Changing How We Think About School
I find it exciting to balance on the “learning edge”—to stay curious, embrace change and new ideas, and invite others to share in that excitement. These are practices and projects I have worked on beyond my classroom door. These ideas have inspired me to shift my thinking, challenge my assumptions, and ultimately create richer learning experiences for children around me.
New Materialism and the Languages of Childhood:
I am inspired by educators who recognise the many ways humans communicate and make meaning: “a hundred languages / a hundred hands / a hundred thoughts / a hundred ways of thinking / of playing, of speaking” (Malaguzzi, lines 4–8). As children explore and change the materials, the materials change the children’s thinking - a reciprocal relationship. Hands and minds learn the material’s ‘vocabulary’ for representing ideas, co-construct meaning with the material, and extending the child’s understanding. I believe all children should have opportunities to explore these many languages—and that adults should, too!
“When ideas meet with hands, extraordinary things happen. Thoughts give shape to the materials and the materials remodels the thoughts and then the things we do grow along with our own growing.”
- Salvadore Allende Preschool Handbook (Reggio Emilia)
Digital Playscapes - Activating the Senses:
After visiting Reggio Emilia for a second time, I found myself inspired by the Digital Landscapes. How could I bring that idea into the classroom space and really activate the learners ideas around concepts? I started to experiment and develop 'playscapes' using projectors, speakers, digital microscopes, document cameras, lamps, spotlights, even diffusers to send out pine smells at times. The results were spaces that lends themselves to fantastic student-led project work!
Outdoor Learning Program Developer:
For the nine years I spent in Moscow, have been taking the children of Pre-K out into the nearby forest to explore and discover, using the natural world for learning. I felt so inspired that I decided to become a Forest School Practitioner and was awarded my Level 3 in 2017 and started Green Leaves Forest School: www.greenleavesforestschool.com
Since then, I have guided children, educators, and parents into the woods, exploring the many opportunities the natural world offers for learning, teaching, and parenting. I am committed to nurturing children’s reciprocal relationship with nature, believing that humans and the natural world are interconnected partners who care for and learn from one another. In both Moscow and, more recently, Busan, I have worked as an ‘in house’ expert, building the Outdoor Learning Program, sharing knowledge and experiences in the hope of inspiring others to take children outdoors to play, explore, and build meaningful connections with the natural world.
Promoting STE(A)M Education:
While in Moscow, when the idea of Maker Spaces was just starting to spread around schools, I applied for and was given a grant from the PTO to develop three 'Tinker Carts'. My idea was to create mobile labs that could change any classroom into a space where future engineers, inventors, scientists, architects, and artists can create and network. The carts create an informal, motivating space for exploration, creation, building and failing!
All elementary classrooms teachers were able to book the carts. After introducing this idea to the elementary, the carts were connected to the science lab and the school employed a full time STE(A)M TA to promote this innovative way of inspiring thinking.
*Permission has been granted for the use of all images and videos featured on this website.