[A response is required to receive training credits. The final reflection is in addition to the required 8 posts for training credit. All posts and final reflections should be completed by Friday, March 5th].
For your final reflection, talk about new learnings, if any, that have come from this book and this discussion. New ideas? New information? New connections? New attitudes? New priorities? Can you identify any one idea that came from the book or from the discussion as having had the greatest impact on your thinking?
In addition, talk about specific changes in your practices you contemplate making as a result of this experience. Do you anticipate changing the way you plan and implement curriculum? The way you document children’s ideas and work? The way you orient and train staff? The way you communicate with parents? Who do you feel the urge to talk to about these issues, and what do you intend to tell them?
And, of course, feel free to share any other final thoughts you deem important. Use the above questions as ways to kick-start your thinking – don’t feel compelled to answer each and every one of the prompts! Your final reflection should be at least the equivalent of a one-page, double-spaced paper.
18 comments:
Reading We Are All Explorers provided me with an in-depth look at what it takes to implement the Reggio approach with preschool children. Although I had read articles or perhaps a chapter on the approach, I did not have information on putting it into practice hence an interest in joining the book discussion group.
Reading the blog and listening to the experiences of others during the face-to-face chat put the Reggio approach into perspective for me. Coming into the discussion I felt this learning approach was an all or nothing deal, I now realize that this is not the case. It is a process that will evolve over time, perhaps many years. However, no matter how much of the school day or year the children devote to in-depth study, your classroom is evolving. The teacher is listening, documenting, reflecting and encouraging the children’s curiosity and group exploration. If the teacher is able to let go of her desire to structure the curriculum, she may discover a newfound love of teaching and probably re-ignite the enthusiasm with which she entered the teaching profession. Teaching will become boring if you revisit the same themes year after year. The Reggio approach keeps the curriculum fresh and exciting.
As I visit programs in my area, I will be more aware of their approach to children’s learning, specifically how much of the curriculum is lead by the children. If they indicate that their program is implementing the emergent curriculum process, it will be interesting to engage in a conversation about their practices, such as how they document the children’s actions, interactions, and representations in order to reflect and decide where their interests lie and how they encourage parent involvement.
I may not be in a position to implement the Reggio approach, but I can encourage other educators to be open to learning more about child directed learning.
Where to begin?
Needless to say Reggio Principals is a new experience to me. As I said in my first post I am all for hands on learning. Keeping a childs interest can be a challenge unless the child really enjoys the topic. Children retain information if they really are interested.
Visual learning really seems to work along with hands on. It's up to us as teachers to show an interest in a child's reaction to things. We need to make children feel important. If we show excitement or emotions to what the child is trying to tell us this will encourage children to continue with the learning experience.
Experimenting with children is a way of learning different interests for each child. I've always felt that combining ages is a great way for younger children to learn from the older ones as long as the room is well supervised and a variety of activities are offered to interact.
If anything I've learned to take a closer look when observing the children, I see some things easier to understand as to why the child does it.
I would like to make parent participation more of a priority in my infant room but as most have read we just don't see it happening. They are just to busy, tired or in a hurry.
One might say I'm set in my ways and it would be tough for me to change my curriculum in the infant room. I didn't find much info in this book in regards to infants. Each infant milestone is very important to us but it is a tough call as to what and when to let a parent know each milestone. We've upset parents when telling them their infant crawled, walked or rolled over for the first time. We usually wait for them to tell us with excitement the infant accomplished these tasks.
In ending my reflection I will say this book was a hard reader and it was hard for me to stay focused. I get the point of the book but think it was dragged out or repeated to many times. This was my first dicussion group/ blogging and I will definately do it again.
I too agree this book would leave you a bit wandering and I'm a fast reader so it was a challenge. Then I read it the second time. But I feel the postings and the two face to face meetings really put a positive outlook on the book's meaning to allow you some confidence and flexability to implement Reggio into your centers/schools. My current daycare program consist of older school age children but I will take all that I have gained from this book and discussion group to keep for future use when my situation reverses back to the younger age group. But I did try the watch & clock ticking experiment we saw on wednesday night on my 10 month old grandson and he was so fascinated. It felt so rewarding to me! Thank You for this opportunity to be part of the on going need to expand and educate a child's world at this young age. Pattie Shunstrom
Before I read this book, I thought I had been using many of the Reggio techniques. For the past several years, I have been planning my curriculum based on the children’s interests. But as I read more about the Reggio principals, I discovered I wasn’t actually observing the children as closely as I could be. For example, if the children showed an interest in playing with trains, I would begin a unit on transportation. But now I feel I could have listened even more to what the children were actually saying, and doing, as they played with the trains. They may have wanted to know only about trains and how they operate. Or maybe they had wanted to know where trains travel or what they carry inside. Closer observation and deeper conversations with the children could have given me these answers. Now as I observe the children’s play, I spend that little extra time really trying to figure out where their true interests lie. After some more reflection, I have also learned that even when I stop doing lessons on a certain topic, we don’t have to stop talking about it all together. For example, I recently concluded a unit on the ocean, but I still left out ocean animal figures and sea shells in the science area and ocean props in the dramatic play area. This allowed the children to still spend time investigating the topic.
Another section of this book that caught my attention was when the children were making drawings about their topics of study. I was interested in how they made their drawings not just before they studied an object/topic, but after they investigated it as well. Doing drawings afterwards really showed what the children had observed and learned. This is a technique I would like to try now in my classroom.
Finally, I found the emergent curriculum planning form on p.95 to be a helpful tool when trying to incorporate the Reggio technique. It walks you through the planning process step by step and has you really thinking about how to interpret, project, and plan to meet the children’s needs and interests.
In conclusion, although I may not take on the Reggio Approach a full 100%, I will definitely use several of its techniques in my classroom now.
Even though I had trouble reflecting on the book at times, I am glad that I was
involved in the book discussion. Thank you to all who contributed great ideas and
suggestions to incorporate this philosophy into the classroom. In the future for
my own professional development, I would like to focus on increasing my listening,
observing, reflecting and responding skills in the classroom.
At the Children's Center, since we don't follow a formal curriculum, we
choose ideas from a variety of approaches that fit our children and work for our program.
As with the Reggio principles described in this book, some are feasible and some are not.
I like the idea of using real objects when possible with the children to help them learn to
take care of fragile items and also to acquire a better sense of the particular object.
I was impressed when I visited the Salem State College Child Care Center a couple of years
ago that teaches with Reggio principles. When given clear expectations, the children rose to
the occasion and used the real objects appropriately while playing. They had different levels
of study on the topic (ice/polar bears) depending on the age of the child. I remember talking
to my co-teachers after the visit and commenting on the good behavior of the children that
we observed.
In the book on page 93, it mentioned two categories of emotional upsets that
children experience. The first one is the child having a “difficult day” and the second one is
“interpersonal conflicts”. The teachers in the Reggio classrooms noticed a decrease in peer
conflicts and also an increase in children's attention span. Some days I feel that most of the
time with children is spent “ putting out fires” (helping with conflicts) instead of teaching.
I look forward to trying out some of the ideas from the book to see if it makes a difference
in their behavior as they are engaged in more focused learning on the topics that
are interesting to them.
For me, this reading and the related discussion offered a new focus and energy towards implementing Reggio-inspired ideas into my classroom, and across our school. I think that in a busy classroom, it can be easy to get distracted from a focus on approaches grounded in core values and assumptions:
• If in our work with children , we take the time and develop the skills to truly listen and observe – looking for clues about what is deeply meaningful to the children, we will be able to join them in conversations and experiences through which we will all learn
• If we reflect to the children a view that they are capable and creative, the validation that offers builds confidence and trust
• We teachers need to suspend judgment of the important adults in our children’s lives, and find avenues for a true partnership
• The processes that move us forward in these efforts will be more or less realized in any given year and within any given group, but are worth pursuing
• A broad understanding of “making learning visible” – that is, pursuing meaning in the children’s work, helping children find ways to think about their own play and/or products, using displays or photo presentations to tell the stories of important classroom learning to families, finding ways to support children and families as they “re-visit” ideas, work, or investigations over time - can open up opportunities to connect more deeply to our community
There are some specific elements of this process that I will be implementing in the school and thinking about with colleagues:
• My co-teacher and I are already talking about ways to assure that children have access to open-ended arts media in an on-going way so that they can become fluent in the use of any one material, and can gain confidence in exploring how to combine materials. We see this as especially important for young 3 year old children, who need time and exposure to explore in order to gain confidence in realizing their ideas.
• We have been talking as a staff about how the experiences our youngest have directly relate to the investigations we are seeing them realize in their second or third year in the program, even when they are in a different class. If all of us find ways to know the children (even those not in our own class) and offer continuity in our approach, we can minimize the disadvantages annual transitions may bring for some children.
• My co-teacher and I are talking about ways to involve even the youngest children more directly in documentation of their investigations. A parent recently expressed his regret that his work schedule doesn’t allow him to get to the school, see projects, etc. and joked about setting up a camcorder. This led to a discussion of how we could share videos, slides, etc. with him and others in his situation, and he suggested that the children might be willing/able to participate in a voice over of the video to share their perspectives about the play. I found myself saying to this parent “we need to find time to talk to parents more” as we talked about the logistics of using technology in this way. I feel that reading the book has inspired me to share unfinished ideas and ask questions of parents more openly.
• I have been reminded through this discussion of our whole school goal to create slide presentations, videos, etc. to add to our school lending library, and to play in our welcome room regularly. Featured topics would relate to on-going investigations in the classrooms, so that family members could see the slides/videos of children in action as well as, and in relation to, documentation of their work. We plan to start collecting material for such a presentation this week, in anticipation of a whole school family open door day broadly featuring literacy themes
The learning environment in a Reggio Emilia classroom is not that far from the educational philosophy that is currently being used in my own classroom. We already try to validate the chidren's interests, listen to and observe their thoughts and ideas and respond by providing related learning opportunities. We also use documentation as a way to make learning visible to the parents, teachers, and children in our classroom. I think that some of the differences are that we haven't been listening well enough to pinpoint the children's understandings so that we can build on them. Often times we jump on one idea, provide related learing materials, talk with the children, listen to their ideas, and then move on to another unrelated topic. This book and discussion has really pushed us to listen to the children's ideas, provide related materials for them to explore, and revisit these ideas based on what the children are telling us. Our current unit, that started with the introduction of a fish to the classroom, has taken off in many directions. Who would have thought that it would lead to measurement and other math related activities? These directions are ones that the children are taking us in, not ones that we are imposing on them. We have never been able to continue a topic more than a couple of weeks, but we are definitely more focused.
One thing that we will try to work on is communication amongst the adults. Making time to talk to each other and all the parents about the learning that is taking place and the directions that we are going in is difficult. Time is always an obstacle. We do our best to communicate with documentation panels, newsletters, and informatin on our bulletin boards and white board, but I think that finding ways to include parents in our activities is something that we can improve on.
I'm very excited that all of our teachers seem to be on board with the general philosophy and are looking at how we can do things differently. Both of our classrooms seem to be excited about taking a new approach to teaching and although change is hard, I think that we are heading in the right direction.
Final reflection;
Well, it has been truly an eye-opening experience blogging as well as the Reggio Principles. As the title says “We are all Explorers”, And exploring I went. I think for me who can sometimes take an every day for granted of the same old same old.. I have certainly been challenged in my approaches and outlooks, Sooo , what will I change , or what have I learned and how has this book opened my eyes! HMMMM, Very simply, to learn to observe and listen. Not only to children but to all. I mean just taking this approach may benefit my parental approaches also. Many times I hear the same chatter , talk, excuses etc, so I have learned not to listen………This is one thing I must unlearn! Listening, Observing, slowing down and accessing in general is the message I needed to hear in this fast pace world of meeting criteria and pleasing all, This book was a great life lesson to be reminded of, From the start of reading it I would self reflect on just how much I lacked these skills, . I also came out a bit more computer savvy, which gives me a whole new way to explore and learn. I loved the quote about “the fact that you do not understand another does not mean He is confused” How true is that! Thank-you to all who participated. Your ideas, comments, suggestions, disappointments, success”s were all noteworthy. The best of luck to you all in your future endeavors
This book was honestly hard to get through. I found some of the studies interesting, particular how the children viewed infants and how they then viewed themselves, Past,Present and how they see themselves in the future. To me it showed the children that babies just don't "wake up in the middle of the night and cry". By giving them a visual of infants, they can look at themselves and say did i do that when i was a baby? In general i would not take a preschool class on a walk and have them bring bricks and pipes into my class room for what i thought was an obvious accident waiting to happen and poor judgment on the teachers part. That being said, this was my first book discussion and first time blogging. I actually enjoyed both. I got some ideas and advice from a lot of the others and have tried to use it in my center. I would have liked to visit a center that uses the Reggio Principles than to read how it should be done.Reflecting back when i worked with the preschool group in my center i did in fact follow some of the Reggio Principles. Looking back i do not understand why i did not use this method more often. The children did in fact take more of an interest in the subject of the day when you really do "listen" and let the children lead you in conversation and activities. Thank you for all the advice and ideas you all shared.
the beginning of the book was a tad boring the middle great and the end slow took me some time to finish. i loved all the in depth studies they did especially the pipes one. i also loved the hands study the children seemed to love checking out their own and their friends hands. i also loved that the teachers held the parents workshop where they brought their children and did the hands study together. we are working on parent participation and this book is a good start like i said before i would love to go to a reggio school and spend the day watching how this really works. one part says how the children,at clean up time,put everything back in its place. id love to see that!! i remember my friend telling me about reggio and wanting to know more so i'm glad i did this book discussion,my first. i wanted to add that we are also starting to observe and document a lot more. i loved the weekly meetings the teachers were able to have and go over everything they documented and come up with where its going to go or not go and move from there with lots of ideas from all of the people involved in those meetings(directer,teacher,site coordinator,family worker). i wish it were easier to have a weekly meeting thet we would be able to attend i get in last so if my co workers talked about anything i would just get the gist of it and sometimes info was forgotten and then miss communication happens so i would love to be able to have weekly meetings maybe we can start to arrange that. i'm glad i own this book so i can always go back to it. thank you to everyone who participated in this. i learned a lot from your posts:)
The book illustrates time and time again how the Reggio method imparts respect on the young child and his capabilities and contributions to his own education. This philosophy affords children and teachers the time to revisit and reflect on their work, something rare in our busy and highly scheduled world.
As a teacher, the process of documenting to really listen to and be present in the thoughts, interests and learning of the child is one of the most valuable learnings for me. As we touched upon in the last “face to face” meeting, Reggio also provides children with special needs more room to “fit in.” It would provides the gifted child with the opportunity to learn at a quicker pace and deeper level of understanding. These are two key elements in adapting any curriculum for a mixed age as well as mixed ability group like the one found in my program.
The Reggio curriculum seems to fit so well with what we know about early brain development. Very young children learn when they are interested and the learning must also be emotional and social. They often show long term interest in an object and activity and need to stay with that until they are ready to move on. Children need to explore and experiment and they learn just as much from getting it wrong as they do from getting it right. They learn when the adults do not interrupt or interject but instead encourage and support. Documentation is key to knowing the child’s interests and when they are most ready to learn or make new discoveries. After reading We Are All Explorers and last year’s book, The Last Child In The Woods, we hope to successfully begin to adopt the Reggio principles as a part of our outdoor nature and science curriculum for our large family child care.
The book giving us insight on Reggio principles creates the realization that perhaps we heading in the wrong direction in how we plan to educate our children. Reggio give the teachers ease with which to observe, listen and respond to the ability of a child to learn. Bringing out the best in a child to help in the learning process is one of the main functions of a good teacher. It can be difficult with a large number of children but it is worth exploring. Our child care has always put a lot of emphasis on being outside and engaging nature as a part of our day. What better way to use the Reggio principles than here. I now understand how this method can help a child in simple problem solving by the experimenting and exploration that takes place in the process. There is nothing better for the self image than this ability. The Reggio principles can be a benefit to children in our child care who are in the Project Early Programs. Here the confidence to communication, express creative self taught ideas and interests provide a base for their learning in the future.
Using Reggio in childcare is a benefit to the child and the parents. Children recall their interests and topics of discussion easier that the standard school ready curriculum we are forced to present to have the children ready for kindergarten. It seems each new president that we vote in to office wants to initiate his own education reform based on poor past performance. Why is that? Could the current philosophy and programs of the standardized test not work. How long do we create new standard test for students and improperly evaluate teachers? Is it time to look at a mixed curriculum that incorporates the Reggio principles and standardized testing.
I found the book to be a little repetitive at times and as I read I felt that I was already following the Reggio principles. As I got deeper into the book I realized that this was not entirely true. Maybe I am not listening/observing/reflecting/documenting as well as I could be. Maybe I am not following the children's agendas as deeply as I should. Also, since the book dealt with preschoolers, I found myself wondering how this would pertain to infants and toddlers. They obviously cannot draw, write, and describe their work. Then I attended a workshop on Curriculum for Infants. The emphasis was on the child's interests. If a child is showing interest in something (even a baby playing with a rattle) as long as he/she is interested let the discovery process continue. Unless it is imperative, the feeding or diaper change can wait a few more minutes. Let the child's interest guide you. Is this not following the Reggio principles in young children?
Overall, I found the book and discussion to be very informative and useful. It was interesting to hear that many of us have the same obstacles such as lack of funds, staffing, and parental involvement and it is not unique to our center. What an ideal situation it would be if we could all have the weekly and monthly meetings involving teachers, site directors, parents, coordinators, and family workers. So much can be learned from all interested parties coming together and bouncing ideas off each other as we were able to do during this discussion.
I am glad I had the opportunity to be a part of this and hope to use this knowledge to enrich the lives of children in my care and to become a better teacher.
This book and your posts are a valuable resourse for me. I have already used the book for reference material. We have recently started a curriculum about buildings. This is just beginning as after a long observation we noticed the children discussing buildings. They mostly talked about large apartment type buildings but with us teachers asking great questions (that we learned from the book)we have been able to extend this curriculum to do what the children want to do in the way of exploring buildings. We have put out the word to parents that we would love to visit a real building. We plan on providing clay,playdough,awesome art supplies and some cool construction supplies and we are looking forward to the end result. The children are fantastic at coming up with great ideas...and just think, they could have been contributing all along, all we had to do was stop and really listen. That is what has had the greatest impact on my thinking. Listening and really hearing, then thinking about what I heard...then doing something with what I hear! I also really love the revisiting of art work. We have tried that once..and the improvements of their drawings, and the detail shown after actually seeing what they drew is absolutly amazing.
So we have already implemented quite a few changes in the way we plan and implement curriculum. We have tried to 'chat up' even the most resistant parents (with some luck. with one dad I swear I could hear the ice thawing as I asked him a few questions and got him chatting :)
This has been one of the most rewarding workshops I have ever participated in and I enjoyed reading all the posts and hope to print them out to use as yet another resource. I also plan on doing a staff meeting, basically talking about this book and the Reggio way. Thank you everyone, for making learning fun and productive.
Final Reflection (Is there ever a final one?)
Having tried to practice the Reggio way for the last 10 years I always welcome new interpretations on assessing the principles. "We are all Explorers" systematically looked at the application in a well delivered way to the reader. Perhaps always trying to implement it made the reading of the book pleasant to me. I liked how teacher's facilitated thughtful dialogue with children. This in turn helps to facilitate children's thinking. Listening to children and reflecting back to them with open-ended questions help children reach for answers. They then make a wide range of connections between their world and their expressions of it.
the best part of the book was the look at Children's representations. Being an artist I loved Amber's Flowers the most. Confined to what she thought flowers were going to look like and then seeing them in the park, her pictures were totally differnt. Colors were more free, enhanced and expressive. We have a butterfly garden with perennial flowers and a huge Witeria. In the summer months the children use many differnt forms of media to create the scene that the time of year offers. Watching the children multi experience is magic. They sense the different applicaton between oil paint and colored pencils, between chalk and crayons. Then they choose differnet angles and sizes of paper. this was discussed in the Multiple Modes of Representation, and exploring materials. The discussion following these times are enriched with discriptive language, questions, and one can sense their desire to explore.
I have found that this part of the Reggio approach opens up more doors for me and parents. All parents love to see what their child creates. It is geat way to open dialogue about the child, the parent, thier interests if in art or nature. I feel much the same way facilitating parents this way as their children. Parents can get a glimpse of how their child's mind works.
I have new teachers and will be using the "Exploring REggio Principles in Chicago Commons Schools" to lay the ground work for intergrating the new teachers. I find when ever we bring someone into the REggio way it renews our interest in the principles and how to try to implement them. I will continue to focus on teh image of the child and the environment since this is the anchor of the REggio philosophy. this book made an impact on me that what I am trying to achieve is so worth while for the development of thinking, expressive, inquisitive, secure children. Before reading this book, my experiences for Reggio information was seminars, where the Chicago Commons Schools were discussed, and visiting other venues trying to incorparate all the principles. This book laid out all the principles and then offered clear examples of each one. I lived the moments of every example. This now is my handbook to use with the staff, and parents. I really enjoyed this format of a seminar, and found it rewarding on many levels. Quiet reading, traveling to college to meet inspiring people, and the conection by a new medium for me (blogging, I'm hooked). I will try to set up staff meetings following this format. To open more channels of communication with them. Thank you to all the wonderful experience gathered in one room for me to tap into.
When I started out reading this book, I already knew something about the Reggio approach. I’ve been experimenting with these ideas for several years now. There are some things from the book that I am looking forward to trying, such as the Hopes and Dreams interview with the parents. My program is very different from the Chicago Commons Preschool system. I am an independent small preschool classroom of only ten children – ten families. It is already, by the nature of the small program, very intimate, so this would work well. When I first heard about Reggio, I wanted to know what it was that made it the highest quality. I read that there were several influences that helped make the schools the best in the world. I decided to see for myself. I wondered if I would also be influenced by studying the theorists who helped form the philosophy of the Reggio approach. What I found is that they took the best ideas from several prominent theorists and they incorporated them into their education philosophy. I guess I’ve sort of become a socioconstructivist as a result of my studies. The theorists who have had the most influence on my thinking are Vygotsky, Gardner, Dewey, and Piaget.
I feel that after reading the book and interacting with the others in the discussion group, I have had some realizations about documenting children’s work and ideas. I purchased a large package of colored poster board to begin making documentation panels. I think the time it takes to design one is worth it because of the way it can be used to draw the parents into the learning and the Reggio philosophy. I think the real benefit is for the children to be able to revisit an investigation through the documentation board. My panel is probably very primitive, but you have to start somewhere. I’m very happy to have participated in this discussion group. Sharing ideas and stories helped remind me that there are others out there experiencing many of the same obstacles as I am.
Although I have been interested in the Reggio approach for about ten years and have read other books about it before, I think that for me this book highlighted the importance of dialogue and how there is so much information to be gained about the child even in the very small nuances of what is said and how it is said. So often, what I document is physical (work products), while the more fleeting the verbal interchanges between student/teacher and among students is also so important. While I am always listening to children’s conversations with each other in the dramatic play or block areas, or as they chat while painting or playing a game, it is usually with an ear toward getting a sense of their interests and monitoring social exchanges, rather than using their words as a way to observe how their knowledge and theories of the world change and develop. I think about the work of Vivian Paley, and how much she values the students’ words as a powerful way to understand their thinking. This book also emphasized knowing what questions to ask when you are having a dialogue with a child. I think I am pretty good about not trying to force an “agenda” into my conversations (for instance, not asking children to constantly count, label colors and shapes, tell me what letter things start with, etc). But finding the right questions to ask that will pique the child’s interest and lead them farther along in their investigation without “giving” them information, or assuming that they are moving in a particular way when they are actually not…that is hard!
Another idea that really struck me is the importance of revisiting the same topic from different perspectives, and allowing the children to represent their knowledge about the same subject through various formats. I think I already have a number of visual and verbal ways for children to demonstrate their understandings, and I need to think of what other ways I can incorporate into my classroom. The focus in the book on drawing before, during and after a study made me think of the children who are in my class whose representational drawing skills are not so strong. Having more opportunities to draw will help them develop this skill, of course, but I think that my students also need to have other ways to revisit the material…When you consider the importance of reflection on the part of the teacher, it makes sense that the students should also offered the chance to go back again as they gain new information from their explorations and experiences.
I think that I will try to move forward with better documentation; not just to demonstrate how projects developed, but rather to try to capture evidence of the children’s theories and how they test them and what they learn. I am lucky enough to work in an environment where the parents are generally supportive of our work and not always pressuring us to push “academics” into our class. But I also work in a school with a specific faith based curriculum that includes information that he parents expect their children to be exposed to. I have struggled for years now to reconcile my desire to move my class closer to the ideals of Reggio, while still teaching the content that the parents want. I think that now I will try to focus on few smaller areas – better documentation; improving listening and questioning; finding other formats for children to demonstrate knowledge to make changes in, rather than trying to overhaul my whole class all at once.
I definitly learned many new ideas and concepts when it came to this book and all of the discussions we had. One of the biggest things i learned was how important parent involvement was. The whole idea of meeting parents before the school year started to make sure they are completely on board blew me out of the water. I also realized how important documentation was. And to be able to have the proper time to plan and document having more staff was extremely important. Since this is not possible right now for my school I am trying to give my teachers more planning time to come up with creative curriculum that involves what the childrens interest are. I am hopping by doing this they will be able to take the childrens interst and really create new ways to teach the children through their interests.
During the discussions we had the greatest impact on my thinking was the realization that to be a true Reggio program would be almost imposible for me to implement immediatly. This would be a slow learning process for eveyone involved. I think parents would have the hardest time changing their attitudes toward what they think their child should be learning and I believe parents would have a hard time believing their child will actually learn and retain more information when learning about what they are intereested in then being force fed a certain curriculum.
I think it would be interesting as to see where the childrens interest truely lie when we see written evidence from documentation based on what we think we know about our children. Training staff would be interesting and I think many workshops and classes would be necessary to train staff properly on the Reggio style of teaching and running a Reggio program. My owner of my school is definitly the person I would talk to about all of the things I have learned durng this book discussion group. She believes in the Reggio way, but implementing it would take time, planning and a lot of hard work on everyone, including parents parts.
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