrew Stanley from the grounds crew arrived with a trailer full of bamboo.

“One of the teachers tried to make a lean-to with sticks, but the sticks weren’t long enough,” Rives said. “We asked Andrew and Robyn Hartley (also from the grounds crew) if we could get some bamboo. It’s really strong, and if we use bamboo to get the shape of what we want, they can start adding and adding and adding. It’s engineering. It’s creative. It’s collaboration. Nature and the outdoors have become a huge part of the JK program, especially during the pandemic.”

She then pointed out a newly constructed area called The Meadow (near the existing playground) with several pieces of weather-beaten, wooden, rustic-looking, kid-sized furniture.

“There’s a digging bed,” she said. “There’re wagons, rakes, little benches, and all kinds of bowls and spoons. There’re watering cans and measuring sticks, cookie sheets, paint brushes. 

“They love to come over here and use their imagination. They make brownies from the dirt. They might add some leaves in or some flowers for spices. Now, this is like tinker-garden. They can come in here and tinker. They want to go and play in The Meadow all the time. There’s so much they can learn from being outside and developing those gross motor skills and fine motor skills. They love this space and love getting up under the trees.”

A lot of dirt is involved, isn’t it? I offered.

“They get really, really dirty,” Rives responded. “That’s JK. Parents know part of the program is getting dirty.”

She mentioned that last year, Covid protocols dictated that children couldn’t share materials. This year, they can.

“It reminded me of my childhood when we didn’t have a lot of stuff,” she said. “We had to use our imaginations I feel like they’re so imaginative. They invite other children into their collaborative play and work together. It’s given all of us a chance to think: They don’t need all this stuff to be imaginative. They just need to get outside.”

Seems like you have a curriculum plan, I observed, but you find ways to go where the kids are.
  
“That’s correct,” she said. “We have a literacy curriculum and a math curriculum. We’re very fortunate because we can weave literacy and math into whatever we’re doing. We can come out and sort all different kinds of leaves or we can use acorns to teach them to count from one to 10.

"Speaking and listening is part of our literacy curriculum. Each class is named after a tree. They know the shape of a sycamore leaf, a maple leaf, a dogwood leaf.  It’s very fun. No year is the same. We take their interest, and we can work our curriculum into that. You have to be flexible. Sometimes, the children present great opportunities.”

Junior kindergarten at Collegiate began seven years ago with three classes. Now there’re five with 14 students each plus a teacher and an associate.
 

What makes someone want to be a JK teacher? I asked.
  
“You have to love children,” Rives responded. “I love conversations with four- and five-year-olds, really listening to what they say. We say, ‘What do you wonder?’ a lot. Hearing their little thoughts helps shape the learning and the teaching. And we’re really active. I love the action.”
 ~Weldon Bradshaw