Transforming

Pedagogical Practices: Making Connections across Ontario Classrooms

November 10, 2012 Charles Sturt University

Keynote Speaker - Jim Grieve

Bio
Jim Grieve was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of the Early Learning Division for the Ontario Ministry of Education in November of 2009 to lead the provincial implementation of full day learning for 4 and 5 year old children in all Ontario schools. Jim recognizes this initiative as one of the most significant investments in the future of our children and the province. Jim is a passionate advocate for early child development and has always been deeply involved in developing the strongest possible supports for children and their families. He is deeply honoured to have been given the opportunity to lead the implementation of full day learning for 4 and 5 year olds in Ontario. Jim developed a strong advocacy for the early years through his direct work as a founding member of the Council for Early Child Development. Over the last 15 years, along with Dr. Fraser Mustard, Dr. Dan Offord, Dr. Magdelena Janus and countless talented leaders in the field of early child development, he has worked to develop strong multi-sectorial initiatives designed to help young children and families in Canada thrive. He contributed to the development of two highly recognized Success By 6 organizations in Ottawa and in the Region of Peel. Following an exemplary career as a teacher, school administrator and superintendent in the North York Board, Jim served as Director of Education in Ottawa Carleton for four years and in October 2009 completed seven years as Director of Education in the Peel District School Board, Canada's second largest school board. Jim holds a Masters Degree from OISE/University of Toronto along with undergraduate degrees from York University and Victoria College of the University of Toronto.

Session A 9:45 11:45 a.m.

A1) CastlesDocumentation and Reflections from a Long Term Project Presenters: Cara Murtha, Laura Howell, Lorrie Baird
Like a castle, a child is unique; protected by a beautiful strong exterior but it is not until we carefully observe the details that a story unfolds and true character is revealed. Join us as we unfold the details from this long-term study of castles that spanned over a year. The educators from the classroom will share their documentation and reflections from their experiences and how they used careful observations as they moved through the cycle of inquiry. They will share how this project that began with a book has brought new life to learning for both the educators and children of this Best Start classroom.

A2) Images of Learning Presenter: Aaron Senitt

In this workshop Aaron will describe how he has used multiple photographs taken in his Kindergarten class to create authentic anchor charts and transform an ongoing classroom newspaper into a successful form of pedagogical documentation. He will show how images reflecting classroom experiences have been re-circulated and transformed by students for math problem solving, making charts and bringing language to ongoing constructive play. He will present a practical overview of his use of photography in the classroom, describing how it is selected and organized into digital files. Participants will discuss basic technologies such as the digital camera, iPod, and desktop computer; and be shown a process that can be applied in their own classroom practice. Bringing priorities rooted in contemporary art education and conceptual art to the classroom, Aaron will describe how his use of photography has shifted from snapshots of children at work to a more involved and nuanced portrayal of the processes involved with learning.

A3) Using Documentation of our Learning Environment for Further Reflection and Transformation of our Kindergarten Space Presenter: Joanne Marie Babalis
How can a traditional kindergarten room that is brightly coloured be transformed into a space that stimulates learning and exploration while also welcomes beauty and awe? Participants will be introduced to photo documentation from the last two years of how a full-day early learning- kindergarten team changed their learning environment, and continue to take steps to transform it. This presentation will be interactive, and will provide time to study photo documentation of our kindergarten environment and consider what they would repeat, rethink, and remove. As we continue to transform and reflect upon our documentation, we blog about it online, and will be happy to share this with all who attend!

A4) Whose Voice Counts: Uncovering Shared Learning Through Documentation Presenters: Alison Stanhope and Sherry Brennan
Pedagogical documentation is an intriguing process for elementary teachers. Documentation may appear as a record of classroom experiences but it is so much more. When educators dig deep into practice, questions begin to emerge. What are the key characteristics of pedagogical documentation and how is it unique? What is the relationship between pedagogical documentation and classroom assessment? How can I create impactful documentation (i.e. strategies and tools)? Join us in our attempt to look at assessment and documentation with a new lens and how our discoveries impact learning for both educators and students.

 A5) Using Teacher research to transform curriculum in an Infant and Toddler classroom Presenters: Andrea Rourke, Deb Taylor & Shelley Brandon
Hear how Educators at London Bridge Child Care Services used their own inquires to embark on year long research projects that ultimately ended up having significant impact on their relationships with families and their approach to curriculum. Andrea and Deb will share how they moved from informing families about their childs experiences to collaborating with them to develop curriculum and understand development in an Infant room. Shelley will share how her strong desire to offer young children meaningful outdoor experiences motived her to study how toddlers engage in an outdoor space that housed nothing but grass, stones, logs, leaves and other items that would naturally be found there.

A6) Video Documentation of math exploration with young children Presenters: Nadine Roberts, Anna Papageorgiou Dr. Cathy Bruce, Tara Flynn
In this session, the presenters will focus on the use of video tape as a tool to deeply listen to students thinking, particularly in the area of mathematics. The session will acquaint participants with different uses of video, including clinical interviews, "virtual" classroom observations (when actually getting into each other's classrooms is logistically difficult), as well as video-mediated reflective practice, where viewing (and re-viewing) of student/classroom video causes us to deeply reflect on practice. There will be a hands-on component to this session.

SESSION B 1:00 2:30

B1) A Practical Session for teachers considering the Reggio Approach Presenters: Kate Daniel & Jane Buckley-Black
Through PowerPoint presentations, photographs, examples of documentation, authentic experiences with our children, and round table discussions, etc., we will endeavor to enlighten you with our journey, the highs and lows of our transformation. We will share our toolbox, that we have found most useful, practical and meaningful.

B2) The Lizard Story: Making Identity Visible Presenter: Mary Murray
Through an emergent literacy project we examine strategies to promote authentic literacy experiences considering the elements of a successful bookmaking project in the Kindergarten classroom. In this project children acquired skills through meaningful encounters with literacy.

B3) Integrating Yoga into Everyday ECE & Kindergarten Programs Presenter: Terry Kelly

Research shows that yoga can help children in all the learning domains; particularly self-regulation, motor skills, emotional maturity, and healthy relationships. Participants will leave with the ability to lead some simple, effective, yoga-related practices that can enhance the development of all children. They will explore the importance of positive touch, the development of proprioception, controlling ones emotions, breathing, social skills, and being comfortable in ones own body through discussion and experience. Participants will also discuss in which parts of their schedule they could incorporate the activities and how to use them effectively in their classrooms. Participants should wear comfortable clothing. They may bring their own mats but its not necessary.

B4) Implementing a Reggio inspired atelier in an elementary school setting Presenters: Natalie Kauffman
In this session the presenter will discuss the connections between the atelier/atelierista and holistic and embodied methods of learning, as well her methodology, that being a/r/tography. A/r/tography is a form of inquiry that acknowledges the artist, researcher and teacher roles that are integral and interconnected parts of the research process. This methodology was chosen specifically for how it relates beautifully to the Reggio philosophy of the interconnectedness of subject matter and the ways in which we, as students and teachers come to knowledge through art making. This presentation will consist of the presenters review on current literature related to the Reggio atelierista model, embodied and holistic learning theories, autobiographical writings and her own art work.

B5) Quality Early Learning: Reggio, FDK and ELF Presenters: Dianne Riehl & Lynne Besner
Over the past 50 years, the Reggio approach has emerged as a distinctive philosophy and innovative pedagogical approach to early years education that has been recognized internationally by educators, psychologists, and researchers as an exceptional example of quality early education. More recently, the Province of Ontario has introduced a new approach to early learning which has many similarities to Reggio. It includes an Early Learning Framework, a Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program document and an Extended Day program document to support implementation of quality early learning programs across the province. This workshop will engage participants in exploring the connections between the Reggio and Ontario approaches to early learning starting with recognition in both regions that quality early learning is not a "model or program that can be quickly or easily replicated- rather it is a complex process that fully engages educators, children, family and community in early learning and child development.

B6) Playing with the Numberline: ordinality, cardinality, partitioning and exploring zero Presenters: Amanda Humphreys, Susan Hislop Dr. Cathy Bruce, Tara Flynn
In this session, the presenters will focus on the use of the numberline as a tool for mathematical thinking with young children. The presenters were part of a research project that spanned several schools, using a "lesson study" approach to better understand concepts such as ordinality, cardinality, partitioning and zero with young children. Special attention was paid to student's intuitive use of this tool. The session will acquaint participants with the knowledge and tips that the presenters discovered through their research as well as giving participants hands-on experience with specific materials.

SESSION C 2:45 4:15

C1) Authentic Science: Using the Big Ideas to Light the Spark Presenters: Karampal Bath and Lianne Fraser
Learn what it means to create an authentic science program that is embedded in your play-based Kindergarten classroom. We will focus on using student interests to light the spark and how this can lead to successful inquires, while honouring the childrens real life context. You will get the chance to walk through real inquires that our children have been part of and learn how documentation panels can be put together to demonstrate learning. Components of this presentation will be hands on.

 C2) How can teacher research deepen an educators understanding of young children ?

Presenters: Sharon Speir & Jeffrey Wood In the Rainbow District School Board, we have chosen to implement the new Ontario Early Learning program for 4 and 5 year olds using the Reggio Emilia philosophy as our inspiration. Jeffrey Wood, Laurentian University Researcher, and Sharon Speir, Superintendent of Schools, have collaborated on research related to the implementation of Early Learning in Rainbow Schools. Over the past year we put a greater emphasis on the teacher as researcher and on using pedagogical documentation (Wein, 2012) to better understand how young children learn and to deepen pedagogical practice in Early Learning classrooms. In this presentation, Jeffrey and Sharon will provide the context for this research. We will explore how the use of teacher as researcher and pedagogical documentation facilitated deeper listening, enhanced understandings, and meaningful learning. As a part of this presentation we will present a series of posters representing classroom research projects conducted by teachers and educators that highlight the unique questions they are exploring, and their discoveries to date.

C3) Magic Happens Presenters: Angela Boers, Vivian Nickerson, Sylvie Walsh, Joan Urquhart
Through the process of learning how to teach in a play based classroom, presenters were guided along the way by the experts in their community who joined them as partners in their classroom and helped them learn to see how art and artistic expression can be an important part of their program. When they put together all of the partners of the Full Day Kindergarten-- Parents, Teachers, Early Childhood Educators, Community Members and Students, they discovered that magic happens! Presenters will share their journey of how building partnerships around art has led them to richer and deeper ways of exploring, inquiring, playing and learning in the FDK classroom."

C4) The Stained Glass Project: a collaborative journey, Presenters: Anna Papageorgiou and Nadine Roberts

During this session, presenters will share the story of a project inspired by a keen interest in the chapel services held at Bishop Strachan School as well as the teachers observation of the challenges the class was facing with collaboration. The large installation of a stained glass collaborative piece was a result of months of dialogue with the girls as they expressed their interest in stained glass and the meaning of the images. Initially, the girls worked on individual pieces and as the journey progressed they merged their images and created a final piece that exemplified their journey from individual to the collective ownership. The girls reflections on the value of collaboration were sophisticated beyond their years. We feel this story is important to share to other educators who feel discouraged with challenging social dynamics that can sometimes hinder collaboration. It was also an important journey of collaboration for the educators involved.

C5) Theory and Rationale: What is the theory and practice of documentation?
Presenter: Rose Walton Lets explore the purpose of documentation as a piece of the making thinking visible process of young children. Educators engage in the process of 'documenting' children's learning through collaborative practices that foster dialogue and co-construction of knowledge with the child, family and inter-professionals. Through careful and intentional observations of children in a supportive environment, experiences are planned and investigated by the children and educators. Reflections on the Early Primary Collaborative Inquiry Project, supported by the Thames Valley District School Board, Ashley Oaks Child Care and the Ministry of Education, will high light current understandings and on-going investigations of the positive influence of documentation on oral language of young children.

 Presenter Bios:
Cara Murtha and Laura Howell registered early childhood educators have been working in the field for over 10 years. They now work together at Kawartha Child Care Services in Lindsay Ontario in an early learning Best Start classroom. Inspired by the educators in Reggio Emilia, they explore together the principles of Emergent Curriculum and how reflective practice influences their work with children. Lorrie Baird, Associate Executive Director of Kawartha Child Care Services and Harvest Resource Associate, has been working in the field of early education for over 25 years. Lorrie has spent much of her professional career researching and exploring the principles of Reggio Emilia and Emergent Curriculum. Aaron Senitt works as a Full Day Kindergarten teacher in Guelph. He has taught in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Quebec and Ontario. His perspective on Early Childhood Education is informed by his studies in Fine Art and Art Education and he firmly believes that no classroom is complete without hacksaws, lots of tape and large blocks of open time. Joanne Marie Babalis is a full-day early learning-kindergarten teacher for the York Region District School Board, as well as a part-time graduate student at York University. She is interested in how to transform a traditional classroom environment into a space that welcomes beauty and awe. Alison Stanhope and Sherry Brennan work together as part of the Learning Resource Teacher tea with the Halton District School Board. They are both passionate about student engagement and the their work on teams that explore best practices for student learning. Andrea Rourke and Deb Taylor are Infant Educators at Rowntree Park Early Learning Centre with London Bridge Child Care Services. Their strong desire to include families in their classroom has motivated them to create innovative approaches that has transformed their practices and brought them into a whole new level of family engagement. Shelley Brandon is a Toddler Educator at Maitland Early Learning Centre with London Bridge Child Care Services. Her strong commitment and passion for supporting childrens relationship with the earth has motivated her to create a toddler curriculum that is primarily focused on the outdoors. Kate Daniel is the Reggio Lead teacher and has a mentoring role within our school. Kate teaches in SK. Jane Buckley-Black is the Primary School Director and oversees PK to Grade 2. She teaches in the JK classroom. Mary Murray has been teaching kindergarten at the Bishop Strachan School for the past 14 years. Mary is always interested in the intersection of the curiosity and motivation of children and the expectations for skill and concept development mandated by our Ministry guidelines. Terry Kelly is a RECE and Certified Yoga Instructor who has over thirty years experience in Early Learning & Care. She currently teaches ECE at Seneca College, and works in municipal government in Community Programs. She also teaches yoga to young children, and promotes the use of yoga with children and families, in schools, child cares, and parenting centres.

Natalie Kauffman has worked as an artist educator in both the public and private school domains, as well as in community arts organizations over the past ten years. She has taught at the high school level in media arts, drama and photography. Dianne Riehl: Educator Officer, Early Learning Division, Ministry of Education Lynne Besner: Program Policy Analyst, Early Learning Division, Ministry of Education Karampal Bath and Lianne Fraser are dynamic, energetic and passionate Kindergarten teachers that relish in the ability share the vision of early learning with others. They have been teaching at Marvin Heights PS since the first year of the implementation of the Full Day program, and have been part of numerous training opportunities to learn how to incorporate best practices. Dr. Jeffrey Wood is an assistant professor in the School of Education at Laurentian University. A former kindergarten teacher, Jeffrey was a teacher researcher for many years and continues to support and encourage teachers to research their own practice and classrooms. Dr. Sharon Speir is a superintendent, responsible for Early Learning and Child Care in the Rainbow District School Board. Throughout her career, Sharon has worked to sustain professional learning communities as communities engaged in continuous inquiry. She is a former kindergarten teacher, early learning consultant and child care supervisor. Angela Boers is an OTC, teacher in the FDK classroom, entering year 3, at Tom Thomson Public School, Burlington Vivian Nickerson is an ECE, entering year 3 in FDK at Tom Thomson Public school Burlington Sylvie Walsh is a parent volunteer in Angela and Vivians FDK classroom. Sylvie was completing her fine arts degree in 2010-2011 and brought her interest in the Reggio approach to early learning and her expertise in art to our classroom Joan Urquhart is a community member, artist with Artists at the Centre, Hamilton as well as at the Burlington Art Centre. Anna Papageorgiou has been a teacher at The Bishop Strachan School for more than 10 years and currently teaches JK Nadine Roberts taught Kindergarten at The Bishop Strachan School for 3 years an currently teaches Grade Three Rose Walton is a former kindergarten teacher and Full-day Kindergarten Learning Coordinator with the Thames Valley District School Board