Opal School Professional Development-Don't Miss it!

We have been good friends and colleagues with Opal School educators for over fifteen years.  We knew founder, Judy Graves when Opal School was still a dream of hers and her colleagues.   Now, Opal School, a program of Portland Children’s Museum, is a fee-based preschool and a K-5 Portland Public Charter School.  We travel to be with Opal colleagues whenever we can; we collaborate on learning initiatives and workshops and we are always grateful for their partnership in the journey to create meaningful, artful learning communities where we all become active and positive participants and contributors to the world around us. Every year, as a part of the mission as a public charter school, Opal offers many exciting learning opportunities.  Below please find a list of possibilities.  This year Opal is working with many dynamic and well known authors and thinkers in education! We recommend traveling to Opal. We believe that learning alongside Opal educators and the colleagues who they invite to work with them will enrich your experience as an educator immeasurably.

You can easily register on line by going here.

" With Opal’s civilized pace and tie to nature, your inviting classrooms and strong communities, you have managed to do something wondrous—you have created a school safe for dreaming.” 

Kirsten Truman • Teacher-Librarian • Portland Public Schools

• NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR READERS

with Vicki Vinton

$325

December 9, 2014 • 6:30pm–8:30pm; December 10, 2014 • 8:30am–3:30pm

How do Opal School communities embrace the written word? How does a focus on “reading the world” help children “read the word”? Through stories collected in Opal School classrooms, we’ll look at how preschool and elementary readers authentically encounter text. Vicki Vinton—author of What Readers Really Do, The Power of Grammar, and the always engaging blog To Make a Prairie—joins us to discuss her work with children and teachers and will model some of those approaches with Opal students.

• OPAL SCHOOL VISITATION DAYS— EXTENDING OUR IMAGE OF CHILDREN:

NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR
 COMMUNITIES OF LEARNERS

$450

January 28, 2015 • 6:30pm–8:30pm; January 29–30, 2015 • 8:30am–4:00pm

Designed to immerse participants in Opal School practice, this multi-day workshop supports educators’ application of approaches to playful inquiry through negotiated curriculum. Visit Opal School classrooms in session to observe, analyze, and reflect on inquiry-based learning through the tools of the arts and sciences. Talk with teachers about the joys and challenges of a practice that holds a strong image of children as thinkers, planners, and contributors to the community. Mara Krechevsky and Ben Mardell, whose research with Harvard’s Project Zero has inspired Opal School’s approaches, will provide commentary as honored guests.

University credit available.

• EXTENDING OUR IMAGE OF CHILDREN: NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR WRITERS

with Matt Glover

$325

April 9, 2015 • 6:30pm–8:30pm; April 10, 2015 • 8:30am–3:30pm

What is the relationship between literacy and the arts? We’ll examine approaches developed at Opal School— including Story Workshop and Literacy Studio—and consider the growth of Opal students. Matt Glover, author of Already Ready, Projecting Possibilities for Writers, and Engaging Young Writers, will link his influential work with children and teachers around the world to what he observes at Opal School.

• OPAL SCHOOL SUMMER • • SYMPOSIUM— EXTENDING OUR IMAGE OF CHILDREN: CONNECTING LITERACY, CREATIVITY, AND SUSTAINABILITY

with Ann Pelo
 $600 • $500 Early Bird price through 12/31/14!

June 18–20, 2015

Every summer, hundreds of educators committed to recognizing, celebrating, and extending the creative and cognitive capacities of children join Opal School teacher-researchers for three full days of renewal through synthesis, dialogue, materials exploration, and reflection. This year’s theme examines the ways in which literacy and the arts build upon each other—a theme which resonates deeply in Opal School practices and connects the year’s workshops. Our time together is enhanced through the involvement of Ann Pelo, author of The Goodness of Rain, Rethinking Early Childhood Education, and The Language of Art.

University credit available.

Opal School, the Museum Center for Learning, and Portland Children’s Museum strengthen public education by provoking fresh ideas regarding conditions, environments, and relationships where creativity, curiosity, and the wonder of learning thrive. At each of the following offerings, Opal School teacher-researchers and invited guests will reflect with you on ongoing practice-based research with the intention of improving practice, advancing teacher professionalism, and transforming ideas about what is possible when working with children.

• OPAL SCHOOL MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

$2000

October 2014–June 2015

The Mentorship Program supports a small group of teachers seeking an in-depth experience of observation and reflection in Opal School’s preschool through fifth grade classrooms. The program allows participants to flexibly design a series of visitations to Opal classrooms
in session throughout the school year. This provides an opportunity for extended exposure to inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning through the tools
of the arts and sciences. The program includes registration in Center workshops, the Summer Symposium, online offerings, and an ongoing discussion platform. Registration is limited. To apply, email thecenter@portlandcm.org.

• OPAL SCHOOL ONLINE OFFERINGS

The Museum Center for Learning offers online modules and eBooks to support, connect, and extend inquiry around the world. Visit portlandcm.org to learn more today!

• CUSTOMIZED CONSULTATIONS

Responding to your needs!

Contact us for scheduling and fees.

The Museum Center for Learning will bring the research 
of Opal School and Portland Children’s Museum to your organization. If your team of any size desires to expand its approaches, contact us to arrange an experience designed to meet your distinct needs, interests, and schedule.

Customized Opal Workshops can be held at your worksite, at Portland Children's Museum and Opal School, online,
or a combination of the three. Museum Center for Learning staff will support your investigation of a wide variety of topics. Duration of workshops can range from a few hours to long-term studies.

Email thecenter@portlandcm.org to start a conversation about how we can work together to nurture growth.

One Big Question at La Scuola

We have been working with La Scuola in Miami, Florida and the school’s intrepid director, Barbie Perez, for a decade.  Most recently, at the end of July, Ashley traveled to La Scuola to lead two days of professional development focused on mapping plans for the coming year.  Two years before, in a similar format, the faculty decided to focus on ONE BIG QUESTION for their project work, a new and challenging path.  They experienced great success with the question: What Is Food?  Last year they dove into: What Is Water? Ashley had piqued their interest in this path by showing them the work of The St. Michael School of Clayton, Missouri (SMSOC).  Over a 16 year period of developing inquiry-based project work, SMSOC evolved from pursuing as many as four projects in a school year, to a more refined and deeper focus on one big question that unified the experiences, research and discoveries at every grade level (from 3-year-olds to eighth graders).

Among the advantages that both SMSOC and La Scuola have found in this approach are:

• increased collaboration among students and teachers, both within and between classes
• increased excitement of both students and teachers to generate new questions from their research and discoveries, questions that deepen their understanding
• increased sense of adventure in the whole process
• increased connections made with the resources readily available in the immediate community
• increased participation of parents in the process
• increased willingness of the students to work hard on their research and compositions
• more authentic connections between students' research and their understanding that leads to more authentic expressions of their understanding…expressions in forms that make more significant contributions to their immediate and extended community

In July, La Scuola faculty decided the coming year’s focus would be: What Is An Ecosystem?  Barbie just sent me their most recent newsletter where she and her teachers give brief descriptions of their project work so far.  It’s simply amazing…in just the first month of school!  As Barbie told me on the phone yesterday, The first day of school didn’t even feel like the first day of school.  Everyone already had an exciting experience to embark on.  The students became immediately engaged.  

In their summaries you read about babies in water experiencing the water cycle, one-year-olds exploring and observing a worm bin, and two-year-olds discovering the interconnectedness of living and nonliving things in their raised bed vegetable garden.  Other two-year-olds are collaborating with first graders to create a school composting system and three-year-olds are researching a mangrove near the school.  Other young students are exploring rivers and going on a kayak adventure on the Oleta River (each with an adult paddler!), and others are “diving into” the ecosystem of a nearby pond.  Kindergarteners are exploring the ecosystem of nearby Hobie Beach and first graders are researching the Pine Rocklands (this week, because of their keen observations on one of their field trips, they received an unprecedented invitation from the reserve officials to witness the annual “burn”).  Second graders are discovering the producers, consumers and decomposer of Biscayne Bay, third/fourth graders are discovering (and literally experiencing) a connection between the Gumbo Limbo trees and mosquitoes, and the fifth/sixth graders are uncovering the role of water and plants in different sections of the Everglades.

This is multi-disciplinary, integrated, inquiry-based, long term research project work at its best.  Hats off to Barbie and her inspired and inspiring faculty and parents!

P.S.  I’ll bet if you want to know more about the evolution of their work at La Scuola, Barbie would be happy to talk with you.  One caveat, represented by my new nickname for Barbie, “3B”…for Busy Busy Barbie.

Behind the Scenes

In the last blog post we promised that we would be ready to be back in school in September and we are, in fact, already there with video conference and coaching sessions...in Buffalo School 33,  Indianapolis School 60, and Buckingham Browne and Nichols in Cambridge, MA.  And, we are about to depart Vermont for a six week period of work in Boston, Buffalo, St. Louis, Memphis and Indianapolis. But first, indulge us and let us tell you how the wedding went.  Oh my, did we say that Ashley was the officiant? And that we were holding our breath about the weather and the state of the barn...would it be comfortable? Would it be too cold, too hot, too small, too, well, like a barn?

In the end, it all seemed perfect and magical and everything unfolded on a gray, misty, gentle rain kind of day.  Something about the weather and the century-old barn made the whole affair seem timeless.  Games on the lawn, umbrellas, soft clouds, a delicious meal, glowing candle light.  We were transported, the bride and groom, exuberant, the guests, thrilled.  It was a grand party.

Now, we are almost back to normal life, full of gratitude for our family and for celebrations, for the beauty of Vermont in the autumn and for the chance to work with hard working, visionary educators.   Happy fall to all of you.

Louise and Ashley

Getting Ready for a Wedding!

As everyone else is going back to school, we are getting ready for the wedding of our youngest son in a few days.  It is going to take place at the family farm that has been in Ashley's family for five generations.  Ashley, (who is flying home from working at School 33 in Buffalo right now), has worked for 6 months with a team of his brothers, in between everything else, to restore the classic, white Vermont barn to be wedding ready.  Hard to believe how transformed it is. It takes attention to so many details to plan a wedding... a joyous, fabulous, amazing event!  When we put the manuscript for In the Spirit of the Studio in the mail on August 15th, the very next hour I started on wedding planning full time.  Much anticipation, imagination, choices, putting all the pieces together like a puzzle, getting ready for the arrival of friends and family from far and wide.

The first event in the new barn was the memorial service for Ashley's father which was in early June.  This barn is serving as a place to celebrate important passages in the life a family.  We found a piece by Antoine de St. Exupery that expresses so much of what we are feeling right now.

In a house which becomes a home, one hands down and another up, the heritage of mind and heart, laughter and tears, musings and deeds.

Love, like a carefully loaded ship, crosses the gulf between generations. 

Therefore, we do not neglect the ceremonies of our passage: when we wed and when we die, and when we are blessed with a child; when we depart and when we return, when we plant and when we harvest. 

We live not by things, but by the meaning of things. 

Wish us luck! We will see you in September when we will be ready to go back to school ourselves.

A New Edition of In the Spirit of the Studio!

Nine years ago, I had the good fortune to work with Lella Gandini, Lynn Hill and Charles Schwall on an exciting project that became a book...In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia.  Early in 2014, we received an e-mail from Teachers College Press asking if we would work on a second edition.  TCP had sent the book out for review and the response was extremely positive and very clear about why there is a need for a second edition and what would make the book stronger: more contributions from the Italian educators; clearer interpretations of the meaning of "the grammar of materials," and other related topics; and updated chapters from pioneers in North America who have now been at work for several decades.

The four of us have worked most of the summer on that new edition and we are so excited about it.  I am not sure we realized when we started just how much more all of us understand about this work almost ten years later.  We have also observed that many of us in this field  have come to believe even more strongly in the essential role of "aesthetics and poetics" in today's world.  There has never been a more critical time to revisit the concept and content of this book and to bring it into the present.

We invite you to stay tuned for the publication date of the second edition which has more that 40% new content and takes the principles and practices of the work of the studio to a new level.   We are certain that you will want to read it! We hope that it might be out in time for the celebrations, conferences and the Wonder of Learning exhibit that will open in New York in 2015.  We will let you know.