Texas A&M University-Commerce and Sustainability Education

Last spring, I received a call from Martha Foote, Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas A&M University-Commerce.  Martha has studied the Reggio Approach, has visited the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy and is an early childhood advocate.  We met when she visited schools in St. Louis for several conferences. Martha asked if I would consider coming to Texas A&M University-Commerce as a Visiting Scholar to work with her faculty in August... this time, not focused on the inspiration from Reggio Emilia, but on Sustainability and Sustainability Education. Texas A&M University-Commerce is working on STEM initiatives as well as Global Education and Martha felt that my visit would address both of these efforts and coincide with the first day back in school for the faculty.  She warned me that it would be really hot in August in Texas!  I was honored to accept and looked forward to going.

My day with the faculty of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction on August 19, 2013, was wonderful in all ways.  Having worked closely with the Cloud Institute, The Center for Ecoliteracy, The Sustainable Schools Project and most recently, Matt Dubel, Director of the Fields Pond Audubon Center in Maine, I had lots of options and resources to choose from.  As it turned out, Martha and her colleague, Carole Walker, and I co-planned the day.  It included thinking together about the challenges and opportunities students today are likely to face in their lifetimes and the skills and dispositions that they will need to meet these challenges and seize these opportunities. The day included looking at exemplary student work that I carried with me, inspired always by our friend and colleague, Ron Berger to take work that people can touch and feel.  We also heard strong and articulate student voices, from The College School where I taught for many years, and from California from the STRAW project where students and teachers have restored 20 miles of a watershed in Marin County.

The faculty concluded the day reflecting on their strengths as a department in all these areas and also areas for growth.  They wanted to plan future meetings such as the one we shared, where they could think together about integrating sustainability across their campus and community.  They wanted to recognize the power that they have to influence the school districts that they work with in positive and proactive ways.  They were eager to create plans and act on them.  One of the most exciting ideas came from Chip Fox, Assistant Dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Agriculture...to initiate a certification program for Sustainability Education.

I am so impressed with the openness, energy and commitment of this faculty. Now, I think we should all keep an eye on Texas A&M University-Commerce for new initiatives in Sustainability Education.  We need more leaders in this field and they are ready.

 

School 33 Buffalo, NY

Ashley and I started working with School 33 in Buffalo, NY in the end of August.  The administration of this pre-eighth grade public school wrote a state grant to study inquiry and project-based curriculum as well as the Reggio Approach to the education of young children.  When funded, they found Cadwell Collaborative in early summer and asked us to partner with them in their new learning adventure. This school is dedicated to Dual Language Instruction.  They want their English speakers to learn Spanish and their Spanish speakers to learn English.  This is a great way to approach language learning and we are all for it.  The administration and the teaching staff reflects this diversity.  While we were there, we worked with the faculty for three days on the theory and practice of teaching and learning that is rich, meaningful, aligns with Common Core State Standards, and results in exemplary student work.  All of the teachers were eager and ready to embrace these new ways of working and open to trying.  This is exciting for us to be sure.

This morning, one of the teachers, Tracy Rose, sent us a blog that she just launched. She is the newly hired atelierista working with pre through second grades.  And, we also received another blog on project work launched by  curriculum specialist, Rebecca Fast.  We are so impressed that they are ready, already, to share the work that they and the teachers are doing with students.  Take a look here.  And here.

We will share more about this new project as we proceed during the year.  In the meantime, look at some of the Buffalo teachers' own work.

Two Gems Hiding Out in the Hinterlands of Indiana

Working with new client schools is always an adventure. Earlier this summer I visited and worked with two gems hiding out in the hinterland of Indiana, just north of Fort Wayne: New Beginnings Childcare and Butler Early Education.

These two small early childhood and, in the case of Butler, elementary schools are on a journey to explore the greater possibilities in education.  These wonderful educators are as serious about developing their understanding of education as any I ever met.

There is always a bit of trepidation in making new connections, with people and ideas...on both sides.  Here's a reflection note from one of the teachers: I was unsure of what this experience was going to be like.  I actually had some doubt about how effective it would be.   This teacher and I were on the same page.

Then, we discovered each other.  In both schools we worked on organization of environment and on curriculum mapping.

Another faculty member reflected: I appreciate how approachable you were.  I was impressed by how intrigued and interested you were in our individuality and community...you wanted a better understanding of who we were and where we were coming from.  I felt that you worked with us with the same intention that we try to use with our own students.  What you shared was exciting, enlightening and doable :)  I had expected to be overwhelmed, but I'm not experiencing that at all.  Thank you so much.

Again, the feelings expressed by the teacher were also my own.  I could easily have written the same to them.  Approachable.  Intrigued.  Wanting a better understanding.  Thanks.

To me the highest compliment I could ever receive is/was: I felt that you worked with us with the same intention that we try to use with our own students.  (Of course, the context here is Reggio Emilia, John Dewey, Ron Berger, Grant Wiggins, Eleanor Duckworth, Howard Gardner, et. al.)

So, more connections made.  I can't wait to see what they do next.

Last look at Summer before our School Year Begins

Ashley and I just took our one real vacation of the summer and went to Maine.  We started in New York visiting friends in the Catskills and then headed to the coast.  We took an hour ferry to get to North Haven, an island off Rockland, and settled into Nebo Lodge which is a darling, magical place, unexpected.  We have friends who go to another island in Maine every summer, Ilesboro, and they say that it is like Brigadoon as it seems to rise from the mist as they travel over on the ferry every year.

We felt the same way about Nebo on New Haven.  The food is mostly local and delicious and the chef is famous.  The rooms quaint, just as you would find in a cottage with curtains blowing in the windows, painted floors and bright quilts.  We had fun riding bikes around, visiting a farm, walking on the pebble beach and playing golf!

From North Haven, we traveled to see dear friends who live in Camden on a lake.  It was heavenly too.  A group of old friends assembled, rainy days and books, sunny days and swimming and sailing.  All in all, we had a "very,very fun time," in the words of our favorite six-year-old narrator in one of our favorite movies on Vimeo.  Don't miss it if you have not seen it.

This Sunday, Louise travels to Texas where she will work with the faculty of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas A&M, and on Tuesday, Ashley and Louise both travel to Buffalo to work with the faculty of School 33 for three days! We will fill you in on all of that and more with our next blog posts which will, with mixed emotions, not be about summer fun anymore.  Happy August and welcome school year 2013-2014!