Coffee
cups in hand, a crowd of teachers from all over California gathered around Carl
Mack’s sticky board, writing their opinions on the qualities that define
leadership. By 8:00 AM, the room was
jumping with one hundred and ten people.
Peregrine teachers Megan Forcum (head teacher of the school’s Escuelita
program), Gabriela Valenzuela and Emma Clancy (head daycare teacher), guided by
Carl Mack. Ph. D., our research partner, and introduced by Lorie Hammond, Ph.
D, our academic director, began to speak.
An hour and a half later, the audience did not want to leave.
What
topic was riveting enough to engage its audience so early on a Saturday
morning? Two enmeshed themes emerged: how Peregrine School inspires leadership in
preschool children, teachers, and parents, and how this is done through a
Reggio-Emilia inspired approach.
The
journey to San José goes back at least a year, when Lorie asked our colleague
and mentor, Dr. Carl Mack, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at
Alliant University, former Superintendent of Del Paso schools, and a former
Peregrine grandpa, to work with our teachers on developing leadership. Since Carl believes that leadership begins
from the bottom up, he began by watching the Escuelita class. Soon he reported that leadership was already
well-developed among that teaching team – in fact, that it was so well-developed,
that rather than helping the teachers out, he preferred to do a research
project on how they work. That project,
which was done cooperatively with Escuelita teachers, developed into a proposal
to the state-wide preschool conference, CAEYC, and will soon be a published
article.
After
Carl introduced his research team and the project, and Lorie introduced
Peregrine School, Megan, Gaby and Emma began.
Megan presented the many ways in which leadership is built at Peregrine
School- among parents, children, and teachers.
Family projects such as the making and sharing of family posters,
families sharing cultural artifacts and performances, and the incorporation of
family themes into classroom fantasy play were developed. Our families and staff are the world, since
they come from many countries and speak many languages; their presentations embodied the world theme
which Escuelita embraces. This theme has
led to a study of the Brazilian rainforest, among other things, as exemplified
by El Gran Capoquero, or The Great Kapok Tree (by Lynn Cherry), a
book which has inspired a 3-D
rainforest mural in Escuelita and will provide the theme for this year’s school
play in May. This tree is capped by a 15-foot
long boa constrictor, made of nothing more than pantyhose, cotton fluff, and
paint! Hence a theme initiated by
Brazilian families (preservation of the rainforest) is expanded by the genius
of Escuelita teachers into a mural, a play, and months of meaningful engagement
by the children.
Megan
then explained how another Reggio-inspired project, the light table, has
resulted in a collaboration with the children involving various things that can
be viewed and explored on the light table, such as clear plastic objects, jars
and bags of water, clear mosaic glass, glass balls in water, and much
more. Eventually this theme of light
resulted in studying light through the windows and the creation of tissue paper
stained glass frames to cover the windows.
Along the way, art, shapes, geometry, math, color and of course light
were studied. Most importantly, social
interactions were initiated in meaningful ways among the two- to four-year-olds
eagerly clustered around the light table to view each new surprise set out
there. Gaby joined in at this point to
discuss how leadership and organization occur in Escuelita, supporting the
children and the structure of the day and making exploration possible.
In
many schools, teachers and children are tired during when the after school
daycare hours roll around, and the program often declines into
babysitting. But Teacher Emma explained
how Peregrine’s daycare program is a great time not only to expand themes from
the morning program, but also to freely explore children’s interests which may
not fit standards that teachers are pursuing.
One example of this is her study of cars, which emerged completely from
the children, and has persisted for four months. “The children wanted to play with the cars
every day,” Emma noted, “but we noticed that they always did the same
things. With them, we began to explore
new possibilities.” These possibilities
ended up including the creation of two and three dimensional models of cars,
explorations of wheels and how they move, cars on ramps of different heights
and slopes, the creation of various maps on paper of Davis, upon which the cars
could drive, and finally, the creation of giant cars made of soft blocks, which
several children could enter and “drive”. Along the way, trains and airplanes were
explored, but never with the passion the children feel for cars. Some children even sleep with their homemade
cars at nap time! Four months later, the
study is far from over. Every day, the
children ask for the cars.
The
presentation ended with Carl’s summary of all the kinds of leadership he sees
in the Escuelita classroom, and with a testimonial to how this setting gives a
voice to children, teachers, and parents alike.
“It is like a big soup,” he said, “with lots of ingredients, yet they
all mix together.” The audience seemed
to agree that the result is delicious, and were still asking questions when the
next group came in to use the conference room.
Families
who want to see Megan, Gaby, and Emma’s part of this presentation, which shares
how Reggio-Emilia inspired activities operate at Peregrine School, should come
to the parent meeting at the Peregrine’s Early Childhood Center on Portage Bay
West tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Dinner
and childcare will be provided. Please call
Kathy for a reservation, at (530) 758-8845.
You don’t want to miss it.
