Far more than schooling...

The purpose of education is far more than schooling, it has to meet the needs of the whole child and young person.

And if we agree with that, then schools need to champion freedom to play.

Philosophical Reading list:
Sir Ken Robinson
Sue Palmer
Amiyata Sen

Explore the world of play theory...

Reports:
Best Play
Play for a Change
World Without Play

Play thinkers:
Bob Hughes
Tim Gill
Michael Follett
Wendy Russell

All will help you view the world you thought you knew from a completely different angle.

Loose Parts

The Theory of Loose Parts - taken from Svane Frode

The theory of “loose parts” first proposed by architect Simon Nicholson in the 1970's has begun to influence child-play experts and the people who design playspaces for children in a big way. Nicholson believed that it is the 'loose parts' in our environment that will empower our creativity. In a play, loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials. Loose parts can be natural or synthetic. In a preschool outdoor environment we can provide an array of loose parts for use in play such as stones, stumps, sand, gravel, fabric, twigs, wood, pallets, balls, buckets, baskets, crates, boxes, logs, stones, flowers, rope, tyres, balls, shells and seedpods. Having "loose parts" available in a playspace allows children to use these materials as they choose. Often you will find that children would rather play with materials that they can use and adapt as they please, rather than expensive pieces of play equipment. Encouraging children to use resources as they choose can provide a wider range of opportunities than one that is purely adult led. Children playing with loose parts are using more creativity and imagination and developing more skill and competence than they would playing with most modern plastic toys. It may take a very open mind on our part (there is often a lot of cleaning up involved as materials end up in places you would never expect them to be) but when children cross play materials and areas in creative ways, it is our responsibility to support and encourage their work and ideas. Loose Parts should –  Have no defined use and playworkers must support the children when they decide to change the shape or use of them.   Be accessible physically and stored where they can be reached by children without having to ask the playworkers.  The children should know that they can use them whenever and however they wish.   Be regularly replenished changed and added to.  ‘Loose parts’ theory is about remembering that the best play comes from things that allow children to play in many different ways and on many different levels.  Environments that include ‘loose parts’ are infinitely more stimulating and engaging that static ones.  The play environment needs to promote and support imaginative play though the provision of ‘loose parts’ in a way that doesn’t direct play and play opportunities, but allows children to develop their own ideas and explore their world.


The Theory of Loose Parts
Architect Simon Nicholson first proposed the theory of loose parts in the 1970’s at a time when adventure playgrounds in England were inspiring a rethinking the aged and static design of American playgrounds. Nicholson believed that the loose parts in an environment offer enormous possibilities and invite creativity unlikely in settings with fixed elements. Environments are richer places for children’s play with loose parts that include everything from sand and water to sticks, plastic crates and buckets, hoses, tubing, and more. I still have my worn mimeographed  (c. 1976) copy of Nicholson's Theory of Loose Parts on goldenrod paper in my archives. Recently the idea of loose parts has begun to catch on with early childhood educators, play experts, and playspace and museum designers.

… and Found Objects
I have an addition to make to Nicholson’s Theory of Loose parts. The best loose parts are objects children find and make their own. Travelling close to the ground, eyes wide open, and fingers outstretched, children notice, pick up, and become proud owners of dropped, discarded, and forgotten objects. Pebbles, sticks, plastic caps, pencil stubs, washers and slugs, wheels from toy cars, keys, and more become their treasures. Children store and stash them in pockets, backpacks, drawers, and ziplock bags where they can find them, use them, and re-use them in new ways. Just check the bottom of any child’s backpack.

When children find objects themselves, objects adults have dismissed or overlooked, they enjoy a feeling of ownership they seldom have about toys or school supplies given them by parents and other adults. No doubt they value their toy cars, doll suitcases, and paint brushes. But they have a special relationship with their own finds. They are the bosses of pencil stubs, empty thread spools, a rusty bolt, and seeds. They can collect, sort, trade, forget about, and even lose their found objects. They own them and they decide what to do with them. I imagine this is a sweet feeling of control for someone learning to share and understand rules of property.

An Openness to Objects
A child’s deliberate or casual search for found objects is a true child-directed activity, a goal often sought and less often realized. Their curiosity about and openness to the potential of materials extends their self-directed exploration. Sticky pine cones, a sparkly button, and a cork bobbing in water deliver first-hand information about the world. As children investigate an object, they wonder why it does “that”, where it came from, and what they can do with it. They have ideas. Children’s questions, imaginations, and previous experiences allow them to make connections, go further than the information given to them, and create something new and original for them.

Attractive, enticing, and beautiful, found objects have important attributes–fist sized, mobile, and undefined–that allow children to invent, follow, and finish an experience in personal and unexpected ways. An object can become anything a child wants it to be. Chestnuts can become cooking props, bricks in a dump truck, or boulders in an avalanche. Objects invite conversation and inspire stories; become game pieces, construction units, a puppet, or a precious addition to a collection of similar objects. Found items are not only interesting to children, but they stimulate children’s personal interests in rocks, vehicles, stories, tools, and tinkering. Loose parts and found objects lead children everywhere and anywhere on their ways to the future.

Time, Abundance and Variety
Children need time and opportunity to become fluent in materials. For most children, the more limited environments of their daily lives, the more limited their access to loose parts, and, especially, to found objects. Surely there are treasures to be found between car seat cushions on the way to school, but how do they compare to a daily 15-minute walk to and from school?

Hands-on museums do offer loose parts as props and tools in outdoor environments, and indoor exhibits and studio spaces. They can, nevertheless, give loose parts and found objects a much greater presence by spreading varied and abundant objects and their benefits across exhibits, throughout programs, and into public areas. Museums might just use some of the interest and imagination children bring to loose parts and found objects in doing this. They can also follow the work of educators from Reggio Emilia (IT), how some preschools and museums are exploring and adapting material exploration; and a few starting points below.

Grow the variety of loose parts and found objects. Start gathering! Loose parts can be natural and manufactured and can come from any room in the house or shelf in the garage; from the museum’s fabrication shop or food service vendor. Increase variety by inviting contributions from staff and board; work with local businesses and museum sponsors. As important as quantity is, interesting qualities (textures, shape, rigidity, color, finishes, etc.) are essential. Be selective; consider safety. Be a participant, exploring materials yourself and with other staff. Try a few materials in activities and notice children’s questions and how they use them. Search with new eyes.

• Be on the look-out for: Spoons, keys, plastic caps, driftwood, beads, cord, paper rolls, ceramic tiles, wire, marbles, postage stamps, bark, shells, feathers, acorns, corks, knobs, s-hooks, puzzle and game pieces, buttons, rubber washers, ribbons, leaves, seeds, pods, etc.

Gather loose objects around a possible experience. A possible experience is somewhere between casually putting out a bunch of stuff and setting up a structured, supervised activity. Being both intentionaland open to possibilities of how children might explore, experience, use, and combine materials is a good starting place. A child may, or may not, use objects as you intend, but may follow another direction. Some objects might suggest making faces, others building towers, others creating symmetry. To shape a possible experience, imagine what a child might do with a set of objects: arrange, sort or seriate them; build with them or trade them; make up a story or make a game. 

Nothing can be taught.

This is a snippet from Anne Van Damm's blog that really spoke to me....

I remember listening to Emilia Gambetti who pointed out that "Everything you reach, you reach with your own thinking"... so how do I support my colleagues with reaching their own understandings about the power of play and the role of the teacher when play is at the heart of the daily experiences?

I am aware that the shift from 'teaching to learning' requires time, courage and commitment on the part of the teachers. Teachers need support as they are building understanding of learning through play. Some may experience tension as they question the possibility of meeting learner outcomes within a play-based learning programme.

Based on my own experience, I understand that children learn best through play. I know this and research confirms this. I have lived and breathed play all my life so I know it is a vital force in the lives of young children. Some teachers may believe they need to teach in order for children to learn. I believe it is important to communicate that true understanding is built through application. If teachers are not inclined to try, they will never change their point of view. Learner outcomes in the early years programmes are often broad enough to incorporate into the weekly planning. When teachers believe they have to 'teach' learner outcomes through planned activities (telling children what, when and how) they have not changed their practice. Learning is only true learning when it has been transformational and has translated into action.

Teachers have to engage in concentrated focused observations of children and think deeply about the choices they make regarding space, time, materials and relationships. It starts with reconstructing their image of the child. It is vital that teachers see the child (believe the child to be) a competent person and learner. This is the start of a new path in working alongside young children.

I strongly agree with Michelle Hill, a colleague, who wisely pointed that the implications of our new vision can't just be seen as pragmatic. It involves a dramatic shift in thinking. This shift is a result of the development of complex cognitive processes and skills. It all starts with 'listening'. Maybe the hardest part is letting go of the control over what and how children learn.

Transdisciplinary Skills: Teachers, what are we playing at?

The following is a post my previous PYP Co-ordinator posted after watching a movie I passed on to him.  Felt good to spur on action....even if it wasn't in my own school.

Chris wrote on the PYP Threads ning:

I don't know about you, but at our school we spend a lot of time planning, sequencing and designing activities to encourage kids to collaborate, make group decisions take risks and so forth. It is a lot of work I can tell you. The IB Learner Profile, PYP Attitudes and the skills of inquiry are increasingly taking up more and more meeting times. "Quite right too!" we say to ourselves - these elements are exceeding important! (I'm not denying the latter).

But are we focusing too much of our attention on the 'classroom' to promote these attributes when we should be taking a step back and looking more to nature and to the playground for our answers?

I urge you to take a reflective look at this video. Yes it is nostalgic, yes it is advocating play and yes we have probably heard this all before. But this time, look at the video through the lens of achieving the transdisciplinary skills, attitudes and learner profile. The UK school featured towards the end, has probably never heard of the IB, the PYP or The Learner Profile. But listen to the words they use when describing the benefits of play! This really got me thinking. Thank you Amber Jean Taylor (an ex colleague now in Moscow) for sending me this it spurred some though and has our staff debating.

Lost Adventures of Childhood
http://vimeo.com/36303926

I wish our staff would do the same.

There were replies to his post with some great videos:

http://pypthreads.ning.com/forum/topics/transdisciplinary-skills-teachers-what-are-we-playing-at?commentId=2012483%3AComment%3A47228&xg_source=msg_com_forum

Chris has also sent me a video with more of the same idea:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SchoolGroundsUK/featured

It's only play...

I think one of the biggest challenges with play-based learning is helping people understand what 'play-based' really means.  It does not mean 'free-for-all.'  It doesn't mean 'unstructured' and it certainly isn't a 'waste of time.'  I think teachers in play-based programs will agree that the materials we put out for children to play with are intentional.  Play in our classrooms always has a purpose.  When we are tuned-in to what children are playing, we can help extend their learning by asking that one question or making a suggestion that they might find too irresistible to pass up.  The writing, experimenting, observing and creating has meaning to them so IT IS IMPORTANT!  Then, theren are those serendipitous moments when the children take their learning in a direction you just didn't see coming and that's nothing less than magical!

A place to store all the many sites, nings, and blogs I follow and videos that inspire...

Videos:

Stuart Brown: Why Play is vital -- no matter your age

Lost Adventures of Childhood

Documentation: Transforming Our Perspective

Great Blogs and sites:

http://crayonswandsandbuildingblocks.wordpress.com/

http://earlylearningatiszl.blogspot.com/

http://pre-schoolplay.blogspot.com/

http://creativewithkids.com/

childrenandnature.ning.com

pypthreads.ning.com

http://www.teachingchannel.org/

http://www.outdoorplayandlearning.com/

http://www.letthechildrenplay.net/2013/03/be-reggio-inspired-top-pinterest-and.html

Articles:
If a child picks up a stick in a forest...
http://childrenandnature.ning.com/profiles/blogs/if-a-child-picks-up-a-stick-in-the-forest

What happens when we say 'yes' to children...
http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/unplanned-explorations-lively-minds

Forest play aids nursery children's mediation skills
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-17099694
 

Facebook Memberships:

     1) The Nature Nurture Project
     2) Learning for Life
     3) Creative With Kids
     4) Reggio Emilia Approach Interest Group
     5) Sightlines Initiative (UK Reggio)
     6) The Learning Caravan
     7) Pre-schoolplay
     8) The PYP and the Importance of Play
     9) PYP Xchange

Facebook administrator of Reggio Emilia Study Tour Oct 2011
   

My Two Cents Regarding Assessment in the PYP....

1) Conceptual Understanding in Early Years Children

Young children are different than us adults. They don’t celebrate their understandings like we do. It feels natural for them to find out and then, without the celebration, they connect and apply it further. Constantly. Naturally. Some at a slower/faster pace than others, but conceptual understanding is always present in children.

I like that we attempt to have prevailing concepts over our units and work hard to help children make concept connections in a transdisciplinary way, but this is impossible to force, in my opinion. A child does this naturally and I find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to assess. However, I find it easy to observe experiences that enable connections. Why can assessment not be simply observing in order to reflect on what has been learned and then use that to develop further or new understandings? Documentation.

2) Summative Assessments in the Early Years 

I find summative assessments baffling! In a similar way, it feels right to hold ourselves in the formative form of assessment all throughout the units (and our units do extend beyond the timed borders, overlap and spiral, but not officially!) We don’t have a task, but on-going observation instead.

Our summative assessment comes in the form of a rubric, which really is a continuum of sorts. Each unit has a four-columned continuum in which we lay out general educational objectives, or hypotheses of what learning could happen on the basis of our knowledge of the children and of our previous experiences. Along with Reggio-styled documentation of the engagements throughout the unit, the rubric/continuum keeps us connected to the central idea and lines of inquiry, and to each other as separate classrooms with shared but somewhat varied expressions of the unit. We also have space at the bottom of the rubric/continuum for anecdotal documentation of learner profile traits, attitudes, and action that the children have displayed throughout the unit. Parental observations are included too.

Since observation and documentation of the groups’ learning is a clear way to record understanding, these documents naturally fit into each child’s portfolio. The unit rubric/continuum does too. We keep record of their growth of understanding of unit concepts by revisiting earlier units’ continuums, and hopefully, by the end of the year, the children have progressed through the columns.

3) Central Ideas and Reggio Projects

The PYP is already Reggio inspired. It was in conception, from what I understand.

As I see it, the units in early years are vehicles for understanding. It seems that in order to avoid restriction because of the planners, we open up our Central Ideas. We try to make them broad and meaningful to children. This has worked for us, developing units that hopefully help us to observe scientific method, while creating provocations in our environment with social-constructivism in mind. I am not opposed to having the Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry because these help keep a team of teachers, children and the big players that we often forget about, parents, connected. I also think that in international schools, we get a lot of movement of teachers in and out of the Early Years. Removing Central Ideas and developing topics or projects, as suggested above, puts a lot of responsibility on the educators who may not have the experience or the confidence needed to respectfully listen to the children and develop projects.

Freezing but sunny in Moscow,
Amber

Lost Adventures of Childhood

I found the most amazing movie about the importance of Free Play in childhood. 

Lost Adventures of Childhood

Makes me rethink everything about my life in ways....how I teach, how I raise my child, what changes I may need to make in my life to help my son have the play space that he needs. 

This movie has also helped me to feel confident and proud of my teaching esthetic.  I need to keep passing it on.

There is no going back now...

Key Principles of the Reggio Approach

All children have potential
'Our image of the child is rich in potential, strong, powerful, competent and, most of all connected to adults and other children.' (Loris Malaguzzi)
From birth the child has the need and the right to communicate and interact with others. Through energy and curiousity the child constructs her own learning.

Children are connected
The child is a member of a family and a community rather than an isolated individual. The child learns through interaction with peers, adults, objects and symbols. Preschool centres are seen as a system of relations embedded in a wider social system.

The reciprocity of children
 'Children are very open to exchanges and reciprocity as deeds and acts of love which they not only want to receive but also to offer. These form the basis of their ability to experience authentic growth, dependent on the elements listed above, as well as on conflict and error.' (Carlina Rinaldi)

Children are communicators
Children have the right to use many forms of symbolic representation: words, movement, drawing, painting, building, sculpture, shadow play, collage, dramatic play, music (the hundred languages). In using many materials they discover, communicate what they know and understand, what they wonder about, question and imagine.

The environment is the third teacher
Space is designed to encourage encounters, communication and relationships. There is order and beauty in the organisation of materials; every corner of space has an identity and purpose. The piazza and the atelier are at the heart of the preschool centre.

Educators are partners, nurturers and guides
Educators and artists (atelierista) facilitate children's exploration of themes - short- or long-term projects - and guide experiences of open-ended discovery and problem-solving. They know how to plan, observe and listen closely to children; how to ask questions, discover children's ideas, hypotheses and theories and provide occasions for discovery and learning.

Educators are researchers
In pairs, through discussion and interpretation of their own work and the work of the children, they see themselves as researchers, and are engaged in continuous on-going training and theoretical exploration.

Documentation as communication
Careful consideration and attention is given to the presentation of the thinking of the children and the adults who work with them.
Transcriptions of children's words and dialogues, photographs, drawings - many different media - are used. Parents can see what has been happening and educators increase their understanding and exchange ideas. The children feel valued and take pleasure in the process of learning.

Parents as partners
Active partnership in children's learning experience. Exchange of ideas and sharing of different wisdoms. Parents are 'resource people' too. The centre is an open welcoming place.

Education is about asking questions
 'The task of these resource people is not simply to satisfy or answer questions, but instead to help children discover answers and, more importantly still, to help them ask themselves good questions.' (Carlina Rinaldi)

The structure, in a nutshell…

                           Environment                                               Participation

                                                           Organization

       Communication

                                                                                                     Professional Development

                                  Atelier                           Progittaizona

                                               

Organization:  The central value of the structure of Reggio Schools

           

            The organization is not a simple strategy of planning daily activities.  The organization is a shared responsibility of all the activities done together.  Every person working has the same value – complete collegiality.  (This collegiality was so apparent – teachers, kitchen staff, cleaners, cook helpers, there was always at least one member from each area present at our meetings and observations, all dressed in relaxed clothing, all apart of the conversation or presentation they were giving us.) 

Teachers and auxiliary staff work in small groups – two teachers per class of 20 children, one cook and usually two helpers for approx. 100 children, two cleaners for the inside and outside spaces, and two helpers who generally helped in the morning with early drop off, assisted teachers, helped keep the environment organized.

There is an ‘Atilerista’ that is involved with 3 or 4 schools – this person is often a trained artist who plays a key role in creating intentions and provocations for the children, supporting their learning with his/her artistic view and interpretation.  (More about them later)

Pedagogistas are the last key members; they work with one infant/toddler school and one preschool each.  (Ages 0-6)  Pedagogistas are not administrators, admissions, HR, or dealing with any financial aspects.  Their work is to co-ordinate the school, the ongoing PD project, interpret broad projects, continually nurture PD for everyone, cooks, auxiliary staff, etc.  She helps with reflection, co-ordinates parent participation, has a relationship with the health-board and co-ordinates with the other pedagogistas in the city.

All schools have a weekly planning meeting and everyone is present.  It is a horizontal structure with a shared responsibility to take care of the children.  Everyone, auxiliary staff included, teaches.

Environment:  The dialogue between the pedagogy and the architecture.

           

Every school has a piazza, or central meeting area, a common and collective space showing identity of the institution.   The classrooms circle around the piazza and all doors are open, creating singularity.  Every space is important, there is no hierarchy amongst spaces and rooms.  The environment is considered to be the 3^rd teacher.  (Parents as the first teacher, school staff as the second)  Parents built pieces of furniture for the classrooms, affordable and made with love and pride.  There are branches and bark, shells and stones everywhere in the environment; material to play and build with, light projectors and video projectors set in a way to provoke manipulation of shadow and light.  All the materials and furniture can be manipulated and moved, nothing is permanent in its structure.  All the materials in the school (most, anyway) comes from Remida – the local recycling centre that gathers cast-off material from local factories and businesses, sorting and organizing the items to store them for teachers to come and gather for their classrooms. Every school has a kitchen and a separate and common eating area.  The entire school community eats together in this space. 

Professional Development:  The process of Professional Development asks you to get involved as teachers and to learn together with the children and families.

            Professional Development here means a shared vision.  It takes place during working hours of teaching and it happens in everyday life of the school.  They described their weekly meetings as Professional Development.  Everyone learns from each other through dialogue and sharing ideas.  The co-presence of teachers is valued and a big commitment – the teachers saw the collaboration of their team as a ‘right’.  The Pedagogistas, and the Artileristas, are also responsible to the municipality to share their knowledge with other Reggio schools and are involved in projects connecting the community with Professional Development.  The dialogues they have with the city and with the world are also seen as Professional Development – they must have synthesis in order to lead the Study Groups that come from all over the world!

Atelier:  Multi-disciplinary, multi-sensory knowledge – 100 languages that children speak.

Reggio Emilia Approach acknowledges languages as the many different expressive forms and sources of knowledge human beings possess from birth.  There is extreme amount of value in art and expression, understanding that knowledge is multi-disciplinary and that every child has within it 100 ways of expressing knowledge, our job as teachers is to listen to them.  All languages have an expressive capacity and potential.  Languages come in varying forms: play, dance, movement, drawing, writing, sculpture, singing, questioning, crying, stillness, silence.  Epistemology and aesthetics are synonyms at in Reggio schools; aesthetics are a verb of learning.  The atelierista is the key supporter and an interpreter of the 100 languages. 

Progittazione: - from an architectural term for structure – no translation to English and Reggio insists on keeping the term.   It refers to the negotiated curriculum.

            Progittazione is a strategy to create relationships.  It insists on listening as a possibility of giving value to others.  It is a strategy or way of thinking that permeates a person in every way – completely holistic.  It suggests to think about listening as a strategy of learning, adult to child and child to child.   Educators develop hypotheses and previews of what they will learn with children.   Morning meetings happen every day and there the teachers and students negotiate the day – there are some provocations or initial goals are already set, but then children also have a say in what they would like to question and discover that day; there are agreed elements, but there is a certain freedom the children have.  In considering events that happen through the year, sometimes the initial goals change or diverge.  They are negotiated.  The Pedagogista, as I saw it, is a key supporter and interpreter of the bigger picture version of progittazione.    

Communication:  Observation, documentation, and interpretation.

Observation:

            School is a context for listening.  How can we improve this listening?  How can we coax children to find meaning?  How can we as teachers find meaning?   Observation is listening.

Documentation:

            Documentation is linked to scientific context – as soon as you apply a context, it becomes educational.  (Scribing a child’s comments about their work gives a simple drawing complexity and context, for example.)  It is extremely important and is a keystone to the teacher’s work, for the reason that is helps teachers, parents, and children a better understanding of the work done and the work that we need to do. 

Interpretation:

The interpretation of documentation is reflection.  (Entire reason why I am writing this!)  Reflection is how children acquire knowledge, and how they process and organize knowledge.   Documentation is how we show children carrying out research, how they answer their own questions or teacher provocations.  Interpretation is how teachers increase their knowledge, together with the children. 

Observation, documentation and interpretation are key parts of the Reggio Emilia Approach’s identity and the educators are always mindful of this process.

Participation:  The shared educational project – to be a part of the whole.

            Children, parents and teachers are all co-responsible; we give answers together, we share difficulties, we see our schooling as a shared educational project.    Parents need to be aware that they are a valued part of the learning process.  In a similar way, the community is co-responsible.   The children are citizens and must be valued. The school cannot be based on a rigid and definitive model, but a school must always be re-proposed, shaped, re-planned, in search of temporary balances that require continuous adjustment.  We are always changing and growing, shifting and adjusting in our school…and this is a good thing.

The idea of learning and knowledge…

How can we learn and construct our knowledge?

How do children and adults learn and connect with each other?

 

The educators of Reggio Emilia believe that learning isn’t a personal activity, but a group activity - Social Constructivism.  That the best learning comes in a mutual exchange with subject and object encounters, along with the encounters of other learners’ minds and reflections.  A construction is not a line, but a structure that we build; never thinking about what we learn, but how we learn. 

Thinking about Standards and Benchmarks...often so linear.  It feels so ‘Skinner’ to me.  Teachers, me included, direct and control outcomes and develop checklists to find out what children don't know.  How boring for everyone, really…but this is easy because it is a line, or steps to move up along, and too often the methods we use.  I do see the value as far as keeping things consistent, but I wonder if there are other methods of expressing Standards...

I see that we also get caught in ‘Piaget’ developmental psychology of it all.  That there is a universal child that develops along a path and we mark the key happenings on our continuum and tell the parent and child where their child is. We just completed the intro to our continuum document and it is Piaget a bit, even though I think our document isn’t very Piaget.

I’ve come to understand the values of ‘Vygotsky’, that children construct their knowledge through the interaction of others.  I believe we do this well.  We allow for the scaffolding of learning through play and the learning becomes quite complex.  I feel I am looking at play in a more detailed way and listening to what the children are saying, doing, expressing in the ‘hundred languages’ that they speak.  

I am realizing, by coming here, a ‘Moss’ view of educating minds.  We all learn through reflection and that we all have a different perspective on what we experience.   Much of this is based on the relationship we have with our community, a community who values us and the many ways we learn and view.   If we are valued and trusted as learners, then the negotiation of curriculum is easy.

What do we want to make meaning of?  How can we build on that meaning?  How can we carry on and move forward towards new meaning and understanding.  Learning is a movement where evaluation and self-evaluation takes place.  Documenting our learning allows us to reflect and revisit it.  Documentation also makes the thinking visual.   It too is a key element. 

 

We need to value the different perspectives our school has.  A play between Vygotsky and Moss’ views of educating minds fits so well with a truly international school.  We need to let the children have a voice.  They are a player in this big game.  We sometimes forget about what they want.   How do we view children?  What is our image of child?

The image of the child...

What kind of idea of children do you have?  What is your image of a child?

The fundamental place to begin, and forever return to whenever any decision is made regarding education, is to ask ourselves ‘what is our image of a child?’  There are always many stake-holders when it comes to make decisions regarding educating children - parents, teachers, administrators, school staff, cafeteria employees.  We need a collective image of the child and stay true to it in all our steps forward.  If the image of child is a consistent one the program is stronger.

I don't think the image of a child needs descriptors, but here are some of mine...

Complex.

Playful.

Imaginative.

Stubborn.

Seeking relationships and belonging.

Communicative.

Pure.

Loving.

A dialogue between the city and the children...

How can we build a more democratic co-existence and a more global idea of citizenship?

It begins through our schools.

The mayor of Reggio said, “Schools are the piazzas of the communities.”  Schools represent, in many ways, the culture of our community.  Here in Reggio there is a deep dialogue between the city and the educational centres.  The early childhood centres are at the top of the investment pyramid because the community sees children as their most valuable citizens.  They promote the right of children to live in the community from the very beginning and have them visible at the cultural, political, institutional places in the city.   Through the children we can build a more democratic co-existence and a more global idea of citizenship.  Everywhere I go in this city I feel that this is a living right that children have.  They’re everywhere!

The most important thing I learned today was this...

The relationship between the community and the school is the most important aspect of this approach.  You cannot export the 'Reggio Emilia Approach', you can only be inspired by it.  Like what they do here, we need to make a connection between our school community - the space, the people of the institution, the families within it, the International and Russian cultures - and the children in our classrooms.  The children need to make visible their learning in the hallways, the outdoor spaces, the nooks and crannies and express an understanding of and a belonging to our school community.  If our learning is visible, the community will understand and contribute.  Making the learning visible connects us all. 

Made it to Reggio...

     I arrived at the airport in Milan and was working up the nerve to find my way to the train station when a lady approached me to ask if I was with the Reggio Children Group... 

How is it that we can spot a teacher in a crowd?  What is it marker that lets us know?  The paint stains in our clothes?  The 'I'm exhausted and strung-out' look?  The very practical and comfortable sweaters we wear?  I didn't have my halloween earrings on...or any kind of holiday garment for that matter.  How did she know?  I decided not to ask and just followed her out to the shuttle she had waiting. 

Reggio Emilia is a great little city - pretty industrial - but like any place in Italy, a walk toward the centre of town and you'll found the square with great restaurants and good wine.   I've met up with a groovy gal who is German/Columbian and living and working in the States.  She and I and three other Canadians met in the hotel lobby and headed out to see the sights.  We had dinner with our Study Group leaders last night and everyone got to know each other a bit.

I already have the sense that although we are in a location to see and find out more about this play-based approach to teaching, I will also be gathering a lot of learning from my fellow Study Group members.  I met one couple, he is a lawyer and she is a director of an early years centre, who collaboratively write books on the rights of children in education.  Another friend teaches dance and movement in an arts based school in a very 'Reggio' way.  One gal is writing her thesis for her masters and is taking part in teaching two classes - one with the play-based approach and one with instruction-based approach - comparing and contrasting the two.

Tomorrow is a walk around the city with the big group of 75.  

I'm so happy I've come. 

We do a lot of 'Green' thinking...

Below is a blurb I wrote for our school monthly newsletter.  We were asked how we promote 'Green' thinking in our classrooms...

     We use recycled materials in our Pre-K classrooms all the time, and mainly in our art or 'creation' stations.  Odds and ends spark children's thinking, and the way they use these items often surprises adults.  Unlike the loose parts in the block or drama areas, the art centres use primarly consumables - children making creations for one time use or as an on-going prop in dramatic play.  Play items do not have to be coloured green, blue, yellow and red to be meaningful or of quality.  Aside from being an economical way of keeping our art centres stocked, by re-using or recycling materials we are taking ordinary objects like paper tubes, bottle caps, or wood scraps and creating beautiful objects. Making the extraordinary out of the ordinary.

     By using items that would normally become garbage, we are helping to raise children's awareness that a little creativity can make a simple 'throw away' item into something useful.  Last year we were given all the boxes of the travel mugs that the Grade 12 graduates received in their gift bags.  So far the boxes have become apartment buildings, castles, a rocket ship, a train line that went all through our classroom, and they will soon become display boxes for our artworks.

     The wood scraps we had gathered for us were used as play items in our class for a week previous to making our sculptures. The children used the scraps in their dramatic role playing, took sand paper to the pieces and discovered the difference between rough and smooth, built towers and found out more about balance.  Then, we used the scraps to create our sculptures...which really wasn't a lesson at all about building a sculpture, but about problem solving and turn taking.  Each group had five children in it and they had to make a sculpture using all their assigned pieces, and do this co-operatively.

     Our forest walks are also a way we promote 'Green' thinking amongst our students. Developing a relationship with the natural world around us instills a sense of responsibilty to protect our forest. The children start to understand why we do not throw garbage on the ground, why we need to use less paper in the classroom, and begin to observe the world around us with a softer eye and appreciation for what is natural and living. The forest walk becomes the most anticipated event of the week!

Reggio bound...

     All signed up and ready to roll on down to Reggio Emilia, Italy....otherwise known as the 'Mecca' of many Early Childhood teachers! The place where Loriz Malaguzzi and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia developed an educational philosophy focused on Pre-school and Primary education. They called it "The Reggio Emilia Approach." (Aptly named, don't you think?)


     Why is a PYP teacher working in Moscow, Russia, packing up her cool(er) clothes and flying to Italy for a week long Study Group? To see first hand the Reggio environments, learn about the instructional strategies, and see the children at work in full-swing play! The PYP values play in early childhood classrooms and promotes play/project-based learning. The developers of the IB PYP had their eyes on Reggio Emilia when writing their philosophy of the Early Years Program. I am on my way to Italy to learn more about this innovative approach to education and apply its strengths in our classrooms, making our PYP program stronger.


What is the Reggio Emilia Approach?  Here is a quick descriptor

Reggio Emilia created a program based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment based on the interests of the children through a self-guided curriculum.

- Children must have some control over the direction of their learning
- Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, seeing and hearing
- Children have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that children must be able to explore
- Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves

The Reggio Emilia approach to teaching young children puts the natural development of children as well as the close relationships that they share with their environment at the center of its philosophy. Early childhood programs that have successfully adapted to this educational philosophy share that they are attracted to Reggio because of the way it views and respects the child.

Parents are a vital component to the Reggio Emilia philosophy. Parents are viewed as partners, collaborators and advocates for their children. Teachers respect parents as each child's first teacher and involve parents in every aspect of the curriculum.

So, there you have it!  Who wouldn't want to go?

I'm off on October 15th!

5 more sleeps....

And the journey begins...

     I wanted a space to be able to write down the thoughts I have about my ongoing development as an Early Childhood Educator.  I've decided to create this blog to write about all the teachings I gather from other Early Years educators, that I discover from the children and parents I share a classroom with, and that I find around me in articles, on the internet, and through my professional development experiences.  Having never been a blogger...bloggess...bloggerina... (what do we call ourselves?) ... having never been one, I figured I'd better challenge myself and start using a blog to record, and be able to reflect on, the knowledge I am gathering in my professional life. 

     I can't promise to be witty, but I will try my best to be clear about my thoughts!  For those of you who are reading this, please share with me your knowledge and ideas, send me articles to read, or give me information you think would do me some good to know!  I have been teaching Early Childhood for ten years now and feel confident in the classroom, however, I believe I am forever a work in progress and I am trying my best to get it right...

My email address is:  ajpq@hotmail.com