Now this really looks like an alligator!

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Marie Catrett is back with another glimpse into the world of children’s learning and growth at Tigerlily Preschool in South Austin. Marie is inspired by Reggio Emilia and informed by her deep curiosity and many years of experience working with young children. This guest contribution is adapted from one of her regular letters to Tigerlily families.

5/4/2023

Marie writes:

Today is a fine example of how we can help children think more deeply about their work and loan them the use of our skills in a way that helps them grow their own.              

Marie (as we’re headed into the classroom, to R, a young three-year-old in our group): I have a question I want to ask you, about the alligator you made in clay yesterday.

R’s alligator is a flat face figure, with drawn-in eyes and a cheerful mouth, and this piece stands up because he added a nice big tail at the back in response to my asking, “Can you think of anything else your alligator needs?”

Today we look at Alligator together. It’s so charming as is, and doesn’t necessarily need any further embellishment if R doesn’t want to go further, but maybe . . .

Marie: Here’s a question I have for you. I notice you drew the alligator’s mouth, and I wanted to ask you something. May I look at a picture of an alligator with you?

We look at some pages from a well-known current story in our group, Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile.

Illustration by Julie Paschkis, in Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile, by Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret H. Lippert.

Marie: I’m wondering (this is me asking children about their work, are you satisfied?), sometimes people make an alligator and it feels important to show about teeth. It’s up to you (me, really working hard to make a yes or a no thanks be acceptable here, the maker truly is in charge, but the opportunity to add a meaningful detail is always exciting to me!), but if you’re interested in adding teeth to your alligator, that’s something we could think about together.

R looks at the pictures and announces that yes, his alligator needs some teeth.

My co-teacher, Lulu, has the excellent idea that it might also help to go look at the toy alligator that’s been such a popular player in the classroom this week.

From earlier in the week: the wild animals birthday party, no wilding allowed.

Re: no wilding allowed at the party, the alligators take a meeting.

Ah ha, looking back at play this week, it makes sense that thinking about alligators has been on R’s mind, enough to want to make one with the clay.

And while looking at images can help kids think more about what they want to do, touching an example of what they’re thinking about is even better.

A Tigerlily Preschool student touches the mouth of a toy alligator

R explores the mouth of the alligator. His first “face” alligator is also in the frame above.

I am imagining helping him add bits of clay to his drawn mouth line to make the wanted addition of teeth happen, but R now has a richer vision of how to make this alligator more alligator-y.

 R: I think an alligator should have an open mouth. And teeth. And a tongue that sticks out.

Marie: Hmmm. Wow. Okay. Oh! You know what, when my potter friend Jane came to show us about how she uses clay, she said starting with a pinch pot is a great way to make creatures. Would you like to try that?

Yes, says R, and we get a small ball of clay out to begin with a pinch pot. When it’s big enough, and turned on its side, R sees the shape he needs to decide it’s an open mouth. He adds eyes on top by drawing them on, in the way he’d done on the “face” version.

 Marie: I heard you say about teeth. I can think of two ways you could add those . . .

I take an extra bit of clay and show him some options to think about. You could use the tool to draw them in, as he’s done his eyes. Fingers could pinch up some teeth bumps maybe? Or . . .

Marie: These are just to show some ideas, but you’re the maker, so it’s up to you what you’d like to do.

R likes the idea of using his fingers to make “teeth shapes” out of clay. He places them where he thinks they need to go on the mouth, and I help him make them attach securely.

Marie: You know what, I bet you could also make a tongue shape like you’re wanting.

From left to right: R’s first and then second alligator.

As we’re looking at the finished work, an older child says, with admiration, of the second piece: “Wow, now this really looks like an alligator!”

One of my favorite things about striving to be a Reggio-inspired teacher is working with children like this:

I hear your interesting idea.
Let’s think more about this together.
I see a way that I can be a resource for what you’re wanting to do.
Here are some options to think about what feels right to you.
What do you think?
And, are you satisfied?


Marie Catrett | Tigerlily Preschool

The case for expectation-free, exploratory music learning

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Grace Thompson is a voice and piano teacher based in Austin. She is a classically trained soprano who graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in music–ethnomusicology. A longtime advocate for the neurodiverse community, Grace joins us on the blog to discuss her nontraditional methods of teaching music to kids through the Groove Garden program at Eastside Music School.

Musicking: (v.) any activity that includes playing, performing, listening, writing,
recording, or sharing music.

Childhood music lessons. We’ve all been there before, or maybe you haven’t. A parent has signed you up for a music lesson—piano, guitar, violin, or maybe even singing—and you’re getting ready to demonstrate to your teacher what you were meant to have practiced in the time since your last lesson.

Only you haven’t practiced or didn’t get as much practice time as you wanted. Teachers always can tell when a student hasn’t practiced, and you know walking in that your teacher will pick up on your lack of practice. Does this make me a bad student? A bad musician? Will my teacher be mad at me? Or disappointed? Will I ever learn to play this instrument?

As you go to play your instrument, these fears and anxieties course through your still-developing brain and begin to distract you and tell you that you’re not good enough. Playing your instrument has now turned from a fun hobby after school to an insurmountable test. The traditional private music lesson environment can, unfortunately, breed these sentiments in students, eventually turning students off from music as a whole.

Now imagine yourself as an atypical learner. Traditional learning environments are already not geared toward you, and now there is compounded stress from not being able to meet the expectations set by your teacher. These expectations have been set from a hegemonic system of learning music that is centuries old. This system of learning does not reflect the modern learner and is, in part, creating more failures than successes.

As a music teacher, I define success as a student being happily engaged in their studies, followed by an improvement in their technical and theoretical abilities. To support this type of musical education, the environment must be conducive to every learner, and we can create these environments by leading exploratory-driven, expectation-free music classrooms.

Musicking is a life-long process that no one will ever truly master. It is the embodiment of “about the journey, not the destination,” so we should present to students this idea of a musical journey. Twists, turns, and unforeseen circumstances may occur on our journey through a musical life, and allowing students to explore for themselves will well-equip them to navigate these changes. Perhaps a violin student watches a harpist and becomes enamored with this new instrument, or a classical piano student wants to begin playing jazz repertoire. These changes in instrument or repertoire are not typically supported in a traditional music education environment due to the expectations to stay with and master one particular instrument or genre.

Taking out the expectations of a traditional music classroom environment gives students fewer restrictions to explore different areas of music they might not have been exposed to before, and more confidence to try without the fear of failure or rejection. Expectation-free learning passes the baton into the hand of the students to create and express themselves without any limitations. Autonomy is given back to the child, therefore creating a more enthusiastic student. Exploration-led classrooms also promote social growth through a free exchange of ideas between peers, unclouded by any pre-existing musical “rules.”

Music education is vital to all people, but especially children, as it has been linked with a plethora of brain-boosting qualities such as supporting language and reasoning skills, emotional intelligence, coordination and fine motor skills, memorization and imagination, and intellectual curiosity, among many others (see nafme.org). Learners who find themselves on the Autism spectrum or any other spectrum of learning differences can especially reap the benefits from any of these characteristics.

Music plays a part in many other fields of academia, and finding an interest in music can help support other areas of interest for students as well, such as math, science, visual arts, and history. Music also supports a social outlet for students who lack interaction with peers, whether because of developmental differences or more solitary forms of education such as homeschooling or virtual learning.

Eastside Music School’s Groove Garden is an inclusive music class for children of all ages, backgrounds, and learning styles. It’s designed for kids to learn and make music together in a way not normally offered in traditional music classes or private lessons. Parents are also welcome to join their students as parents play a fundamental role in the student/teacher relationship. We encourage exploration-based learning as well as expectation-free instruction. In this class, we aim to give students the basics of music education, such as rhythm, melody, harmony, and instrument types, while also allowing for independent and group playing as well as encouraging student leadership and autonomy. While children in traditional music education are often given very little voice, if any, in what they choose to study, at the Groove Garden, we allow students to have a say in what kinds of music to study and activities they enjoy.

The next Groove Garden class will be held on Thursday April 27, from 3pm to 4pm at Eastside Music School.


Grace Thompson | Groove Garden


Looking for the roots of children’s mental health crisis: A conversation with psychotherapist Louis Weinstock

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I recently had a chance to chat with U.K-based psychotherapist Louis Weinstock, who has written a new book about helping children deal with the anxiety, depression, fear, and stress that seem to plague our 21st-century lives. The book, How the World Is Making Our Children Mad and What to Do About It (Penguin, 2022), is full of real-world examples from Weinstock’s 20-year career as a therapist, and he offers practical exercises in every chapter.

Weinstock approaches the questions parents and kids face with compassion, humor, and a sense of deep connection to history, myth, and spiritual practices from a variety of cultures. The book is structured around seven patterns that can be seen all over the world and that “shape our lives in unconscious ways.” The patterns include victimhood, virtual reality (a desire to escape our bodies and live only in our minds), narcissism, scarcity, anesthesia, chaos, and hopelessness. In each case, Weinstock examines the negative “roots” of the pattern and the more positive “fruits” that can turn the pattern into something beautiful and nourishing. So, for example, the root of victimhood is a feeling of helplessness, which can, in the right environments, turn into empowerment and strength. The root of virtual reality is the desire to escape the confines of our bodies, which can, in the right environments, turn into a feeling of being at home in our bodies and in nature.

Weinstock explains that the problematic roots of each pattern always connect to an unloved, uncared-for part of each of us. As he says in the conclusion of How the World Is Making Our Children Mad, “The world is making our children mad because it is short-circuiting our capacity for love. And so the way to help our children is by reclaiming love.”

Here is a short excerpt from my chat with Louis, which has been lightly edited. I asked a few questions inspired by topics that come up often in connection with alternative education models.


Q: Can you tell me a little about your perspective on the movement to encourage “resilience” or “grit” in kids as part of school curricula? In your book you seem to question the value of those approaches.

A: I started questioning the ideas of resilience and grit because I saw the kids who weren’t adapting easily to the dominant systems of education were the ones deemed “unresilient.” These children were being sent to me as a therapist or came to me when I was teaching mindfulness. Essentially, it seemed that the goal of making the kids more resilient was to allow them to keep going through the system . . . and to make sure the schools were doing well in the league tables [evaluations]. 

I think the concepts of resilience and grit are problematic because they just look at the individual child but completely ignore what’s going on in the environment around the child. I’m not throwing out the idea that we need to help our children be “tough” and expose them to some reasonable risks so they can grow and develop. But from my perspective,  if a child is not adapting to a mainstream school, maybe their behaviors and symptoms are actually showing us adults something important that we need to listen to. Rather than trying to put them back in a box they’re uncomfortable in, we need to try to listen to those symptoms and see the intelligence in them. Maybe the children are showing us that something isn’t working in their environment, not that something isn’t working within them.

Q: You talk a lot about making sure children are sensing what’s happening in their bodies when they feel anxious, afraid, depressed. And I know that you believe that putting our bodies back in connection with nature is one key to feeling better and learning better. Tell me a little more about that.

A: Forest schools are quite popular in the UK, just as they are in the United States and Europe, but they are still alternative options, not mainstream. What is surprising to me is how much people still underestimate the impact nature has on our kids’ mental health. I ask parents how often their kids go out into nature, and often they say they do not go outside at all. So, I frequently make that part of a care plan. Research is showing that even 20 minutes a day is all that’s needed to make that connection, and it can be in a city park—there’s no need to seek out a wild forest. Often, time in nature is more effective than ADHD medication.

I think the reason time spent in nature is so good for us is simply because we are part of nature, and a lot of our modern way of living cuts us off from that part of ourselves. I used to have a practice on a houseboat in London and there was nature all around and I could use that during my meetings with clients. Since COVID, I see clients online, but I often give kids and parents a “prescription” to get out in nature and connect.

Q: Is there any particular change you see happening in schools today that you find especially good for kids’ emotional and psychological health and happiness?

I was just thinking and writing about this recently and considering how much things have changed since I was a child. When I was at school, if you were emotionally dysregulated you were sent to the naughty corner or given the slipper. The shoe of one of my classmates was used to smack people right at the front of the classroom. It could not have been more about shaming children, and it was the norm.

But now, my young daughter is learning about “zones of regulation,” a concept that is now a model used in schools around the world. The model uses colors to help children understand and describe the emotional state they are in. For example, yellow means they are feeling silly and funny. Green means they are feeling good and ready to learn. Red, of course, means they are angry, and blue means they are sad. This is such a non-shaming way of talking about feelings, and I think it’s quite positive.


I’d like to thank Louis for the conversation. You can order his book from any bookstore and read his blog here. He is currently working on a new charitable project called Apart of Me, that uses a mobile app and games to help children learn to deal with grief and loss. The most recent addition to that project is an app called Nadiya, specifically for Ukrainian children who have faced the trauma of war.


“At Apart of Me, we use technology only to enhance real-world connection and relationships,” said Louis. “We don’t want the future of kids’ mental health to be them looking at a screen alone in a dark room.”


Shelley Sperry | Sperry Editorial

A chat about AI and the new learning landscape

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You’ve probably seen funny, intriguing, or scary news items popping up over the past few weeks about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of ChatGPT, Claude, LLaMA, and other interfaces. You might have heard podcasters explaining or bemoaning the revolutionary new world that’s about to replace our old one. At this point, for me, it’s all still pretty confusing in terms of how it will affect my day-to-day life, but I’m curious and very cautiously optimistic.

One thing that’s pretty certain: Our kids’ lives will be dramatically shaped by AI—and in ways we can’t possibly predict.

In education, two big names—Khan Academy and Duolingo—announced last week that they are on board the ChatGPT train, having been granted early access to develop and test ideas. We’ve already seen both learning platforms suggest some of the benefits they anticipate for learners and educators, but let me preface this short summary by saying I have no idea what the real-world educational outcomes will be because we are so early in the exploration stage. Having said that, here’s a rundown of what’s happening at Khan Academy and Duolingo, along with some links that will take you on a deeper dive, if you’re interested. 

ChatGPT-4, which stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4, is a sophisticated AI model that can understand the context of questions and create written responses that are much more “human-like” than past versions. Khan Academy, a nonprofit dedicated to free, high-quality education for all, has been around since 2008 and is well known in the alt ed community for its library of outstanding YouTube video lessons on math and a vast array of other subjects. Duolingo is a for-profit language learning company that has been on the scene for 12 years. Duolingo teaches more than 100 languages to people all over the world in gamefied lessons, primarily through phone apps. 

There is a free version of Duolingo, but the new AI-assisted features will be offered only within a $30-per-month paid premium version. These features will offer learners more detailed explanations of how a language works in a feature called Explain My Answer. But most fascinating and useful will be the option for learners to role-play and interact with the AI tool like a personal tutor. After a conversation, users will get specific feedback they can use to improve their responses in their next Duolingo conversation or in real life.

Even more powerful possibilities seem to lie in the approach Khan Academy is taking to this new AI tech. Khan is calling its AI-powered platform Khanmigo. It is still in the development stage and open primarily to educators and school districts that are already working with Khan Academy on other projects, but it’s likely that more and more features will be rolled out to ordinary users in the near future.

Because each learner is different, the value of Khanmigo is that it will immediately adapt its tutoring in any subject to meet the individual’s needs, just like a one-on-one tutoring session with a human teacher. So, if a student is struggling with a particular type of math operation, Khanmigo will ask questions that direct the student toward a deeper understanding, rather than providing quick answers. And if a student needs to understand a controversial current news story, the Khanmigo tutor could gather information in order to debate multiple sides of the issue with the student in real time.

Khan Academy also wants its AI tool to become a valuable assistant for educators as well as students, removing some of the time-consuming work of lesson planning and grading so that educators can spend more time engaging with each student.

Sensibly, the folks at Khan are carefully communicating with users and adapting their projects to make sure they are safe and that kids are truly getting an enhanced learning experience rather than simply getting all the answers to their questions from Khanmigo. The short demonstration founder Sal Khan did on YouTube reminded me of a Socratic back-and-forth between students and teachers.

Next week, I’ll take a look at the world that’s opening up for students with disabilities as a result of AI learning tools. If you have hopes, fears, or experiences to share regarding AI and learning, please comment!

Here are a few links to learn more:


Shelley Sperry | Sperry Editorial

Media Monday: Empowering kids to become master storytellers

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On Wednesday, March 8, at the Austin Convention Center during SXSW EDU 2023, anyone without an official ticket to the conference can explore events in the Expo area—at no charge. If you decide to go, we recommend checking out some amazing Austin student journalists featured in a presentation about PBS’s StoryMaker platform. Leah Clapman of PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs will be hosting the event in Hall 4, and the young storytellers will talk about their experiences in local and national media.

The StoryMaker platform can be used by kids—with support from educators and parents—who want to learn the ropes of traditional and especially digital media so they can investigate any topic under the sun, share ideas with their peers, and advocate for causes they care about.

For kids, the site offers a huge array of tools, explainers, and other resources that can assist them in their storytelling. For example, they can learn the vocabulary of video and audio technology, take online lessons to polish their skills as interviewers and researchers, practice editing a visual or written piece, learn to fact-check like a pro, and discover how to avoid spreading misinformation in social media. For kids who are interested in communicating their passions—whether they’re traditionally schooled, alt schooled, homeschooled, or unschooled—there’s plenty to spark experimentation and connection.

And for educators, there are additional sets of resources, including project prompts and lesson plans. All the tools are designed to help students find their voices, express themselves in new ways, and reach new audiences.

You can check out more of PBS’s student reporters’ stories here. And the best place to begin with the StoryMaker platform is—logically—on their Getting Started page.


Shelley Sperry | Sperry Editorial

Why I instruct my students in the art of lock picking

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Guest contributor Ken Hawthorn is the founder of Austin School for the Driven. Students at Driven smash educational silos and question the premise of the question in their learning journey. Hawthorn is the author of Super Arduino. Outside of Driven, he consults with both Austin Community College and the University of Texas at Austin on makerspace education and design.


The Real Deal

Over the last eight years, I have offered my students instruction in lock picking. I am not talking about just sticking a paperclip in a hallway doorknob, but how to systematically pick the same locks you find on 80 percent of residential and business front doors. I offer this instruction starting in 5th grade. For students to get consistent at this skill, they need quite a few hours of practice. Why would I take class time to do this?

A Physical Analogy for Life

The person who does not know how to pick locks lives in a world where every locked door is a hard no. There is no choice to open that door. Having taught perhaps 400+ people to pick locks over the years, I have never had one student, child or adult, report back to me that they changed their behavior in any way after learning to do it. So why am I teaching this skill?

The answer is that there is a huge mental shift in someone who has learned to pick most of the locked doors that surround them every day. It’s a shift from “every locked door is a hard no” to “every locked door is a polite request to please keep out”—the choice is now up to the individual. This is really significant in the context of personal agency—the level of internal belief that you can change the world around you. When my students have learned lock picking and then have an idea in high school or college and someone says, “That’s a stupid idea,” they are more likely to reply with a “Thank you for your perspective; I will make my own judgment.”

We don’t normally raise our children with a lock on the cookie jar through age 18. Pretty early on, students need to know that they can open the cookie jar at any time and must use their executive function skills to do so when given permission and not count on a physical lock to deter them. 

I have found that around 5th grade is the right time to give students this lens through which they can see that the world is theirs to navigate and that they should have the knowledge and tools to go where they want—all the time doing so in the context of social rules and contracts that they choose to follow. From cars to kitchen knives, students going into high school will need to wield tools that require this commitment to using them correctly and within the social context they are navigating.

The Lock as a System

What is the nature of a lock? A lock is a system. Our goal is to turn the keyway in a lock. This requires that the internal pins of a lock line up in just such a way where each pin is held not too low or too high. For most front door locks, this means about 31,000+ possible key patterns to lift each pin into exactly the right position. Without a key, we need to use micro-tactile feedback with the pick and a turning tool to set each pin correctly and keep each pin in position as we are working on the next pin. This is difficult and takes concentration, but with practice, locks go from a black box to a well-understood system that can be opened with the application of skills and the right tools.

How to Learn More

Now that you know why I teach my students how to pick locks, let me leave you with the resources to learn this on your own.

Image Credit: Deviant Ollam / deviating.net

Deviant Ollam has a great set of open-source materials to learn lock picking. This link is a rabbit hole of knowledge. He came out and led a great workshop for students at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

In Austin you have a couple of free hands-on resources to learn lock picking:

My hope is that groups of students and adults learning to pick locks will start to be described as engaged in locksport vs. lock picking. Whatever you want to call it, I will continue to teach these skills because I have seen the benefits for my students.


Ken Hawthorn | Austin School for the Driven