SPRING 2008 LETTER FROM DR. ELLEN HALL,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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The fall semester at Boulder Journey School was an exciting one for all, filled with myriad opportunities for learning among children and adults. High on the list of new experiences is the work that is unfolding in the Hawkins Room for Messing About with Materials and Ideas. This room, dedicated to Boulder educators, David and Frances Hawkins, was designed as a studio/think tank for adults, and indeed, groups of teachers spend a minimum of two hours a month in this room, working with materials and in dialogue with one another about issues relevant to education. The premise for the room comes from David Hawkins, who argued that teachers cannot effectively support children’s learning if they are not concurrently immersed in their own explorations of the physical and social world. The fundamental concept of teacher learning through interactions with materials and ideas that infuses the Hawkins Room has permeated the culture of Boulder Journey School. Teachers are bringing new understandings, surrounding such things as wheels as parts of objects and wheels as machines, to their work with the children in their classrooms and throughout the school. The idea that ‘to teach is to learn’ has taken on new meaning at Boulder Journey School.

Our exploration of the physical world through the investigations of children and adults was supported in part this semester by Barry Kluger-Bell, Assistant Director for Science at the Institute for Inquiry, which is part of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California. In November, Barry, a colleague of the Hawkins’ spent two days with teachers and directors, brainstorming possible ideas to encourage the children’s questions about scientific concepts such as the effects of wind, gravity, and sun. Following Barry’s visit, we have begun designing and building equipment, gathering materials, and preparing to document the children’s interactions and reactions to our provocations.

Also in November, we received the long awaited news that the new North American version of the exhibit, “The Wonder of Learning – The Hundred Languages of Children” from Reggio Emilia, Italy will open in Boulder in June 2008. We think that the opportunities that the exhibit offers in terms of teacher education and professional development are boundless. The exhibit sends a strong message about the potential of young children and about children’s rights as citizens of the world. The exhibit also speaks to the rights of all children to quality educational experiences and can provide a forum for dialogue around this important and relevant theme. Many initiatives are being planned during the exhibit’s presence at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) in Boulder from June – October and at DCPA (Denver Center for the Performing Arts) in Denver in November and December. The opening of the exhibit in June will be accompanied by a five day international conference entitled, “School as a Place of Research”. Boulder Journey School is honored to have been chosen as the first hosts of this exhibit and also aware of the responsibility, inherent in this honor, to support the exhibit through the work of the school.

The exhibit, which documents the evolution of experiences in the infant-toddler centers and preschools in Reggio Emilia, resonates with one of our faculty goals, developed at the annual retreat in July, to carefully examine the process of documentation at Boulder Journey School. At the beginning of each school year, every mentor teacher declares a question that becomes a yearlong investigation surrounding children’s learning; mentor teachers often elect to continue their investigations for several years. Throughout the year, mentor teachers share their documentation informally with children, families and colleagues and more formally with director, Alison Maher during bi-monthly curriculum meetings. This year the sharing of documentation is the focus of our January Teacher Inservice. Teachers will spend the Inservice day giving visibility to documentation of their long-term investigations through presentations to colleagues and classroom displays. Also of note is that during the spring semester, interns initiate and develop long-term investigations as the assignment for their course on developmentally appropriate curriculum, taught by Alison and executive director, Ellen Hall.