This week I had the opportunity to facilitate STEM Starts at Home: Growing Thinkers Through Everyday Play for the Department of Education. I left the session thinking about how much of this our children are already doing, and how easy it is for us to miss it.

As parents, we sometimes hear STEM and picture robotics clubs, coding classes and expensive kits. The truth is, when we look at what are children are already doing we can find STEM everywhere. The thing is, it is easy to miss it! STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Let's break this down even more:

• Science is asking why and finding out.
• Technology is using a tool to solve a problem, and yes, the wooden spoon counts.
• Engineering is building a tower, watching it fall and building it again.
• Math is counting, sorting, measuring and noticing patterns.

Our children are already doing this every day. Our job is to notice it, name it and keep it going.
During the session we talked about five habits I see in every young thinker.

1. Noticing - which means paying attention on purpose. Try playing I-Spy with describing words instead of names.
2. Wondering - or asking a question worth chasing. I love a Wonder Jar for the questions we can't answer right away.
3. Predicting - guessing what will happen and saying why. Hold up two bags and ask which one is heavier before anyone lifts them.
4. Testing - where you try it and watch. Sink or float with five things from around the house will keep a six-year-old busy longer than you'd think.
5. Explaining - Let your child tell someone else what the two of you found out. That's where the learning settles.

For parents who attended, and for those who couldn't, I've put the highlights on a companion page. You'll find activity ideas for the kitchen, the yard and the beach, block-building challenges, and a one-page handout to print and keep on your fridge.
practice.learnandleadltd.com/thinkers

Just before school reopened, I spent a half day with the teacher at Shinning Stars Preparatory School. Together we broke down the topic of Differentiation. Differentiation can be an overwhelming topic. So, the aim of the workshop was to make it more manageable. One lesson, more than one way, and a set of decisions that a teacher can make to help more students access the objectives set out.

We started with inclusion itself, and with the difference between a child who is simply present in the room and a child the room has actually changed to fit. From there we looked at the range of needs sitting in an ordinary primary classroom, and sorted those needs into four domains: cognitive, emotional, behavioural and social. 
The second half of our workshop was practical. We explored ways to differentiate by content, process, product and environment, worked through how to make flexible groupings work. Participants especially enjoyed working through practical classroom-based scenarios that challenged them to created tiered lessons while considering the four domains of needs. 

Last week we had the pleasure of working with the staff at Ona Glinton Primary School on Emotional Intelligence for Educators. The focus of this workshop was not only to build EQ skills, but to focus on starting inward. Before we can read a child's behavior with accuracy, we must first be able to read into our own states. The emotional temperature in a classroom can often be linked to the a teacher's emotional temperature.

During our workshop we worked through the five elements of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills, and what each one actually looks like in a classroom. The first three happen inside you. The last two happen between you and someone else.

From there we turned outward. Safety comes before learning, because a brain that does not feel safe will protect itself rather than engage with the lesson. We looked at triggers and the four-step pause, at repair, and at reading the function of a behaviour rather than only the behaviour itself. Teachers sorted real classroom scenarios into escape, attention, tangible and sensory, then worked two behaviours all the way through antecedent, behaviour and consequence as a group.

Connection ran through the whole session, with students, with colleagues and with parents. We finished on how to hold a difficult conversation with a parent without losing the relationship.

It was a pleasure working with this staff, and thank you for being so willing to be honest with each other in the room. We wish them a wonderful year ahead.