Best dinner yet!

The entry way to the Caffe off the street!

Looking back to the street. It was beautiful!




Tonight we dined at the Caffe Arti & Mistieri, the Cafe of Art and Mystery. What a beautiful place!
It appeared to be a little alcove and was at the end of the path in a beautiful courtyard. Just when we thought we had said goodbye to all of our new friends, low and behold, several of them were there so it was hello and then goodbye again. No tears this time!
We toasted ourselves to having completed this tough course and to what the future will bring based on our experience.
Still sometimes need to pinch myself having had the opportunity to do such a great thing. Oh yes, and there was some conversation about when we will be coming back!
Sorry dear........
Alison, I hope you are watching, the food pictures are for you. Risotto, stuffed squash leaves and spring rolls! No room on the blog for the wine bottle shots!
These hard core shoppers have been talking about Max Mara all week so they want to get up and go at 8 AM! UGH! From there we are going to train to Milan for the afternoon and have already picked tomorrow's dining choice back here in Reggio. Our last night and yep you guessed it, Pizza!

We are done!

We got certificates!
We have finished!
Today was a mix of happiness and sadness. We made lots of friends so there were lots of hugs, goodbyes and wishes for safe travel. Many are going to other parts of Italy or elsewhere before heading home. I am glad we did this on the front end as I am ready for home.
I do feel this is only the beginning of our Reggio experience as we take it back to process and put into play as much as possible this year in HELPs. I hope we are able to present this so that it is grasped with enthusiasm.
As a team I am planning to arrange a trip to see the Reggio exhibit "The Wonders of Learning" currently visiting Chicago. I am hoping for some eye opening information for the team.
Today we experienced firsthand the newest project based on the Language of Food (great book by the way) and the Ateliers of food in Reggio. We learned about the premise for the project and everything from the architectural aspect to the provisions to contribute to the community. A beautiful lunch was prepared by the cooks or the Atelieristas of food from the schools. All locally grown, all fresh and nutritious!
We have the rest of today and tomorrow before a shuttle pick up at 5:45 AM on Sunday to head to Malpanese Airport in Milan. We decided we should travel somewhere tomorrow because we have another whole day! The research is currently underway!

Thursday, the beginning of the farewells!

Paola and her bambino!

Real Samba'ing!





Crazy International dancers!








Talking in front of the group, yikes!













Paola one of my favorite facilitators said tonight was farewell even though we have class tomorrow. She said the Italians like to do many farewells!
Today's topic was Intercultural experiences. Reggio Emilia is experiencing what we have worked with for many years, huge immigration. the countries from which people are coming to Reggio are listed in order from highest numbers to lowest. Albania, Morocco, China, Ghana, Ukraine and Romania. They have the second largest immigrant population in Italy, second only to Brescia. Not only is the immigration making an impact on just about everything, they are having increasing numbers of Italians moving to this area as well. The Municipality is forwarding money to local businesses to support the families of immigrants and have assumed responsibility for them. A little different attitude I would say! They encourage them to work together with cohesion and cooperation. The Italians use the term "accolienza" receiving and welcoming in their schools and the Municipality which they view as an "active dialogue and intelligency including active concepts of recognition and reciprocity not only declared, but acted." They feel schools are one of the best places to work toward cohesion because of the commom element it provides to build upon. Interesting.....
There were lots of statistics about schools, costs, numbers etc, way too much to blog. We all were a little surprised to learn that Reggio teachers make a pay rate somewhat comparable to ours, one of the main differences being there is little variation for increased education of years in.
A quote from a little guy in the school, " the world is round and sooner or later roads meet up and people change countries." Out of the mouths of babes!
Like I said, tons of data and stats on this as well as how they handle this is school. Very interesting. In some ways I think we have more experience in this regard but they are handling it with much more grace!
The afternoon was a time to divide into groups and we were given the chance to make three comments about the our experience and ask one question. Somehow, I think because I had paper to write, I ended up facilitating for our group. I told the group if I had to go up there, someone better take a picture......
The evening ended with an outdoor dinner at a social club in the city, live music, lots of Lambrusco (local) and dancing. Carly even broke her flip flop!!
Bill and Alison you would have been green with envy at the Brazilians dancing the Samba!!!
They have it down!
I sat watching, all of you know how I love to dance.......thinking, I am here in Reggio Emilia, Italy with 150 educators from all over the world. Columbia, Brazil, Mexico, Iceland, China, Norway, Germany, Austria, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Korea, Greece, Italy, UK, Turkey, India and about 12 more. I got slightly choked up about what an experience this has been and the unification that presented itself over the past two weeks. How lucky am I?
Maybe Reggio and school (that dialogue due to the common element) and children is the place to begin to create world peace.........

One more day of farewells!

Children's Work Visible Throughout Community

With such a high emphasis of the community and schools being intertwined here in Reggio Emilia, the traces of children and their work are seen everywhere. The schools here place such an importance of making the children's learning visible for the city to see since they are such an important part of the children's school experience. An example of this is shown all throughout the underground walkway passes to the bus/train station.

Below are pictures of a project the children in the preschools did to make their own visual representations - using any media outlet of their choice - of bicycles. Bicycles are the main form of transportation here in Reggio Emilia (seriously!) so they are important to the children in their everyday life. Take a look at the pictures! They are all HUGE - they blew up the children's artwork...and each picture is literally bigger than me! It's fun seeing the different abilities of children from different ages, and how each child had a different view/creation...

Looking down one wall of pictures...just enormous!

"Bici Farfalla" - "Butterfly Bicycle"

"Bici Che Fare"

Springs!!!!! Just for Daddy Burd ;)

I loved this picture the most because it reminded me of my own students and their artwork...it's so great I think!

More pictures down the wall.

I love seeing kids artwork show up in everyday unexpected places throughout the city. Makes me so happy! :)

Carly

Family Involvement in Reggio Emilia Schools

I'm just blown away after tonight's sessions! We learned in depth about the dialogue between families and schools in Reggio Emilia Infant-Toddler Centers and Preschools - and the co-responsibility, participation and sharing that goes on. Each and every parent (literally) is involved in their child's school in some way, shape or form. Parents build a sense of community among themselves and most importantly with the city, that embraces and welcomes new families and cultures into the schools. By being so involved with their children's schooling, they gain a sense of being an active citizen in Reggio Emilia, and enjoy this stance.

Reggio has a standard that their schools must be places where their families can share the culture they come from freely, done in an ethical way. This builds a sense of community and allows for diversity that is accepted and celebrated in the schools...which also translates into everyday life within the town.

A "Parent Panel" came in to speak about their experiences with having children in the Reggio Emilia Infant-Toddler Centers and Preschools, and it was so moving. Their appreciation and gratitude to the schools and teachers was unbelievable. From a mother from an Islamic heritage who left what she knew to come to Italy, and looked to the teachers as friends and for learning the Italian "Roman Catholic" culture, to a father with a child with Autism who moved to Reggio Emilia looking for a way to understand his son - the presentations were beautiful. The parents work together to welcome new families into the schools and help them feel the love and warmth they were received with.

From the presentations, I'm leaving with some great parent involvement ideas and new ways of thinking to bring back to school!

My favorite part of the entire presentation though was when the parents and teachers explained "Accoglienza". In Italian, this means more than just to welcome someone, but to embrace another person was you welcome them and credit that individual as important. This "accoglienza" is the process by which all children and families are greeted as they walk into school each day. Teachers, staff and other parents consider this the most important time of the day - to welcome each family that comes in and make them feel important.

I love this most because it is so drastically different from back home - where most of the kids come in on the bus early in the morning, where parents are honking at each other in the drop-off line, all in a rush to get the kids out of the car and move on with their day. It's a beautiful transition where trusting relationships with parents are built.

Such happy thoughts - such positive energy - exactly the type of session I needed to hear after all of these long hard days of class! I said this afternoon to Sue and Liz that I am SO HAPPY that I've sat through all of these presentations, even ones where I was exhausted and felt like the topics didn't apply to me and I just wanted to go back and sleep in my tiny hotel room....Why? Because I've had an epiphany, realization, great idea, etc. from every single lesson taught. It's all coming together and I'm growing as a person and as a teacher. Can't wait to get back into my classroom!

Another last happy thought for today...we walked past a peach tree on the way home! Made me think of Papa's peach tree in the backyard in River Grove!

Hard to see - but tiny little peaches are starting to grow! :)

Time is winding down over here - only 2 more days of class left! Tomorrow I'm taking myself to an EARLY 7:30am Mass in the Piazza San Prospero at the town's patron saint's basilica. Can't wait to blog about how Mass in Italian is! ;)

Buona Notte!

Carly

This evening

Carly presented this morning so well I will not play a double feature but this evening was also incredible. The focus was on participation and after a presentation from Daniela, the pedagogista at the Iotti school, the one I was fortunate enough to have visited, they had invited a panel of parents to talk about their experiences. I was definitely watering up hearing them speak about the personal growth and the opportunity to be a bigger part of not only their children's school, but their lives. They were a diverse group with many stories to tell about school. The all felt the welcoming process was priceless to their involvement and involvement in the school had taken them to a higher plane within the community as well.
Class meetings are the first step and parents can work with the whole staff (even cooks and cleaning people) to discuss projects and outings and even discuss opinions.
From these, parents can move to the Early Childhood Council, a group of parents selected by parents in which each school is represented. This group meets about 6 times per year. They meet with other city wide parent groups, community members, politicians and even interview candidates running for political offices to share their educational views.
They feel first the are the parent of the child, then they are a parent of the school and become a parent of the community.
A quote by Carla Rinaldi,
"The aspect of participation is an educational strategy that characterizes our way of being school and doing school. The participation of children, families and of the teachers, not only "taking part" in something but "being part" of something is the essence, the substance of a common identity a "we" which comes alive through participation."
So much more but such a late night.......
Spent much of our time working on Blog security when we got back......had a breech!
Ciao for now!

Indications of Preschools & Infant-Toddler Centres of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia

This morning's session was really really wonderful! We went over the document that is basically the schools' "commitment" to the way they work and their values. It is made up of three parts:

1. Identity and Aims of the Infant-Toddler Centres and Preschools
2. Principles of the Educational Project
3. Essential Elements for the Operation of the Infant-Toddler Centres and Preschools

I learned so much through this presentation about the workings of the schools and their values. Their viewpoint that "Education is the right of all, of all children, and such is a responsibility of the community." So much is said in this opening statement - the value of Early Childhood Education is just incredible.

I wanted to list the "principles" of the Reggio Schools - which they refer to as their "Educational Project" - not a "type" of teaching:

• Children are active protagonists in their growth and development process
• The hundred languages (all of the different forms of learning children possess)
• Participation (value & strategy of being together with others)
• Listening
• Learning as a PROCESS of individual and group construction (this allows for challenges, play, fun, humor, discovery, relationships and quality research!)
• Educational research
• Educational documentation (allows adults to be a participator in the children's actions - a form of professional development by learning the children better and learning about yourself as an educator)
• Progettazione (designing and unraveling work with children)
• Organization (working strategy, quality of schools and how they are run)
• Environment, spaces, and relations
• Professional development
• Assessment

These values are so crucial to how Reggio runs - and I think they are so valuable to all educators. I love the co-responsibility between families and the school, between auxiliary staff and teachers, etc. to run and manage the schools. This co-responsibility is present in every level of the school's functioning...just amazing.

After working through "Indications" - Liz, Sue and I went to the Gelato Shop and had gelato for lunch! I got a "gelato sandwich" - literally 3 huge scoops of gelato crammed into a sweet roll! Yummm :)

With my nutritious delicious lunch!

Miss you all back home a lot!

xo-Carly