I read the book “The Sun’s Not Broken, A Cloud’s Just in the Way:  On Child-Centered Teaching.”  This book focuses on the teaching styles of Sydney Gurewitz Clemens.  She uses a child-centered teaching approach in her classroom with her students.  She focuses on the student and letting them explore and learn on their own.  There are three main points in the book:  Feelings and Learning; Senses and Skills; and The Rhythm of the Year. 

     In the first part of the book called feelings and learning the author focuses on ways to teach children and how to get them to trust adults and believe in them.  She talks about intervention and when teachers should intervene.  The author states that teachers should not intervene frequently or too often.  Teachers should let students explore on their own and only intervene when necessary.  She makes the point that children do not learn only when teachers decide it is time to learn; they are learning new things constantly.  It is the teachers who must decide when intervention will take the learning process a bit farther and when it is really needed.  Teachers should not be restrictive and should allow the students to explore on their own and learn new things through their exploration. 

The author states that intervention may be used with safety.  She talks about how if a student is trying to climb a tree by himself and is not doing it in a safe way, to help the child up and then explain to them the rules and let them try it again on their own.  She makes the comment that children can climb as high as they want because they know their limits and how high they can truly go.  When intervening for safety, we teach students to be healthy.  For example, cover your mouth when coughing or do not lick a utensil and then put it back.  When talking about social justice, do not tell children right and wrong but try to help explain to them why they must be fair.  Help to teach them that all children should be treated fairly, not by yelling or scolding them but by explaining things to them.  A teacher must encourage students to try things more than once and offer help if they seem to need it.  The author states how you must not praise all work, like artwork, the same.  When a child puts their feeling and heart into a project praise them for that, but when a child just throws something together let them know you acknowledge it but know they can put more effort into it next time. 

     I love these ideas in the book.  I completely agree with these ideas of intervention and doing it only minimally.  I feel that students need to explore ideas on their own and can learn so much by playing with one another without teachers commanding them.  Acknowledging all work is important but the idea of praising efforts differently by how much of their feelings are in the work is a wonderful idea.  The example she gives of how the students learn on their own in the empty park is great.  The students were left to explore on their own and find things to do to interest them and help them learn.  I feel this allowed the students to open their minds to new ideas of play and exploration.  I really love this feelings and learning part of the book and how the teacher focuses on letting the students learn on their own through their own exploration. 

     The second part of the book is called senses and skills.  The author talks about our different senses and which ones are most important to us.  She helps to describe how we use our senses and what we would do if we did not have them all.  She asks which sense you would give up if you were in an accident.  Eliminating a certain sense makes the other ones seem more important.  For example, a blind student may focus more on hearing than a student who has good sight and hearing.  The author states how everybody uses each sense differently.  One person may use sight most often to learn and another person may use hearing.  Both of these people are using their senses, but in different ways and different amounts of importance.  The author talks about movement and how it is important in each child’s day.  Teachers need to focus on physical development and how each student is progressing.  This section focused on how each child learns differently and how you must let that child explore and learn in their own way.

     I agree with this part of the book as well.  I feel it is very important to let students develop at their own rate and use the senses they feel are most important.  Personally, I learn best through hearing, not sight like others may. So when a teacher speaks in class and explains things rather than just giving me a chapter to read, I learn more.  Other students may need to see the chapter and the information to really understand it.  I like how the author recognizes these differences and focuses on the importance of knowing how you and others learn best.  I also like how the teacher notices the right times to talk about interesting topics, like sex.  She states how it is important to catch their attention during holidays and such events so that the children will focus on more than what presents they are getting.  I agree that we need to do our best to keep students interested and engaged.  The idea of using puzzles is also great.  I agree with the idea of using puzzles that will allow the students to feel successful, but to make sure they are challenging.  Students can learn a lot of problem solving skills by figuring out puzzles through looking at the whole picture and noticing the little details on the smaller pieces. 

     The author states how important speaking and listening skills are.  She gives a great idea of tape recording stories so that students get the chance to hear these stories over and over without us having to repeatedly read them.  I agree with the idea of making sure the stories are interesting to the students and will be something they really want to listen to.  She states how speaking skills come with listening skills and how many students are strong in some aspects of speaking and weak in others.  I like the idea of carefully listening to what children say and acting upon what you hear.  The idea of allowing students to tell you what they want to do is important because it shows them that what they have to say does matter.  The author also talks about how learning to read is important to students because “it is what grown-ups do.”  Children want to be like grown-ups and so they will do their best to learn to read.  Teachers must start students out by interesting them in reading.  Then they must allow the students to speak about what they are feeling and let the words come from inside themselves.  I like the idea of progressing slowly into writing by letting the students state how they feel first, then work on sentences, and then teach writing. I feel this gives students a chance to learn through steps and gives their writing meaning so they may enjoy it more.

     The last section of the book is called the rhythm of the year.  The thing I found the most interesting in this section was how the author viewed the school year like seasons.  She said that it works in four seasons:  summer, which is when the teacher reenergizes and gets ready for the school year; fall, which is when the teacher learns about the students and their parents and what they hope to get out of the year; winter, when she teaches the skills the students need to learn that year; and spring, when the teachers, students, and parents get to see and celebrate the students accomplishments.  This section talks about the first day of school and how it is used to get acquainted and to let the students explore their new classroom.  I like how she focuses on getting parents involved and interviewing them not only for your help but to put them at ease as well.  I agree with letting the parents be a major part in the children’s lives and be empowering.  I also feel that the students need to learn to obey and listen to their teacher.  I feel that it is important to have a good parent/teacher relationship so you can understand some of their philosophies at home. 

     The book closes with an article about schools.  The article tells about how the view of education has changed over the years.  It states how education was professionalized and so in return, the control in schools was lost.  I really enjoyed this book and agree with the idea of child-centered curriculums.  I really love the idea of letting students explore on their own and only intervening when necessary.  Children are amazing and can teach themselves and others so much. 

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