ReCognition

What a delight to be in dialogue and learning with the pedagogical approaches of HDLH and the amazingly thoughtful educators from Elmwood School. What are we paying attention to?

As I continue to journey with the ideas encountered in Reggio Emilia, I can see what is possible through HDLH, I look forward to co-constructing spaces for dialogue, action, research, documentation, and learning with the many colleagues for 2024 and 2025.

The Outdoor Atelier for the Designing Spaces session with Mississippi Mills Child Care Services will be a place to think and research on how outdoor spaces can be deeply noticed, engaged with, built up with sustainable resources, and full of interesting encounters and strong community connections. Spaces are places..and with an ECLIPSE

What an incredible day of learning together with the educators from Happy Face Nursery School and Child Care...Michelle Wolford wove her magic with the creation of the Atelier of Joy and we explored, researched and deepened our knowledge of our abilities to think as designers and constructors of spaces that create and support a pedagogy of joy...these ateliers are based on the "aesthetics of joy" intersected with materials and brought to life by encounters.

This will become an Atelier dedicated to researching the aesthetics of joy this coming Monday! I am so inspired by the transformation that can happen with a rearrangement of materials offered in a context along with acts of participation. It will reveal how we can create A Pedagogy of Joy together through our interactions and our documentation… I will post photos of these arranged materials once set up so you can see the transformation too! It will so fun to do this with the educators from Happy Face Child Care!

I am preparing an encouraging day long experience of documentation, Ateliers for Researching Movement and Energy, the Landscape Atelier, along with 5 others, while we work on creating A Pedagogy of Joy with 75 educators. What a joy to think with others about joy! Its an intense day but full of surprise, harmony, reflection and explorations of curiosity. Studying joy is a life pursuit. Dragons bring me joy!

This week I get to be with a great group of pedagogical mentors who are learning about learning. A social constructivist approach to building collective knowledge where we value each others ideas. We weave our ideas together in multiple layers. This is hard, thoughtful work, that is so rewarding!

One of the most beautiful communities I belong to, is Blueberry Creek Forest and Nature Centre, where I get to research, document and work with the most amazing educators as a Pedagogista with the school AND as an educator with the most incredible group of children and their parents. We have been considering the question “Where do you connect?” The building of our learning community reminds me of this tray I made from local natural materials. Together, we make something beautiful, one idea, one person, one change at a time

The educators from Mississippi Mills Child Care Services are researching and studying their outdoor environments with their view of the child, the children’s voices, possible interactions and with their point of view. The plans for change are inspiring! Four sessions for Phase Two of this project with 10 groups in learning communities, they are committed to connecting to nature…and I am committed to supporting them🌿

Documenting educator’s ideas and constructing group knowledge is a powerful way to learn together. Happy Face Childcare educators have been researching their view of the child, and we all have moved in our thinking. What a privilege to learn with them…

Creating in collaboration with fire feels emergent, organic, suggestive, and energetic. The Learn Atelier meets up with fire as a medium. The children reveal their curiosity, their joy in creating, and great sensitivity in seeing the nuances of the emergent shapes and hues. We take our work and create intersections with digital animations. Moving between "the hundred languages" allows us to think in ways that connect ideas, transform our originals, and expand what is possible.

To see things in many different ways through a lens of connecting to the land has been such a gift with the educators of the EarlyOn program in the County of Bruce. To think about documentation from a variety of viewpoints and methods has been challenging and expansive, we are different than when we started…this is transformational thinking.