This year, Peabody Terrace Children's Center is undertaking to explore a shared material - clay - across all of the classrooms. Children's interactions with this medium will primarily take place in the Studio with me, although teachers will also be encouraged to make space for this work to extend to their classrooms. As we begin this exploration together, I hoped to take a moment to elaborate a bit about the "whys and wherefores" behind this shared investigation and why it has the potential to be really powerful.
I am so excited for us to all explore the same medium
together for several reasons. First of all, I love the idea that this may
create a shared language across the center – that it will give both children
and teachers in the different classrooms something in common. The possibility
for growth, for shared experience, and for teaching that this offers seems very
rich to me.
Secondly, I believe
that this commitment to a single medium will help us, as teachers and observers,
to focus in on what the children are doing with the clay presented to them.
Sometimes there are so many different directions to go in the Studio, it can
feel overwhelming as to which to choose. And sometimes this plethora can be as
distracting for teachers as it is for children. Using clay as a centering point
will, I hope, offer us a chance to deepen our use of the cycle of inquiry in
relation to the Studio, and help us to build a practice that will outlast the
three months we explore clay.
Now, you may
be wondering how this “enforced” medium could possibly align with our practice
as a Reggio-inspired center. How can this work still be student-led? In answer,
I would say a few different things. I would say that our initial choice of a
material does not preclude the idea of our engagement in the Studio being led
by the children. In fact, by sticking with this material for three months, I
believe we are giving ourselves an opportunity to really dig in and allow the
children to “lead” us through their interactions and interests around this
material. It is our job to look closely at how they are interested in using it
and to think about how we can best support this interest.
I would also say
that, to me, one of the many roles of the Studio is to introduce children to
new media – to new ways of seeing, interacting with, and representing the world
– and to offer up these media as parts
of the world we live in. In this light, our clay investigation is an
opportunity to introduce our children to clay and to allow them to develop a
deep and meaningful relationship with it. Through clay, they are getting to
know the world, and they are developing a new language through which they can interpret it. This, to me, is very
much in tune with the idea of the hundred languages of children, which are so
central to our work here.
In addition, I would say that clay is not a
regimented material. It offers up so many
different possibilities. I do not feel we are limiting either the children
or their Studio experiences by choosing to work with it for three months.
Finally, by creating alternate “Open Times,” the schedule this year will allow
for other explorations in the studio in
addition to clay. In other words, the experiences of children in the Studio
need not be “limited” to clay at all. There are still other opportunities to be
seized!
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