The whys of early childhood education...

  We KNOW that young children learn best in > child-centered, experience-based, social classrooms > with teachers that facilitate and foster respect.  > Why, why, WHY is this is the exception, not the > rule, in American preschool classrooms?  Because, in the real world environment (outside of college child development labs with university funding) being child-centered & experience based is a lot more work & takes a lot more resources than teaching a "canned" curriculum, at least in the beginning--and until the TEACHERS recognize the value of following the child's lead and begin fighting for that, we will get nowhere with administrators--IMO. As my school year has just begun & as I have begun the licensing process for home/family child care I have, in the last two weeks, talked to at least twenty individuals about my approach--probably more. This confirmed the fact that there is absolutely no one in this county (and the one next to us) who uses anything that could be even slightly classified as "Reggio Inspired". The closest we've come to is ONE program that uses Creative Curriculum--so far all the rest that offer any form of educational program use weekly themes (with the exception of a few "Montessori" programs, only two of which were able to tell me who Montessori was). Those educators I have spoken with, and even some of the families I have talked to, have reacted to my explanations of the importance of following the children & the value of documentation with comments such as "I don't know how I could possibly do that, I don't have enough time as it is" or "It must be pure chaos to have a classroom where children are all exploring their own interests" (yeah, it is--when you are used to children who sit quietly at story time & rotate through centers every 15 minutes, under the threat of time outs or being sent to the office if they don't comply--and then they wonder why they have behavioral problems?????). As someone who is currently entering a possible position in where I may actually be able to reach other educators in the area and share bits and pieces of Reggio Emilia, I would welcome discussion on how to help these educators and caregivers, all of whom are struggling to do what they believe is best for children despite their lack of time & resources, find a way to implement some of the basic frameworks of Reggio Inspired programs (I know these are heavily debated--but I have found recent discussions in this arena helpful as I ponder this question).

Diversity where there is none...

I've worked in the early childhood field for eight years, and have had only a handful of children who are of African, African American, or Haitian decent. Most of those children I have had are children who have been adopted by Caucasion families. In our neighborhood of 300+ plus people, we have one family of Haitian decent, several families of Hispanic decent, and a couple families of Asian decent. I'm quite excited that my program this year is actually more diverse than it was last--I actually have two children of Hispanic decent, one child who is 1/4 Korean, and another who is 1/2 Japanese. Compared to last year, when the vast majority of my children had blonde hair & blue eyes! In addition, I am one of the few programs in a highly religious community that is not religion based, so I have greater diversity there as well (about 50% of my students are not of the dominant religion). I've tried to incorporate interculturalism (yes, I'm making up words...) in my room wherever possible, including racial and ethnic backgrounds of those not included in the class. I've had Native American speakers cook fry bread, African American storytellers, etc. We celebrated Cinco De Mayo & the Chinese New Year. Our dolls, food, puzzles, books, dress up clothes, etc. represent materials from a variety of cultures. I feel like this is more of a superficial representation of ethics and cultures, but at least it is exposing the children to other possibilities. I like what Leeann said about considering every member of your classroom as a diverse individual. We do incorporate family traditions throughout the year & encourage parents to participate in becoming part of our classroom community. On a side note, how do you accommodate those who do not celebrate, such as members of the Jehovah Witness faith? Or, how do you cope with families who have significantly different beliefs? For example, I would happily include a family whose make up included two moms or two dads (not that it will ever happen in this community!!!), but I can guarantee I would loose many of my current clients, some of whom have placed their children in my program to get away from liberal public school systems.

The Power of K: North Carolina Position Statement on Kindergartens of the 21st Century

North Carolina has issued a powerful declaration on the need for play in kindergarten classrooms.  In speaking with many Utah kindergarten teachers as I prepare to teach private kindergarten next year I've heard many express regret that play, art, science, and music have been replaced with reading, reading, and more reading.  Yes, reading is important...but is it the most important aspect of kindergarten educations?  North Carolinians don't seem to think so...here is to hoping other states follow suite...

http://www.ncreadyschools.org/documents/1PowerofK.pdf

Charter Schools: Degree or No Degree?

Someone please share documentation that what I've found is an exception to the rule, and not the rule in and of itself?

Here, in a typical charter school with a dozen teachers, you are lucky if two or three of them hold degrees in education. They are typically teachers who have children in the school. For the most part, they hire other parents without degrees, or college students. I suppose some of the parents may have degrees in other areas, but ECE teachers are few and far between. In the preschools (connected to the school, but not state funded) I have yet to meet any teacher with anything beyond a couple years of college. I don't believe that a degree makes a good teacher, by any means. I have met many wonderful ECE professionals with little to no education beyond high school. In fact, in many ways, I believe I was a better teacher before I had my degree, when I was learning through trial & error and not overly concerned with this theorist or that, or whether or not I was meeting state standards. Getting the educational background was great, but I don't think that's what makes me the teacher I am. However I do think, for the most part, teachers should have some form of educational background covering topics relating to child development. Perhaps even something like the CDA for child care providers? Though, I'm not particularly a big fan of the CDA program in many ways, it is certainly better than nothing. I would be less concerned if I felt like the charter schools were offering appropriate training, but since nothing is required in that area very few do anything beyond an occasional inservice meeting. The other thing with charter schools in this area is that every one of the charter schools I have visited (the majority of them, though there may be a couple I have missed) use the Core Knowledge Curriculum, which (in my opinion) is highly academic, with little to no integration.

Dream Crushers...

This post was shared on the REGGIO-L listserve, hopefully reading through it will inspire all who work with young children to take a moment to evaluate whether they are building dreams or crushing them...

" I just wanted to tell you about something Sarah said that I thought was interesting, given that you work with adults who will be working with children. When I picked her up the other day she thanked me (very dramatically) for rescuing her from the clutches of the" dream crushers". I asked her what she meant and she said "you know, when you have really great and fun ideas and then the teachers come along and crush your dreams before you even finish telling them about them. They are the dream crushers." I think I'll remind my teachers that they shouldn't be dream crushers. "

The Daisy Project: Another Provider's Experience

Another provider shared this experience on the REGGIO-L list, an excellent example of a "mini project"

http://teacherweb.com/WA/ItsANewDayPreschool/JudyStender/gallery3.stm

Investigations vs. Projects

In our class we have several different "experiential learning opportunities" (I figure using big words makes me sound like we are academically motivated by these experiences...).  I generally categorize these opportunities into projects (an ongoing topic studied by the class), explorations (provocations or "teachable moments" involving a specific media), and investigations, which are described as follows...

This is kind of what I do with my investigations, or "mini projects". As I notice individual interests I record them and provide related materials, to see if the children are really interested. Usually I will have one or two children who are interested in pursuing a topic, and rather than launch a class-wide project I assist them in beginning an "investigation". We do a basic KWL approach, I ask their parents to take them to the library to find books or to visit related community resources, the children often do activities during our work period relating to their investigations, and when they feel they have achieved their goals they present their work to the class. I often have a couple investigations running at once along with our class-wide project, they usually only last a couple weeks--some only a few days. Last year one child found a seashell & wanted to know what it was called, I provided several books & a basket of sea shells for the children to explore. She was joined by several other children, but directed the investigation herself, with very minimal prompting on my part. This led to one child tying in his interest of sea animals, and the two children collaborated together to do their research. Another child was obsessed with the color pink, so I provided her with a full bottle of red paint & white paint, and she and another girl worked for hours in the art area mixing different shades & trying different approaches (such as painting on pink tissue paper). Again, while I provided the materials relating to these interests, the actual investigation was almost completely directed by the child. With each investigation I did a general synopsis for the child's learning portfolio (often with the children's input, though I would like to focus on that more in the future)--I hadn't thought of making a class book, but will try that next year!