What experiences should our children have much of the time in their early years, and no doubt in their later years as well?"
This is a great question to discuss with families. I wonder if this would help families expecting an "academic" curriculum in preschool see the importance of a play based curriculum.
The first of the proposed experiences
Love this list of proposed experiences rather than a curriculum "delivery". This list meets all of young children's needs while being open ended and easy to align with a contextual curriculum.
'delivery' of the curriculum
This is sad. A delivery of curriculum makes me think that it is a one size fits all that must be completed during a set before time and before the next "delivery"
Formulas? There are none.
Yes! There can be no formulas when working with children.
We have to convince ourselves that it is essential to preserve in children (and in ourselves) the feeling of wonder and surprise, because creativity, like knowledge, is a daughter of surprise
creativity as a daughter of surprise - what a great way to put in and remind us of the magic and importance of wonder.
The atelier had to be a place for researchingmotivations andtheories of children from scribbles on up, a place for exploringvariations in tools, techniques, and materials with which to work.
This description reminds me of a laboratory - a place for research, discoveries, and plenty of materials.
In this way we also rescued our teachers, who had been humiliated by the narrowness of their preparatory schools, by working with them on their professional
I don't like the idea of being rescued but I understand the message being given. I like to think of teachers being supported in gaining new skills through professional development.
value of the indoor and outdoor environments asspaces for learning,
In San Jose, CA most of the newer (corporate sponsored) early care centers focus on the indoor environment and leave the children with a very small outdoor space that is to be shared by 100+ children and has only astorturf and a small play structure. Advocacy around access to outdoor environments and nature is something I would like to work on even more now.
national law passed in 1968 that established free education for all children from 3 years to 6 years of age.
I wonder what level of involvement the government has with the centers. A problem with the American system is that the government often standardizes learning and decisions are made by non-educators. How does this work in Reggio?
The children set to painting out in the public for all to see, and people crowded around, expressed surprise, and asked many questions (see Figure 2.1). Al
A way to involve the children in the community and the community with the children. Creates visibility for the children and their capabilities.
Their tendency to engage with colleagues in extended mutual criticism and self-examination of their teaching behavior seems to distinguish the educators of Reggio Emilia
I wonder if we could begin modeling and teaching this at the community college level where many educators first begin their early childhood careers.
The 2point 2of 2the 2discussion, 2evidently, 2was 2to 2think 2critically 2about 2difficult 2questions, 2not reach closure.
This is important to remember when in dialogue with colleagues, often it will result in more questions not answers.
Their goal is not so much to “facilitate” learning in the sense of “making smooth or easy” but rather to “stimulate” it by making problems more complex, involving, and arous-ing.
This is a great way to look at our roles, changing facilitate to stimulate puts the learning back on the child.
Throughout the project (as well as in other daily work), the teachers act as the group’s “memory” and discuss with children the results of the documenta-tion. This systematically allows children to revisit their own and others’ feelings, perceptions, observations, and reflections, and then to reconstruct and reinter-pret them in deeper ways.
I love the way teachers are thought of as the groups memory.
The co-teaching organization is considered difficult, because the two adults must co-adapt and accommodat
I have felt the most supported and on top of my game when in co-teaching classrooms but I also acknowledge how hard it is to create effective co-teaching teams.
She also believes that the teacher’s role must be imagined in terms that are holistic and circular, not segmented and linear. Such a circularity—or better, spiraling—is seen in the revisiting that is a frequent component of the learning process. Teachers’ actions are not expected to take place in a set order, or one time only, but instead to repeat in cycles of revisiting and re-representation. From this standpoint, the teacher appraises and assesses what is happening with children within a cycle of days taking place within larger cycles (weeks, months, or even years). Such a spiraling, rather than linear, way of thinking and proceeding is characteristic of Reggio educators—whether they are describing the course of child learning and development; narrating the story of a particular curriculum project; winding through theoretical points that illuminate an aspect of practice; or, as here, thinking about pedagogical roles
The spiraling versus linear idea is very interesting. It makes sense to me and takes into account how all the pieces work together not alone.
he metaphor of “catching the ball that the children throw us, and then tossing it back to continue the game” is a favorite one in Reggio Emilia. Think-ing of teacher–child interaction as a badminton game was originally suggested to Malaguzzi by the Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer.1 Malaguzzi talked about how, “for the game to continue, the skills of the adult and child need appropriate adjustments to allow the growth through learning of the skills of the child”
What a great metaphor for teaching. Also reminds me of the rules of improv - you do everything you can to support each other and find a way to keep the play going.
co-constructor of knowledge
I really like how the roles are reworded. The revisions demonstrate a strong image of the child and the teacher.
A second tension inherent to children's rights is the need to balance protection rights and participation rights (a focus of Chapter 3). Young children understand this balance as well. They believe that they should be able to make choices, but that these choices are constrained by concerns for safety
This reminds me of our small group discussion on safety.
Children demonstrate an astute awareness of the privileges and responsibilities of the adults in their lives.
I think the reason for this is because children rely on non-verbal communication more. They notice everything, including unconscious messages that adults send.
he children's responses surprised him. Children thought it more important to share mealtime with friends than to eat when they were hungry.
Through truly listening rather than make assumptions we can learn a great deal about children.
A teacher of 1-year-olds decided to analyze archival photos of her classroom as a means of listening to what infants were saying about their rights. The teacher noticed that although the infants had all become mobile, photographs still de-picted adults carrying infants from place to place.
What a great way to listen to infants.
The question, "Is it okay to be?" has very different connotations, however, than the question, "Do you have a right to be?" Children's assertions that sadness and anger were not okay
I appreciate this distinction between "okay" and "a right". It reminds me of the time my mentor cautioned me against adding an "okay" to the end of a statement, "lets do a potty try, okay.. To me it was just a way of speaking but with children it turned into a question.
dults must lis-ten with all of their creativity.
Love this, adults have to listen to children with all of their creativity. Can adults do this though? As adults we often don't think we have creativity in us.
Adult society relies on the spoken and written word.
Hmm, I think this is accurate. We don't teach or learn non verbal communication in school and as a society we don't seem to place much value in it.
children's rights movement must be as much about "adult ears" as it is about "children's voices" (R. Hart, 1998, cited in Miljeteig, 2000, p. 171). At Boulder Jour-ney School, our research on children's rights has led us to specify four suggestions for tuning adult ears to the voices of young children
Great reminder that when discussing children's rights, children get to be part of the discussion and their voices should be heard.
Instead of always giving children protection, we needto give them the recognition of their rights and of theirstrengths
The ultimate right - knowing your rights!
When the child is observed, the child is happy
In general I agree with this, especially as it is described below - by an adult that is fully present and when the child is fully engaged; however, for some introverted children (speaking as an introvert) there are times when children do not want to be observed. It is important to respect this, and at the very least the offer the illusion of privacy and the adult observing should move back.
If only you had seen all I had to do.” The childwants this observation. We all want this. This meansthat when you learn to observe the child, when youhave assimilated all that it means to observe thechild, you learn many things
To be seen - such an important need,
Our task is to construct educational situations that wepropose to the children in the morning.
This is a change I would like to see change in my context. Currently our gathering time is just before lunch which means the entire morning was left without a formal planning time for the children. By moving it to early morning we can discuss the propositions for the day and set the tone.
it’s living together in this forest that is important.And this living together is not easy.
Beautiful way to phrase it
Overactivity on the part of the adult is a risk factor.The adult does too much because he cares about thechild; but this creates a passive role for the child inher own learning.
This is sometimes the hardest part of the day. When short staffed I often find myself doing more than I normally would to help move things along - for example transitions. This sometimes makes things worse as children feel rushed and they are left out of some of the process.
Children are very sensitive and can see andsense very quickly the spirit of what is going onamong the adults in their world.
I learned this quickly when I worked as an infant educator. Anytime the adults were frazzled or stressed, the children could sense it- they cried more, their body language was stiff, and they were almost always soothed by a calmer caregiver.
Teachersandchildrenaspartnersinlearning
This truth is so important, as educators we must continue to seek out learning opportunities from everyone, especially from our students. A pet peeve of mine is when a teacher is not interested in learning from students and see's themselves as the bearer of all knowledge (Ive worked with a couple of these educators).
specialrights
I love this term.
Firstofall,thecity-runeducationalsystemforyoungchildrenoriginatedthereinschoolsstartedbyparents;literallygroupsofparentsbuiltthemwiththeirownhandsattheendofWorldWarII.Thefirstschoolwasbuiltwithproceedsfromthesaleofatank,sometrucks,andafewhorsesleftbehindbytheretreatingGermanarmy.Suchparticipationbyparentshasallalongremainedanessentialpartofthewayofworkingoneducationinthatcity
This is a beautiful aspect of Reggio schools. Parents know the value of early care and education for children and made it happen. Their continued participation demonstrates the value and respect they have for children.