LETTER FROM DR. ELLEN HALL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The spring semester at Boulder Journey School was filled with myriad opportunities to share the work of our learning community with educators around the world.

In April, co-directors, Andrea Sisbarro and Alison Maher, traveled to Toronto with executive director, Ellen Hall for a conference hosted by The Acorn Collaborative, a group of professionals working in the early childhood education field, brought together by their mutual admiration for the Reggio Emilia Approach. This one-day initiative titled, “A Journey of Transformation” highlighted the evolution of our community’s thoughts and actions surrounding the education of young children, from our introduction to the Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education and noted educators, David and Frances Hawkins in 1995 to the present.  Preparation for our presentations and mini-workshops provided a forum for revisiting fifteen years of study and exchange. The questions posed by educators attending the conference reminded us of our first questions and concerns and of the many challenges to our foundational values that our work presents. Additionally, they underscored our belief that the rewards of our work are many and that our learning never ends.

Following our visit to Toronto, teachers, Mary Lynch and Diane Spahn and technology manager, Sam Hall, traveled to Boston with Ellen for a Reggio-Inspired Pre-Institute Day, organized and hosted by Lesley University, in collaboration with Hawkins Centers of Learning (www.hawkinscentersoflearning.org). The title of this day, which was part of a weekend institute, was “Messing About in Science – Making Visible the Thinking and Ideas of David and Frances Hawkins: Supporting Continued Action in Teaching and Learning.” Boulder Journey School’s presentation by Mary focused on our faculty’s work in the Hawkins Room for Messing About with Materials and Ideas and the strong connection between this work and teachers’ support of children’s explorations and investigations. In preparation for this day of presentations, conversations, and workshops, co-facilitated by Diane, Mary and Sam, educators at Boulder Journey School participated in workshops on balance and tile, led by science consultant, Barry Kluger-Bell. This year, teachers have studied concepts related to balance in the Hawkins Room for Messing About with Materials and Ideas; the balance workshop served to extend this study, while provoking new ideas for classroom connections. The study of pentagon-shaped tiles is new to educators at Boulder Journey School. Thus, the tile workshop provided a challenge to our thinking about concepts such as pattern, form, shape and negative space.

In May, Ellen traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland to engage in a day of professional development with 40 supervising teachers who are part of the Early Years network. Early Years is the largest organization working on behalf of young children in Northern Ireland. Preparation for this day that focused on the aspect of documentation implied gathering, organizing and synthesizing notes, reflections, images, videos, transcribed conversations, and children’s representations. The process offered educators involved in the preparation a wonderful opportunity to carefully consider what aspects of their work had the greatest potential to communicate children and educators’ inquiries, intentions, and ideas.

From Northern Ireland, Ellen traveled to the University of Northern Iowa for a SEED (STEM in Early Education and Development) conference. Ellen’s paper, read by conference participants, addressed the question: What professional development in Early Childhood science will meet the requirements of practicing teachers? Authoring this paper challenged us to trace the evolution of our thinking surrounding professional development and to underline, through examples, the strong connection between professional development and teachers’ support of children’s daily explorations and investigations. 

Also in May, Alison and Andrea spent a week at the Google Children’s Centers in Mountain View, California. During this week, Alison and Andrea worked with directors and teachers, utilizing Boulder Journey School experiences to facilitate Google faculty discussions surrounding their work with children, families and colleagues. Working in another context offers us the potential to carefully consider and articulate our own thinking and actions related to issues inherent in the education of young children.  The reactions of our colleagues -their questions and reflections on the work that we share - informs our thinking as well.

By giving visibility to the work of the Boulder Journey School community through the process of sharing, our work is deepened and extended. Additionally, since the sharing process is reciprocal, the ideas that we encounter in other contexts contribute to the learning of faculty at the school.