Professional Development
DID YOU KNOW...?
The ATA has many Early Childhood Education resources that you can borrow? Check out the ATA library website. The listing is on-line and resources will be shipped to you and back free of charge.
ECEC PD REPORT MAY 25, 2012
Submitted by Pat Tarr
Up Coming Events
July 4 -5 Journey of Possibilities: Reggio Inspirations in the Early Years (3-8 yrs)
Featuring Ann Pelo, Karyn Callaghan and Lilian Katz. Burnaby, B.C.
For registration information contact triccrr@vanymca.org
The Wonder of Learning exhibit from Reggio will open in New Westminster, B.C. July 17 and 18th. Go to the Wonder of Learning website: www.wonderoflearningvancouver.com
Canadian Association for Young Children conference, Encounters with the Pedagogical Project of Reggio Emilia: Collaborations, Complexities and Connections, will be held in New Westminster, B.C., October 19-20. Conference proposals are being accepted until June 1. It will be held at the site of the exhibit The Wonder of Learning from Reggio Emilia and two educators from Reggio will present.
Go to CAYC’s website www.cayc.ca for proposal forms and registration forms.
CAYC, has a presence in Alberta once again. Linda O’Donoghue and Becky Kelly are Co-Directors for Alberta. They are working to meet the interests of educators 0-8 years.
For information contact them at: lodonoghue@cayc.ca & bkelley@cayc.ca for information about up coming events.
New Books:
The third edition of The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation edited by Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini and George Forman is now available. This 2012 edition published by Praeger, maintains earlier chapters from the original edition, such as the interview with Loris Malaguzzi but has updated chapters to reflect more recent examples and new chapters by international educators such as Gunilla Dahlberg of Sweden and Peter Moss from the UK who have been closely connected to Reggio. They have eliminated the chapters from American educators that gave examples of project work in favor of new chapters including ones on digital media, the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre. There is a new chapter on “The Inclusive Community” by Ivana Soncini, responsible for inclusion of children with special rights.
Two educators describe their research into 4-year-olds construction of literacy.
Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn fro Educational Change in Finland? by Pasi Sahlberg published by Teachers College Press.
Pasi Sahlberg was speaker at the PDAC Conference in Edmonton in November. Alberta and Finland have been in dialogue about education and educational reform. Finnish students rank top on international tests. They do not test students and leave room for teacher autonomy in planning curriculum to meet the needs and interests of local populations.
Also just out from Teachers College Press:
Defending Childhood
edited by Beverly Falk.
This looks promising with well-known educators contributing chapters.
A table of contents can be found on the Teachers College Press website
Under Early Childhood and Elementary School Education Catalogue.
Another new offering from Routledge:
Assessment of Young Children: A Collaborative Approach by Lisa B. Fiore.
Also:
Understanding Young Children’s Learning through Play: Building Playful Pedagogies
By Pat Broadhead and Andy Burt. This British publication details extensive observations that include children’s reflections, about open-ended play experiences. Play sequences are discussed and connections are made to EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) learning outcomes. This book provides strong arguments for children learning through with open-ended materials.
Two important Canadian books published in 2010 that challenge the reader to consider taken-for-granted ideas in early childhood education:
Early Childhood Curricula: Reconceptualist Perspectivesedited by Luigi Iannacci and Pam Whitty published in Calgary by Detselig Enterprises Ltd.
Flows, Rhythms, & Intensities of Early Childhood Education Curriculum edited by Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw. Published by Peter Lang.
Sir Ken Robinson has a new edition (2011) of Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative
I found this to be a good companion piece to Stuart Brown’s book, Play.
NAEYC has a new book, Our Inquiry, Our Practice: Undertaking, Supporting and Learning from Early Childhood Teacher Research(ers). Edited by Gail Perry, Barbara Henderson and Daniel R. Meier, this book provides a very readable text for teachers interested in becoming researchers of their own work with children. It includes a section that addresses the question, “What is teacher research?” with examples from classrooms, and a discussion of Vivian Paley as a teacher researcher that will send me back to relook at her work. Part II addresses the question, “How can early childhood professionals support teacher researchers?” This section includes chapters by Lilian Katz, “Developing Professional Insight”, on one co-inquiry, and another on “Promoting Schoolwide Inquiry and Improving Practice.” A second section focuses on “Supporting Teacher Research in Communities of Practice.”
I also want to recommend, once again, www.arteducators.org for publications on art education. They have a new book out, Artful Teaching: Integrating the Arts for Understanding Across the Curriculum, K-8.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REPORT
May 26, 2011
Submitted by Pat Tarr
New Webcast from the British Columbia Ministry of Education: Susan Fraser on “Project Work – Where Do I Begin?”
8 video segments.
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/early_learning/webcasts2.htm
New and Recent Books:
Fraser, S. (2012) Authentic Childhood: Experiencing Reggio Emilia in the Classroom, third edition. Toronto, ON: Nelson
Updated with some new sections.
ISBN 0-17-650136-3
Hall, Ellen & Rudkin, Jennifer, K. (2011). Seen & Heard: Children’s Rights in Early Childhood Education. London, On: The Althouse Press & New York: Teachers College Press.
Helm, Judy. H. & Katz, Lilian (2011). Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years. New York: Teachers College Press & Washington, D.C.: NAEYC.
Rogers, Sue (Ed.) (2011). Rethinking Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education: Concepts, Contexts and Cultures. New York: Routledge.
“The aim of this book is to stimulate debate about the relationship between play and pedagogy in early childhood education” (introduction, p. 1)
This book includes international perspectives on play
Sample Chapter titles include:
Play and pedagogy: A conflict of Interests? (Sue Rogers)
The challenge of play for early childhood educator (Sue Dockett)
Revisiting Vygotskian perspectives on play and pedagogy (E. Bodrova & D. Leong)
Play and pedagogy framed within India’s historical, socio-cultural and
Pedagogical contexts (Amita Gupta)
Digital play in the classroom: a twenty-first century pedagogy? (Tim Waller)
Yelland, Nicola (Edit.) (2005). Critical Issues in Early Childhood Education. New
York: Open University Press.
Book sections:
Contemporary views of early childhood education and teaching
Rethinking early childhood practices
The emergence of new technologies and multiliteracies
The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children (2011). Reggio Emilia, IT: Reggio Children.
This is the catalogue of the new exhibit currently touring North America and scheduled for Vancouver in 2012.
Available from www.learningmaterialswork.com
ECEC – Professional Development Report, March 5, 2010
Submitted by Pat Tarr
New Books
Coming Soon : /Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the Role
and Potential of Ateliers in Early Childhood Education/
Vea Vecchi, Routledge, 2010, softbound, 240 pp.
Available April 1, 2010
/The Black Rubber Column/
An in-depth study of a project, with notes that indicate how the teacher
intervened to support the children’s development of their ideas
Published by Reggio Children and available from
www.learningmaterialswork.com
Also new from Reggio Children:
/Browsing through Ideas –a folder of projects/
/Landscapes /– a CD set that includes the original Open Window images
and more recent images.
Available from
www.learningmaterialswork.com
/
The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching and
Learning
/a collaborarive project: OWP/P Architects + VS Furniture + Bruce Mau Design
This is just out and is a provocative integration of quotations,
commentaries and examples of innovation in education from Canada, Europe
and the United States that challenge the factory model of schooling.
While the focus is on design, the book is very much about honoring
children as learners.
/Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia: Stories of Teachers and
Children from North America.
/Lella Gandini, Susan Etheredge, and Lynn Hill, editors. Published by Davis.
This book is composed of short essays by educators in North American
inspired by the Reggio philosophy. The book is richly illustrated with
photographs and can provide an excellent overview and examples of ways
that educators and children have been changed by their encounter with
this philosophy. This book has successfully been used for book
discussion groups.
New Resources:
The Story in the Picture: Inquiry and Artmaking with Young Children
By Christine Mulcahey. Published by Teachers College Press and the
National Association for the Education of Young Children. 2009.
Drawing on examples of work with 3-5 year-old children, Mulcahey makes
teaching with and through art accessible to non-art specialists
teachers. Her ideas are relevant to older children as well as
preschoolers. Clear and practical, with solid theoretical foundation.
Children, Language and Literacy: Diverse Learners in Diverse Times
By Celia Genishi and Anne Haas Dyson. Published by Teachers College
Press and NAEYC. 2009.
The authors challenge the one-size fits all approach to literacy
learning and the assumptions of standardized tests for young children.
Drawing from many examples from young children as language learners,
they demonstrate how children follow their own course in acquiring
literacy skills and ways they play with and negotiate between first
languages and English. Although the focus is on American classrooms,
their insights can help all teachers working with diverse children
become more aware of how children become literate.
Imagination and Literacy: A Teacher’s Search for the Heart of Learning
Karen Gallas. Teachers College Press. 2003.
What comes through in both of the above books is the importance of play,
imagination in supporting literacy development.
Anti-Bias Education for Youg Children and Ourselves
by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards
Published by NAEYC. 2010.
This is the second edition of a book originally titled Anti-Bias
Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children published in 1989 and
draws on 20 years of educators’ experiences in teaching an anti-bias
curriculum. Addresses issues of fairness in areas of gender, race,
family structure, economic class, differing abilities, etc. and includes
a chapter on holidays and fairness.
Lightboxes & Mirrors by Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton
A British publication available from Amazon.ca
For guidelines for Art Education in Early Childhood see
http://www.arteducators.org/community/committees-issues-groups#Issues
scroll down to Early Childhood Art Educators and click on ECAE Position
Paper
*Upcoming Conferences and Workshops:*
Calgary Reggio Network Association
Spring Fundamentals Workshop
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Focus on technology
To be put on email list contact: Calgaryreggio@gmail.com
CAYC
New Frontiers for Children: Our Journey Together
April 30 – May 1, 2010
Carriage House, Inn
Calgary
You register separately for Friday evening and Saturday.
www.cayc.ca
June 23-25, 2010
Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Featuring speakers from Reggio Emilia and North America
Including visits to "The Wonder of Learning - The Hundred Languages of
Children" exhibit and tours of Chicago area Reggio-inspired schools
For information go to:
www.reggioalliance.org.
OMEP –XXVI World Congress, (World Organization for Early Childhood
Education)
Goteborg, Sweden
August 11-13, 2010
www.omep2010.org
Registration is now open
Conference Themes:
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
How do we build purposeful and professional learning structures that
incorporate the social, economic, and ecological aspects of education
for sustainable development? How can organisations that work with
children affect behaviour patterns that contribute to sustainable societies?
Policy and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) local, national,
international
ESD in preschool/school practice
Life-style, related to nature, economy, cultural and social life
Ecology and ECEC
Citizenship
Diversity
ESD research in ECEC
Gender equity and equal rights
As boys and girls grow up they are greatly affected by social and
cultural conventions, that are steered by traditional gender roles and
gender patterns. How can we consciously practise gender education and
give boys and girls equal opportunities to develop and test different
identities?
* Boys' and girls' play environments, indoors and outdoors
* Children's rights and perspectives of children
* Evaluation and assessment
* Consumption and marketing
* Media
* The teaching profession, female and male teachers
Different childhoods
Childhood conditions vary greatly within and between the nations of the
world. And, childhood is shaped within cultural and social traditions.
How can we improve the conditions and thereby contribute to the
realisation of the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015?
* Children and their environments (living conditions, family, migration,
transnationality)
* Health and well-being
* Children's virtual worlds
* Everyday lives and leisure time
* Differences in parenthood and families
* Early Childhood Education and Care (organisation and pedagogical
approaches)
Save the Date:
April 28-30, 2011, Calgary
A conference on Reggio inspired work in elementary contexts k-6.
