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| 92nd Street Y's Reggio Emilia Early Childhood Conference (11.30.07) |
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| Tickets/Registration: 212.415.5500 |
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| Media Contact: Beverly Greenfield, 212.415.5452, email |
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| More Than 700 People Will Attend REGGIO EMILIA CONFERENCE; GROUND-BREAKING APPROACH TO EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Has Captured Worldwide Attention |
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| Speakers Include Renowned Early Childhood Experts KYLE PRUETT and RON LALLY, and Educational Leaders from the Italian Town of Reggio Emilia |
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"A grass-roots project that has become an international role model." — Newsweek |
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Friday, November 30, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM (check-in begins at 8:00 AM)
92nd Street Y (1395 Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street)
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| New York, NY, October, 30, 2007—A month before it is scheduled to take place, the first New York conference on a once-obscure educational approach pioneered in the 1960s by a town in northern Italy is almost sold out. In fact, full-day tickets — 375 of them — have been unavailable since early September, and an additional 400 tickets have been sold for the morning-only portion (only 50 tickets remain). The event is drawing participants from as far away as California and from nine states as well as the District of Columbia. |
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The town is Reggio Emilia, and its early childhood education philosophy has captured the imagination of educators around the world. The conference, REGGIO EMILIA: VISION AND PRACTICE, which will take place at the 92nd Street Y on Friday, November 30, from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, is a collaboration between the Y and the Italian Cultural Institute. The Institute, the cultural arm of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New York, is a longtime champion of Italy's educational programs and Reggio Emilia's, in particular. The 92nd Street Y has been a leader in early childhood education since founding its nursery school in 1938; today the Y's early childhood program, 92nd Street Y Wonderplay™: Early Childhood Learning, has a faculty of 150 early childhood educators who design and oversee over 400 imaginative, developmentally appropriate activities for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
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The popularity of the Reggio Emilia approach in the United States can be traced to 1991, when Newsweek named Reggio Emilia's preschools the best in the world, describing them as "a grass-roots project that has become an international role model." Over the years, and with the help of a Reggio off-shoot created for this very purpose, thousands of educators have traveled to Italy from around the world to see the Reggio Emilia approach in action (250 Americans visited on the most recent educators' tour, including 78 from New York). The Reggio philosophy has won the support of top early childhood experts including Harvard's Howard Gardner, Yale's Kyle Pruett, New York University's Jerome Bruner, Tufts' David Elkind, and Ron Lally, co-director of the WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies. Finally, including the U.S., the Reggio method has been incorporated into the curricula of schools in 15 countries, the others being Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
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Delivering the conference's keynote and closing addresses will be a group of American and Italian child development experts: Dr. Kyle Pruett, a clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale, an internationally known child psychiatrist, and an expert on children and family relationships; Dr. Ron Lally, co-director of San Francisco's WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies and a nationally known early childhood educator; Dr. Carlina Rinaldi, president of Reggio Children, a public-private partnership that shares the Reggio approach with educators around the world; and Dr. Sandra Piccinini, Reggio Emilia's commissioner of education and culture. Dr. Lella Gandini, who, as Reggio Emilia's U.S. liaison, is responsible for introducing the Reggio approach to educators throughout the country, will lead an afternoon workshop.
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| REGGIO EMILIA: VISION AND PRACTICE |
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Reggio Emilia educators start with the belief that children are able, resourceful, curious and inventive beings with an inherent desire to collaborate with each other and to articulate their ideas. Reggio schools emphasize the use of art as a central learning tool, and children are encouraged to come up with their own ideas for classroom projects. Notes a recent New York Times article, "The method so engages and electrifies children, its supporters contend, that they create work of unparalleled beauty and complexity."
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The November 30 conference will offer presentations by educational leaders from Reggio Emilia and American early childhood experts who endorse the Reggio philosophy. The speakers will address the role of the teacher, the classroom (atelier, or artist's studio, in Reggio parlance), documentation, art, and collaboration, and the importance of building relationships among teachers, children, parents and local communities.
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Participants will also be able to choose two workshops from among a group that explore how to apply the Reggio philosophy. The workshops, which are divided into Introductory, Advanced and Appropriate-for-All categories, will be led by members of the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA), a network of educators, parents and advocates. The workshop topics are listed below (note that the presence of the same title in the introductory and advanced categories indicates that the sessions have been tailored to each audience). For a complete schedule of workshops and of the keynote and closing sessions, please contact BEVERLY GREENFIELD at bgreenfield@92Y.org or 212.415.5452.
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| INTRODUCTORY — For those new to the Reggio approach: |
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Process of Change: Integrating the Reggio Approach into the Culture of a School |
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100 Languages of Children |
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Documentation As Communication with Parents: Creating Understanding About Children's Intellectual Processes and Learning |
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Teacher as Inquirer: Encounters of Getting Started |
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Inside the Atelier with an Atelierista |
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ADVANCED — For those working in Reggio-inspired educational settings or conducting research on the Reggio approach: |
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The Challenge of Change: Developing Learning Communities with a Shared Vision |
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100 Languages of Children |
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Documentation as Communication with Parents: Creating Understanding About Children's Intellectual Processes and Learning |
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Teacher as Inquirer: The Daily Life of Research and the Role of the Teacher |
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Classroom and Atelier Collaborations with First- and Second-Graders: The World Trade Center Memorial Park for Children |
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APPROPRIATE FOR ALL: |
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The Cycle of Inquiry and the Role of Documentation |
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Parents, Family and Community: When Parents and Families Become a Lifelong Community |
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Recycled, Re-Seen: The Possibilities of Found and Natural Materials |
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Deconstructing Block Play: Thinking and Building with Multiple Modular Forms |
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Three's Exploring Trees: A Year-Long Journey of Emergent Curriculum and Collaboration |
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Thinking and Designing with Thread |
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Getting to Know Wire |
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| 92ND STREET Y — EXPERTS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT |
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The Reggio Emilia conference is the natural outgrowth of both the warm relationship between the 92nd Street Y and the Italian Cultural Institute, a longtime champion of the Reggio Emilia initiative, and the 92nd Street Y's longstanding and wide-ranging early childhood program. The Y has seven decades of experience in the field starting with the 1938 founding of its nursery school, which continues to operate to this day and has become one of the city's most popular preschools.
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Through its 92nd Street Y Wonderplay™: Early Childhood Learning program, the Y works with its 150 early childhood educators to offer more than 400 engaging, imaginative, and developmentally appropriate activities for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. The activities include structured play groups, art, music, dance, science, sports, swimming, gymnastics, cooking, parent education and Jewish enrichment. With its vast resources and expertise in parenting, early childhood education, and family development, the Y is uniquely positioned to encourage curiosity and a love of learning, and to offer a welcoming community where parents can find support and expert guidance.
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| ABOUT THE 92nd STREET Y |
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Founded in 1874 by a group of visionary Jewish leaders, the 92nd Street Y has grown into a wide-ranging cultural, educational and community center serving people of all ages, races, faiths and backgrounds. The 92nd Street Y's mission is to enrich the lives of the over 300,000 people who visit each year — both in person and through the Y's satellite, television, radio and Internet broadcasts. The organization offers comprehensive performing arts, film and spoken word events; courses in the humanities, the arts, personal development and Jewish culture; activities and workshops for children, teenagers and parents; and health and fitness programs for people of every age. Committed to making its programs available to everyone, the 92nd Street Y awards nearly $1 million in scholarships annually and reaches out to 8,000 public school children through fully-subsidized arts education programs. For more information, please visit www.92Y.org. |
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| ABOUT THE ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE |
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Founded in 1961, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York is an official branch of the Italian government dedicated to the promotion of Italian language and culture in the United States. The Institute conforms to this commitment by fostering the cultural exchange between Italy and the USA in a variety of areas, from the arts to the humanities to science. Central to the Italian Institute of Culture of New York's mission is a constant effort to encourage the understanding and enjoyment of culture by the diverse audiences that New York has the privilege of serving. The development of academic exchanges, the organization and support of visual arts exhibitions, the aid to the translation and publication of Italian books, the promotion of Italian studies, and the cooperation with local institutions in the planning of various events that focus on Italian music, dance, cinema, theater, architecture, literature, cuisine, etc., are just a few examples of the Institute's initiatives. For more information, please visit, www.iicnewyork.esteri.it.
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| For press passes, a complete conference schedule and speaker bios, please contact Beverly Greenfield at bgreenfield@92Y.org or 212.415.5452. |
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PRESS INQUIRIES:
♦ 92nd Street Y: Beverly Greenfield, 212.415.5452, bgreenfield@92Y.org
♦ Italian Cultural Institute: Giuliana Ridolfi Cardillo, 212.879.4242, x324, giuliana.ridolfi@esteri.it
CONFERENCE TICKETS: www.92Y.org/reggio, 212.415.5648
♦ $150/Full Day (keynote addresses, closing address, afternoon workshops) — SOLD OUT
♦ $75/Morning Option (keynote addresses) — LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE
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© 2008 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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