reflectiveteacher – Honor Learners

From Unraveled Yarn to Classroom Comfort: My Crochet Journey Across Continents

Imagine learning to knit, but never how to start. My life has been a series of stitches, some held tight, others unraveled. Little did I know, those stitches would become a way to connect with and support our learners.

Born in Kenya, of Pakistani heritage, and raised as a third culture kid, my childhood was a tapestry of diverse experiences. My older brothers and working parents meant I often found comfort with my nanny. It was she who first introduced me to the world of yarn, teaching me to knit—but, crucially, not how to cast on. That incomplete skill led to a disheartening moment at summer camp when a counselor, faced with my yarn-startless project, simply unraveled it all. That was the end of my first foray into crafting.

Later, as I grew older, my wonderful aunts attempted to teach me sewing and embroidery. But being left-handed in a right-handed world presented its own set of challenges. It felt like I was always working against the grain.

Then, during a winter break in college, while staying with my uncle’s family, I found myself with time and a need for a creative outlet. A trip to Walmart led me to a crochet guide and some yarn. Unsure if I could succeed, I dove in. Through sheer determination and persistence, I taught myself to crochet. My first project? A “belt,” according to my uncle. That “belt” grew into a blanket, a tangible symbol of my newfound skill.

That blanket became a cherished companion, traveling with me from college back to Kenya, and then to the UK as I pursued my teaching education. It was a piece of home in a world of constant change. However, when my family and I embarked on our overseas teaching journey to Mozambique, not everything could make the cut. The blanket, along with many cherished teaching resources, had to be left behind.

Eight years in Mozambique brought new experiences and a growing collection of handmade crochet blankets. But when we moved to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the cost of shipping was prohibitive. We left with eight suitcases, leaving behind a wealth of possessions. As I transitioned into teaching in this new environment, I carried with me the lessons learned from those early crafting experiences: the value of hands-on learning, the power of creating something from nothing, and the ability to adapt to limited resources. Since moving to Dushanbe, I have ventured beyond single row repeat patterns to tackle more complex projects. The art of crochet is both a challenge to learn, and a mindful, relaxing experience once I master a pattern.

In my last blog post, I discussed addressing the sensory needs of my students. As I developed an intervention, I noticed the need for fidgeting during listening and processing. Previously, I relied on a calm-down corner filled with purchased fidget toys. But sourcing those resources here was a challenge. Then, inspiration struck. Scrolling through Instagram, I discovered @Loumarit and their crocheted fidgets.

I bought patterns, but quickly realized following them wasn’t my strength. This is why I stuck to making blankets and scarves. Thankfully, YouTube tutorials became my lifeline to push my out of my comfort zone. Through countless hours of practice, I mastered new stitches and techniques. With a bit of adaptation, I created a variety of quiet fidgets that now adorn each table in my classroom. These accessible tools are well-used and help my students focus and regulate their sensory needs.

I’m linking the videos I used below. One top tip is to turn on the transcript, so that you can read and use visual cues from the videos.

The crochet mobius ring was the first fidget I made. One adaptation I made to this pattern was to use this alternative for a foundation row.

The pop-it square was great for learning about increasing, decreasing and crocheting into the front loop only.

The marble donut was adapted from this design. I had to adapt the design to use half double stitches rather than single crochet because I was using a thinner yarn and smaller hook size. I also used the alternative foundation row mentioned above because it’s fun.

For my second marble pusher, I used this video to help me. This was another opportunity to practice increasing stitches to create the circular pattern. I also changed the stitches from single stitches to half-double crochet stitches, to get the size right. I also took one circle from this pattern and inserted a simple hair clip into the folded circle to make the pea-shaped click-clack fidget.

I have also recently been brave enough to try the reversible octopus fidget. Though this video is not in English, using subtitles translates the pattern for you.

From unraveled yarn to classroom comfort, my crochet journey has taught me that learning happens when we push ourselves just outside of that comfort zone. Additionally, that even mastering the simplest skills can have a profound impact. It’s a testament to resourcefulness, creativity, and the power of handmade solutions. How can we, as educators, push ourselves just that little bit to find creative solutions in resource-limited environments? What skills do you have that can be used to serve others?

Honoring Learners: Meeting Them Where They Are

Seven years ago, I was encouraged to step into the world of online sharing, joining Twitter and starting this very blog, “Honor Learners,” with the goal of connecting with fellow international educators and sharing my practice. Ironically, I recently stepped away from Twitter on my seven-year anniversary—and my blogging has been sporadic, to say the least. Part of that has been a lack of confidence. I’ve been surrounded by so many incredible educators who possess deep expertise in specific subject areas, and I’ve learned so much from them. Yet, my own educational journey has always been driven by a different focus: meeting learners where they are, which has led me down many different paths.

This journey has been anything but linear. It’s been a winding road of exploration, adaptation, and continuous learning, all in service of honoring my learners.

When the pandemic first hit, like many educators, my primary focus was survival—keeping learners engaged and connected in a suddenly virtual world. I dove into the world of Bitmoji classrooms, created pixel art activities to add a spark of fun to skill practice, and designed digital escape rooms to boost motivation. It was a time of frantic adaptation, a testament to the resilience of educators everywhere.

As the pandemic continued and the initial shock subsided, my focus shifted to a pressing need: supporting struggling readers. This led me to implement a speech-to-print approach, which proved incredibly effective in helping students develop decoding skills. This work became the focus of my action research for my Master’s in Education, allowing me to delve deeply into the practical applications and theoretical underpinnings of this method. But I felt we needed to go deeper. This led me to explore Structured Word Inquiry, realizing the importance of morphology and etymology in addition to phonics. I was starting to see the interconnectedness of language in a new light.

More recently, my focus has turned to helping students navigate the rapidly evolving world of AI. It’s here, it’s not going away, and it’s crucial that we equip our learners with the skills and understanding they need to thrive in this new landscape.

Looking back, I realize that these seemingly disparate explorations—from Bitmoji classrooms to Structured Word Inquiry to AI literacy—are all connected by a common thread: my commitment to meeting learners where they are. This is what “Honor Learners” is all about.

I’ve often hesitated to share my experiences because I’ve felt like there are “better” experts out there. But I’m realizing that my journey, with all its twists and turns, is valuable in itself. It’s a reflection of the dynamic and ever-changing nature of education, especially in our interconnected global community.

My goal now isn’t to present myself as an expert in any one area. It’s to share my journey, to be transparent about my learning process, and to connect with other educators who are also navigating this complex and beautiful landscape. It’s about honoring my learners by sharing how I’ve tried to meet them where they are, in all their diverse and evolving needs.

Reflecting on my own experiences, I recall a specific instance that beautifully illustrates this. As part of my ongoing quest to embed Structured Word Inquiry into our learning, I took a course offered by Marie Foley on Using Visual Narratives to Explain Concepts in Orthography. This course opened up a whole new world for me, introducing me to the power of visual storytelling in explaining complex language concepts. I learned how to use Canva to create engaging videos, and even more importantly, I crafted these videos with my learners. It became a collaborative learning experience, where they not only deepened their understanding of orthography but also gained valuable digital literacy skills by learning how to use Canva themselves. We then shared these videos with parents on Seesaw, creating a bridge between the classroom and home. I recall one parent sharing their heartfelt appreciation, explaining how the videos sparked rich conversations at home and extended the learning beyond the school day. This experience was a powerful reminder that meeting learners where they are isn’t just about addressing their academic needs; it’s about empowering them with skills, fostering connections with their families, and creating a shared learning experience that extends beyond the classroom walls. It solidified my belief that meeting learners where they are is not a static destination, but a continuous journey of learning, adaptation, and reflection.

“Honor Learners” is more than a blog title; it’s a testament to the belief that every student deserves to be met where they are, and that our own journeys as educators are valuable contributions to the global conversation.

What has your educational journey looked like? What challenges and discoveries have shaped your approach to meeting learners where they are? Share your reflections in the comments below.

Who we are…as learners

We started our year with our IB PYP unit of inquiry, Who we are. The big idea behind the unit was to support our Kindergarteners to begin to understand who they are as learners to provide a strong foundation for them to take ownership of their learning.

Our provocation was based on the Pixar short film, Piper. You can read more about this in my previous post here. Next, we read Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andrae. As learners made connections between Gerald and Piper, they began to discover what good learners do and as a result, our learners began to understand how having a growth mindset supports learning.

As I observe and interact in the playground, I hear our kindergarten learners talk about how they are challenging themselves to climb to the highest point, or get across the monkey bars. I see them failing and trying again. I see them encouraging each other. I see them learning.

The next part of our unit was less successful. The plan was to learn about our learners’ passions and use this knowledge to inform guided inquiries. I think this fell apart for many reasons. First, we were (and still are) trying to figure out how we function together in our learning hub. We were trying to establish routines and we should have taken more time to do this with learner input, rather than making decisions for them.

Secondly, I think we were either too structured and should have had a more organic approach, or that we were not structured enough and we were trying to run before we could walk. To add to that, I think we were trying to cover too many concepts and skills, thus highlighting the need to develop our understanding of concept based inquiry.

Going forward, my role is not to control every aspect of learning. My role is to support learners as they lead their own learning. I can do this by helping them to develop an understanding of the process of learning as we learn, and I feel like documentation and making learning visible is going to be a key part of this process.

We have had many successes in our Kindergarten learning space, and while it is great to celebrate the great moments, I feel it is also important to share the challenges and fail forward, because this is where our own learning happens. I shall continue to ‘risk and reflect’ to honor our learners.

Learner agency through Teacher Agency

Student agency has been a buzzword with educators for the last few years. As I look through definitions of the term I have found some commonalities:

giving students voice
giving students choice
making learning relevant
students having an active role in learning
student have ownership

When I look at that last term of ownership, my focus shifts to learning. Therefore, I make a conscious effort to use the terms learner, not student and learning not student work.

Over the past two days I have had the amazing opportunity to learn about learner agency with Taryn BondClegg (@makingoodhumans), and have had many opportunities to reflect on my practice as an educator. She structured our workshop learn about agency, by giving us agency. She has also ensured that she gives us the opportunity to unpick the why? how? and what? Taryn began by giving us time to connect and then self assess our understanding. We also generated our own success criteria for the session, because as long as we understood the why, the choice of how and what we learnt was ours. As we were generating our success criteria for the two day, we were asked to share them as we were reminded that:

Learners should have accountability to themselves and their learning community.

After we developed our success criteria, we unpicked the why, how and what of documentation. Again, as long as we were clear on the purpose of documentation, the how and what we documented was our choice.

Before we chose our learning for the day we were asked to consider the following questions:

What do you need to learn about?

How best do you learn?

How much time do you need?

When do you need to take breaks?

How can you learn from one another?

This process supported us to reflect upon ourselves as learners, so that we could control and direct our own learning using the CAR model – choose, act, and reflect. Taryn has blogged about this process and you can find this post here.

Over the two days, I was reminded what it was like to be a learner. This was not a PD session where the vibe was ‘do as I say, not as I model.’ I felt engaged and energized throughout the learning. There were some issues I grappled with, and the conclusions I came to were my own, not answers given to me. I had to push myself outside of my comfort zone and my new learning was earned. I will say that as energized as I was, it was also intense and was very grateful that we did not have homework at the end of the day!

So, what were my big takeaways from learning about learner agency through agency?

The first idea isn’t new, it was just a great reminder. We can support our learners by building positive relationships with our families within our learning community by keeping them informed!

Agency will look different in each circumstance. We need to do what works for us in our situation. Learner agency builds up over time, so be wary of transplanting what works at another school. By all means, learn from others, share ideas and adapt them to make them workable for you.

The foundation for learner agency is learners developing self awareness of who they are as learners. Therefore, taking time to connect each morning and reflect at the end of each day is vital to supporting learners to move from one place to the next on their continuum of learning.

We can give learners agency through a cycle of risk and reflect. We should continually ask ourselves what we can do to give our learners voice, choice and ownership of their learning.

And finally, it is okay to start small, and so I did.

The next day was International Day at our school. We were exploring the theme of peace and our team had planned to have learners do the same learning activity. Our plans changed. We began by exploring why we need peace. Then we generated ideas of how we could be peaceful. Finally, we developed a list of ideas to show what we could do to show our understanding of peace. Some learners chose to play with peaceful intentions, other chose to build collaboratively.

Some chose to paint.

Others chose to write.

And some chose to use the app Draw and Tell to explain their thinking.

Before I finish today, I would like to thank Taryn, our administration and all the experts who took their time to share with us.

Finally, I ask you, what will you do to honor your learners to give them voice, choice and ownership over their learning?

Saying yes…

August has arrived and we are gearing up for a new academic year. With it comes a twinge of anxiety and a whole lot of excitement. After all, as educators we never know how far our impact will carry.

At this moment, my mind is buzzing with ideas, to do lists, organizing a combined learning space, memories of previous academic years, and it is just a tad overwhelming. Yet, when I take a moment, and think about those memories, I am reminded of how much I learnt last year.

Being a part of a collaborative learning community led to growth and learning I could not have imagined at this time last year. We began the year in two separate classroom as teachers who shared ideas, and ended it as a Kindergarten learning community, that knocked down walls, both literally and figuratively!

So, how did it all begin? It is probably a combination of many things, but the one that keeps coming back to me is our willingness to say ‘yes.’

Saying yes…

Saying yes has not meant that I, or our collaborative learning community did everything that was proposed.

Saying yes is more about being open to new possibilities for the benefit of all learners.

Saying yes is about considering what we can achieve together.

Saying yes is about failure and learning.

Saying yes is about learners’ agency: both educators and students.

In the past year I have said yes to:

working as part of a collaborative team that was able to do more together than I could achieve on my own;

deepening my understanding of how young learners develop number sense;

becoming a Seesaw Ambassador;
writing a blog;
tweeting;

leading PD for my colleagues;

and most importantly of all, our learning community said yes to our young learners.

Our learners discovered their voice and felt valued;
They learnt how to plan and manage their own learning;
They learnt about listening and collaboration;
They learnt creative problem solving skills;
They learnt about failure, perseverance, resilience and grit.

And I’m sure the list could go on. I am reminded of this quote by Mother Teresa that came across my Twitter feed:

Being open to new experiences and learning will have an impact!

Will YOU say yes today?