Wednesday, Febuary 10, 2010
SNOW DAY, SNOW DAY!!!! Two in a row. This is heaven. Not that I don't want to go to work and teach but it sure is nice having 2 days off to do absolutely nothing. I spent yesterday on the computer looking at other people's blogs, especially those who spoke of the Reggio Emilia Philosophy. This blogging thing is new to me and I am amazed what people actually write on their pages. I'm not that free yet. Maybe if I keep doing this I'll open up. It intrigues me that people can read this, if they ever find it, but it also bothers me. I quess it's because I didn't grow up in the tech world like my children did. It is so natural for them. They type more than they talk. I don't think that such a good thing and it makes me think about my students and how do we as teacher's reach them when teaching is mostly communicating. That's what I love about Reggio Emilia's Approach, it allows children to express themselves with many languages. They pick the medium. Yesterday I also did some more reading about Reggio Emilia and I wish I could find someone or somewhere that uses and explains how to effectively appply this philosophy in a traditional classroom setting. I'm thinking about all of my students (k-8 grade)that come to my art studio at school and how they light up when they discover new things or create something that that they are truly proud of. The words "I can't" are very seldom heard. I do hear "Can I start over" because they made a mistake or discovered what they initially wanted to try is not appealing to them. My answer is usually "No, try and make it work" I'm trying to help them with problem solving and self discovery; another reason why I want to pursue more knowledge about Reggio Emilia. I think it would be wonderful for each classroom to have a mini studio set up that students could go to and "self discover" things about a new topic that would be discussed the following week. How cool would that be! Think about what they would bring to the table!!!! The issue is how to implement this philosophy, which takes time, in a traditional 40 minute period setting. Somehow I will figure this out - I think it would help so many kids.