LETTER FROM DR. ELLEN HALL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The beginning of the school year is an exciting time at Boulder Journey School, as it brings with it myriad opportunities for new classrooms spaces, provocations, questions, explorations and investigations. At the threshold of the year, it is also nice to pause and look back on the year just passed.

At Boulder Journey School, we regularly share the work of children and adults with families, faculty and visitors to the school.  During the school year, 2010-11, educators at Boulder Journey School participated in numerous local, national and international conferences and study tours, facilitated workshops, and consulted with educators in multiple contexts.  We also added our perspectives on educational policy by serving on task forces and standing committees and contributed articles for several educational publications. In July, the annual Boulder Journey School summer conference provided an occasion for sharing the work of the school during the 2010-11 school year with 150 educators, architects, and advocates. The conference, Classroom Experiences as Catalysts: Contemporary Conversations Surrounding Early Childhood Education, became a forum for presentations, materials workshops and discussions, focusing on education in the 21st Century. NAIS President, Pat Bassett, closed the two-day conference with thoughts and questions that inspire us as we move into the next chapters of our work.

We value the opportunity to share our experiences with colleagues, as it encourages us to slow down and carefully consider our work – the intentions underlying our research and the relevance of this research to our understanding of child and adult learning and teaching. Sharing our work requires organization, synthesis, and the articulation of both ideas and emotions. It also requires us to move out of our comfort zones, to collaborate with children, families and colleagues, to receive and reflect on feedback, and to develop new questions and ideas based on reciprocal collaborations.

At Boulder Journey School, we have worked diligently to establish and maintain a culture of relationships that embraces open and honest communication among children and adults. We think that relationships are key to the work that we do and that learning and relationships are inextricably woven together in a place called school. As we begin what promises to be another rich and rewarding year, replete with learning through relationships with both the social and physical world, we are delighted to welcome the returning and new members of the Boulder Journey School learning community.

Again, as we look forward, we also look back and remember with sadness the loss of our treasured mentor and friend, Bill Goodwin. Bill brought the Teacher Education Program to Boulder Journey School as a partnership with the University of Colorado Denver and the Colorado Department of Education, and he was an ardent supporter of the program as it developed and grew. Bill was a passionate and dedicated educator, whose commitment to teaching inspired us and encouraged our own teaching and learning. We celebrate Professor Bill Goodwin as we celebrate the beginning of the 2011-12 school year.