Setting the Table: Not just filling the space
We design for beauty because we know that helps people slow down and notice. Listen in as teacher-researcher Nicole Simpson-Tanner reflects on the choices she makes as she sets up her classroom studio at the beginning of the year. How do the choices Nicole makes in preparing for work with nine- and ten-year-olds in Portland […]
Blackline Drawing and Perspective-Taking
We enter the school year filled with assumptions – about each other, about ourselves, and about the world. How might the arts help us bring those assumptions forward – and to begin reimagining those possibilities? In this short video, Nicole Simpson-Tanner talks with Kathryn Myers about how she is using observational drawing to introduce perspective-taking […]
Exploring The Nest
“Children are not cherished but detained at national borders, treated not as radiant beacons of our shared future but as criminals. To any conscionable human, witnessing such inhumanity is at once utterly infuriating and utterly helpless-making — a devastating syncopation of feelings.“ Maria Popova, Borderless Lullabies The Nest stands resolutely against the inhumanity Popova describes, […]
Setting the Table with Watercolor
Following last week’s workshop in Hong Kong, I received this message over Twitter from @LewisNewman12: I don’t think I have ever attended a PD with so many engaging speakers, wonderful provocations, big questions being explored, that also provided so many real life examples of best practice and tangible takeaways. I simply love the idea of […]
Becoming Who I Am
What is the lifelong value of an exceptional early childhood learning environment?
A treasury of video resources
As this school year comes to a close, many of you are on the verge of having more flexible schedules – allowing some new viewing time. Here are a few videos posted in recent months to provoke new thinking and growth: Inventing Playful Inquiry: Building A Chain Filled by Love The kindergartners and first-graders were […]
Questions as invitations to play
It’s always a treat to have posts written by guest authors! This one is written by Ben Mardell, Principal Investigator at Project Zero. It is co-posted on the Pedagogy of Play blog. The related sketch-note is by Ellen Reid who found herself paying attention to questions as she participated in this week’s Study Tour of […]
Conditions that invite invention
As J engaged in Story Workshop, he identified a need in the world – and he saw that he had the power to respond to that need. What conditions invite, sustain, and expand children’s inventiveness? Consider the attached framework. Which of these conditions is visible in this short video? Which are implied? Are some neither explicit nor […]
Political Work
Last week’s retreat focused on developing learning communities characterized by courage and collaboration. During the brief days of the workshop, we were rocked by the story of pipe bombs sent to many public figures and terrorist killings in a Louisville grocery store and a Pittsburgh synagogue. These stories entered into our session – just like the […]
Play, school, and the future of jobs
As much as I find good reason to treat anything that comes out of Davos with a measured dose of skepticism – and as resistant as I am to describe the function of schools as a workforce delivery mechanism – I find the periodic Future of Jobs Report to be provocative. As the World Economic […]