Watch. Wait. Wonder: The Art of Observation by Heather White, Ed.S., M.Ed., NCSP

[MUSIC] >> Welcome to Early Childhood Investigations, your gateway to inspiring research-based professional development. Before we get started, I'm your host, Sasha Rice, co-founder of Playground and producer of ECI. Early Childhood Investigations is part of a webinar series that we produce here at Playground as part of our mission to make excellent childcare accessible to all. We do that in two ways. First, by creating a platform for experts to share their knowledge with the rest of the industry. And second, by creating technology that helps streamline your business and administrative tasks. So you have more time to spend on the children and families you serve in your program and community. Playground was built originally for our family of program directors and now supports thousands of child care programs with tools for building, marketing, payroll, attendance, family communication, and much more. You can learn more about what we're up to at ecwebinarys.com/playground-spautify. Now, let's jump into today's session. [MUSIC] >> All right, all right. Welcome, welcome everyone. And thank you so much for being with us on this beautiful Thursday. I hope wherever you are, it is starting to feel like spring. Thankfully in New York, we're finally getting some lovely weather and I could not be more grateful after that crazy winter we've had. But thank you all so much for being here today and Heather. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm so excited and I will pass this off to you in just a few moments. But for all of you who are currently hearing or seeing me, you guys are in the right spot. Today we are going to be with Heather White talking about the art of observation. And before we get started, for those of you who are new here and do not know me, my name is Hannah Teeter and I head up early childhood investigations. All right, that is all from me, Miss Heather. I see you're on camera and if you'd like to take over my screen, I will pass the baton to you. >> All right, I'm going to share my screen here and we'll get started. >> Yay, and thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited. >> Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here as well. It's so wonderful to see so many people here in life and I know others will watch the recording as well. I'm honored to be here with you all that you took time out of your busy day to join me as we explore the art of observation. Before we jump in and really get to the meet of what we'll be discussing today, I'd like to take just a few moments to introduce myself and to share a few details that define me as the host for this webinar and the creator of this presentation. So my name is Heather White. I'm a former Montessori classroom teacher, administrator and in-home Montessori caregiver with nearly two decades of experience in the world of Montessori. I currently work as an educational coach, a blog writer and content creator for several different organizations, including the American Montessori Society, Guided Grow, and Miros Toys. And I work in multiple capacities with the Center for Guided Montessori Studies, supporting adult learners who are working to obtain their Montessori credential, including as an instructional guide with them, a practicum advisor and a field consultant. And then I'm also their alumni and conference coordinator, their coaching team leader, and the accreditation associate. One second, I'm just looking in the chat. I thought I was sharing my screen, but let me double-stack my screen here, feel free. Let me send you a request. I called you the button for a replace and then it wasn't replacing. So I apologize for that. That was strange. You know what? That's just on us. There we go. So all you missed, I'll just look back. All you missed was just the intro slide. So no worries. Okay, so in addition with CGMS, I am also their coaching team leader in the accreditation associate. And then I also work with Sarasota University. I'm an adjunct professor and I am also the director of academic projects. And Sarasota University is proud to say that we are the only MACD accredited institution of higher education that's devoted solely to Montessori. So really incredible organization. I have credentials or certifications from the American Montessori Society and the three to six and six to nine age groups and have experience working with children from birth throughout adolescence. I hold a master's degree in education with a concentration in Montessori studies and an education specialist degree in school psychology. And I am also currently a doctoral candidate at Sarasota University. I'm a nationally certified school psychologist and a nationally certified Montessori coach. And I've also received certification and anti bias and anti racism from the American Montessori Society. Throughout today's presentation, as Hannah mentioned, we're going to be using some emoji reactions as a quick and engaging way for you to participate. And I still see those emojis coming in. That's awesome. So for our first one, if and just to mention a little tidbit here, if you're not familiar with using the emojis, when you go to that react panel down at the bottom of your screen, there is a place where you can type to find specific emojis. So if you can't find the one that you need, that can be helpful. But for our first emoji reaction, I'd love to get to know you all a little bit better. So if you're currently working in a classroom setting, can you drop a thumbs up emoji just so I can see how many educators we have currently working in the classroom? Lots of thumbs up coming in. Okay, awesome. So this will be information that is directly relevant, something you can apply right away. I love that. Thank you for all those thumbs up. So what are we going to cover together? We're going to talk about the foundations of observation, really with this focus on how it developed in Montessori Pedagogy and Philosophy. So please know that that can be expanded to include all types of early childhood and really any elementary secondary, any type of learning environment. And I would even say with adults as well, right? We're going to identify what observation is. We'll review how to observe and what we can observe. And then we'll discuss the types of observations. And finally, we'll learn what we can do with those observations and why it's important. What are the benefits of engaging in this practice? If observation is already something that you do, if it's already a part of your regular teaching practice, show me the clapping hands emoji just so I know how many fellow observers are already here in the audience with us. Lots of clapping hands as a Montessori and that makes me so happy, right? Because that's how we truly get to know the children that we're serving is by observing them, right? That's how they show us who they are and what they need. Wonderful. So, if you've ever seen any of my work, it's available at large online. But if you have, you know that I love to ground the work that we're doing in the time that we spend together in sessions just like this with an inspirational quote. And so today I wanted to begin with words from Dr. Maria Montessori herself about the importance of observation. She says, "The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer. The activity must lie in the phenomenon." So when Dr. Maria Montessori speaks of this natural phenomena, she's referring to that unfolding of the child's development, their choices, their concentration, their interactions with the environment and with other people. And she's reminding us that our role as the adult isn't to direct that activity from the child, but to witness it unfolding. The true work then, that real activity is happening within the child. And our task is to notice, to reflect and to respond really thoughtfully. So observation then is an passive act. It's really an active form of engagement that requires us to enter it through a place of curiosity, humility and patience. And it's through that careful observation that, as I said, "become to understand each child's needs and how the environment that we're developing is serving them and how we can better support their growth naturally." So Dr. Montessori's educational and professional background began as a scientist and a physician where she was trained in making really careful observations. More than 100 years ago, she set out to observe a group of children in a psychiatric hospital as part of her medical training. And without knowing it, she was taking the very first steps on a journey that would establish this incredible pedagogy that would forever change the lives of children around the world. She applied these observation skills that she learned through her scientific and medical training to her future work with children. So much like an anthropologist or a botanist, she observed even the smallest of details when watching children. In fact, she titled one of her earliest books, "The Discovery of the Child," which revealed this notion that she felt that by observing children carefully, systematically, and without judgment, the child's true nature is able to be revealed. And despite the numerous revelations and discoveries that she made over the course of her work and the field of education, one tool remains constant, and that was observation. So before we dive into exploring observation a bit more deeply, I'd love to start with your perspective. So I want you to take just a moment and think about this question. What is observation? There isn't any pressure to be precise. I just want you to share in the chat once it's open. What comes to mind based on your own experience? What is observation from your understanding? So when you have access to the chat, go ahead and type your thoughts in. It can be really simple, right? It doesn't need to be something precise or exact. Just what comes to mind? I see non-biased watching focused attention. What I hear or see, authentic listening, studying. I love that waterfall. So many ideas coming in. A collection of facts. I see a lot of watching, listening, being present in the moment, attention. Fallen other being present in the moment. Lots of listening, hearing and seeing, intentionality. I love that. Yes. Being curious, objective. Yeah. That's a great. I love that you mentioned that. We're going to loop back to that intentional curiosity. Active listening. Okay. Great. So this really gives us a sense of the ideas that you all are bringing into the conversation. And then we're going to build on them together. So this helps me to see that so much of what we're going to be discussing, you all already have as a foundation. Knowing these key components, excuse me, of what the observation is and how we can use it. So then let's talk about very specifically what observation is. Observation is a hallmark of the Montessori philosophy that really guides our work as educators. It's a tool that provides us with important information that's necessary in order to do something really important. It's what Maria Montessori called following the child. It's that ability to see the child's path unfolding to identify their needs, their desires, their interest, and then follow that lead. And it's also a really critical component of lesson planning and classroom leadership, right? It allows us to understand what lessons we might present next based on the child's needs and their interests, but then also how we can help support different behaviors that we're seeing and needs that might arise emotionally or socially. Observing really simply put means watching like a camera on the wall. We want to be factual and record only what we see and hear the child's movements, their language, their posture, their actions. Observation is watching and paying careful attention to that detail. It's important to mention that there is nothing in the definition of observation that requires action from us. It's really just seeing and perceiving and here's the part that comes back in where you all noted the objectivity that needs to be there, right? It's seeing or perceiving without any judgment or analysis. It's the process of that objectively monitoring a child to see how they behave and what they know. And that allows us to discover their interests, their needs, and their abilities and helps us to identify when there is a developmental change and sometimes when we need to step in to set or reaffirm a limit or provide a little help or assistance to a child before stepping out again to allow them that independence. Simone Davies, who some of you may be familiar with, she is the founder of the Montessori Notebook, which is a fantastic blog online she's also the author of the Montessori baby, the Montessori toddler, and the Montessori child. And she says observation is a scientific way to look at the child. It's a tool for us to better understand the child, to transform ourselves, to see the world through their eyes, and to be humble and looking how to support them in the best way. So when we think about this, then observation really becomes an art, right? It's an art form that takes deliberate practice. Although it may seem too good to be true, observation really is as simple as taking the time to pause and make note of what's happening around us. But I recognize that that's easier said than done, right? I know some of you mentioned that subjectivity in the chat. And because our brains are hardwired to make judgments, we really have to intentionally work to avoid this, right? We have to be very intentional to remain objective. And I know a lot of you mentioned that as well, right? That intentional objectivity. And that's why I refer to observation as an art because it requires that intentionality to refine our practice. If this type of observation, this intentionally objective observation is challenging for you. It's something that's a little harder to do. It's hard to resist that urge to jump in and help children, or for your own analyses and interpretations to creep in. If you find that a little difficult, show me the shock emoji, the one where your hands are on your face, the wide eyes. Open mouth, yeah, I see a lot of them coming in. This is really difficult work, right? We have to work really hard to change the way our brains naturally work, which is to make analyses, to create interpretations, to be subjective. So I'm here with all of you and I to still to this day, as much as I've studied it and practiced it, it's still something I have to work at, right? And I think that is true for all of us is it's an ongoing practice. Dr. Maria Montessori described three different types of observations. She talked about direct, indirect and self observation. And I almost just gave this away on the last slide when I said something I was going to say something about looking internally, but hold that thought, we're going to come back to that final piece self observation because I think it's really important too. But let's start with the two main categories, which are direct and indirect direct observation involves what we were just discussing, right? Staying still and quiet so we can dedicate all of our attention just to watching the child. This is the type of observation that requires that objectivity. We want to make sure that what we're doing and what we're seeing remains pure and we do that by staying at a distance, right, by not interrupting what's happening. Indirect observation on the other hand, involves watching the child while being active with them and noticing how our own interactions with them are taking place. This type of observation can also be challenging in a different way because we're requiring ourselves to multitask, which I don't know if any of you know the research on that, but we don't do it very well, right? It's hard for us to give our full attention to two things or more than two things at once. But that's what indirect observation is all about. We're not really stopping that judgment piece now because we're an active participant. We don't need the stillness, but it's challenging in a different way because we're trying to be and do at the same time, right? We're trying to observe and engage with the child. And I think it's also worth noting that sometimes the value of indirect observation can be overshadowed. InfoSys is often placed on direct observation, right? And not interrupting what's happening so we truly can see what's going on. But in her book, the absorbent mind, Dr. Maria Montessori said, even when helping and serving the children, she, the teacher, must not cease to have observe them because the birth of concentration in a child is as delicate a phenomenon as the bursting of a bud into bloom. So she's telling us here that even when we're engaging with children, when we're giving a lesson, when they're helping them with an activity, we still need to be watching because if we don't, we could miss that really powerful moment when they're engaged in something and a, an aha moment happens, right? Or a need that they have becomes revealed. So what we want to do instead is try to alternate between these two types of observations, depending on what our focus is. If you tend to do more direct observation and your work with children, give me a thumbs up emoji now. That's where you tend to just spend most of your time is that remaining still and quiet. Okay, lots of thumbs up. That's great because like we said, that type of observation can be really hard, right? Now, if most of your observation happens through that direct work with a child, right? When you're engaging with them, show me the heart emoji. How many of you do most of your observation in that hands on activity? Okay, lots of hearts as well, which I'm hoping means a lot of you are already balancing both of these different types of observation, right? Lots of hearts coming in. That's great. Okay, so here's where I said we would come back to because this is actually one of my favorite types of observation. I do a lot of work on our needs as human beings as adults and the way we need to better understand ourselves, just as we seek to understand others. And the way that we do that is through self observation. And I'm going to tell you about the first thing that I want to know is that self observation is actually a type of direct observation. It involves turning our focus inward and paying attention to our own feelings, our own thoughts, reactions, and noticing them consciously, that intentionality again, right? We do this in many ways, maybe with a journal, talking to a therapist, talking with a friend or a colleague or a partner, or sometimes just by sitting and being with our thoughts, right? Taking time to just turn inward with no other, you know, outside influence. We don't need to write anything down or do anything. We just need to tap into our own feelings, thoughts, and reactions. This is not a type of observation that we typically do on a daily basis that we share with others. It's really a lifelong work that we need to do regardless of whether we're in the classroom or not. It allows us to grow as human beings because it allows us to analyze and work on ourselves. It's that same practice, like we talked about that art form and the other methods, right, of directed and direct observation. But now we're developing that awareness of ourselves and how we contribute to the environments that we find ourselves in, which can be really telling when we're working with children, right? We are something that's happening inside us is really what's impacting what we're seeing unfolding in the classroom around us. And an important aspect of self observation is understanding and satisfying our own needs. We have to be able to model for children what that process looks like. We satisfy our own needs, then we are able to enter the classroom and to give children what they really need, right? We all have basic needs, food, water, shelter, sleep, and personal needs like love, belonging, acceptance, honesty, acknowledgement, safety. And we need to identify our own personal needs and meet them so that then we can help children do that same work, right? So this, in my opinion, is really the foundation for not just our practice of observation, but really all that we do as educators. And really I would expand that to say all that we are as human beings, right? So given the importance of self observation, I thought it would be great to take a moment and pause so that we can share some ideas with each other of how we engage in self observation. Maybe it'll provide some inspiration to someone to find a new way to embrace this element of the art of observation. But if you're willing, I invite you to share in the chat again now, what are some ways that you engage in this practice? Remember some of the examples that we gave were journaling, talking to a therapist or a friend, see some ideas coming in, lots of journaling, nature walks. I love that meditation, being out in nature, talking to friends, crocheting. I love that. That hand work. Yeah, that's a great way. There's Maria Montessori talked about the connection between the hand and the brain and there's so much neuroscience there. So that's a great way. Prayer, walking the dog, relaxing, walking by the lake, cloud watching. I love that sharing with another posted note, spa days. I am right there with you. I love spa days. Listening to soft music, jigsaw puzzles. My husband and I love jigsaw puzzles as well. I see reading the Bible, Bible studies, reading in general, knitting, classic rocks with a lot of music coming in meditation, mindfulness, turning music off and just reflecting. So some of us like that audio input, right? That's stimulus to help our brains start to turn off and so we can turn inward and some of us like that music. So I love that what we see here with so many of these different ideas is that we have each have our own individual way to meet our needs and to understand what those needs are. And that's a great way for us to remember that the same is true for children, right? They're all going to have different ways. And that helps them to help them to help them come and regulate and that that's how then they can tap in to hearing their own inner needs and attending to them. Thank you all for sharing doing projects around the house. I saw some yard work as well exercise. Everybody talked about so many different things that relate to all these different ways of being right are physical needs spiritual creative needs. And I also want to thank you all so much for sharing. Wendy Calise, who is a monastery head of school and the founder and director of the monastery teachers institute of professional studies came up with a really clever way to describe the stages of observation. I need to talk about it. If you have time, I have to tell you, I feel like talking about them simply does not do them justice. We're going to do it just because I think it's important to share, but if you have a moment I encourage you to look for the video of Wendy sharing about these eight stages of observation. I'm going to turn my name and type in eight stages of observation on YouTube and you'll find the video. She is so humorous and brings such life to these descriptions. So I encourage you to do that. But for now, we're just going to talk through them. These are the eight stages that she identified that typically take place over a series of several years for she was talking about Montessori guides in particular, but again, I think this is true for all educators. And it's not always a steady progress from one to another. She pointed out that there is some slipping and sliding between stages and even when you make it all the way to stage eight, something can happen and you may regress. So let's talk through them. The first stage is the illusion stage and you'll probably notice they have some really clever and some funny titles. So we'll uncover what each of those mean in this illusion stage. You're in the midst of a lesson, perhaps. And you think you can observe at the same time. It's really that indirect observation we talked about, right. It's not to say that you don't have awareness of the class around you as you should, right, if you're the only adult in the room. And you're not really actively observing, right. It's not that direct observation because you're doing two things at once. You're trying to multi task. It's indirect observation stage two then is what when you calls mobile observation. And the stage occurs when we as the educator realize that we're not able to really do that multitasking like we thought we could we're not able to present a good quality lesson and observe at the same time if we're trying to engage in direct observation. And quite me the realization yet that multitasking is what's interfering right that's what's not allowing that efficient observation. We think it's just the lesson presentation itself. So we're still doing two things at once now, but it's not presenting a lesson. And we're walking around the classroom, redirecting behaviors, helping children with their work and observing at the same time. same time. So still indirect observation at the stage. Stage 3, Wendy cleverly called the prison guard stage. So this stage involves the awareness that we need to be still to be engaged in direct observation. But we think it only needs to happen for just a moment. We pause, we watch for just a second, and then we interrupt and redirect the child, and then step back and pause and watch again. So it's this continued process where we're seeing something and redirecting, seeing something and redirecting. And it often includes taking note of things that bother us, and then we're redirecting those behaviors or action. So that's where that term prison guard comes from because we're redirecting things we see as bad or wrong. Stage 4 is I think hilarious. She named it the crooked finger. And this is where as the adult, we recognize that we need to sit down and stay stationary. But we keep doing all of the things we were doing when we were walking around the classroom and redirecting, right? Now though, instead of walking to the child to do that, we back in them to us to redirect them. And that's where that crooked finger comes from. It's that it's hard to see me. I know it's sharing my screen, but it's where you take your pointer finger and kind of bring it back and forth up and down to you where you're beckoning a child over to you. And then you're going to redirect them. Again, likely still focusing on things that are bothering you, right? Those actions or behaviors you want to change. Stage 5, again, a very funny name is known as the stink eye stage. We recognize now that that stillness is required. And that beckoning a child to our side isn't necessarily effective or appropriate. But we're still redirecting that behavior that bothers us and that we want to change. So now, instead of doing a movement, we just give a disapproving look to the child that's doing some of those actions. Again, in order to try to change them. Stage 6 is what when we call the build your ego stage. During this stage, we finally stop intervening. However, we feel that when children approach us and ask us questions, even while we're observing, we have to respond because there's no one else to do it. And response is absolutely needed. Because we're the adult children must meet us, right? We have to help them. We know that we shouldn't initiate interactions while we're observing because then we switch from direct to indirect. But we still feel like if we're interrupted, if a child initiates it, we must respond. And this stage is really led by this underlying belief that as the adult, we are the one who's in need, right? We know more. We must do more. And we must be needed in certain situations. So that's where she says it's the build your ego. Because it's really telling ourselves we're more important than we probably are. Because children are capable for far more than we give them credit for or allow most of the time. And then we move into stage 7, which Wendy called Pavlov's dog. For anyone who has any knowledge of psychology or if you studied psychology, you will remember Pavlov and his experiments. And in this stage, jokingly, Wendy says that the trick is that the guide is so focused on not being involved in any other task or engagement while observing that they're not observing, right? Their focus is on not doing anything else. Nope, don't talk. Nope, don't back in. Nope, don't look. Right? Don't interrupt. But I'm so focused on that that I lose track of just being and watching that observation piece, right? And the joke that Wendy says is as far as the reinforcement connecting it to Pavlov's dog is that they kind of feel like they need to pay their assistant or their co-teacher a dollar every time they get off task, right? Every time they're trying to do something else instead of observing. So we're more focused on not doing these other things than we are in the observation itself. And then finally in stage 8, observer as observer, children are able to do as they wish without interruption. And we as the adults are not engaging with children or trying to interrupt them, we're just sitting and being and witnessing what's unfolding around us. I think it goes without being said, hopefully, that there are times we do need to intervene, right? If something is dangerous, if something is destructive, whether that's an individual child to themselves or to others. But for the most part, we want to work towards this stage 8 where we're just watching and being still. We can act as Dr. Maria Montessori did if we focus on four interrelated elements that Dr. Paul Epstein, a really renowned Montessori in developed. And he called these the core elements, the observation core. And again, another fantastic wealth of information, if you have the chance to take a look at his book, the observer's notebook or an observer's notebook, I apologize, or watch any of his work, he has webinars online as well. He's incredible. But the core acronym that he develops stands for connect, obtain, reflect and engage. And these elements really build upon the observational method that Dr. Montessori discussed. Using these practices daily is what allows our observation to become much more than just a system of record keeping. It really becomes a way of life, right? It allows us to discover those interests that we talked about that we want to see transpire in our students. It allows us to discover questions, things we want to know more about. And it allows us to connect with children. While we investigate these questions that arise, we can use one or more different recording methods to obtain that information. And then we can reflect on the information that we've gathered and create understanding. And based on that understanding, we can either ask more questions, obtain more information, or engage with children's learning and development by implementing new practices or developing new environments or creating new materials. So this is that process, right? We connect with the child, we develop questions, we gather information that's that obtain phase. We reflect, we think about what we've learned to develop new understanding. And then we either move back to the connect phase and start again, or we recognize that it's time to move to that engage phase, where engagement phase, where we try something new, right? A new practice, we change the environment, the classroom in some way, or create some kind of new material based on what we've discovered. Each of these four core elements is guided by a key question. In the connect phase, we're asking, what are my interests or the interest of the students? What is it that I want to study and learn more about? When we move to the obtain phase, we should be asking, what information do I need to collect as I pursue my interests? So given those questions that I developed in the connect phase, what information am I looking for to answer that question? Then when we move to the reflection, we can ask, how will I understand what I have obtained? How am I going to tease apart, or start to analyze and interpret the data that I've gathered, right? The information I've reported while observing. And then finally, during the engagement phase, we can ask, now what will I do with these understandings? Again, do I need to change something in the environment, change something in myself, create a new material? And I think again, I would be remiss to say that sometimes no action is the action, right? Sometimes we don't need to do anything at all, other than simply recognize that we've gained some new knowledge and information we did, as us previously. And again, we'd go back then to that connect phase and look for new information, new questions to answer. So to start this process, you want to write down your interests or the interests of your students as connecting questions. Those questions then will guide the method or the methods that you'll choose to obtain and record your information. And we're going to talk about some different recording methods here in just a moment so that you have a wealth of options to choose from. The reflection then will allow you to determine if you need more information, or if there are changes that you need to make like we've talked about, and that then leads you to to that engagement phase. Observation can seem really daunting, right? But the best time to start observing is now. We can begin by establishing short periods of five to ten minutes to practice observing, right? And ask ourselves simple questions like where is each student? What are they doing? What kind of movements are they making? And hopefully over time, we extend our practice up to 30 minutes or an hour event maybe that's uninterrupted. But if we try to start there, right? If we try to start at the end point, what ends up happening a lot of the times is, it seems like it's never possible to find that amount of time, right? There's so much to pack into a day. And so if you say, oh, I'm going to set aside 30 minutes, then an email comes in or child needs help with something. What ends up happening is we keep pushing observation to the side and we never start. If instead we focus on starting small, finding those five or ten minutes, everybody can carve out five or ten minutes, right? So finding those five or ten minutes, then what happens is if we keep doing that, we see the benefits of observation and the value that it brings to our practice as an educator. And then we start to make more time to increase our observational periods gradually because we know how important and powerful it is. To successfully observe, we want to learn those skills of silence and stillness. In our fast-paced world, it can be really hard to just sit quietly and remain still. But it's that type of stillness that calms our senses and enables us to really observe each child's physical, social and emotional cues. And remaining silent allows us to pull ourselves out of the situation and understand how the children react in various situations without our impact or our interruption. It can also be helpful when observing to imagine that you've never met the children in front of you, right? You're simply writing down everything that you see, recording all of those little details, witnessing or of what you're witnessing, right? Using that factual language. Going back to where we said that observing is like watching like a camera on the wall. It can be helpful to go back and look at your observation notes and then to improve your practice moving forward. Think about like you are that camera, right? And think about it like a video camera because sometimes we write down not just what we see but what we hear. And so if it's not something that a video camera would capture, then we've started to become subjective, right? Our own analyses and interpretations have crept in. So if it's something that like, let's say, Johnny is lazy. He's not wanting to get up from his chair. Well, a video camera wouldn't capture that, right? So the video camera is just going to see Johnny is sitting in his chair for 30 minutes without moving. That's what we really saw. We are adding our own interpretation that that's because he's lazy, right? So that's what we're trying to tease out and add in later, right? There's absolutely a time for that analysis and interpretation. After we've completed our subjective, sorry, too many back and forth, our objective observation, then we can go back and figure out what it means by analyzing and interpreting it. And then finally, focusing on seeing what's in front of you means removing how you feel about what's happening, right? And being an educator is a really emotional journey. So that's really challenging. So sometimes having a specific focus to guide our observations can be helpful. Maybe we want to watch a specific child, or maybe we want to just note the activities that are being done at a specific time of day. Maybe we want to look for a specific behavior. How many times is a child interrupting during a lesson, right? And again, we'll talk about different recording methods that are helpful for that. But sometimes narrowing our focus can help us to remain objective. And let's pause again for another moment and reflect together. What would you look for if you were observing a classroom or an individual student? What are some of those narrow focuses I was just referring to that you would want to cue in on or gather more information about when it opens back up. I would love for you to share in the chat some of those ideas. Oh, perfect. I see some already coming in. If a child's engaging with others, how they're sitting behavior, where a child's spending most of their time. I love that one. I have a specific reporting method to share with you. Developmental milestones, nonverbal cues, interactions, conversations, learning styles. If a child's quieter than usual. I love that Mary because so often I think we focus on the children who are louder. And sometimes the child who's quieter is sharing a need with us and it's harder to see. Time on task, playing, restlessness, interactions with materials, repetition, fidgety, preference for certain activities, what activities they're drawn to, are their needs being met, their triggers. Yeah, what sets them off the layout of the classroom, their emotions, their language, if they're sharing the type of play they engage in activities that are going on. You see a couple of triggers, social, emotional, open-ended questions. Yeah, I love that. I saw some schema there, project work, body language. Yeah, so we're really hitting on all of the key areas, right, as far as the physical components, social, emotional, academic. I see some independence coming in. I love Amber time of day. Yeah, looking at differences throughout different times of day can give us information about maybe how we need to change the schedule or change procedures at a specific time of day. The level of concentration transitions. That's a really big one, Rebecca. I think, since you said that, I'm going to just note here that I didn't have the best idea of that first five to 10 minutes to observe when I first started really trying to make time for observation and thought a transition is a perfect time. There are, you know, moving from one activity to another, no one really needs help with a work specifically. And what I found is, and Chip DeLorenzo, who is a monastery and who works with a lot of positive discipline talks about a lot about this. He has a fantastic blog on this topic and has done some webinars as well. But children need us more than we recognize during transition times. It can feel unsettling because things aren't as routine as they typically are. And they also sometimes need the same level of support in those times as they do during academic work periods. And so he recommends, and I do as well for my own learning, don't use transitions for observations, be present during transitions because the children need you then, even if you think they know what they're doing, that's typically a time when when things are happening. So maybe engage in indirect observation then. So you're still hands on. Alright, let's keep moving forward using those perspectives you just shared to help shape our conversation as we move forward. So as an observer, we may choose as we just discussed to focus on a specific area, maybe a specific area of a child's development, like their fine or gross motor skills, their communication skills, social emotional skills. Maybe we observe like some of you said a specific time of day, maybe while the children are recess or while they're eating lunch, while you're presenting a lesson or someone else is presenting a lesson. Here are a few ideas of some of those developmental areas that you may want to pay careful attention to while observing. The first is finding gross motor skills, watch to see how children are moving their hands and their fingers, how they're holding or carrying objects, and how they make larger movements as well, how they sit, how they stand, their balance. You can also tap into their communication, listen to the sounds, the words and the sentences that they're using, those nonverbal communication like a lot of you mentioned, watch for gestures, facial expressions that they're using to communicate with the other children or with the adults in the room. For cognitive development, pay attention to what they're learning. What are they working to master? What are they practicing? What are they showing interested? Socially, observe how they're interacting with you, with the other adults and with their peers. And it can also be helpful to watch how they're watching us and their classmates as well. So observe them observing and see what they're tuning into. Emotionally, pay attention to what makes each child laugh, what makes them cry, some of you mentioned their tricks. right? What makes them angry or frustrated? As well as how they're expressing and communicating these emotions to others. And when it comes to independence, which I know some of you mentioned as well of things you would look for when you're observing, take a look at how the child performs different activities or tasks in the classroom without any assistance from others. What do they do or say when they need help or support? Which does that look like? Some helpful questions to guide your observations, right? While you're observing and taking notes, some questions you might want to consider are, has the class progressed towards normalization? And I recognize not everyone here is a monastery in, so I think it's important to pause and just explain that normalization means that the children are focused. They're concentrating. You see that flow of activity. I like to describe it as that peaceful hum of activity that exists in the classroom where things just feel settled. Everyone is joyfully engaged, right? That's normalization. So have has the class moved towards that? Is there a feeling of respect and community amongst the children? Like some of you said, which materials are being used and which ones aren't? I know this was really powerful observation for me personally. I realized that my own biases about certain monastery materials were impacting the children. For those of you who have any familiarity with monastery materials, the negative snake game and the elementary level is not my favorite. There are so many incredible materials in my own opinion. And I just have never been drawn to the negative snake game. And unfortunately, even though I wasn't saying that to the children, the way I was presenting it, my enthusiasm seemed to translate to them and they weren't choosing that activity. And it really was a powerful learning moment for me to discover and to say, hmm, maybe my influence is greater than I realized and I need to remove some of my own biases and interpretations so that the children can make their own judgments, right? Maybe that would have been a material that would have worked really well for another child. And I might have stifled that, unfortunately. We can also look at what stage of development each child is in. Again, going back to that last slide, that not only includes academic development, but social, emotional, physical, cognitive, some of you mentioned developmental milestones, so that would come into play here. Is the child working to master a specific concept, a specific material, a specific lesson, or hasn't already been mastered? And now they're working towards perfection. Are they ready for the next thing? Does the child, an individual student have a favorite activity, a favorite material that they want to work with each and every day? What is it and what might be calling to them about that specific activity? Is the child able to concentrate and if so, for how long? Do other children or other adults protect children's concentration? And again, this is where I think it's really crucial to not just watch the children, but to watch ourselves and to watch the other adults in this space as well. Because again, we have more impact and influence than we sometimes realize. I've alluded to it several times now, but we finally have arrived at discussing several different types of methods that we can use to obtain information. The connecting questions that we talked about when we discuss the observation core are what's going to help us determine which recording method or methods is best for each individual situation, for each type of data we're trying to discover or to gather. A journal is the first type of recording method and the journal is a private record where we as the adults can express our feelings, identify our needs, right, and which ones are met, which ones are unmet and also celebrate our victories. They allow us to reflect, to refocus, to try out different hunches that we might have to clarify our interpretations of what's going on around us and also to collect ideas. Physical maps, which is one of my favorites, one of you said something about, or a couple of you mentioned, looking at how the classroom is working, where different children are in the space. Physical map is what's going to allow you to do that. It records the locations and the activities that are occurring in the environment. What you'll do is have a rough outline, a rough sketch of the classroom. If you want to do this more than once, which I recommend, what you might want to do is draw it once and make some copies so you have them ready to go. And then in specific time intervals, you write each child's initials at the section of the map indicating where they were when you observed at that time. And over time, then, physical maps document how individual children are using the space, but also how the space operates as a whole. One thing I discovered with this was that I had some work over near the snack area in my classroom. And a lot of children were gathering there and there were also work spaces nearby. And so those children trying to work were distracted by all of the movement and socialization happening. But I wanted to give children that opportunity to socialize while they were eating. I think that's incredibly important. So I needed to work out a way that both needs could be met. Could I move those work spaces elsewhere? Was there somewhere else the snack area could go that didn't need to be as quiet of a part of the room? The other thing you can do is add some short notes on the sides of the map. Just things to draw your attention back to. And if you want to use one map for maybe in a lapsed period of time, you can draw arrows. So if I was writing, you know, my own initials near that snack table, I would put HPW and then I would draw an arrow to where I moved in the environment during that observation session. Another type of recording method is an anecdotal record. And that captures exactly what is said and done as well as our interpretations and evaluations. These are written in a narrative style with short sentences or paragraphs that we're writing as an event is occurring or immediately after. We might write them in a notebook on a sticky note like some of you mentioned or even typing them electronically. A running record is also a written narrative, but it's about a specific event. So it starts when the event begins and continues until that event finishes. So maybe this is while the children are recessed, while they're at lunch, while they're doing a specific activity that you just introduced. And with a running record, you may find it helpful to develop three columns, one for what's happening, right, just that objective observation, one for your interpretations, and then one for follow-up questions or notes. Something you might want to revisit action plans if you will. A checklist is a way to record information about specific situations or behaviors. We can use them to record curricular progress, right? Children that have completed our master's specific works, materials, lessons, but we can also use them to capture key aspects of the day's activities and identify behaviors that did or didn't occur. As I was saying earlier, maybe how many times a specific child or maybe you're looking at the class as a whole, how many times they interrupt a lesson, right, or call out a lesson. Since checklists are predefined, it takes far less time to complete, but the flip side of that is it provides us much more a much more narrow scope of information. It's not quite as broad. Rating scales judge how much or to what degree something is or is not happening. Again, they take little time to complete, but they provide information about our judgments as the reader or our perceptions as the reader about that connecting question or topic that we're starting with, right? And for this reason, since it is very subjective, if we're using rating scales, we want to make sure that we're using more than one, that more than one person is completing that rating scale, and then that we're compiling and summarizing all of the results so that we get a more clear overarching picture. And then the last recording method mentioned here is a time sampling. And this is where you record predefined behaviors during a predefined interval of time. Another one that I didn't add to the list, but I think is important to mention is a tally marks. And that's where you just write a tally mark down every single time that a behavior happens. Similar to a checklist, but a checklist you may have the categories predefined. For a tally mark, it might might be on task off task, right? And every time the child is off task, you put a tally mark. And then you're just seeing over, let's say a morning work cycle, so that morning work period, how many times was an individual child off task? That's the way that we would use tally marks. And before we move on, I just wanna say that these are not all encompassing. So there are other types of reporting methods as well. And I encourage you to explore those as you develop connecting questions to discover what type of recording method would be best suited for your individual questions. We've talked a lot about how to remain objective, but as we noted, our brains work in a way that we are pre-wired to make interpretations and to make analyses. So when we do an observation, it's really important to go back and reread what you've written to analyze your observations. To consider what it might already have been a judgment, rather than an observation or a bias, right, or a preconceived notion, but then also once you've analyzed, if some of that already came into play, to take the time to also analyze an interpret. So consider how the things that you observed made you feel that ties back to that element of self observation we talked about as we're thinking about our own thoughts and feelings about the events that we witnessed. For instance, if you notice that children were talking to one another when they were supposed to be working, you might note that it frustrated you because you felt like they were distracted and weren't focusing, right? They were concentrating. But when you reflect, you're able to realize that the children were still working and that they were able to complete their work. And that understanding may help you to pause in the future before you interfere, before you redirect them back to the activity and ask them to stop talking because you're developing a greater understanding of the reasoning behind the behavior. Children have this, what Mrayam on his rate called, "Sensitive period," especially the elementary level, to socialize. So we want to find a way for it to be a yes and, right? Yes, they're working and they're socializing. So if both are happening in Tanda, we may not need to interfere or intervene or redirect them back to work. Pilar Brouley, who's the founder of an organization called Mainly Montessori, notes that it can also be really helpful to identify our own emotional status when we start to observe. Recognizing that our feelings and our internal state might inadvertently skew what we're seeing. For instance, if you are feeling frustrated by something that maybe happened at home and you're having an off day because of that, right? Maybe you got in an argument with your spouse or your partner, maybe your child was running a little late and so you were late to work. Whatever that might be, your observations may end up being skewed in a more negative light because you're entering the space of the observation feeling that way. And so your observations may focus on children being off task, disruptive behavior, all of these things that appear negative that haven't allowed you to see the positive things that are going on as well. So if you just jot down, maybe when you write the date and the time before you observe, also just kind of write down how you're feeling, how you're entering that space of observation. So then what do we do with these observations? Seeing children in a new light through this art is fascinating but what happens next? What do we do with the information we've gathered? Simone Davies, who I mentioned earlier, challenges us to consider what we've observed and what one change we might make this very weak based on what we've noted. And this small prompt allows us to reflect on where we are and how we might better meet a child's needs moving forward. Sometimes as I said, no changes needed at all. It's just an acknowledgement and an acceptance of where we are and where the child is. We're going to dive into the benefits of observation and I want to make sure I know I only have like a minute left. So I'm going to jump through this quote we'll be here for you to revisit. It's about the power of observations. But what are the benefits? Why do we want to do this practice? The value and importance of observations is easily overlooked. We don't find ourselves lying awake at night, restless, unable to sleep because we didn't do an observation. Parents aren't going to send us an email or want to meet with us because we didn't observe their child. But the benefits are immeasurable. They allow us to see children's growth. They enable us to give children that space for independence. They empower us to see and accept children for who they truly are and empower us to identify and meet our own needs and desires as well. Additionally, they allow us to identify obstacles that might be coming up, right? That their child is having more multiple children are having. It allows us to develop that innate trust in children that they're capable and allow them to feel confident in their abilities. And it empowers us to trust ourselves to consider our own actions and behaviors in the classroom, comparing our internal thoughts and feelings with actual events, and then reflecting on the value in our own instincts and trusting in those. No matter how busy we might be, we should make a diligent effort to take a few minutes each day to observe because those benefits are great and many. Again, you might want to start small, but I encourage all of you to accept the challenge of making the art of observation a daily practice in your classroom. Start small, do what you can, and build over time. And thank you all so much for being here with me today. [END PLAYBACK] Amazing. Hi, Heather. OK. Actually, Heather, if you'd like, if you want to keep that last light open as we go through questions, I think I might have missed it. My screen did a little glitch on me, but it did have your contact info, correct? I realized I was running other questions, so I skipped the last few slides. That's OK though. But the last slide has my contact information. So let me share my screen and I will keep that up. That's perfect. Yeah, so let's leave that open so that way folks have a chance to capture your info as we go through our live Q&A. Perfect. So reach-- OK, so why don't we kick off a little bit with some questions that we got into? We've got some tough questions. We've got a couple questions on what to observe and how. But let's open up with some of the big picture framing stuff. What questions if that works for you? That's perfect. OK, awesome. So many educators kind of feel the pressure to always be doing something. How can we help them shift that culture so that way watching and waiting is also seen as valuable work and not just stepping back? I love this question. I think it's really challenging because it's part of our culture, right? Our entire culture as human beings today is all about doing, doing, doing, rather than being. In fact, I was just finished reading a book that talks so much about that and how hard it is. I think the first thing, it sounds like the way that the question was, where did you might be an administrator? If that's the case, I think modeling is the very best way to help classroom teachers understand that that is equally important to step back, to pause, to be still and to watch as it is to be doing. I can give an example when I was in the classroom, and I have to admit that observation was something that I did struggle with and what has encouraged me to create this type of work because I am a doer, right? I'm always on the go, even at home, right? I'm never sitting still. There's always something to be done that I'm sure you guys understand that. But my head of school was such a good example. She was the exact opposite, not that she wasn't productive or didn't get things done, but she really embodied this sense of calm and peace and was perfectly OK with just being and not doing. She had a little hanger, a door hanger that she placed on her office door that said, I'm taking five minutes to just be. Please don't interrupt. And I'd happen to be in the office with her when she did that. And she literally just sat. Sometimes she'd close her eyes. Sometimes she'd have peaceful music on. But it really was so inspiring for me. And then she would kind of do the same coming into our classrooms as well, right? Like if we weren't-- she wouldn't interrupt if we weren't a lesson. But if we were walking around-- and supporting children or, you know, redirecting, she might gently just walk over and put her hand on her shoulder and say, "Will you come sit with me and observe for a minute?" And so that, I think, modeling and inviting an educator into that practice helps them to start to see that benefit and recognize like if this person can accomplish and can do and can still make time to be, then I can do that as well, right? Mm-hmm, I love that. And since we have so many classroom educators on this call as well, what would you say if they wanted to start implementing this practice of observation a bit more and needing to give that direction up? What's a good approach to doing so? - Great question. So I think the way to help anyone understand the importance, right, whether that's an administrator, whether it's a parent, is to let them know that what you're trying to do is to better understand the children, right? That really is the root of this work. We want to understand the children's needs, we want to understand their interest and that's what's going to allow us to know what lesson to present next, help them develop those social emotional skills, take them to the next level academically since that's typically a parent's focus, right? So really letting them know that this is what's going to allow you to meet children's needs and really become a better educator. I think that's a great way to kind of freement. - I absolutely love that, 'cause it says that we're focused on the importance of your child and noticing what their needs are, so that way they can be appropriately addressed. And by designating the time to do so, you're allowing the chance to better address to that child and your classroom as a whole. - Absolutely. - I love that. So as we start to bring this into the implementation part, when we're thinking about training ourselves into how to observe without, we kind of have that natural instinct to also want to jump in and interact or maybe even judge a little bit like we talked about earlier. Do you have any tips or tricks that folks should be walking away with today to kind of stop and pause themselves? - Yeah, I think as far as the intervening, right? The interfering, redirecting, count to three. Every time before you go to redirect a child, and again, I want to say, make sure that it's very clear. If anyone's safety is in question, that this is not the situation I'm describing, right? I'm saying, if you think a child isn't focusing, if you think a child is distracted, if you think a child is, you know, needs to go back to their work or shouldn't be talking as much, those situations. Sometimes in Montessori, we talk about the three Ds and one F. So if a child isn't overly frustrated, that's the F. If they're not being disruptive in a way that's really harmful to others, if they're not being destructive and if they're not being dangerous, then pause and count to three before you act. If after you pause and count to three, you still think you need to intervene or to interfere or redirect, then by all means do that. But sometimes just taking that beat is all it takes to kind of allow our bodies to resist that impulse to act. And then as far as writing your observations down, what I think is helpful, when you go back to reflect on them and reread them, and before you analyze an interpret, look at what you've already written and underline or circle or highlight where that subjectivity crept in. Where did you start to analyze or interpret or where did your biases or preconceived notions come in? Even though you were trying not to, they still crept in. Just notice it because just by getting into that habit of recognizing where they were helps you to improve that practice as you move forward and continue to observe. - I love that. I think there's such a power in general of taking a pause, it whether or not it is an observation or just our regular life. So I love this tip, this tip. Okay, well, sometimes there's a lot going on in the classroom at once. So how can an educator decide where to focus their attention? And do you have or is there a hierarchy of what tips are first? - Oh, great question. No, there isn't a hierarchy of what to observe first. I think it really depends on what situations are presenting themselves in the classroom and what seems to be the most pressing. And what I mean by that is if all of the children and some of you may kind of giggle when I say this, I'm just speaking hypothetically, if all of the children are progressing academically and there aren't any concerns about cognitive development or those benchmarks as far as the curriculum goes, but you're seeing a lot of children who are vickering with one another or who are having disagreements, children being left out while they're outside it recess, then what you probably want to zone in on first is that social emotional piece, right? What are the conversations they're having? What are they saying to each other? What emotions are you seeing? What are some of the triggers that are setting those off? Because then that's what's going to allow you. Those are the connecting questions, right? But then as you work through that observation core and you get to that engagement piece, that's where you're going to be able to say, okay, it seems like maybe what's happening here is a lot of the children in my classroom haven't come to me in a place where they know how to communicate their feelings to others, right? Before they get to that tipping point, that they're so angry and frustrated that there's aggression happening or children are being discluded or they don't know how to share that, their thoughts and feelings with one another. So I'm going to start to embed some of that SEL, that social emotional learning lessons into our daily practice so that they get to familiarize themselves with those skills. And then the opposite could be true, right? Maybe socially, emotionally, everything is going great, but you have children that aren't meeting certain academic benchmarks, then you want to shift your focus there because that is the more pressing area of concern. And if all of those things are happening, then I say just go with what calls to you first, right? Because I think a more typical situation is one child might not be meeting academic benchmarks and another child is having trouble socially and this child is having trouble expressing their feelings. And if that's the case, pick what you feel called to, right? What speaks to you the most or stands out to you the most and observe that and then the next day observe something else and the next day observe something else. If we only carve out that five to 10 minutes every single day, you could hone in on in a very brief time, right? At least five different things in the course of a week. And now imagine if you built that and you did that three times a day, so only 15 to 30 minutes, now I could see, you know, what would that be, six times five, 30 things in a week, right? So it's all about just seeing what's before you and then carving out that time and focusing each observation on something different. - I love this. Okay Heather, we have a million more questions and I wish we had time for them. But I want to say thank you so, so much for being on today. And if you guys haven't had a chance to capture Heather's information, please do so now as bright before I take over this screen, but I greatly appreciate all the time that you put into getting this presentation together and working with me to be on today. I, this, this platform wouldn't be what it is without presenters like you who share their time with us. So we are abundantly grateful. - Thank you so much. It's my honor. - Of course. Okay, and then let me know for sure in my screen. Okay, I always have a total fear that I've done it wrong. But can everyone see my screen? It should be a big thank you to Heather. But as we, I see a bunch of thumbs up and hearts. I honestly, this is more so for you Heather. So thank you so much for being here. All right, so as we close out, I would love for you all to stay with me for just a few minutes. This will help make sure we got all of your attendance tracked. We're gonna be doing a quick word from playground. We're gonna announce a few more episodes that are coming up in the year. And then we're gonna announce our prize winner. So stay on so you can hear your name. And then we'll send you out with some certificates. But as you guys heard of the Bay Area, beginning a playground is the all-new one platform that was designed specifically for childcare programs to run smoothly and to grow your program. And we do this by simplifying that operational work that can pull you away from what matters most. like being able to do it. to observe your kids in your class. And we do so much more beyond that with like streamlining things like your enrollment, your billing, your payroll subsidies, marketing paperwork, and so much more. We help you do that all in one place. And specifically for those teachers who are on today's program, playground really does help with that communication aspect so that way you can write down what you're observing for each child, for your classroom. You have that in your own little, in your own app and this saves it to your child's profiles. That way you guys can observe and record all everything all in one and then review all of that later on. So to really great app and website that's designed for you teachers, as well as for running a program as a whole. So if you want to learn more about how to help you run your program, you can learn more at wrong side. Actually, right slide, but this one has a little type type to an app, but ecewebinar is calm. So let's try playground 106. Okay, so let's go into a couple of other sessions that we have coming up. So on April 16th, we have Dr. Jamie two and Ninja, Ninja, Ninja, Gil, sorry apologies for my word twisting right now. Who would be joining us to talk about building beyond anti-bias education. So they're going to really talk about what does it look like to understand what's going on in as your own personal biases, what you're culturally exposed to and creating a safe place for everyone who's in your classroom. It's going to be amazing and if you guys don't know Dr. Jamie two also just received, she's now officially the president of the NAYC board. So it'll be really cool to have her on you guys can register for her session at ecewebinar.com/antibias. And then on April 23rd, we have Michael Brown coming in for the first time, but he'll be talking about coming home to ourselves a healing space for caregivers and community. And as you guys know, there's a lot going on in the world right now. There's a lot of trauma and how do we just create a safe space for ourselves and how do we do that for our community. So what does it look like in practice. So it will be amazing in terms of practical tips on how you can actually achieve this. You guys can register for his session at ecewebinar.com/cominghome. And then lastly, Dr. Rachel Larry Moore will be joining us on April 29th and she'll be talking about reimagining early education, early childhood education to embracing nature based learning. So how can we bring outdoor learning environments and nature based learning into your classroom. So really fun and practical tips if you already have a nature based program or if you want to start introducing that into your kids that way, you know how to create a safe way of bringing the outdoors indoors and research. You guys can register for her session at ecewebinar.com/reimagining. All right, so this is now one of my favorite parts of the session. So thank you everyone so much for being here today. I'm going to announce our door prize winner for our playground savings club and our gift card winner will be Alisha Johnson graph. And I really hope I just said your name correctly, but thank you so much for being here. You will be contacted either by email or phone calls or just keep an eye out for someone from our team to give you a quick ring. And then we'll just let you know how to activate that gift card. And if your name is not Alisha, then you can fill out our survey at the end of this session and that'll opt you into another or another prize option for you. So just to keep out for that survey, that's also the best way that I learned what how what you think of the program and if you have any requests for anything else you would like us to create into our program for you. So really helpful information for me. I read every single word I promise and I just really appreciate you sharing your time with us. All right. Now for what you've all been waiting for for everyone who has been here from the very beginning to the very end, we will send you an emails an email of a certificate, your personalized certificate within seven days, typically we're within 24. But keep an eye out for that. And then if you're watching this as a recording or if you're watching as a group specifically and only one person is currently locked in, please use this instant downloadable certificate link that you can keep and save for your records or if you're an on demand viewer, this will be the best way to keep it for your own records as well. All right. And you guys if that cure code isn't working for you with theirs, which hopefully it is or you don't have a phone at the moment, then the link is also in the chat, but you can download it at ecewebinarse.com/sert-watchweightwonder. All right. Thank you all so much for sharing your time with us. And I hope you have a fantastic rest of your Thursday and I hope to see you in the next session. Bye everyone. Cheers and thank you Heather. Bye. Thanks for listening to early childhood investigations produced by playground. Playground is the all in one platform that helps child care programs once smoothly by simplifying the operational work that can pull you away from what matters most. We help streamline things like enrollment billing payroll subsidies, marketing paperwork forecasting, family communication attendance and much more. If you want to learn how playground can help you run and grow your program, you can learn more at ecewebinarse.com/playground-sert-watch.