Your project is over...now what? Where will that next step lead? What direction to take?

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. ~Lao Tzu~

You’ve just invested a boat load of energy into a meaningful project and you’ve evaluated the learning (see last week’s blog). Yes, the project is over. Now what? Where will that next step lead?

In the case of the North Island College ECCE “Community through the Eyes of Children” project the coordinators (Alanna Miller and Theresa Gereluk) immediately wanted to explore the potential in the next steps.

Here are some of the things we noticed from observing their process.

When exploring next steps consider...

1) The learning (in this case, learn from previous projects and participant/coordinator feedback)
2) The research (in this case inspired by Reggio Emilia and Emergent Curriculum)
3) The themes that emerged (how to nurture children’s CREATIVITY popped)
4) The potential next directions (they decided on - “Creativity through the Eyes of Children”)
5) The ways to re-ignite the vision and celebrate the previous project success! Give updates too!

This was done by gathering the participant centres’ to explore how the new direction might strengthen and align with their work and build off of the previous project. They listened to people’s thoughts and reactions and further developed the direction as they went. Picture a dialogue rich evening focused on “What does CREATIVITY mean to you?” complete with hands on interaction (goop and overhead projector painting – we are talking about creativity here). Total experiential learning.

It seems from our Raising the Village observation lens, that the next steps continued to reveal themselves in the act of doing. They came both in having a plan with directions and goals AND in the openness to see what would emerge.

Village Raising Questions:
What do you consider when taking next steps?
What does creativity mean to you? What does this add to your work and life?

(p.s. The “Creativity through the Eyes of Children” project continues. Interested in more details? Contact Alanna or Theresa via North Island College http://www.nic.bc.ca/ ).

Through the eyes of our children - part 2

Alanna beamed as she told us how a grandmother, unknown to her, stopped her in the hall of the local community centre and asked with obvious awe, "Have you seen the displays from the children?"

For two weeks, wildly creative displays transformed the public library, the community centre and City Hall. The art and writing was much more than a celebration of what children are capable of accomplishing - they were powerful, visual displays of the voices of children - their perspective about what community means to them.

“If we allowed children to show us what they can do rather that merely accepting what they usually do, I feel certain we would be in for some grand surprises.”   Mem Fox

Sixteen child care programs participated in a comprehensive Reggio Emilia inspired project - supported by early childhood care and education instructors Alanna Miller and Theresa Gereluk. Children (from toddlers to 12 years old) led their care providers along a unique and collaborative learning journey to express their thoughts about "community." Most centres took children on walking field trips to see what they noticed, what they were interested in and what was important to them. From there, the children's educational odyssey emerged as they asked questions, explored certain areas and expressed themselves through play and art.

In this small, resource dependent city some common themes seemed to emerge; trucks, fishing and the steam train. How the children depicted these things shed light on how these elements affect their lives.

 

Issues such as housing, the built environment, community identity and "village" relationships emerged into stories, 3-D objects made from recyclables and even rice krispie squares!

Children expressed important aspects of their lives. "I live at Mom's house, it's too long to walk. On bus we go to Ahousaht, its too long to walk. We go on a boat past Nanaimo." Delylah

In one situation, the caregivers noticed how more in-tuned with community events the children were. For example, on a walk the conversation led to discussing a recent apartment fire tragedy.  The children came up with the idea to stop at the grocery store to get food for the families who were now out of their homes. Social responsibility requires being connected to one's community.

Children became incredibly enthusiastic about their ideas being listened to and their ideas taking shape into displays for the whole community to see. This interactive aquarium stood outside the Mayor's office beckoning City staff to take a peak at the stories that the children told about the environments they highly value.

What are the issues that children in your community would highlight?

How can we increase opportunities for a child to actively shaping his or her own learning?

How can we, as adults, apply what we hear from children to community planning and policy making?

Through the eyes of our children - part 1

How does a child's perspective change the way we see community?

Let us take you to Italy, 1945 - the second world war has finally released its grip of oppression. Reggio Emilia is a town in the north where the people sought to recover from the physical and psychological destruction caused by the war. One of the first areas of reform was the creation of schools, physically built and run by the parents and teachers in the community. Local workers, farmers and the Union of Italian Women gathered their strengths to build unique learning environments for their young children. Loris Malaguzzi, a local teacher who worked together with these courageous and insightful women and men to build these early schools, is considered to be the founder of the early childhood approach.  He writes;



A simple, liberating thought came to our aid, namely that things about children and for children are only learned from children.  (Loris Malaguzzi, 1993).

Children are seen as protagonists, collaborators, and communicators.
Teachers are guides and partners.
The environment acts as the third teacher.
By following the lead of the child, learning is grounded in strengths and honours the rights of children.

So what do you imagine happens when children (not in Italy, nor in a "reggio" learning setting) were involved in conversations focused on what they noticed about their community?  What was the result of their expression of "their" community through words and art? What was it that WE learned from seeing our community through the eyes of our children?

What do you think?  Write your comments!

The project that we will highlight over the next few weeks is the brain child of Alanna Miller and Theresa Gereluk, two early childhood education & care college instructors. Along with their phenomenal group of students and a community of willing child care centres, they set about to follow the lead and learn from their children... and boy did we!

photo by ianimmortal available under a Creative Commons Attribution license