Vancouver, Canada

Taking a short excursion from Seattle, I made my way to Vancouver for a few days to meet with our Canadian colleagues. Jen Moses is part of the early childhood faculty at Capilano University, but has been on Sabbatical leave for the semester, returning to Capilano in the fall. Jen spent some time in NZ last year, while also being able to squeeze in a visit to Tots Corner.

University of Capilano Childcare Centre; Infants - 5 year olds. 

www.capilanou.ca

Situated on campus amongst such an exquisite and breath taking nature, this early childhood centre provides education and care for infants - young children. 

Capilano Early Childhood Centre 

One of the many aspects I was interested in whilst visting these ece centres in the US and Canada was how they intertwined the principles of Reggio Emilia into their teaching practice and pedagogical documentation. This actually got me questioning; What is it about early childhood education in Reggio Emilia that places such high emphasise on centres around the world? 
In 2009, I was fortunate enough to visit Reggio Emilia alongside 30 teachers (predominantly ece) from around New Zealand thus combined with another 300+ teachers worldwide for the annual Reggio Emilia ECE Conference. Here is a week filled with translated knowledge, stories, presentations and visits to Reggio Children pre-schools. Something that has always been entrenched in me about this town was the determination to turn things around for education after the war centuries ago, and it all began with some of the most influential people - the "parents". 


In the words of Loris Malaguzzi of Reggio Emilia, ‘War, in its tragic absurdity, is the kind of experience that pushes a person toward the job of educating, as a way to start anew and live and work for the future. This desire strikes a person, as the war finally ends and the symbols of life reappear with a violence equal to that of the time of destruction.’  http://www.communityplaythings.co.uk/resources/articles/reggio-emilia.html


Over the last few years, I have attended various conferences from a lot of world class individuals from Reggio Emilia, Australia and the US. Carlina Rinaldi, Tiziana Fillippini, Jan Millikan, Margie Carter and Deb Curtis - just to name a few. All have left tiny footprints that have been engraved on my teaching soul and stimulated my thinking with such influential provocations that has indeed contributed to my teaching today. 
Which brings me back to the essence of my visit to Canada and the US. After such an evolving teaching journey we (Tots Corner) have been able to extend our global community with centres not only within NZ, but beyond the globe as well. My personal pathway seeks such value in dialogue, growth and collaboration with other teachers. 


During my visit to Capilano I was also joined by Laurie Kocher and Joanne Szamreta from Lesley University in Massachusetts. Laurie has spent time in NZ with colleagues from REANZ and also completed her PHD at Hilltop Pre-School in Seattle and Australia. 

Joanne and Laurie 

Something that I continue to ponder about upon visiting Capilano was their  choice in not having individual porfolio's for children. The reasons validated that their wall documentation and daily/weekly documentation shared enough information about the learning and development of their children in a group environment. 
As I may have mentioned in prior posts, there is a huge influence of the NZ ece "learning stories" and the Bicultural ECE curriculum "Te Whariki that is sweeping the globe as world class exemplar's. 
I was interested to know if not having portfolios was merely enough to justify the learning of young children without individual narratives? 


I am open to discussion about seeing the possibilites and potential dialogue that unfolds around this. Especially since the majority of centres in Reggio Emilia do not have individual learning stories or portfolios for children, but more group based documentation. What are the alternatives to learning stories in some centres? 
www.reggiochildren.it


Many thanks to Tia Smith and the team at Capilano for hosting me that morning, and especially to Laurie and Joanne for the adventurous afternoon at the suspension bridge (next postings) along with the engaging conversations. 

Laurie and Joanne with Capilano teachers 

University of British Columbia Childcare Centres; Infants - 5 year olds. 
www.childcare.ubc.ca

UBC

One of the largest Universities and home to at least 21 early childhood centres, all situated within the vicinity of each other. UBC are hoping to increase the number of centres over the next few years, to accomodate at least 1000 children. 
I loved the fact that the centres were literally next door to one another, reminding me of a neighborhood village. I questioned how centres were able to maintain those connections with each other to remain as one united front? 
You are literally working with several centres, teachers, families and children. Leaders of each centre meet every week with the UBC childcare centre director,   which enables time for collaboration and centre discussions between each other. 
I think the benefits of the UBC centres is that they are so physically close to one another, it seems to enable flexible access for building relationships between teams and leaders of each centre. . . Maybe? or is this my vision that I would love to see happening! 
The concept "community of learners" comes to mind and I look at the endless possibilities that can arise from these larger communities. 
You probably see a trend of passionate virtues that are strongly advocated within my postings. Here is one of them! 

UBC early childhood centres 

The UBC childcare centres did get me wondering about how transition worked to ensure there was a smooth and fluid shift when the time came for children to transition from the infant centres to the 2-5 year old centres. 
The children transition to the next available place within the community of centres. Transition is very flexible and a lot of time is taken for teachers to enable that switch over for children is done so with ease, time and comfort for children and their families. I have to say, although they are separated centres under one umbrella, there was definitely a sense of togetherness in their own way as you walked through the many centres. 


As you can imagine, the outdoor environment here in Vancouver is nothing short of adventurous. I found that this was highly reflected within the gardens of these centres as well. Such enchantment with beautiful wooden forts and lofts that shared their own stories. At Capilano their outdoors were surrounded by that Vancouver greenery, giving such a natural outlook on not only life at the centre, but life in Vancouver - simply amazing. 

Many thanks to the director of the UBC childcare centre's Darcelle Cottons for the morning tour of the centres. Yet another university that is situated on acres of beauty. Whilst the priority of early childhood at UBC is quite high, the university is very accommodating to their students in offering subsidised fees for their children to attend the centres. 


Brentwood Pre-School; 3-5 year olds. 
www.brentwoodpreschool.com


Final centre visit and final day in Vancouver, Brentwood Pre-School is located in the suburb of Burnaby and right next door to the local primary school. Brentwood is run by a committee of parents and have sessional times for the children to attend. 

What started off like any other day, children arrived at the centre, awaiting for the doors to Brentwood to open. Parent's said goodbye to their children outside and they made their way inside, being greeted by their teachers. Collecting what looked like place mats, the children sat themselves in a circle holding clear bags containing different objects inside them. You can imagine my curiosity in wanting to know just what was going to happen when all the children were sitting down ready to start their morning session. 


Homework? was included in these bags! After the morning welcome songs, teachers discussed the homework the children were given the day before. Now this was not your ordinary "homework" however you may want to perceive the word! This was homework with a twist of enjoyment, willingness and almost a thrill in being able to go home and research objects that may "glow" in the dark room the children and teachers at Brentwood had created over the last week. 


Each child had the opportunity to talk about what they had brought in from home and why they had chosen that particular object. Eventually there were a tray of items to test in the dark room, outside the dark room were boxes labelled "Yes it glows" and "No it does not glow". This was going to be one of the many experiences the children could investigate that morning. 

This reminded me about "morning meetings". A time for children and teachers to come together and share their intentions for the day, work from the previous day, possible provocations etc. Whilst being involved with the Brentwood morning meeting, you could see the passion and energy that was put into such a ritual time of learning together and hearing the ideas of others, questioning theories and allowing that process to evolve in collaboration between teachers and children. 
I felt really inspired by how the Brentwood team had created their own culture of morning meetings. Homework was completed by the majority of the children and they only anticipated awaiting their turn to share their exciting discoveries! 
It didn't seem to worry the children whether they were right or wrong, the un-certainty only made it that much more conspicuous. At such a young age, children are being encouraged to question, problem solve and test such theories, which I personally think is brilliant! 

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new"

Albert Einstein 

Many thanks to Melanie and the team at Brentwood Pre-School for having me spend my last morning in Vancouver with yet another enthusiastic team of teachers. 

It was great to be able to meet and learn about how ece is shaping in some centres in Vancouver. Although it was a short visit, I am hugely grateful to those who took the time out to make me feel welcome and share their space. All of this wouldn't have been possible without the organisation and contacts of Jen Moses, thank you Jen! I have loved being able to combine the 2 things I love in one and that is teaching and travelling. 


"The wonder of learning" exhibition from Reggio Emilia will be in Vancouver from July in collaboration with the Italian embassy of Canada. Margaret Carr will also be heading into town later on in the year, which is looking like quite an eventful few months ahead for the teaching community in Canada.

Obviously my next posting will have the tourist explorations of Vancouver! Stay tuned, as I think you will fall in love with this place, as I certainly did!

Sights of Seattle

Obviously this international exchange is not complete without a few snapshots of the city they call the evergreen state.  

Just to give you a glimpse of the great and exciting sights I got to experience while I was in Seattle, below are some of the highlights of my time and the "touristy" things I managed to squeeze into my schedule. 

Seattle seems to be world famous for a lot of sights, not forgetting the first ever Starbucks that originated in Seattle (opposite Pike st market). 

My visit to SAM was cut short by a "standard" evacuation (sigh) and the drive by Olympic Sculpture Park was short but simply stunning from what I could see. Seattle has a lot of "out of the ordinary" art pieces within the city. A city made to stand out from the rest and have such uniqueness in it's art and iconic ways of expressing it. 

Pike place market, known for it's famous fish market was swarmed by loads of people awaiting to see the fish throwing and chant by the enthusiastic fishermen! This is a must see, they have published books and is such an eventful and enjoyable atmosphere. Not to mention the scrumptious seafood that just make your mouth water, while walking past. Most of the seafood comes from Alaska and they are indeed for all you seafood lovers! 

This lovely, friendly city is home to where they make many of the boeing aircrafts from around the world, you will see them testing the aircrafts as you drive along the freeway towards the city. 

I have to say this is where I was introduced to my favorite store Trader Joe's and the heart attack meal of Poutine (disgustingly delicious). While the nightlife was interesting, I was told quite sternly that my NZDL was not an acceptable ID  for entering a bar in the United States of America! Nor did it matter, that I was well over the legal age anyway. The various Mexican dishes I tried tickled my tastebuds and was my favorite dining place of all, not to mention the stella margaritas that "happened" to come with them. 

Next stop - Vancouver, Canada! 

Pike Place Market

The world's famous Pike Place Fish Market

The array of vibrant tulips 

The beauty of them bloomed throughout the "entire" market

The Gum wall in Post Alley, behind the Pike Market

The most infected germ wall in the world! 

Seattle Library 

One of the world's most beautiful libraries

Seattle Art Museum - SAM

Olympic Sculpture Park 

Flash mob tree painting

Seattle Icon
Space Needle 

Hilltop Pre-School, Seattle

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

Albert Einstein

Hilltop Pre-School

Seattle, US

www.hilltopcc.com

(This has been written with thoughts from my colleague Jen Boyd)

Walking into Hilltop Pre-School, I stood in awe at this environment before me. What were enclosed behind the curved walls of wonder I thought. I looked around in anticipation trying to sponge in the surroundings before me. It was almost like a ‘silent’ language, wanting to explode into a 100 more languages through a multitude of ways.

Therefore I ponder and question . . . “if the environment is the third teacher, what language does it speak? “A hundred ways of marveling, of loving  . . . a hundred joys?” (Loris Malaguzzi)
How does our environment reflect our values and beliefs as teachers? . . . . . Wow, you really get a sense of your anticipation and your connection with the environment in terms of your understanding of Reggio inspired values - that other quote from Malaguzzi rings true: “It has been said that the environment should act as a kind of aquarium which reflects the ideas, ethics, attitudes and culture of the people who live in it.” (Jen)

Teacher’s Reflection
The Hilltop environment paints a picture as soon as you walk through the doors, curiosity lingers, eyes wander. You want to gain a deeper insight through the lens of a child, but how? A week to embrace such an opportunity, to question and ponder those floating thoughts. I often think, I am probably going to come out with more questions than answers.
“Sometimes questions, are more important than the answers” Nancy Willard.

Change is something I often think we protect ourselves from and for so long, this process of thought is undeniably challenging to do. How do we encompass change for the better? encourage others to be inspired by the work we love to do, and spread the message that the Reggio approach is not a way of doing, but is only “one” approach to take into your cultural context and plant your “own” seed. Make those possibilities a potential and gain a sense of wonderment for beginning something that you hope will remain a legacy.  That’s a really insightful theory and is the same that I felt echoed within the walls of the Loris Malaguzzi Centre in Reggio Emilia...A legacy of creativity, innovation and humanity.

This is something that stands so strongly to me, having spent time at Hilltop Pre-School. I feel humbled to have been apart of a school whom drives for quality education of society’s most youngest citizens. A place where children are valued and recognised as capable and competent learners. The motivation is stemmed from the provocation that teachers share and this is clearly reflected in the teaching and learning at Hilltop Pre-School.
Children as Lifetime Lovers of Learning
“Our program is inspired by children’s curiosity and natural inclination to learn through play. Teachers observe children’s play and listen carefully to children’s questions so they may support emergent projects and creations that come directly from the children instead of the teachers.” (Hilltop Pre-School)
So what has this NZ ece teacher taken away from this experience? Well, where to begin! I have been challenged more so, to keep striving for that depth of knowledge with pedagogical documentation. Questioning thoughts that underlie those decisions of who we are as teachers, learners and researchers.
Reflect constantly on my professional practice and aim to uphold not only my image of the child, but most importantly my ‘image of the teacher’.

I have been influenced and hugely inspired by Hilltop’s “collaborative conferences” between families and teachers. I would love to build on pursuing further involvement with our own families on a deeper level with a bridge of a combined understanding of their children’s learning and having further open ended collaborative engagement.
"Collaborative conferences are an element of children’s in-depth explorations and project work. Once an investigation is underway with a small group of children, teachers invite those children’s families to come together to learn about and plan for the children’s work". (Hilltop Pre-School)
I really support this initiative - hearing you talk about it today was exciting and full of realistic possibility for us at Tots - especially in that investigative journey being undertaken by the Kiwi Room at the moment.

To the faculty team at Hilltop Pre-School
Thank you for being apart of my ever growing learning journey, I have only been more intrigued by the work you do and the wonders of space you create for your children and families. Each day has been very enlightening and most curious as to what I was going to expect in each of the rooms I visited, it was an exciting time to arrive ready for the next Hilltop adventure.

The on-going dialogue between the team of teachers and the admin staff each week is a way that keeps that connectedness of the school as one, and I love that it is a time for teachers to share stories, views and issues in an open and collegial way.

To be able to look through the lens of an international visitor has been such an opportunity and I am hugely grateful to you all for welcoming me into your space as part of the team. As we look to Reggio Emilia for those inspiring ways, I know that Hilltop is a place where I feel even more fuelled with new ideas, challenges and literally more questions!
The core of Hilltop comes from the hearts and minds of the teachers and this is reflected in your teaching values as such passionate and proud advocates. I know I have come away with memories that will always embrace and probe my thinking.

A special mention to our Seattle colleagues Meg McNulty & family, Sandra Floyd and Margie Carter for your awesomeness and helping make this all possible and Michele McLean for hosting me in my last days at Hilltop. We shall “Roxaboxen” and that’s a deal! 

Sandra Floyd and I 

Hanna,
Thank you so much for sharing this with me on ‘google docs’. You speak/write from the heart, and it jumps out from the pages of this reflection. It sounds like you had such an inspiring and thought-provoking time at Hilltop, giving me an insight into your time there that sounds so valuable in terms of personal pedagogy. I am still unpacking the depth of knowledge I gained from visiting Reggio Emilia - and this has reinforced the importance of these global opportunities in education. Together I hope that our passionate belief in children and a holistic view of education and citizenship can play a part in positive change. Kudos to you my inspiring co-teacher, friend and mentor.
Jen Boyd

Auckland - Seattle - Vancouver - San Francisco

Museum of Antrhopology - Vancouver

In May 2012, I had the opportunity to travel to the above cities for an early childhood education experience with our US colleagues. As I settle back into Tots Corner, home and reality! I continue to reflect on this evolving journey and look forward to sharing it all extremely soon. Watch this space! 
There is a lot of thanks to be made and this will be acknowledged along the way. Lorraine and the Tots team especially in supporting me to able to participate in such a rare exchange, I hope this dialogue continues with more teachers in the near future.