We can all agree teachers serve an important role.  They can make a difference in a child’s scholastic success or struggles.  However for sometime I’ve felt as though I’m playing teacher.  It is a feeling akin to when I was eight and pretend-playing school with my peers.  Except now, I’m a grown adult teaching as a serious career.

Some Early Years IB teachers I’ve met have expressed concerns the PYP concept-driven curriculum is inappropriate to their pre-logical students.  Colleagues in the US are worried about the push to test performance.  My answer:  stop taking yourself so seriously and play!

Recently I read an article from Reggio Emilia founder Loris Malaguzzi where he confirms my suspicions.  In, Your Image of the Child:  Where Teaching Begins (1994), Malaguzzi encourages educators to analyze their role and relation to their students.  He writes, “The teacher has to be the author of a play. . . Teachers also need to be the main actors in the play, the protagonists”.  So, have fun and play-on!