Disrupting Innovation

On January 19, the fearless early childhood journalist Susan Ochshorn facilitated a panel discussion at Brooklyn New School, "Disrupting Innovation: A Conversation about Putting the Child at the Center of Education Reform." The aim of this panel was to have "a conversation about the challenges of the policy environment, as well as promising practices and strategies that can illuminate our path forward." My daughter attends BNS, and I have also been working in collaboration with a team of educators to develop an Infant/Toddler Center run by BNS, which would serve my neighborhood of 10 years, Red Hook (which is located a few blocks away from the school). 

Susan Ochshorn, who writes the very informative blog ECE Policy Works, also wrote the book, Squandering America's Future: Why ECE Policy Matters for Equality, Our Economy, and Our Children, which I'm honored to say features the work of both Little Creatures Films and Find & Seek. Susan had a book launch at Book Culture in Upper Manhattan in the Summer of 2015, but this was the first big Brooklyn event related to the book. Here is how the BNS event was publicized:

Today's education policies are dangerous to young children's healthy development. We're foisting the Common Core and rigor upon four-year-olds, and testing kids out the wazoo. Play, the primary engine of human development, is disappearing. America's youngest students are guinea pigs in a misguided experiment that's squashing their imagination, critical thinking, and capacity for innovation---the engines of our prosperity and pillars of a democratic society. For the 25 percent of kids under 6 in poverty, the unintended consequences are severe. Instead of leveling the playing field, we're depriving them of a high-quality 21st-century education.

This conversation featured myself, Kristin Eno of Find & Seek, along with these colleagues: Anna Allanbrook, Principal, Brooklyn New School; Takiema Bunche Smith, Early Childhood Consultant and advocate; Jeff Frank, Early Childhood Educator, parent of Castle Bridge Elementary School student; and Davia Brown Franklyn, Senior Director of Partnerships, Bank Street Education Center. Here is a 6 minute video including some highlights of our conversation:

Join ECE Policworks' Susan Ochshorn, Anna Allanbrook, founder and principal of the Brooklyn New School, Davia Brown Franklyn, Takiema Bunche Smith, Kristin Eno, and Jeff Frank for a dynamic conversation on putting the child at the center of education reform.

FULL AUDIO

Listen to the complete audio recording: PODCAST OF JAN 19 DISRUPTING INNOVATION. Here are some statements that stood out:

highlights

Anna Allanbrook: I've become more and more committed to the simple idea of just watching children. Education Reform Policies are not really interested in child observation. Policies have revolved around what children don't know through some kind of standardized assessment. What I'm finding more interesting is the process of watching and listening to children every day, to see what they do know and to see what they're in the process of finding out. This process is exciting, and in fact, means the curriculum is never static, it's always changing. This year in our school we've been working hard to pay attention to the ideas of the little ones. 

Takiema Bunche Smith:  "When will children have their rights respected?" (reading from the book, I Have the Right to be a Child) In Sweden I saw that they respect children in ways that I actually did not even imagine were possible. Educational reform is not just about educational institutions: we have to join forces with all types of organizations that are looking for justice, and that is really where we need to situate the conversation about Ed reform. 

Susan Ochshorn: The U.S. has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Davia Brown Franklyn: Bank Street Ed Center is a home for Child as Center. A lot of what this means is the interactions you have with parents and family, purposeful interactions you have with family, the respect you give to the family, leadership, and there's a whole host of teacher development. NYC is making a strong effort to offer school to all 4-year-olds. We have to think about what does PreK look like for children? I realize how vast NYC is. I don't know if you all are familiar with the New York PreK Foundation for the Common Core. There is some sort of guiding principal that most of us can agree on. They didn't try to take the Kindergarten standards and just plop it on 4-year-olds. They spent time. There are 9 guiding principals and here is one that always speaks to me:  (Principle #3)

Children are active learners. A primary approach to learning is through purposeful play. Intentional planning promotes rich learning experiences that invite participation, involve multiple contexts, and engage the senses that help children explore their environment. 

Susan: The principles are great, but that's the gap that we have to bridge.

Davia:  I think that gap lives with the leadership, the teaching, the parents, the leadership, and it's for us as educators to be hopeful, and to say "how do we help fill those gaps and utilize these principles in the way they were intended?"

Susan: There are those many early childhood educators who would argue that the standards are compatible with developmentally appropriate practice. But unfortunately we can't separate the standards from the testing regime that has evolved. And that's where we run into trouble.

Jeff Frank: All that potential that children have is just being squandered. Maria Montessori was a radical in her time. Her belief that children want to learn and want to be part of our world. She demonstrated a respect for children that we now take for granted in all of our preschool classrooms. The traditional/testing model is kind of heading back in that direction. I long to be part of public school though I am now in a private school classroom. I question pushing academics on 4-year-olds. But now in my (private preschool) class I have the autonomy, time to sit back and observe children, and individualize my curriculum to help my children become involved and engaged.

Takiema: Even those of us fighting for change might not be open to the reality that people want different things. I really do believe at the end of the day that we all want the same thing: we want our children to succeed in life and be fulfilled. But how they get there, I think we don't agree. That's the purpose of having these conversations. I think we're not always at the same tables. Everybody has to come together so we can actually build a vision together. We need to look at what the evidence says. Children learn through play? Yes! It's called facilitated play. Let's look at the neuroscience, let's look at what the evidence says, and not just what our opinions are. There's evidence that all children need to experience a whole child education. Not everybody buys into that, and we really have to face that. Wade Boykin, PhD wrote a report published by the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk. Research shows that open-ended, play-based, putting child at center, is where they learn the most, but the higher percentage of black students in the room, the less access the children have to that kind of approach.

Anna: I wonder about trust. A lot of this is coming in and telling teachers how to assess children. When we say "play-based curriculum," it doesn't mean we're not watching their work. Whenever you give anybody a script or a program....this is what would make me want to leave the profession of teaching.

Kristin: A lot of what we're seeing happening in the city and the world is based on fear. Fear is running through all of this. Parents are fearful. I've been studying playgrounds and what they look like all over the world. There's a fear-factor that causes our playgrounds to look like they do. They're "safe," right? This fear feeds into all of it, it creates the need for the common core. For holding teachers accountable. But it takes time. So much time, to type it all in, to make sure you have that running record of that child. What is lacking when you're doing all of that? Where is the fine line where you can do more of the authentic thing?

Jeff: This fear is real. It's cultural. We all want our children to do well. It's that leap of faith, but our culture is telling us something different, it's very fear-based. As far as the opt-out movement goes, it was very easy to opt out, but when children get to 4th grade, it becomes harder. 

Where do we go from here?

Reading Susan Ochshorn's excellent book Squandering America's Future is an obvious necessity, to get a handle on the complex interplay of policy and practice within the national early childhood field. Her blog ECE Policy Works keeps readers up on the issues, and she's also been hosting Twitter conversations every third Sunday night, touching upon topics from "the power of art" to "the cult of grit." Chris Thinnes put together a comprehensive Storify record of the first chat, which is a great way to relive the conversation if you couldn't be there. Stay tuned here for the next one!

Willow Nest sprinkles love and light into Brooklyn

Find & Seek has entered a new era!  This past Fall our partner Elisha Georgiou opened a home-based play school in the lovely Brooklyn neighborhood of Windsor Terrace. Our co-founder has fulfilled not only her personal dream but one of Find & Seek's longterm goals of having a space of our own. 

Willow Nest Studio is a warm and cozy, light-filled and colorful room within Elisha's family's home. The space offers many points of interest and engagement for young children, including an ever-changing selection of carefully curated natural and recycled materials and books. Willow Nest is infused with Elisha's understanding of using the environment as third teacher, attentiveness to children's interests, and openness to fostering imaginative explorations. 

Willow Nest truly stands out as a gem among all the preschool options in Brooklyn!  But of course, the one writing this blog is partial to Elisha's work. After working together off and on for 8 years, I have gotten to see Elisha's gift with children develop. Her unique approach shines in the facilitated storytelling that she places at the core of her programs. Elisha converses with 2, 3 and 4-year-olds in a way that draws out the children's wildest dreams and fantasies, and that keeps the children completely engaged in the act of collective storytelling. This is something special to behold. 

A range of Brooklyn parents and young children have been participating in Open Play Family Days on Tuesdays and Thursdays this Winter. Special events are being planned for occasional weekends, and Willow Nest just had a full house for Madeline Solomon/Music Garden's amazing Twice Upon a Time performance. Madeline entertained 15 children ages 0-and parents. Coming soon to Willow Nest:  Spellbound Theatre!

Willow Nest's mission is to provide a high quality, arts based preschool experience to a core group of young children. The inaugural group of little ones entering her 2-3-day-week Story Tree program in the Fall of 2016 will have a wonderful gift of sharing and growing collaborative storytelling over a whole school year!  Because Elisha uses documentation to inform her teaching, the scope of the year will be ever changing and deepening, co-directed by young minds and guided by a compassionate and artistic educator's practice. 

This playgroup naturally extends the work Elisha and I started at Find & Seek, but it offers the thing Find & Seek always needed: the stability and community necessary to foster a depth of imaginative learning that can turn lightbulbs on and transform young lives. There are so many benefits to working with a small group of 3-4 year olds over one school year! One can only imagine the kind of deep growth Story Tree students will experience when they have the privilege of carrying out collaborative stories with Elisha and friends a few times a week, with the additional delight of exploring a wide range of art materials. And the materials at Willow Nest are so varied and beautiful. From a PVC pipe fort draped with many layers of translucent fabric, to an exquisite range of natural objects that stun the senses, Elisha has a way of displaying objects that instills a sense of wonder. It follows that children would be intrigued . . . and want to explore all day! 

Also this Spring, a 1-day-a-week homeschooling workshop, Willow Roots, is available for families looking for a teacher-facilitated enrichment opportunity that aligns with the families' respective explorations. This 3-hour drop-off provides a new venue for children to explore, a guide who is equipped to shepherd emergent projects from inception to messy process to completion and connection back home. Oh, and let's not forget that this drop-off program also provides a needed break for Mamas!

It's so exciting to see Willow Nest take root and sprout, with several viable early education opportunities for Brooklyn families. This space and its kindhearted pied piper will weave stories into the fabric of the neighborhood, the tree branches of Prospect Park, and the lifelong memories of its young collaborators. 

Willow Nest's location allows frequent visits to Prospect Park. Founder Elisha Georgiou encourages children to play original stories. In this outside balloon-play scenario, the conversation between Elisha and her 3-yr-old students included these statements: "Pretend I sended a note to you . . .  we're going to put a ice cream shop. . . we have ice cream with chocolate and bubblegum."

Dialogues with Material: Educators Experience the Wonder of Learning Ateliers

It's a sad week for NYC, as our city is saying goodbye to the exhibition that became a beautiful and powerful presence over the four months it lived and breathed here: The Wonder of Learning, the official Reggio Emilia exhibition from Italy. On view at the Williamsburg Northside Lower School on North 7th Street in Brooklyn from January to May, the NYC iteration of the show attracted 12,000 visitors, many of whom were educators coming to learn from the images, text and videos produced by the amazing Reggio preschools.  My favorite aspect of the show was not the Italian-made exhibition panels themselves, or the great videos, though stunning and completely inspiring (I had seen those before, and refer often to the exhibition catalog), but something that NYC educators created, and that were unprecedented in the Wonder of Learning's world tour: the two interactive ateliers (Light and Natural Materials) on the 6th and 7th floors. I was honored to work at Beginnings Nursery (as a pregnancy leave Studio teacher), the school that brought the show to NYC, while the show was going up. This and my involvement in early conversations with the planning team, and connection to this network of educators, led me to volunteer to help set up the ateliers, and to help on site at various times as university, public and private preschool and elementary school groups visited the exhibition.

The illustrious Linda White, dressed in white, engaging with visitors in a beautiful white room called the Natural Materials Atelier. Here is the room in its first mood, "Forest." It went on to become transformed, thanks to the work of Robin Koo, into "Ocean" and "Plants." Linda was one of the many NYC-based educators who volunteered to set up and maintain the ateliers and show visitors around. 

While volunteering at the exhibition, I had the most wonderful conversations with visitors, who usually seemed to fall into two categories: educators and families (children with parents). I spent a lot of time in the Natural Materials Atelier, which became like a sacred space for me, and I'm sure many others. What an amazing combination of a meditation/prayer studio, art space, and garden, with a stunning view of North Brooklyn and Manhattan! The whole room came alive at different points in the day, due to the change of the light through the South-facing window. Many who came and saw the room just stood there, in awe of their surroundings, this unexpected beauty, before exploring. It seemed like Robin and the Wonder of Learning atelier committee had touched upon a winning combination of museum-school-sacred space. The question hovered in all our minds: How could we not try to recreate such a beautiful space again and again, in schools, museums, or in the case of Find & Seek, in a library? Was this another take on a library of materials? Materials lab meets studio? This was the whole point: to make us think, to get us to wonder, to ponder the possibilities in settings within which we do our work with children. The hard work paid off, and educators took notice. I am hopeful for a range of new partnerships and projects to crop up around NYC. There is no reason why schools can't look more like these studios. If they did, wouldn't children's experience at school open up to endless possibilities?

Alex Long, PreK teacher, Spruce Street School (PS397, NY NY), paints with water on slate.

One day while volunteering, I met Alex Long, a PreK teacher at the Spruce Street School in Manhattan. He was thoroughly enjoying the experience, and stayed quite a while in that room, painting with water on slate, taking in all the rock arrangement and bark decomposition areas, and microscope wall projections, and chatting with me and Linda. We had a great conversation about connections between the atelier and his own classroom of 4-year-olds. Here is just a tidbit:  "Just listening to what my students have to say guides me in what we can be working on. It makes me feel good to see a lot of stuff I have in my room, here.  I try to really hear what [my students] say. My goal is for my students to leave my class being in love with learning."

Annabelle, Avenues K teacher

That same Saturday in February, Annabelle, a kindergarten Spanish immersion teacher at Avenues school in NYC, also enjoyed the Natural Materials/Forest room. She said this: "My big take away after experiencing this exhibit is the importance of giving children the experience of change and impermanence in their learning. The idea that interacting with the natural world and seeing what change I can cause and how it can make me feel is so enormous. The experiences with natural materials are the biggest and most lasting gifts we can give to children." 

Nakoley Renville, principal of PS 208KE in Flatbush, Brooklyn, enjoys the Light Atelier with her son.

Nakoley Renville, principal of an elementary school in Brooklyn, enjoyed the Light Atelier with her family. "It is inspiring for me as a principal because it's reminding me of what it's like to be a child again. Putting myself back in the days where I was free to wonder, explore and feel like I could dance like there's nobody watching." 

NYC-based Early childhood consultant Renee Dinnerstein and her husband, artist Simon Dinnerstein. 

Renee Dinnerstein who writes the blog Investigating Choicetime brought not only her colleague Nakoley but her husband Simon, the painter, and he also enjoyed the light room. Renee's words rang especially true to me: "This is the best PD for NYC teachers right now. This has nothing to do with 'career and college-ready,' it has to do with expanding the mind." These words from a veteran educator should not be taken lightly by all those teachers out there trying to make heads or tails of the Common Core and High Stakes Testing. What about the expansion of the mind, through working with materials like those found in these ateliers? I'm grateful that Renee is consulting in public schools all over NYC to help redirect teachers toward inquiry work.

Martha Foote, director of the Park Slope Childcare Collective

Martha Foote brought all of the teachers from the Park Slope Childcare Collective to the exhibit. She had this to say: "Such an inspiring exhibit - and how reaffirming to see children truly respected by their teachers, not only in how the teachers speak with them but in the types of experiences the teachers nurture to allow inquiry and growth."

At the Wonder of Learning I was encouraged to see the enthusiastic response from so many teachers and families from all over the city and beyond, and especially to these ateliers. We cannot deny that American educators created these rooms, and that many American educators are opening doors to the "wonder of learning" in their classrooms every day. We need not idolize nor idealize Reggio Emilia so much that we forget our own strengths. These ateliers pointed us back to the original ateliers of the Diana School in Reggio, and others, but there's no denying that they were a phenomenon specific to NYC. Just look at that view!  

These moments and conversations are but pieces in the larger puzzle of what we as educators in the United States do with the Reggio Emilia approach. We saw at the Materials Conference the great work happening at Opal School in Portland, Oregon, and similarly beautiful work is happening at Beginnings in NYC, and many other schools in this city. Great things are in the works, that point to real bridges being made between Reggio and NYC. Will an infant center and preschool inspired by Reggio Emilia by way of Jönköping, Sweden, soon spring up in South Brooklyn (thanks to Beth Ferholt)?  I am very excited to see what Robin Koo is up to in the coming year. Teaching Beyond the Square is looking for a space to house its vast collection of found and natural materials, for use in early childhood, thus delivering a REMIDA equivalent that NYC sorely needs. Perhaps the 12,000 guests to the Wonder of Learning would agree . . .

Hundred Languages Materials Conference NYC

What a beautiful day with colleagues at Brotherhood Synagogue, Beginnings Nursery and the 14th St Y in NYC! Materials Day was amazing, with brilliant keynotes from David Gersten and Susan Harris Mackay, workshops by Amy Miller, Robin Koo, Jennifer Azzariti, Linda White, Shelly Gargus and Yeshnaya Dougherty, Eve Chwast, Tim Hayduck, Elizabeth Margulies, and more. 

A not-stellar photo of two of my favorite educators: Amy Miller (Beginnings) and Susan Harris MacKay (Opal School/Portland Children's Museum). What a great conference Amy put on!  What a brilliant talk Susan gave!

I have long admired the work of Susan Harris MacKay of Opal School/Portland Children's Museum and it was such a privilege to hear from her today. While I knew she was good, I didn't expect for my socks to be knocked clean off. This was largely due to the fact that she centered her talk on something I also consider to be at the heart of best practice: LOVE.  Her talk covered bullying, through the eyes of 3rd graders, and showed reconciliation and redemption, through art and play. It included the issues of civil rights that are still rocking our country. It dealt with the hard stuff, but never left the idea that beauty, art, love can and will win out. Now that's a message we all need to hear.

For our Find & Seek talk we presented a range of story fragments that had evolved from our story/play workshops at Red Hook Library, BEAM Center and Artscetera, along with a couple of videos from workshops we did in 2013.

So fun to see our Cardboard Challenge movie projected behind the cardboard making workshop in the 3-4's room at the 14th St Y. 

We wanted to take this chance to post here the video documentary of our CARDBOARD CHALLENGE at Beam Center, from October of that year: 

This video was a long time coming! It's a message to all of us educators out there who are trying to play roles of both "teacher" and "documentarian." Trying to do both at all, or either well, is no small task. Hopefully this video was worth the wait! Still looking for the better audio that we know we have stored somewhere on some forgotten hard drive under one of those piles of materials...but until then, enjoy the sounds of cardboard-wielding (and a cockatiel!) in the background.

After our presentation at the 14th St Y I headed to Beginnings to do a deconstruction/reconstruction workshop with Jennifer Azzariti.  I was struck by the way Brenna Hatcher not only deconstructed a purple knit shirt, but arranged the pieces. Jennifer also noted this reminded her of a sewing pattern, how it was laid out. Hatcher had cut the bottom of the shirt into strips and started to weave it together. I was happy to deconstruct just some simple pieces of white shirts and fabric, to begin making a doll. Oh no! It's still not finished...

Jennifer Azzariti's workshop featured many cast-off articles of clothing, awaiting de-and re-construction. To Brenna Hatcher, teacher at Barrow St Nursery: "The essence of shirtness is still there."

The workshop was held in Debbie's 3's class at Beginnings. This class has really run with their study of FACES!  When I worked with them in the Winter they were making faces of clay, and we had a wonderful time upstairs in the Art Studio. Now it's clear they've been recreating the ABOUT FACE game by Eboo with real 3D materials, instead of photos of materials. So much fun!

Hundred languages: hundred materials

Elisha and Kristin of Find & Seek will join many artist groups who are inviting young friends to participate in making collaborative constructions on Saturday April 18 from 10am until 4pm, in the street next to the Wonder of Learning exhibition at Williamsburg Northside School in northern Brooklyn. We will be creating a sculpture out of PLASTIC BOTTLE CAPS of all colors! Feel free to bring some caps to add to the mix. If you'd like to stay all day, there will be a grilled cheese and an ice cream food truck nearby! Thanks to Amy Miller who not only is the excellent maestra of the Beginnings Nursery Studio, and a new mom (cheers!), but has organized the two-day event called "THE HUNDRED LANGUAGES: A METAPHOR FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY POTENTIALS OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS" which includes Materials Day on Saturday and a Materials Conference the day before, which will feature one of our favorite educators, Susan Harris Mackay of the Portland Children's Museum Center for Learning (see Opal School's excellent blog) in Portland OR! We are excited to present a talk entitled: World Building, Storytelling And Meaning-Making: Creating Found Object Installations To Play With And Within.

If you trek inside to experience the show: The exhibition from Italy inhabits floors 7 & 8, and includes many fascinating videos of children at work and play (no photos allowed of the Italian panels, videos or art, hence the need to see for oneself). The videos, text including many comments from the students, and other original artifacts offer food for thought on the great potential for schools to foster meaningful investigations derived from children's genuine interests. If you cannot see the show, you can purchase this comprehensive exhibition catalog.

Photos ARE allowed in the Light Atelier (floor 6), pictured here, and the Natural Materials Atelier (floor 7). Open to the public Sat/Sun until May 15, 12-6pm. 299 North 7th Street, Brooklyn.

The beautiful interactive ateliers (on floors 6 & 7) can keep children busy for hours. Thanks to Robin Koo of Beginnings Nursery/Teaching Beyond the Square, who has designed and maintained these rooms, and to a host of volunteer teachers and artists from around NYC who have contributed hours of set up and maintenance, as they are explored daily by children and adults. I can't help but wonder if Williamsburg Northside will maintain or recreate these rooms, until they grow to need new classrooms for their growing school. Who would not want these meditative, beautiful spaces in their school?

Maker Fest at BNS

The 2nd Annual MAKERFEST rocked the Brooklyn New School cafeteria on January 30. Children of all ages filled the room, painting, weaving, printing, sawing, sanding, sewing and MAKING from 5:30-8:30. Find & Seek brought many recycled materials and colorful tape, and had a weaving area with two large free-standing looms.

Making a house with the big kids!

All ages enjoyed weaving.

A kind daddy cut windows in our cardboard "house."

Little ones always love to get into cardboard boxes. We know this, yet every time it happens, the joy is renewed!

Robin Koo of Beginnings Nursery/Teaching Beyond the Square.

I was thrilled that Robin Koo of Teaching Beyond the Square could join in the fun at our Find & Seek area. She brought some beautiful open-ended materials from the collection housed at Beginnings Nursery School in NYC. Beginnings, an excellent private preschool run by Jane Racoosin, started the nonprofit Teaching Beyond the Square, to bring their extensive library of recycled and natural materials to the public sector, and to follow their dream of opening up a materials center somewhere in the city. Currently the nonprofit has been sponsoring the Wonder of Learning, the Reggio Emilia exhibition on view at Williamsburg Northside School (299 N 7th St Brooklyn NY 11211) until May 13. More on that amazing phenomenon in an upcoming blogpost!

The Shadow is Opening

I am honored to be a Wonder of Learning Ambassador, and to spread the word about the amazing Reggio Emilia traveling exhibition that will be opening in Brooklyn in mere days. The Wonder of Learning exhibition in NYC is a must-see for all local parents and teachers! Our city is long overdue to experience this show which offers 6000 sq ft of stunning revelations of the capacity and depth of young children's minds. The Wonder of Learning traveling exhibition was last seen in Albuquerque, NM, and I saw it for the first time when it was on view last year in a neighboring state to my NC homeland: Greenville SC. The reason for this show's amazing world travels are the true wonders of learning coming out of the preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. It's only right that the many artifacts that constitute the show are making their way around the world: we outside the fold need to better understand how best practice is actually done. Thanks to expert documentation, we can see it firsthand through this show, and not have to travel to Italy. Not that we don't want to!! But this show has proven itself to be an excellent way of disseminating a world class teaching approach, and it has created a devoted following for all things Reggio.

The Studio at Beginnings, in NYC, opens my mind to the potential of children to take part in in-depth materials-exploration and to make powerful and meaningful art. I love this pile of "snakes" a 4-year-old made out of clay.

We have Jane Racoosin, director of Beginnings Nursery in NYC, and her great staff of thoughtful educators, and the many voices represented within the New York City Encounters with Reggio Emilia (NYCERE), to thank for doing a massive amount of work to bring the show here. I've had the privilege of teaching at Beginnings for a few months this Fall/Winter, and I am so encouraged to see educational wisdom gleaned from the fabled small Italian town taking shape in New York City, with such profound meaning for 2, 3 and 4 year olds. Now is the moment for New Yorkers to consider how to apply what great things we have learned from Italy.  Viewing children's actual work and accompanying documentation from Italy up close and personal is powerful. It can transform our conceptions of children, and for those of us in education, it can galvanize us to reframe our approach to be more child-centered.

The cover of the excellent The Wonder of Learning printed Exhibition Catalog. The ongoing documentation of images and children's words are deceptively simple. There is so much beauty and poetry, recorded in Italy and displayed in the exhibition and its companion book, and we are so excited to see it all in person, this January through May in our own hometown of Brooklyn NY.

In order to provide support to the public sector, Jane founded Teaching Beyond the Square as a non-profit companion organization to her excellent preschool. A key component of which is the Beginnings Materials Center, a sort of mini-REMIDA in NYC, which is run by the amazing Robin Koo, whom some believe has the best job in NYC. This center, otherwise known as the 4th floor of Beginnings, is one of my favorite rooms in the world. When I first walked in, I felt I had stepped into my own dream (of having a materials lab in Red Hook, ie: a library of natural and recycled materials saved and sorted for the sole purpose of young children's explorations). I have been so pleasantly surprised to get to know what Robin Koo and Amy Miller, studio teachers at Beginnings, and fellow alumnae of Columbia Teachers College Art Education department, are up to with this vast collection of materials.

Click image above to see two more images of my daughters in the Beginnings Studio. Note the similarity in color and shape of the blue objects in the box my 2-year-old is holding, and the blue medical boot on my 5-year-old daughter's foot. Willa, 2, went straight for this box of mysterious blue shapes, and stated, "X-Ray Shoes!" Sure enough, they were just that: miniature blue shoes that echoed the shoe shape and color that her sister had to wear post-X-Ray (which happened earlier this same day) and post minor foot fracture. The spot-on nature of this discovery renewed my love of my daughters and my love of working among young children, with open-ended materials like these. I would have never seen these blue objects as mirroring the boot on my daughter's foot, and that's just the point!  How they see: in wise and wonderful ways!  What a joy.

Camille Tomkin, child-whisperer extraordinaire, and my children, 5 and 2, help sort plastic bottle caps which will be used in the Wonder of Learning Ateliers and to fashion multiple installations at the Materials Day on April 18. 

Willa, 2, is my go-to Label Taker Offer (and crayon paper-taker-offer). She's beautifying a white plastic container so that it can live inside the box of WHITE PLASTIC, until the Materials Day rocks Brooklyn on April 18.

I donated several boxes of materials to the show, in hopes that my long-saved seed collection, including tiny bags and boxes of wispy milkweed and other ephemeral seeds of unknown origin, from around the world, as well as a cornucopia of plastic, cardboard and wood shapes, could be well appreciated by young and old friends from across New York City. That sounds better than sitting quietly in a dark storage room in our ever-bulging apartment!  My girls and I, along with our friend Camille, helped sort some of these materials the week before the show opened.

My BNS/Beginnings Studio colleague Rachel Schwartzman and her daughter Mila sorted a huge selection of natural objects into a pile marked "WOODLAND ATELIER." We can't wait to take children and educators to this studio and to see them interact with these beautiful materials, some of which include our very own seed and seed pod collection that dates back up to 20 years (see top right corner)!

To experience the Wonder of Learning, go to 299 North 7th Street in Brooklyn (L train to Bedford Ave, first stop into Brooklyn, directly across from Union Square), any Wednesday through Sunday from 12-6pm (additional extended hours listed on the website), from January 15 through May 15. The interactive ateliers are worth bringing children to! These include areas that focus on LIGHT, WOODLANDS and OCEAN, to name just a few. The ateliers contain thousands of treasures that children can touch and manipulate. Many of these objects are drawn from the Materials Center at Beginnings Nursery, which houses the best collection of loose parts and recycled art supplies for early childhood in all of NYC.  The talented Robin Koo maintains this library of wonder, in her role as Program Director of Teaching Beyond the Square, and she is curating the ateliers of the Reggio exhibition as well. Because of Robin and Jane's directorial efforts, this show will be a reflection of one of the best preschools in NYC--Beginnings. Not only that, it's a marvelous opportunity to take a look into some of the best preschools in Italy and the world. What does best practice look like in early childhood? Come to Williamsburg and see.

Red Hook: A Tale of Two Cities

“The sea did what it liked, and what it liked was destruction.”

                  Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (p. 21: Book 1 Ch. 4)

When Hurricane Sandy hit my neighborhood of the past nine years in October of 2012, exactly two years ago today, I had to face a reality that people talk about but don't feel so acutely on a day-to-day basis in our wired, hyper-connected world: Red Hook is a hard place to live. While on a map it seems to be a part of Brooklyn, and one not so far as the crow flies from the steel canyons of Lower Manhattan, anyone who lives here would tell you that it's set apart from the City in more ways than one. If not the expressway built by Robert Moses, cutting Red Hook off from the rest of Brooklyn, then perhaps the crack epidemic of the 80's-90's that killed a local elementary school principal, or the recent reverberations of that crime wave?

When Hurricane Sandy nearly completely flooded Red Hook, words started running through my head: we are living on the edge. This is not a normal place. The seething underbelly is at hand. Perhaps those thoughts came too late at night, when I was busy juggling care of an infant with planning for Find & Seek. But these thoughts came, and they sat with me, and they colored my perspective of my neighborhood.  After Sandy, Red Hook smelled like motor oil for at least 2 weeks. That's something I've never experienced. Smelling it in the air, seeing it all over the ground, seeing piles of belongings stacked up on every corner, hearing stories of the apocalypse told by friends with flood-borne PTSD, having to tell my girls to put down the sticks we picked up outside (we don't know what's on them), seeing the lines of people coming to the church for food and warm clothing, hearing stories of families staying inside their cold, dark apartments, for fear of the hallways. . . all of these things taught me that Red Hook was suffering.  

But I already knew that. I knew it when I taught 4-year-old students with rotting teeth, in the same school where one teen bound (with tape) a 6-year-old in a stairwell. I knew it when many of my 7-year-old students' imaginative stories included an ambulance.  I knew it when I heard shots at night.  When I heard helicopters overhead. When I heard true stories of robberies at gunpoint. When I found crack viles on my street. When a local teen died under mysterious circumstances, just last year.  Over the past nine years I've lived here, I have come face to face with the reality that Red Hook is really two neighborhoods in one: The world of the Red Hook Houses (NYCHA buildings house around 50% of Red Hook's population of 11,000) and "The Back" (brownstones along cobblestone streets where many of the "gentrifying" families live). In many ways Red Hook's two worlds mirror the discrepancies of power and privilege that have been building in the past century across New York City, one Mayor Bill deBlasio has taken to calling our own Tale of Two Cities, in a Dickensian sense.  While economic inequality is on the rise everywhere in the United States, most would agree that it is more acute here in NYC. It is even more obvious in a neighborhood like Red Hook. A place set apart, literally, from the rest of Brooklyn by the BQE, and removed from transportation more than most neighborhoods are, and if that weren't enough: it's nearly surrounded by water.  For these and many more reasons through the ages, Red Hook has taken on a mythic character.

Over 50% of our Red Hook neighbors reside in NYCHA buildings. Post-Sandy, these buildings have been shrouded in scaffolding, for reasons unknown to many. Mold is rampant. Diesel fumes from external boilers infect the air. Dozens of large trees were cut down in 2014, having been killed by salt water from Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy’s widespread destruction in 2012 set the neighborhood back even more, in one sense, but the storm’s aftermath also pushed neighbors together in ways that non-tragic circumstances haven't been able to do. For many weeks, into months, Red Hook's citizens took account of each other, regardless of which section of the neighborhood they lived in. Great collective efforts were made to work on transformative community restoration.  Bridges were truly built.  But then again, while we (from Red Hook's separate worlds) started talking to each other more than ever when we were all in need, gradually what we think of as "normal" set in again, the lights went on, the basements were pumped dry, the generators were turned off, and we were back to  . . . two cities?  Hopefully not, as evidenced by many great programs that have grown from within Red Hook’s ranks. The neighborhood is open to the development of vibrant partnerships, particularly those which keep children’s best interests in mind.  In this context, we are acutely aware of how our Find & Seek story can function as a vital new link in the larger story of a healing Red Hook.  

(Hope for the future of Red Hook runs high: balloons go up at the Barnacle Parade, 2014. Click image to see more. See video of 1st Annual Barnacle Parade.)

By Kristin Eno

 

Find & Seek at the Made in NY Media Center

Find & Seek was awarded a free 6 month Incubator Membership at the wonderful new Made in NY Media Center located in Dumbo, Brooklyn.  We'll be there until October! Here is our winning application:

What Is Your Story? Tell Us About Your Project. What Are Your Goals & Challenges?

"Find & Seek is working to transform the experience of growing up for the youngest at risk children in Red Hook, and wants to tell the story. Find & Seek is a project-based early childhood lab program that focuses on materials exploration, artistic creation, play and storytelling. Our approach is child-centered in that we draw our curriculum directly out of the interests of the children we work with, who range in age from 1 to 6. We work with infants and their mothers, toddlers and young children who are not in preschool, and kindergarten and first grade students in after school programs. We curate and present a beautiful array of natural objects and recycled materials, facilitate as children give form to what they imagine, and encourage them to tell their stories in their own words. We thoughtfully source raw materials from the Earth and recycling bins, and we use these objects as tools to facilitate meaningful imaginative play. We listen to and shine a light on children’s stories, using educational tools such as dialogue, inquiry, creative process, collaboration and documentation.  

Calley Bittel, Takiema Bunche Smith, Ella Williams and Jim Matison (of Brooklyn Kindergarten Society), BNS principal Anna Allanbrook, Sherry Cleary (Director, NYC Professional Development Institute) and Beth Ferholt (Associate Professor, Early Childhood, Brooklyn College) discuss plans for the Brooklyn New School Infant Toddler Center, in a conference room at the Made in NY Media Center.

We aim to build a system of care with partners like the Alex House Project (serving Red Hook’s teen mothers and their babies) and the Brooklyn New School (a progressive public school which is designing an Infant-Toddler Center), to provide a strong network for all young children in Red Hook, particularly those living below the poverty line. Find & Seek’s long-term goal is to develop a community space that can grow with Red Hook’s needs and function as a multi-purpose space with children at the center. We want to foster the center’s co-creation by young and old members, including parents and grandparents, along with teachers and community professionals. As we pilot our program, we will use video documentation to tell the story. We will invite the children and their families to take part in our research, building and discovery in a way that provides us the opportunity to “give back” to the community.

We have received a grant to do our work, are developing proposals to share with our local politicians, and are writing grant proposals for a range of funders. We have fiscal sponsorship under the aegis of World Education Endeavor."

Our desk at the Made in NY Media Center. Actually, we rarely use this desk. But we do use the conference rooms a lot!

So, what is Find & Seek doing at the Media Center?  For the most part, we are utilizing the facility's beautiful conference rooms for meetings with colleagues about a wide range of projects we are developing.  One of those projects is a class for families to be held on Saturdays in one of the Media Center's classrooms. We'll keep you posted on that . . . 

Invisible Child (NYTimes) Photo essay projected onto wall at Made in NY Media Center. The projections in the space are ever-changing.

Elisha views the slideshow we are preparing for our presentation at the annual Face to Face conference for arts educators, which will be happening a few days later at City College.

Help Restore Red Hook's Secret Garden

Back in the Summer of 2013, when Find & Seek began our collaboration with the public library in our neighborhood of Red Hook, we started to have a conversation about the use of the side garden, which to us seemed to be a diamond in the Red Hook rough, the perfect hidden treasure of a spot for the outdoor early childhood programming we wanted to offer to the community. But it became apparent that the garden was not completely ready for children to explore freely, mostly because of some disintegrating wood and exposed nails in various places. We made some efforts to get these things taken care of so we could welcome families into the garden for our Find & Seek workshops, but Summer quickly turned to Fall, and then came the longest Winter we can remember....

Current status: 
• The garden has a wonderful built-in amphitheater.
• The whole garden was completely pruned in the Fall.
• There is not much work to be done: mostly some woodwork, including planters and benches.

Because there is truly not much work to be done, this project has been developed on the District 38 PBNY ballot as one of the most economical options, at $85,000. We believe the garden renovation will offer an amazing return on investment, for these reasons:

• Red Hook is in dire need of more (free/outdoor) community spaces. This space is beautiful already, and lends itself to community involvement. Children here need outdoor safe havens where they can explore nature and play in ways that are closer to the earth. Just as there are gross motor needs that pre-fab playground structures satisfy, there are serious mental and emotional developmental needs that children have, that can only be provided by natural spaces. Cultivating these spaces in Red Hook equals cultivating stronger and more beautiful childhoods for all children in our neighborhood.
• This garden is particularly unique, in that it adjoins a library. What a perfect way to bring nature into the "life of the mind." Children and families need more spaces where they can explore Story in all its permutations, especially those which involve the outdoors! The amphitheater is perfect for performances of children and family stories, read alouds, child-directed plays, and community presentations.

Many thanks to Sheryl Braxton who took on the role of Participatory Budgeting Delegate, and shepherded this project through all stages up to the two Expos, one in Sunset Park and another in Red Hook.

Sheryl Braxton works on the Participatory Budgeting Expo display for the Red Hook Library Garden project. See video.

HOW TO VOTE:

If you live in Carlos Menchaca's district, 38, covering Red Hook and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, you can VOTE for city funding to be granted to this beautiful treasure of a garden in Red Hook.

Voting is taking place at these venues (download PDF of all voting sites and dates), and you don't have to choose the garden over another project you like. You can vote for UP TO FIVE projects:

Thursday 4/3: 
Miccio Center, 110 West 9th Street 
3PM –7PM 

Turning Point 
5220 4th Ave 
1—6PM

Office of Council Member Carlos Menchaca 
5601 5th Avenue
8AM - 7PM

Friday 4/4: 
Office of Council Member Carlos Menchaca 
5601 5th Avenue
8AM - 7PM

Outside HSBC, 8th Ave & 61st Street 
3PM – 7PM

Saturday, 4/5: 
12PM-5PM 

Sunset Park Library 
5108 4th Ave 

Red Hook Initiative 
767 Hicks Street 

Sunset Park Rec. Center 
7th Ave & 43rd Street

Sunday, 4/6: 
12PM-5PM 

Office of Council Member Menchaca 
5601 5th Avenue 

Red Hook Initiative 
767 Hicks Street 

N Train Station 
Stop at the 8th Avenue

Villages Big and Small

Find and Seek 's Curious Cabinet series at the Red Hook Library is beginning to feel more and more like a small village where familiar faces and families return again and again to share, explore and grow! The proverbial, "It takes a village", is beginning to signify real meaning for us and we couldn't be more pleased.

Tiny LED lights inspire movement and illumination both inside and outside the dwellings.

This past week, we set up a complex environment for the children. A tiny village of play houses displayed on tiered tables created a space for loose parts involvement and make-believe imagining. As usual, lights were dimmed to allow for children to investigate materials on light boxes and the overhead projector. While the room was filled with over a dozen people and varieties of ways to explore, we were amazed at the calm and peaceful organization and flow of the day. Yes, children played and made with vigor, and even while building large box structures to climb inside, there was an ease and gentleness to the multi-aged play that was astounding!

As facilitators, Kristin and I are honing best ways to curate what comes out of the "Curious Cabinet". On Friday the 14th of March, we displayed a row of clear jars filled with selections from our materials library collection. We don't want to overwhelm children, but love to have a variety to compare and inspire choice. We invited children to collect their items of interest in little bowl vessels so they could move about freely with their treasures and engage in making. Some chose to try building a tiny house structure of their own, others added things to the tiny house village, and still others simply sat down to explore adding items to dough. From nature-made to man-made, materials ranged from soft, colorful, smooth, and rough to doughy, sticky, shiny and earthy. With so much visual and tactile stuff to investigate, children made interesting and purposeful choices, working at their own pace and levels of understanding. Here are some of the things they created!

"Sophie is floating to Egypt in her house boat. And there's a rainbow in the sky."  - Fern, 4

Luminous Stones and Rainbow Installations

On our first day back at the library we were astounded to find so many kindred spirits had gathered in our modest space to continue the research of materials-based story play. Some parents said they'd come to break up the monotony of the holiday week. But let's give them WAY more credit. Parents are our best collaborators because they care to seek out quality experiences for their children in a warm, friendly environment that accepts all participants. The easy thing to do would be to set children in front of a screen and check out. But parents need connection too. They need to find people who want to give their children quality, real-life experiences and just be in communion with other adults at the same time. A Big High-Five to every parent who made the trek out to our creative space! 

Children took to the room with ease, owning the space, adding their insights and asking permission (which is almost always granted with only a bit of question) to explore a new material in our "Curious Cabinet". 

One child asked politely what the balls of colorful yarn were intend for. She is a student of the Waldorf school, so wondered if it was for "Twiddling", a term I was unfamiliar with, but with which my teaching partner Kristin was well versed. The child carefully inquired, "Because I have never been here, I don't know what you use that for". I asked her to teach me this word and she found a willing partner to do so. They held the ends and delicately, purposefully, twisted the two colors into a long, lovely braid. Afterward, I also invited her think outside of her usual method of using yarn. Eventually, she created a beautiful woven circle on a metallic sheet of packing paper from a pizza take-out restaurant. It later became part of our lovely hanging "stones" installation in front of the projector. 

My nine-year-old daughter was a gift to the day as she was on winter break from school. She spent a significant period of time playing her guitar and discovered over the half hour that she could figure out how to pay most any children's favorite tune with three simple chords. She backed up a story read by an older participant, our dear friend Heaven (co-actor in Spirit Ship) who read the book "Milo and the Magic Stones" to a riveted audience of children who huddled around her. After the reading, the children offered ideas for how they might create their own magic stones on velum with markers. These also became beautiful additions to our hanging stones installation. If we were to have a permanent space, these creations would live for an extended time to be mused and marveled at. Who knows what their presence could inspire for future workshops! 

Our colleague Linda, a play facilitator, joined today to read a treasured book "My Head is Full of Colors". Sadly out of print, this remarkable book tells the story of girl's journey through her own passions and interests in a way that children  can identify. Linda's reading had children riveted. 

Our always present projector sat beside a box of growing luminous objects for light and color exploration. All of the children eventually took their turns exploring the shaped and colors illuminated on the wall. Eventually we learned that placing the projector on the floor lent itself to more easy access. We are still learning! But we love the element of light as a material always gracing the space with it's potential.

Another boy peered into the "Curious Cabinet" and found a jar of small plastic animal figures. He asked me politely if it was okay to play with them. Of course I acquiesced. I tend to allow new materials to "mix" with the ones we set out. This can, of course, create some chaos, and the issue should be thoughtfully addressed. At a Reggo-Emilia conference I attended at Leslie University some eight-years-ago, the conversation involved "mixing materials" and how Reggio-Emelia philosophy differed from the more organized philosophy of Montessori. The debate involved wondering why materials should be so segregated as outlined by some Montessori schools. I have to agree with the former, as I am an avid proponent that children will surprise us with their industriousness if we allow it.

A couple of six-year-old boys were also in house for our winter break workshop. The boys brought a rambunctious energy to the mix, playing with animal figures and telling stories at a table together. Boys often look for "characters" with faces. They are trying to investigate relationships and voice through the figurative form. It is more literal than the amorphous shapes and tops we also have on hand. Eventually one discovered that colored velum feels good to cut into mosaic squares. A bowl filled and filled and filled until red, yellow, green and blue squares were settled into a tin. We reached out to some children to create a mosaic pattern on the floor. 

CREATIVITY TAKES TIME

We must, as artists and educators remember that. When children enter a space they are new to, they need time to organize what is available. They need to navigate the space and seek out relationships with others. We cannot force the issue as adults. It isn't  fair to do so. But a turn to jumping and more aggressive behavior for boys is not wrong. It will pass. Eventually children gravitate to the salient nature of materials. 

We had the added caveat of attending to multi-aged groups. Our wonderful older children serve as guides for the younger but also need time to hone their own creative inklings. We had set out a table of real stones to be painted. Few children recoiled from that prospect. There is a calming effect of painting that even children as young as three can accomplish. We were inspired by one young child who had much experience with painting as her mother said she provides that experience frequently for her daughter at home. In fact, this young child's fine motor control was exceptional, as the mother claimed she also knows how to eat with chopsticks! Let's never again pigeonhole children into what we think they "should" be able to do based on age.

Repurposed CD boxes were also a huge hit of the day. Our oldest participant, Heaven, commenced to create displays of our materials in rainbow fashion. We decided to have big ideas for these. So many things can be placed inside!  We had beautiful pieces of colorful plastic bags, tissue paper, puzzle pieces, paint sample papers, pop cycle sticks, fabric, and the list goes on! We explored what materials were transparent in the light and also which new positioning could occur with the juxtaposition of boxes on boxes.  

A cd full of puzzle pieces on top of a cd full of colorful paint chips and sticks. 

While we are committed to "loose parts" in discovery of making, we found that several children wanted and needed the element of the permanent. They wanted glue or tape to secure their artwork upon a surface. Children as young as three were asking for such as material. We offered tape and even tissue with water to save the forms in a way that could be mounted and displayed. 

Circles abounded throughout the day. This was not intentional. But seemed so in keeping with the story of the magic stones. Later we discovered that all the children's creation would become part of a beautiful hanging installation!

Our two older children were invited to create a rainbow installation on the wall. We LOVE installation art and encourage collaboration in this effort. Over time, we feel that a space can easily be transformed by the children themselves. It is their world, their visual residence. We want them to understand that every aspect of the space belongs to them to create visual transformation. Art is everywhere and materials are their friends...open and available...a malleable resource. 

The abilities and wisdoms of children varied today. Each came with personal skills, gifts, ideas, experiences to amaze. We are forever amazed at what children can do. We want to provide the tools and the guidance to open minds and to help children show who they are. They will remember that experience more than anything else. We guarantee it. Sounds like a sales pitch but we are not selling. We are documenting. Come learn with us!

Shadows and Paint

Shadows and Paint were but a few of the materials on hand for our young visitors on the last day at the Red Hook Library in December of 2013, before taking a 1-2 month break. Realizing we needed to invest more time and energy into fundraising, we decided we had to close up shop; but not before inviting kindred spirits from Brooklyn Apple Academy to share in a day of free exploration and crafting. 

Oh, there's an elephant in the room! No, really things are quite honest here. Elephants apparently love to frolic on the grass, that is true.

We laid out our materials with care and took our six young visitors, two adult chaperones and teaching director Noah Apple Mayers on a tour of the space. They were then free to choose a "station" that most appealed to their creative impulses. Shadow and Paint seemed to have the most draw. But squishing polymer clay through a pasta press, gluing together found objects to create ornaments, and rolling sculptures were close contenders. Today we were so much more focused on a social environment, getting to know each other and making together, that we had little time to document stories in writing. That was okay! We were happy to save that for next time.

One of the things we are discovering about our time at the Red Hook Library and at Beam Center, is that consistency with a group of children we see regularly over a length of time is missing.  As we have been opening our doors on a drop-in basis, we are unable to provide a truly project-based approach. This is part of growing our community as a grassroots entity, but it leaves behind much of what we hold to be truth about how children learn most deeply. We are looking to provide long-term and deep learning for our students. It is very important that we find children and parents who are willing to work together with us over a committed length of time.  There is a great deal of research to support our beliefs. We hope we find this community soon!

Painting Together

Teachers and children paint together. Watercolor on tiny cards are very appealing and draw out a lot of creativity over lively conversation and getting aquainted with our new friends.

Children build characters out of our favorite amorphous, plastic shapes. This mysterious learning tool/toy was procured from a stoop sale, so we have no idea where to purchase it. For all we know, it comes from another country (not a surprise in Brooklyn). The blue shape is the outside of a spirograph piece. We cut the grass shapes out of black paper. The tree shapes came with a paper shadow theater set we purchased. And the red middle piece came from the transparent geometric connector set we own. We believe in putting lots of different options out. Even we are learning new things from this! We love it.

Materials!

We carefully curate the materials we provide on any given day, to maintain a delicate balance between too much information and too many limitations. This is something with which we continue to learn and experiment. Textures, colors and forms become more relevant when they are used in combination for a specific purpose. Often the items we provide lay untouched for an entire session. That is okay.  Having them there may function as a provocation, or simply a crucial step in a child's thinking process. 

All in the Making, the Doing, or Perhaps Just Looking

Children enjoy pressing clay through a pasta press and watching the colors blend, then mushing them together to add to a found object sculpture. We honor every interesting thing, take photos, hold things up to light, and place them back down for another's curious examination.

Shadow Theater is so FUN!!

This young boy puts his whole body into the story, dancing and flying his self-created character across the shadow wall. This activity kept him enthralled for quite a time as he watched the scene morph and grow at his will. There is a joy and an ease in this kind of natural play that we LOVE to witness.

Children's Work is Real and Serious

For all the people in the room, there was still quite a bit of focus. One boy discovered how to make a working wheel with a cork, two CDs and some hot glue. Wow! It even made an interesting squeaking noise to rival any real mouse out there. He loved it so much, he was excited to take it home. The Brooklyn Apple children, teachers and parents were generous to gift us many of their painted cards to sell at the market. We were so happy to host a day with this wonderful group of children and the Apple School, and we hope for more collaborations on the horizon. 

Spreading the Word

On December 7th, we joined hands to celebrate Red Hook and the holiday season at a new craft fair started by Monica Byrne and Leisah Swenson, the owners of Home/Made. The market was set up inside an intimate and beautifully candlelit space on Commerce Street in Red Hook. In an effort to gain visibility for Find & Seek within the community and to build bridges with local business and artisans who might share an interest in our vision for children, we set up a table to demonstrate a craftier side of our organization and to raise funds. Jewelry and dolls designed by Kristin, little dolls and ornaments created by some of our students and own children, and hand-painted cards made by teachers were for sale. In addition, a collection of images looping on a laptop screen were on display to demonstrate our practice.

The day before the craft fair, on our last Find & Seek day at the Red Hook Library, we had had the privilege of hosting Noah Apple Mayers and his school, Brooklyn Apple Academy, in our Materials Lab. 

The adults in the group--Noah and a chaperone/father--really got into the making of painted holiday cards. Here you can see the wide range of our creations.

Images of practice looping on the laptop.

We were lucky to be situated next to Claudia Zoe Bedrick of Enchanted Lion Books, a small children's book publishing company that happens to be located on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook.  We were already familiar with the wonderful Emma's Journey, but today got to know many more of the titles Claudia has published, and we are excited to keep in touch with her for years to come.  As her website rightly states, "[Our books] evince a fierce belief in the imagination, exploring the inner world as richly as the world around us."  We also caught up with Tera Peterson of Lunacy Design and the artist L. Nichols (currently Window Shop resident at Beam Center), and met the lovely Karen Hagopian, a ceramic artist. All in all, we made some great new friends and were inspired by the dreaminess of the space and warmth of the community. So many little lovely surprises await in Red Hook as we continue to put ourselves out into the world and foster genuine relationships with the people here. So much good will! 

Magestic ceilings, a skylight and candlelight create a cozy feeling.

Aunt Claire reads one of the lovely Enchanted Lion books to Magnolia, who had quite an enchanted experience exploring Claudia's many amazing picture book offerings.

Magnolia and a friend explore the Find & Seek bead collection.

Kristin made felted acorns in a felted bowl! Fun, natural, colorful. Elisha and her daughter Sophia crafted a felt and yarn headband with braided strands. 

A reclaimed doll house, painted blue and gray by Elisha's two children, served as a perfect shelf to display  fairy dolls, cork dolls, and felted treasure. So sweet!

Everywhere Find & Seek goes, mason jars and tree branches seem to follow! 

Some of Kristin's jewelry work on display. Her work incorporates hand painted beads, vintage beads and natural seed pod beads. You can seek more of her options for purchase at her Etsy site! Please do, help to support the arts and wear an original piece. Kristin also works on commission and has a large collection of paintings and prints to sell. 

Floating Stories at Beam

Setting Up for Movement Stories

On our third day at the glorious Beam space, we created a fantastical web like structure out of multicolored yarn to set the stage for dramatic story play. The Beam space was a perfect room to draw out the yarn environment as the threads could be walked, twisted, overlapped and wrapped around three prominent columns in the center of the space. The children helped to design the room by balancing cardboard ledges, hanging fabric, and weaving ribbons. 

Ribbons are loose parts waiting to be used.

A cozy interior space creates a tunnel and place to lay beneath it's whispering "branches". The children say the spools remind them of mushrooms.

Yarn creates a ceiling. Paper and cardboard balance and float upon the weblike structure of the children's fort.

Arms reaching upward as the children take flight.

We began the experience with a meeting circle to discuss the nuances and properties of air and things that float. This sequed into a movement adventure story lead by Elisha and set to the wonderful musical score from the motion picture Big Fish. In the dimly lit, twinkling room, surrounded by clouds projected on the wall, the story guided children on a journey from their sleeping rooms  into an imaginary forest land where they crawled through secret passageways, floated on cotton candy clouds, took flight on the back of a giant sea turtle, transformed into mermaids, found shell treasures buried in the sea floor sand, and danced through space as if immersed in water and floating on air. Through the story play, children were allowed to experiment with their own ways of floating and flying and were invited to express what associations arose for them as they did so. It was a joyful and uniquely improvised dance adventure indeed! 

 

Rolling, crawling, creeping, sleeping, hiding, exploring...children help to improvise and move through the vocabulary of the movement story.

Sharing space beneath a wave.

Illuminated line drawing.

Drawing with Light

The wall was aglow with our signature strings of lights, this time in the shape of mountain. Once again, we used the wall as a canvas for the light strings to create a scenic backdrop. The girls were invited to help tape up more lights into whatever shapes they chose to pursue.  They spoke quietly among themselves as they “drew” with light.

Climb to the top of a mountain in the sky!

We imagined the children would be inspired to add much more of their personal touches to this growing space so we provided yarn and ribbons, and a stack of our favorite linkable architectural cardboard squares (for balancing once the web was strong enough to bear weight) . However, children were more engaged in physicalizing their imaginary story to play out ideas, crawling beneath the low hanging ceiling of the fort and building a tiny room space out of cardboard to provide shelter for a stuffed doll. 

Building a space just right for a doll and a blanket.

Take a peek inside the safe little hideaway. 

Taking a slow walk through the shadowy fairy forest.

Shadow shapes tell stories of clouds and kites.

Time to Make!

The materials library is always an important part of investigating visual expression during our workshops. To allow time for making, we had materials on hand to develop floating structures, fairy houses, whatever the children were inclined to do.  Rolls of colorful tape, cardboard odds and ends, yarn, sticks, stretchy bands, buttons and corks...oh the possibilities are endless.  We posed the question "how might some of these items be combined and attached to make something new, something that reminds us of the story just experienced"?  This part of the workshop is lacking in documentation. As teachers think this is an area to discuss. But we are always learning, growing, open to experimenting as we attempt to follow the lead of our student's creative learning impulses. 

For the Love of Wearable Art

It never seems quite complete with us until a child dons a scarf or creates a wearable accessory out of found materials, which almost always seem to occur at some point. This time cardboard ribbon spools are threaded onto a pink, satin ribbon, fashioning a special necklace that soon becomes offered as a gift for Mommy. It is a perfect ending to a perfect morning at Find and Seek.

Found in Red Hook

As NYC neighborhoods go, Red Hook has more than its share of fascinating characters, whose lives contribute to cryptic, tumultuous stories.  Strange artifacts often drift into the streets, where they beg for explanation.  As it happens, one of us who will remain nameless has a mysterious little blog called Found in Red Hook, which grew out of her odd finds during her neighborhood walks. The photographs that make up the soul of that site became the inspiration for the following video, which shows a bit of Red Hook, before and after Superstorm Sandy. Taking the lead from years of work we did through Digital Story Workshop and then Little Creatures Films, the video weaves together two of the threads we are combining in our Find & Seek program at the library: treasure and children. Red Hook, lost village by the sea, within yet very separate from NYC, is home to many hidden treasures, and many little children. At Find & Seek we are wondering: can't we find a way to bring the treasures to the children (metaphorically and literally)? Don't the children need to explore the treasures? Don't they have a lot to say about the treasures? (See Spirit Ship for more on mysterious treasure-finding in Red Hook). Could the children's framing and reframing of the treasures help to transform a neighborhood with many aching needs?  One year post-Sandy, those needs and questions are still very prescient.  If you have a few moments, sit back and take in this six-minute collection of stories and images from our neighborhood by the sea: 

What Sandy wrought, Red Hook has come together to heal.  But the process is long, and it is by no means finished. Sandy brought to light many inequalities that have become entrenched in Red Hook over the past century. Find & Seek was borne out of our need to respond to the disenfranchisement Sandy shined a light on, but which was always there before the storm, and which is still here. We are developing our innovative early childhood program to respond to real needs in Red Hook. We are seeking partners who are able to support our work with dollars, so that we can continue to provide open-ended play, materials exploration and storytelling to Red Hook's youngest. 

If these images and stories call out to you, perhaps you would like to pitch in and help with what we consider a project in long-term healing and prevention. You can give tax-deductible donations online through our fiscal sponsor World Education Endeavor (type "Find & Seek" in the PayPal memo). We will soon be launching a fundraising campaign on RocketHub, and we will also be raising funds locally, in collaboration with our partner Samora Coles' Alex House Project, a program which provides mentoring and resources to young mothers. To strengthen Red Hook's ongoing healing process, and to support children and families' resilience in the face of the struggles life brings, we are commited to getting to know Red Hook's youngest and their families, and to providing excellent early childhood education that is free and accessible.

Building Neighborhood Stories

Elisha and Kristin retell their own version of "The Three Little Pigs" contrasting themes of bullying with acts of kindness. This opens dialogue encouraging children to share ideas of how friendship occurs.

We gathered in our lovely Red Hook Library home for another Friday of Story Play and Materials Lab, on a morning just sunny enough for wandering feet to play outside on the back patio between stories. Thanks to our friends at Happy Hours Day Care, and familiar faces from the weeks prior, we all gathered for a very special treat: a playful and captivating puppet show of the Three Little Pigs, performed in full character by Elisha and Kristin. Even our most squirmy little friends sat cross-legged with eyes glued to the knitted, finger puppet piggies and the fuzzy, orange big bad wolf. A few brave little explorers even scooted up close enough to pet our beastly puppet or feel the lovely straw, stick, and brick houses, all home-built with natural materials. It’s always amazing to see the curious gaze on those little faces, as their eyes peek through the mini-door of the straw house or their fingers feel the rough brick next to the soft knit piggy puppet. 

Meetings at the library always begin with song.

We then had everyone open our big red farm house and pick one (or two or three!) farm friends of their own, greeted by a chorus of preference and story: 

“I like soft animals!” 

“Cow and Horse are going into their little wooded house!”

“Princess Asania lives in the brick house.” 

We had a few girls very interested in the big bad wolf, as well, offering him lessons on how to make friends: “You say hello to them first and then you ask their names.” And comforting him, agreeing that he was just misunderstood: “Cow and Horse don’t say you’re a bad wolf,” “You’re a nice, good, friendly wolf.” This amicable play concluded with many hugs for the happily beaming big bad wolf puppet. 

"Who is that moving into my neighborhood?" chortles the Beastly Wolf as he plots to make waves. But Kindly Alpaca sweetly offers to help a little pig on his journey to set down roots in town. 

After the puppet show, the neighborhood is open for business as a children's puppet show:  children are invited to choose puppets, handle the props, move around houses and engage in a new conversation with the wolf about how to make friends. 

Our Materials Lab was a continuation of our Big Bad Wolf story, and we were lucky enough to have a few faces stay for both classes to try out our afternoon of building. With natural materials including sticks, acorn tops, dried flowers, crisp leaves, among others, each maker was given a real brick and a pile of homemade play dough to start building their own home for the piggies.  We had great ambition: “I wanna make a big house!”

One three-year-old was a big fan of the play dough. She even buried “a little tiny tent” under a mound of “grass” (green dough). Using the play horse and pigs she made a story out of her house: 

“A little horsey walked through the grass and fell into the trash water. His mommy was super strong and the horsey when to his mommy.”

Two young girls set up a “Nature Store” - “I’m not going to buy it, I’m the waitress in the store!" exclaimed one child imaginatively.

So many choices! Our student intern, Morgan, encourages story dialogue as children sift through materials. 

During Materials Lab, we always open the Cupboard of Curiosities to reveal jars glistening with colorful bits in all textures. A table is set out with bowls of natural materials for building houses. We use homemade play dough as glue.

Children begin to build with brick, home made play dough and natural materials of their choice. Little plastic animals enhance story play.

Midway through class, a young boy arrived, enthusiastically making use of all the building materials as well as the projector to tell the story of his house. We improvised a story of the big bad wolf befriending Pig #3, and their travels to different locations all around the world: the desert, the jungle, and in their home. 

It was a lovely day with some beautiful stories told and houses made. The little piggy dwellings now live on top of the ever expanding materials closet that we sometimes refer to as "The Cupboard of Curiosities". It is full of Find & Seek found objects and materials for play in the weeks to come! Thank you to everyone for a magical day. 

Sticks and straw build a fortress of walls with a little interior space hidden within. His mother is inspired to create a doll out of a pinecone as they work together side by side. 

Many children love to take time to look closely and take pride in discovering new worlds of their own creation. 

The outside comes in and sometimes beckons us in as the garden space is reflected whimsically in the glass windows blocks of our room. Many thanks to photographer Barbara Murphy who helped us to document this day with her inspiring perspective.

by Morgan Urquia

Tables Should Be Round

 Find & Seek hosts ongoing discussions about education in Red Hook. We co-hosted (with Anthony Fatato of World Education Endeavor) our first round table in the back classroom at the Red Hook Public Library (the same room where we give our classes) on the evening of September 10, and filled the room with representatives from Good Shepherd Services, Red Hook Initiative, Brooklyn Public Library, PS 15 (Principal & PTA), Brooklyn New School, Young Life (and its new Red Hook chapter of Young Lives, a service for young mothers), the Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs, Kentler International Drawing Space, Project Hope, and the Library’s GRE program. At that meeting we introduced our program by sharing images of our practice, and we invited members of the Red Hook community to discuss inspiring stories that had come about in and through their work with children.

Vivian Paley's book and the catalogue for the Reggio Emilia traveling exhibition The Wonder of Learning, front and center. We won't say we haven't been influenced.....

Sept 10 education round table at our Find & Seek venue, the back classroom of the Red Hook Public Library.

Rasheed of RHI looks on as his 2-year-old son plays, during our Sept round table meeting.

Our latest conversation widened to include other educators' voices from around NYC and Boston. On the evening of Oct 23 at the Miccio Center (NYCHA) in Red Hook, Find & Seek and WE Endeavor co-hosted a conversation with Alyssa Kierkegaard, the program director of the Boston-based group the National Institute for Student-Centered Education.  NISCE provided valuable context to the meeting with their model of "Why Context Matters– A Professional Conversation on Student-Centered Education.” Our discussion was facilitated by Anna Allanbrook, the principal of Brooklyn New School, and included voices from Red Hook Playgroup, Bumblebees R Us, the Alex House Project (for Red Hook young mothers), Cora Dance Studio, Red Hook Makerspace, Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, A Child Grows in Brooklyn blog, and parents and educators from the Red Hook and larger NYC community.  At Find & Seek we were happy to find a kindred spirit in Alyssa Kierkegaard of NISCE, who posed some great questions to our group about our collective efforts to achieve true child-centered education: How well are we doing in teaching to each child as an individual? Where is variability in teaching happening? Have we found any approaches that are scalable beyond a single classroom, school or district? All who attended seemed to have been led there by the power of these questions.

On Oct 23, Find & Seek, WE-Endeavor and the National Institute for Student-Centered Education hosted a meeting for educators from Red Hook and beyond.

Anna Allanbrook opened the conversation with her claim that child-centered education is at risk. She then helped to provide a framework for student-centered education within Brooklyn New School (PS 146), by setting out a well-articulated definition that placed “relationship” at the center, and which followed the course of “flexibility” in teaching since the school’s inception in 1987. The emphasis on relationship was echoed by the recommended reading--a NISCE paper written by Dearborn Academy Director Mark Dix, “Putting Student-Centered Education in Context.”  Because relationship lies at the heart of the Brooklyn New School mission, all learning that takes place at BNS is dependent upon the child feeling safe within the school environment and with members of his/her classroom community. Secondly, Anna pointed out that each child’s learning must be differentiated and teachers must try very hard to determine what success means for each child. Anna provided thoughtful guidelines for implementation of child-centered education. She mentioned many, but these stood out:

• The school environment should support children in taking risks and making discoveries on their own.

• Children should be allowed to learn at their own pace.

• Teachers need to pay attention to a child’s development of interpersonal and social skills.

• Schools should avoid tracking with favor placed on diversity so that children can learn different things from one another.

• Schools should invite parents into the classroom on a daily basis.

Perhaps you can see: our round table produced an amazing discussion!

Many in the room wondered why this model is not being implemented more widely today. “Since everyone loves BNS, why aren’t there more schools like it?” The discussion touched upon another point made by Dix in the NISCE paper, that schools seem to be still operating as if we were living in the original industrial revolution, when schools were truly designed to create factory workers.  Anna lamented that many student teachers are finding it difficult to locate truly child-centered schools to study under in the city. If our new teachers cannot learn a child-centered approach from teachers who are actually practicing it, then where will they learn it? As Anna mentioned, the role of the teacher is always to be “watching”. She encouraged us to “go at a way slower pace” and do away with damaging initiatives like “Race to the Top”.

Some main points emerged from our discussion:

• Why is student-centered education at risk? What are the forces stopping it from growing? Many people in the room could find anecdotal evidence in their own lives or teaching practices where the exact opposite of child-centered approaches to learning were being modeled.

• Play, the arts, parental involvement and other facets of a well-designed child-centered school are inarguably important as we strive to serve the needs of all children.

• There is a great disconnect between the inspirational philosophy behind student-centered education and the reality of the situation within today’s public school classroom.

• Why aren’t parents included in school community? When schools close themselves off to parents,  they not only do not support child-centered education, but they pit parents against teachers. We agreed that parents and teachers need to work together more.

This event was Boston-based NISCE's first NYC Professional Conversation. NISCE Program Director Alyssa Kierkegaard co-hosted with Find & Seek and WE-Endeavor, and NISCE board member Nanci Brody attended.

Another idea arose: “We live in a culture of fear.” If that is the case, we must ask, as writer and mother Sarah Moriarty did, “What is everyone afraid of?” We agreed that there are a host of forces in education and society which are at odds with child-centered education: poverty, unequal schooling environments, big business in education, teachers facing top-down mandates, and a culture of teaching to the test.  Educators Takiema Bunche Smith and Joseph Ubiles reminded us of the danger of attempting to solve the complex problem of educational equality when inequities are so persistent a reality in our society. If children are not coming to school from a warm home, where they are well-fed, then how can we teach them?  “Child-centered learning” is thrown around a lot as a pedagogical term, and it sounds great in theory. As educator and mother Mollie McQuarrie noted, there are ever growing volumes of research in neuroscience to support it, and press touting it, but still our country is seriously struggling with allowing all children to access it.

At our next round table, we will discuss the  “how" of child-centered education: real life examples of ways it is working in the world. Real anecdotes of teachers’ and administrators’ practices and challenges when it comes to designing and best utilizing a child-centered environment. For Find & Seek, as educators with an eye to documentation, we are asking ourselves:  how might we make successful progressive schools, schools who are excellent at doing the how well, more visible to the the public at large, so as to begin to dispel some of the fears and myths surrounding student-centered education?  We are committed to having more conversations like this one, gathering together with kindred spirits in Red Hook and beyond to mobilize around this issue and to educate beyond families and schools. This will help us to deepen our understanding of student-centered education, so that we can become better advocates for it, especially as NYC experiences a massive shift in local government, in just a few weeks.

Find & Seek at Beam Center

Saturday, September 28 at Beam Center in Cobble Hill marked our very first official Find & Seek class for 4-5 year-old children. We had a lovely time with six children ages 4-8, whose parents had responded to our online promotion of a Free First Class.  The class included these activities: shape-shadow stories at the Overhead Projector, creating structures out of cardboard and tape, drawing large scale buildings on the wall, atop paper onto which we projected cityscapes, working with magnatiles and sparkly gems on light boxes, and building with large scale perforated cardboard pieces.  There was so much wonderful action going on! We did our best to document the children's ideas and intuitive building projects.

As the children drew their dream houses on a wall superimposed with projections of cityscapes, here are some of their explanations of their work: 

C: I drew a house with a door knocker and a treasure chest and a kitty cat on top.

V: This is a balloon because it's almost my birthday, and inside I made a piñata.

E: This is my house with a jet on the top. It's flying. 

When one child entered into the space separated from the room by our hanging wire sculpture and some beautiful white paper packing material, she called it the "Art House," and proceeded to press a seemingly invisible point on the wall and call that a Secret Button that opened the door.

Another child became engrossed in building a tunnel out of the large scale cardboard stacking materials. He kept making and re-making the tunnel, going inside it, and soon began placing treasures deep within the structure.   

The official description of this pilot class:

In this 5-part series of workshops, we at Find & Seek are inviting children to transform the BEAM Center space into a playground of materials and ideas. Children will have a rare extended opportunity to experiment with a range of overlapping languages: storytelling, improvisation, hands-on making, space transformation and group reflection. Children will tell collaborative stories and investigate a range of materials to create creatures, sculptures and architectural elements.  Two experienced artist educators will facilitate the play and construction, and they will also listen closely, poised to document the children’s curious journeys. The final class will feature an exhibit of discoveries, stories, images, sounds, words and videos from the children’s creative process.

For parents who would like to try this class out, we still have four more Fall Saturday dates.  The class will run from 10 - 11:30am on the following Saturdays:

10/5 (continues to the CARDBOARD CHALLENGE, from 11:30 until 5:30pm, open to the neighborhood--children, friends, parents, come one, come all, let's build a City of Dreams out of cardboard! Wonderful project created by the folks who made Caine's Arcade)....

10/12

10/26

11/2

Online registration for the upcoming four classes is HERE. You can register for all three together, or separately.

If we don't go to capacity we will also have space for DROP-INs, in which case you can bring your child to the class on any of those dates, FREE for the first class, then $45 thereafter.

We look forward to meeting you and your children!

For one child, the whole day was about creating this monumental tunnel structure. It was truly something to behold. Only children could fit inside it. It soon became a place where treasures could be stored.