Reggio Emilia Aotearoa New Zealand

Reggio Emilia Study Tour

Next Tour – 15th – 20th April 2012
Registration forms will be available soon for Study Tour in April 2012

Reggio Emilia Aotearoa New Zealand (REANZ) is a Charitable Trust, and we are pleased to provide information for you about the April 2011 study tour to Reggio Emilia. Wendy Larmer will be leading the group. Wendy has been inspired by the pedagogy of Reggio Emilia for more than ten years, supporting teachers and Early Childhood Centres who also are inspired by Reggio Emilia. Prue Crarer will be supporting Wendy. Prue is Centre Manager of Early Learning Counties Manukau -Alfriston, Manurewa. Prue has a particular interest in the arts and a passion for assisting children’s thinking through the Hundred Languages. Prue’s centre exempifies her passion for excellence in the environment as the third teacher.

Times magazine, Jerome Bruno and Howard Gardner have all said that the educational opportunities that are offered by schools in Reggio Emilia are amongst the best in the world. To really understand how these infant toddler centres and preschools exist, one needs to see them for oneself. Join us for an experience that will inspire you to think more deeply about teaching and learning in your setting in Aotearoa New Zealand.

We will have opportunities to reflect on:

•The cultural context of Reggio Emilia
•The image of the child and the teacher
•The environment as third teacher
•The pedagogy of listening
•Making learning visible through documentation
•The role of the pedagogista and your role as a professional leader
•And so much more…

You can now follow us on Facebook.

Facebook is a social website that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them.

Future posts on our website http://www.reanz.org will automatically be posted on our Facebook page as well. We hope to integrate these two websites further so people not on Facebook don’t miss out on any discussions and vice versa.

By having a presence on Facebook we hope to reach out and link more social groups together, to encourage discussion around the pedagogy of Reggio Emilia within Aotearoa. Facebook also provides the ability to you to connect and stay in touch with people you meet along the way or even those you’ve lost touch with.

If you are a Facebook user, to follow us, just click the “Like” button on our website or on our Facebook page.

Our Facebook page is located here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reggio-Emilia-Aotearoa-New-Zealand/162853753728280

Please feel free provide feedback on how we can improve the integration between our website and Facebook page.

ecARTnz, the second issue, emagazine of professional practice
for early childhood educators in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Click here:Issue 2

This is the second evening of conversations in the series and brought to us three special people from Mana Tamariki Kohanga Reo in Palmerston North. Brenda Soutar, Miria Wipaki and Sherry Centeno. At Mana Tamariki, the whanau make a commitment to speak to their child and all other children enrolled at all times in Maori. The kohanga is part of the whole school; incorporating a kura for students until they leave after year 13.
Click here to read more: Brenda_Soutar_and_Miria_Wipaki[1]

The Seminar is now closed to new registrations, it is full

Date: Saturday 30th October 2010
Venue: St Cuthberts College, Market Rd, Epsom, Auckland
Time: 10.00am – 3.00pm
Cost: $65.00 (refreshments on arrival & lunch provided)
This event will provide new opportunities for teachers to consider the potential of the outdoors – how do we foster children’s relationship with the outdoors? Is it under utilized as the 3rd teacher in your context? Are you looking for inspiration and ideas?
The day will include 2 presentations from ECE educators who are leading the way in their commitment and recognition of the outdoor ‘classroom’ & for promoting sustainability. The day will also include opportunities for group discussion, facilitated by REANZ trust members Lesley Pohio & Helen Aitken and will provide an opportunity to visit and experience the outdoor environment of St James Kindergarten.
Presenters & Presentations:• Adrienne Wilkins (Sophia Preschool, Taranaki) ‘Citizenship, Community and Sustainability in a Taranaki Garden’
• Shelley Jolly, Tracey McAllister & Elaine Smith (St James Kindergarten, Auckland) The Greatest Tool – Natures Gift – The Outdoors’
REANZ Flyer – Environmental Sustainability Oct 2010

Exploring the pedagogy of Reggio
- Teachers of year one to three…
An invitation is extended to all Early Years teachers to join REANZ Trustees in exploring the pedagogy of Reggio Emilia. Through presentations, conversations and a workshop, we will explore the pedagogy of listening, centrality of relationships, and teacher as researcher. We will also talk about children’s theory making and children as individual and group learners.

The many possibilities of using Reggio principles in the New Zealand school environment will become apparent throughout the sessions.
Monday 13th September 7.00-9.00pm: Principles Underpinning Reggio Pedagogy; Denise Heald

Monday 18th October 7.00-9.00pm:The Pedagogy of Listening; Lesley Pohio

Monday 8th November 7.00-9.00pm:Children’s theory making through individual and group learning;
Chris Bayes and Glenys Waller.
Download the registration form here: Connecting the Early Years Conversations

A window on Reggio pedagogy through the eyes of Aotearoa New Zealand
This seminar will explore the pedagogy and practice of Reggio Emilia including the pedagogy of listening, centrality of relationships, the environment as third teacher and teacher as researcher. We will also talk about ‘projectazzione’ that have been undertaken by the community of learners from schools in Reggio. Alongside this, we will show how this pedagogy has inspired the work of teachers and children at Browns Bay Preschool.

Saturday 9th October: 9.00 – 3.00
Venue: City Impact Church
3 Hansen Rd, Queenstown.
Chris Bayes and Therese Visser are Trustees of REANZ and have been working with the pedagogy of Reggio Emilia for many years. Therese and Raewyn Brown teach at Browns Bay Preschool and they have been used the pedagogy of Reggio Emilia as a protagonist for thinking deeply about children’s learning.
Click here for registration form Queenstown Oct 9th

This Visit is now full!

6 th November 2010
REANZ, in friendship with Helensville Montessori, invites you to join us in visiting three exceptional learning spaces. Heather and her team have created a very special space that reflects both Montessori beginnings and influences from Reggio Emilia. You will visit the three classrooms for children from 2 – 6 years: Nido, Casa and Villa.

Heather’s leadership at Helensville Montessori has supported teachers to deconstruct and reconceptualise the gift that Maria Montessori passed on to the world.
Click here for registration form Helensville Montessori Nov 6th 2010

Cami Margasoiu_Telling Tales_ REANZ
Read a story of fantasy from one teacher in this room. Cami shared this documentation as part of an ongoing project in which the children were investigating fantasy.
From the children of the Stellar room, 3-5 year olds
Stellar is the Latin word for “stars”

In this classroom language, problem-solving and self-help skills are the “norm”. The children are active learners and teachers in their play. The environment is set up in the Reggio Emilia style whereby the environment is the third teacher. The children are able to interact with their environment, but there is also guidance from the teachers to encourage interest in the world around them.
The centre has installed a computer in this room so that the children can quickly access information on the things they’re interested in – with the opportunity to put together slide shows and video presentations using the classroom projector.
Here, the children are independent and mastering all the skills that have been initiated in the younger classrooms.
The children in the pre-school room are involved in short-term and long-term projects, based on their interests.
They’re encouraged to display their work on the walls for their families to view.

Please find attached Anne’s thoughts on her recent Study Tour to Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia Study – reflections on I-T provision

Conversations 2010 handout 

Please check the comments on the Conversations post further down.