While visiting the Diana School in Reggio Emilia in 1997, I saw a little triptych posted outside a classroom, on which there were hand-written notes and drawings describing the children’s day for parents to read. I suddenly realized that there was, in that triptych, tremendous potential for documenting children’s process and thinking in an immediate, yet still fairly deep, way. From that point forward, I kept a “daily log” of the group process in our classroom. I found these logs indispensable to the process of teacher research. Soon I realized that those moments of brilliance that were documented in the log were too good to keep to myself. I began to share them with parents, as attachments in email. Finding this method of dissemination problematic (only some of the parents could access the log), I tried every form of technology as it came available to me over the years: writing in Netscape, with Dreamweaver, with iWeb. When blogging became popular, the concept and infrastructure finally coincided, and what was once a private blog for only the parents and teachers at our school could then become public. I invite you into our world of one thousand moments…of the lessons we adults can learn from the voices of children. Thank you for reading!
The Gift Of The Awake Mind
I taught Kindergarten and Junior Kindergarten (4's and 5's) in the same school for nearly 4 decades. For 26 years, essentially the entire time I was in JK, we were Reggio inspired. I had noticed early on a remarkable difference from my pre-Reggio experiences: the...
Dreamworld and Languages For Symbolic Thinking
A small group of children (all girls, as this is a story from a single-sex school) met to plan what to build next on the block platform. We had set up this protocol...planning together before building...to encourage collaboration and small group project work, and by...
The Child’s Right To Try
I've been thinking lately about the right of children to "try." So much of data-driven, test-apprehensive pedagogy has set the shared value at the right answer. Failure is to be avoided at all costs. If they can't pass the standardized test, push more, push harder....
Constructing An Image Of God Part II
Conversations with children about philosophy can be particularly rich. Big questions like "What is real?" or "What makes me me?" or "What happens after people die?", big questions without obvious answers, are like playgrounds for the intellect. Some of the deepest...
Constructing An Image Of God, Part I
As Autumn blows slowly through the wooded path along the James River in my neighborhood, I am reminded of the conversations held by a group of children I know to co-construct an image of God. How profound their thinking, and how beautiful their representations! This...
The Bensley School Pilot Part V: Time And Space For Reading Children’s Intent
This post is number five in a series, each based on a question or questions asked by the co-author of this pilot program, Jen Miller-Taylor. In the Fall of 2016, Jen was an experienced teacher but new to Kindergarten. She declared intent to bring the principles of the...
The Bensley Pilot Part IV: Setting Up The Environment
This post is number four in a series, each based on a question asked by the co-author of this pilot program, Jen Miller-Taylor. In the Fall of 2016, Jen was an experienced teacher but new to Kindergarten. She declared intent to bring the principles of the Reggio...
The Bensley School Pilot Part III: Academics vs Play
This post is number three in a series, each based on a question asked by the co-author of this pilot program, Jen Miller-Taylor. In the Fall of 2016, Jen was an experienced teacher but new to Kindergarten. She declared intent to bring the principles of the Reggio...
The Bensley School Pilot Part II: The Evolution Of A Mindset
This post is number two in a series, each based on a question asked by the co-author of this pilot program, Jen Miller-Taylor. In the Fall of 2016, Jen was an experienced teacher but new to Kindergarten. She declared intent to bring the principles of the Reggio Emilia...
Reggio-Inspired Beginnings In A Title One Traditional Public School
One of the great dilemmas facing teachers in public schools these days is how to reconcile the demands of the testing-oriented public school environment and the knowledge that learning in early childhood happens best through supported play. How do you create time and...