Nadirchat

It�s been a busy and exciting summer at Reggio Kids.  We hosted educators from abroad and home and supported schools in their journey toward being Reggio inspired! We thank them for placing their faith in our abilities to assist them along the way as they transform their thinking around working with children and their environments. Change, is both a daunting and rewarding process that takes time and commitment to begin and sustain. As I answer questions about our work, I am constantly led back to my most important piece of advice.   There will be a great divide between your expectations and reality. Defined expectations will leave you disappointed. Instead think of it as path that appears to have an end yet when you get there it veers right and then left, it goes upward toward a mountain peak and then down toward the river bank. This is a Reggio inspired journey. There is no end that you are working toward. Instead, it as a great adventure with no final destination. It is all ...

The Outdoor Classroom There is much to be considered when we look at the possibilities of what can happen when the classroom is brought outside and loose parts are provided. Beyond the traditional structures that limit children to climbing and sliding, loose parts can spur children to new levels of thinking and engaging. Instead of accepting what is being offered by stagnant structures, children are prompted to create their own structures, contraptions, and expressions of creativity. Given the span of a child�s imagination the possibilities are endless. The teacher�s role is to facilitate and lend support when materials are offered. Preparing provocations is always a good idea. The outdoor classroom is directly linked to continued experiences and projects that take place indoors. In the hands of young children, a set of tubes become a vehicle, tree cookies transform into a train, while another child uses them to make her family. Combined materials transform into school buses, cars ...

I�m often conflicted about finding the best way to �train� teachers or at best to inspire them. I use the word train loosely because after all can someone be trained to think in a Reggio inspired mindset?  When teachers are surrounded by rich environments full of loose parts, endless art supplies, STEM materials, ramping equipment and past work for reflection, yet still find nothing to do, then I concede that the cause is lost! At the end of the day, inspiration, motivation and a desire to leave your students and school the best part of yourself has to be intrinsic. No one can inspire an unmotivated person, no matter how much they are prodded or pushed. This is not a teacher skill but a life skill; to push to new levels, to maximise talents and dispositons, to want to be the best version of who you can be. The teachers who master this are the ones that are remembered by their students long after the facts fade: the teachers who make everyday worthwhile, who are as much learners as ...

A few months ago I was in Indigo looking for a few new books to read and I happened upon Walter Isaacson's book,   Leonardo DaVinci. Since I love history, I decided to add it to my cart. I was curious to learn about his life. Little did I know that I was about to be inspired by a man who lived over 500 years ago. Leonardo left mankind richer, not only because of his famous Mona Lisa but because he was history's greatest creative genius. His life journey was to know everything there was to know about the world and how humans fit into it. So what does this have to do with a blog on Reggio inspired work. Here's the thing.   Leonardo was not a university graduate. He was the illegitimate son of a notary. He was self taught. Most people know him as a painter but the truth is he didn't really like to paint at all. He was an engineer, scientist, mathematician, builder of flying machines, designer of theatre props, hydraulics systems, and war machinery, he dissected cadavers...

 The Italian word, Attraversiamo, crossing over, pacts quite a punch when it is applied to the art of teaching. The time has come for educators to consider crossing the bridge that holds, on one side, the traditional practices of educating and on other the new world of engaging in a learning journey with children. The walk across may be challenging. Let us consider that as you cross you will encounter wind, rain and slippery conditions. These forces impede your crossing. Similarly the conventional mindsets of teaching will press on you to keep your traditional roles as the rulers of your classrooms. Relinquishing what is familiar is difficult.  Most people don't like change especially when everything seems to be working fine. So why do it? We do it because children deserve the best of us. If this is not why you chose to be a teacher then you are in the wrong profession. A teacher is foremost a learner, even after she earns her degree. Read the Hundred Languages of Children to ...