I'm a Reggio Teacher

[hollytheteacher]

Hi I'm new here, but i teach at a reggo-inspired preschool. I'd love to answer any questions you might have. We are a "favorite" school in our community with a 3 year wait last! (this year none of them made it in because our current students all had little siblings waiting to get in!!) I may be biased because i work there, but it really is an amazing, loving, community-based, respectful, homey-like, multiage program. Anyway, I'd love to answer your questions if you have any!!

p.s. i will send my children to our reggio-inspired school because i believe in the philosophy so much!

[flyingspaghettimama]

Ok, I'll bite - what sorts of things would a reggio teacher recommend having in the home for a toddler/preschool aged child - activities, playspaces, toys?

What if you couldn't get into a reggio school (either full or too far or not around your city) - what would be something you'd recommend doing instead?

How could one determine if a Reggio school was of quality? What are the critical elements you feel are necessary and shouldn't be compromised?

[2crazykids]

subbing :

[LauraLoo]

I'm subbing, too. I have a tour scheduled at a RE school (pre-K through grade 5) mid-April.

[MollySue]

Originally Posted by hollytheteacher

Hi I'm new here, but i teach at a reggo-inspired preschool. I'd love to answer any questions you might have. We are a "favorite" school in our community with a 3 year wait last! (this year none of them made it in because our current students all had little siblings waiting to get in!!) I may be biased because i work there, but it really is an amazing, loving, community-based, respectful, homey-like, multiage program. Anyway, I'd love to answer your questions if you have any!!

p.s. i will send my children to our reggio-inspired school because i believe in the philosophy so much!

I started a Reggio school some years ago. We ran for three years until I decided that I loved the philosophy so much and believed in it so much that I wanted my dc to continue in such an environment through to college. Well, no such luck where I live. So, I closed the school and started home schooling my kids. The Reggio Way!!

[DTmama1]

I'm excited! Next week I get to go to an all-day seminar on Reggio and then visit Reggio-inspired preschools around the Indianapolis area. Part of the 3day Early Childhood Education conference I'm going to

I'm wondering what happened to the OP... she hasn't been back to answer any questions.
Melody

[hollytheteacher]

Originally Posted by flyingspaghettimama

Ok, I'll bite - what sorts of things would a reggio teacher recommend having in the home for a toddler/preschool aged child - activities, playspaces, toys?

What if you couldn't get into a reggio school (either full or too far or not around your city) - what would be something you'd recommend doing instead?

How could one determine if a Reggio school was of quality? What are the critical elements you feel are necessary and shouldn't be compromised?

Sorry i never checked back to see if anyone actually wrote to me on here or not! haha, i promise i wasn't trying to ignore your question!! Basically the biggest part of the philosophy that we try to emulate at our center is play-based learning. You would never find a group of children in a circle with worksheets and and pencils. If you look around our center you will see children being pirates in the indoor sandbox, painting pictures of all the nature/natural things in our school, planting seeds, making paper from pulp, reading with a teacher or by themselves in the cozy library, eating snack at the snack table (a homemade table in our kitchen made by the children) whenever they are hungry, etc. etc. etc. A way to look for quality, find out about the teachers: are they all licensed? Do they have their masters? Is the ratio teacher to student better than adequate? (at our center we have 6 teachers to 20 students). I would check in about such things as turnover rates. etc. I want to write more but my dh is calling me upstairs ....i promise to elaborate more later but hope that helps a little for now.

[molarmama]

Do you have any suggestions for preschool aged boys to play with at home? My 2 and 4 year old boys are in a University preschool which we have loved. While we spend time outside, have started a garden, and read often. But my kids seem to have trouble playing well together without constant adult interaction. I can't get them to engage in spontaneous play.

[LauraLoo]

Yay! Holly is back! I'm looking forward to hearing more about your suggestions and recommendations.

I had a great visit at the RE school in our area (ours goes from infant through 5th grade.) It was AMAZING! I enrolled ds on the spot for 1st grade next year and we're waiting to hear if dd will get a place in the preschool.....

[secondseconds]

Is there a listing somewhere of Reggio preschools? I worked at a Reggio preschool once in MN and fell in love!

[LankyLizards]

I would also love a list of Reggio pre-schools. I'm in FL and the only ones nearby seem to be in Miami, which isn't anywhere nearby! (Unless you don't mind a 6 hour commute!) So, if anyone knows of a list.....

[Tiffany_PartyOf5]

Originally Posted by LankyLizards

I would also love a list of Reggio pre-schools. I'm in FL and the only ones nearby seem to be in Miami, which isn't anywhere nearby! (Unless you don't mind a 6 hour commute!) So, if anyone knows of a list.....

I think there are 2 in Orlando.. if you are near there.. One is The Learning Center of Dr Phillips (near Dr Phillips Lake) and the other Im not sure of.. Ive just heard there is one.. we are moving to Orlando in August and Im trying to decide on school for ds.. Anyways, here in Jacksonville, we dont have a reggio emilia school so now I have more options to look at and Im sooo lost lol.. do I do montessori, reggio emilia, or traditional school, or just a daycare type prek? lolol AGHHH my head hurts

[umsami]

Originally Posted by Tiffany_PartyOf5

Anyways, here in Jacksonville,

There's a wonderful Waldorf preschool in Jacksonville Beach. The Seaside Playgarden, try www.jaxwaldorf.com or .org It's a magical place, about three or four blocks from the Beach.

There are also two charter Montessori schools. One downtown that has a Spanish-language immersion program... the other off of Hodges Blvd. I visited the Hodges one and l-o-v-e-d it. Each classroom has their own garden. You have to pay $300 or so per month for the 3 year olds, but once they're in official Preschool, you don't pay anything. We didn't make it in... 77 on the waiting list. Still, looks great.

There are also two or three private Montessori schools. Visited one in Southside which was nice... but a little expensive for our budget.

[hollytheteacher]

Originally Posted by umsami

There's a wonderful Waldorf preschool in Jacksonville Beach. The Seaside Playgarden, try www.jaxwaldorf.com or .org It's a magical place, about three or four blocks from the Beach.

There are also two charter Montessori schools. One downtown that has a Spanish-language immersion program... the other off of Hodges Blvd. I visited the Hodges one and l-o-v-e-d it. Each classroom has their own garden. You have to pay $300 or so per month for the 3 year olds, but once they're in official Preschool, you don't pay anything. We didn't make it in... 77 on the waiting list. Still, looks great.

There are also two or three private Montessori schools. Visited one in Southside which was nice... but a little expensive for our budget.

300 a month is cheap compared to Vermont. At my reggio-school it's 220 a week!

[jgm06]

What school do you teach at? I went to UVM and taught in their Campus Children's School which has been greatly influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach..

[reepicheep]

I am in the process of applying to a RE school in Atlanta. You don't work at the Grant Park Coop Preschool by any chance?
Rachel

[reepicheep]

oops, didn't read carefully enough..you aren't in Atlanta, and my dream job is safe! Well, hopefully... I would like to say, though, that I do not have a Master's degree and yet don't feel I'm UNqualified... I wouldn't want people to write off an entire school because some of the teachers don't have Master's degrees.
I think probably your best bet is to observe, observe, observe and to talk to other parents. I have worked in early education for 10 years and honestly have yet to meet a preschool teacher with a Master's degree, not that they don't exist. But even if they do have advanced degrees, this is no guarantee of quality. Direct observation can tell you things a piece of paper can't, like: how kind or warm is the teacher? How does s/he deal with conflict between children? When and if she feels the need to correct/redirect a child, does she do it gently or is her manner scolding and demeaning? These are things that are difficult to teach at a University.

[Lilypie]

I'm curious too is there a listing of Reggio schools somewhere? I can't seem to find any in PA where I live.

[Blooming]

:

Hollytheteacher


I can vouch for the reggio approach and the lovely Hollytheteacher (since we used to teach together and then she taught my children).


I love the reggio philosophy. I wish very much that we could form a school to fit through the high school years. I would be the first one to sign my kids up.


Oh and UVM's center-beautiful!

I don't know if there is a large data base for Reggio schools, that would be a wonderful resource. Another key word to look for is Emergent curriculum.


Here is a poem written by one of the key people who helped form the Reggio ideal (in the town of Reggio, Italy)
From: http://www.reggioinspired.com/poem.htm


No way. The hundred is there.

The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marvelling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.


Loris Malaguzzi
(translated by Lella Gandini)

[terranova]

subbing since i am very much interested in learning what the reggio approach looks like in practice. i'm in bc and it doesn't seem like many people have heard of it here. i have a pipe dream of manifesting a reggio inspired preschool here in nelson.

amy