Professional Development Committee Report
NAREA Board Meeting - Dallas, TX
November, 2008
1. Fundamental Principles Initiative
A descriptive piece about the history of the initiative since 2004 is now a page on the NAREA website. We arecreating a PDF that will include practical information aboutthe organization of the workshop, atemplate of various tasks associated with hosting a Fundamentals workshop that couldbe used by hosts everyyear and willassist new hosts. The PDF will be translated in Spanish. We have received Lella's permission to include her recently updated article, "Introduction to the Fundamental Values of the Education of Young Children in Reggio Emilia". A survey to collect data about past workshops has been created. We were delayed in getting this out. It will be sent with a cover letter to NAREA members that explains the purpose of the survey and includes a direct link to the survey.We will continue to have more interaction with Membership Coordinators to expand the number of locations where workshops are held. Simonetta Cittadini is the point person/advisor for this initiative. She will beavailable to have phone conversations and give support to all hosts.
2. Relationship between the Professional Development Committee and the NAREA Summer Conference, the Exhibit, and the NAREA professional development series, "Dialogues for Quality in Education"
PD Committee created a document listing considerations and questions to support the decision-making processfor the 2009 NAREA Summer Conference which includedthe recommendation to create a separate conference planning committee. Geographic, financial and content considerations wereidentified. The long term goal is to create a five year schedule of conference locations and to involve the board in making suggestions for futurelocations. (See2009 NAREA Summer Conferencedocument.)
3.Julie Sewell
We are pleased that Julie Sewell will begin to support the work of the professional development. Julie will take minutes of conference calls and initially will help with further development of the Fundamentals Initiative. She is a welcome addition to our group.
4. Report from Jennifer Armstrong - Canada
· Ontario Reggio Association October 2008 Update: Almost all members of the ORA Board participated in the NAREA conference in Boulder in July 2008. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the ripples of collaboration and provided some extra time to be together as a team. The ORA board has had two meetings (Sept & Oct) since school started. We are focused on launching our website and on preparations for the conference in Feb/March. Over the summer we received many more registrations for membership. A gift of money was also received in support of the association’s work. It is a very good start!
· Conference Feb 28- March 1, 2009: This professional development opportunity, organized by the ORA will be held at The Bishop Strachan School and will include Amelia Gambetti and Lella Gandini. In addition to their addresses at the conference, plans are underway to have them visit areas and institutions in and around Toronto that are engaged in Reggio inspired work. This includes a PD session with teachers from the Toronto District School Board led by Lella and Dr. Carol Anne Wien, York University.
· Monthly Gatherings: The first of these planned get togethers is scheduled for October 25th at Beckenridge Discovery Preschool in Markham, Ontario(in the north end of the Greater Toronto Area GTA). At this session, contributors to the recently published book Emergent Curriculum in the Primary Classroom, edited by Carol Anne Wien will present. See attached flyer for details.
· The Artists at the Centre Project in Hamilton continues to host a regular gathering of Reggio-inspired educators and artists form the Hamilton area. Documentation is examined and plans for work with policy makers and influential community members are underway. Meetings are planned with Lella Gandini in February as part of the conference preparations. For more information go to www.artistsatthecentre.ca/
· The Bishop Strachan School is pleased to welcome Francesca Giorgini to the school. Francesca will be joining the teaching team for one year as ‘pedagogista’ (until we come up with a word that suits our context). Francesca is a founding member of the staff at The Faber School (Panta Rei cooperative) in Reggio Emilia. Her work with the BSS faculty will focus on the central question of the intersection between the fundamental principles of the Reggio Emilia approach and a mandated curriculum (The Ontario Curriculum). We are expecting the collaboration to extend beyond the BSS faculty to include Reggio-inspired educators in the Toronto area. More to come…we trust.
5. Report from Pat Tarr - Canada
· Calgary Reggio Network Association (CRNA) Several of our members we able to attend the Boulder conference in June and returned with rave reviews. Immediately following the conference, we hosted a one-day summer institute with Dave Kelly from Grand Rapids, Michigan as the workshop leader.
· Dave Kelly and Pat Tarr went on to teach a one-week course on materials and documentation for the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. This was UBC’s 4th summer institute on a Reggio inspired topic and it attracted 38 participants including some international graduate students, as well as undergraduate and non-credit students.
· The CRNA held its second annual AGM in October and will host its first regular meeting on October 27th. We are planning a Fall Fundamentals Workshop for November 29, regular meetings throughout the winter, a Spring Fundamentals Workshop in April. We also plan to hold a summer institute in early July.
· Currently we have 605 members on our email list from across the western provinces and beyond.
· The Early Childhood Education Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association is holding its annual conference, November 6-8 in Edmonton. Carlina Rinaldi is the keynote speaker via video conference. This is an exciting opportunity for Albertans and the first to use technology in this way.
· Pat Tarr was invited to speak at an OMEP Symposium held in Quebec City in August. This conference was attended by about 200 international delegates and was hosted by the Canadian OMEP organization which is mainly centered in Quebec and Ontario. Pat was invited specifically to bring some insights from the Reggio philosophy to the conference theme of peace.
· A group in Winnipeg, Manitoba is organizing a conference, “Reggio Inspired Care & Education Conference” for May 6-9, 2009.
6. Report from Tina Carstenson Lopez- Mexico
· RedSOLARE Mexico's international conference Towards a New Society: The School, Museum and City as Forums for a New Culture of Childhood was held at the end of April, 2008 with 450 people in attendance. (Participants included representatives from 20 of the 32 states in Mexico and 7 countries: Brasil, Perú, Argentina, Colombia, República Dominicana, USA, and Italia.) Presenters from Reggio Children were: Paola Cavazzoni, Pedagogista and Iride Sassi, Atelierista. This conference was held at the closing of the exhibit The 100 Languages of Children that had been on display at a museum in Monterrey since February. Along side the Italian exhibit, RedSOLARE México exhibited a museum piece entitled Voices that Transform that showed work from five Reggio inspired schools in Mexico.
· The version of the 100 Languages will stay in Mexico and RedSOLARE is looking for a permanent home for it to reside.
· Upcoming events planned in Mexico are: RedSOLARE Mexico (specifically Sausan Burshan) has been helping Mexico’s Secretary of Education (SEP) contact Reggio Children for two November events organized by the SEP at a national level. Reggio Children will be sending Tiziana Filippini and Elena Maccaferri to two conferences on infant and toddler education in Mexico City on November 3 and 4th and in Monterrey on the 6th and 7th of November. RedSOLARE Mexico is considering hosting a small sized professional development workshop on documentation/multiple languages in Monterrey on November 5th with Tiziana and Elena but this still needs to be confirmed.
· Reggio Children is also sending a presenter to a conference for museum coordinators entitled Museums: play, dialogue and learning planned by Mexico’s Autonomous University (UNAM) in Zacatecas, México on November 10-13. Sausan Burshan will be presenting along with a Reggio presenter who has yet to be confirmed.
· Different members of RedSOLARE Latin America take turns organizing Reggio’s Latin American Study Tours, and this February’s tour will be organized by RedSOLARE Mexico. The tour is planned for the 23-27 of February and more information about the tour can be seen in Spanish at RedSOLARE Mexico’s website: http://www.redsolaremexico.com/index.html
7. Role of Mexico within NAREA
Refer to recommendations in draft document from meeting between Sausan Burshan, Angela Ferrario, and Beth MacDonald onJune 4, 2008 during the Reggio Children International Network meeting. The purpose was to address questions around representation of Mexico within NAREA, particularly in relation to representation of Mexico by Red Solare Mexico within the Reggio ChildrenInternational Network.
Tina and Sausan Burshanwent over the draft and are in agreement with all points. The idea that we are good neighbors with some shared projects is important to RedSOLARE but due to our different languages it makes sense to us that membership in the two organizations be separate.
They addressed the following 4 points inthe draft more closely:
1.) Sausan andTina would both be happy to serve as liaisons between NAREA and RedSOLARE but to simplify matters Tina will be the point person andwill contact Sausan when necessary.
3.) RedSOLARE can help advertise NAREA sponsored events on their website and would be happy to pass out brochures at events. We would be happy to consider other suggestions as well.
4.) We are willing to consider sending representatives to each other’s board meetings. A tentative date for our next RedSOLARE board meeting is the 5th or 6th of November in Monterrey but this has yet to be confirmed.
6.) The idea of a US study tour is interesting and we thought that October is a good month for this. Perhaps something could be planned in conjunction with Simonetta’s October 09 conference? Of course the present economic situation may not encourage people to travel.
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