Deb Curtis - The Art of Awareness: How Observation Can Transform Your Teaching

How Observation

Can Transform Your Teaching

Second Edition

DEB CURTIS AND MARGIE CARTER

Published by Redleaf Press

10 Yorkton Court

St. Paul, MN 55117

www.redleafpress.org

2000, 2013 by Deb Curtis and Margie Carter

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted on a specific page, no portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or capturing on any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio, television, or the Internet.

First edition published 2000. Second edition 2013.

Cover design by Jim Handrigan

Cover photograph by leaf / Veer

Interior design by Erin Kirk New and typeset in Adobe Chapparal Pro Excerpts and adaptations on pages 13, 41, 92, 108109, and 168169 are from Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit by Corita Kent and Jan Steward. Copyright 2008 by Corita Kent and Jan Steward. Reprinted with permission of Jan Steward and the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles.

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ISBN 978-1-60554-249-2 (e-book)

For Elizabeth Prescott, who first taught us the joy of observation, and all the early childhood educators thereafter who have been looking closely and delighting in children with us.

The ideas, experiences, and examples harvested for this book come from more places than we can remember or acknowledge. We apologize for any unintended omission of citations and extend our appreciation to all the instructors, authors, artists, and illustrators from whose work we have drawn inspiration.

A number of teachers and programs generously offered us their time, photographs, and observation stories for the first edition of this book, published in 2000, when digital photography was in its infancy in early childhood settings. So, while we continue to be grateful for their contributions, moving the book to full color with digital photographs meant we had to replace nearly every story and photo for this 2013 edition. For their contributions to this new edition, we give special thanks to the staff at Crescent Park Child Development Center , in Palo Alto, California, including Stephanie Hill, Jess Guiney, Sheena Wilton, Lindsay Juricich, Jesly Morales, Simone Fussell, Uwimana Middleton, Katja Davis, Michael Burrell, Julia Hill-Wright, and Tierney Falkner. Their exceptional child-centered work inspired Deb to work with them in opening a toddler room, and they generously contributed stories and photos to this book. Lorrie Baird, Samantha Monteith, Julie Thompson, Angela Hoar, Norma Curtis, Dianne Traynor, Nicole Kent, and Lisa Delgarno at Kawartha Child Care Services in Peterborough, Ontario, inspired us as they embraced the use of learning stories as a staff development tool, and they generously contributed samples of their work. Shelly Brandon from London Bridge Child Care Services in London, Ontario, contributed several thoughtful stories about her work with toddlers. Sarah Felstiner, Emily Viehauser, Sandra Floyd, and Jill Loreto of Hilltop Childrens Center in Seattle, Washington, continued to offer us terrific examples of how observation can inspire and transform ones teaching practice. After fifteen years of work at Hilltop, Ann Pelo has moved on to other endeavors, but her contributions to this book remain strong. Karina Rojas, Luz Casio, Elida Sangerman, and Laura McAlister offered us lovely observations and photos of their work to begin to practice the art of awareness in their bilingual centers of Sound Child Care Solutions , also in Seattle. For many years weve worked with the consultants and cohort teachers of United Way Bright Beginnings in Houston, Texas, and watched them grow in documenting their offerings of invitations of beautiful materials to children. Shannon McClelland, Kasondra Brown, Sanjuana Frank, Fran Brockington, Dana Hampton, Lorna Patterson, Patricia Hernandez, and Daisy Machac made contributions to this book from their teacher cohort work. Thanks to Betsy Surtshin and Victoria Varela of the Osher Marin JCC Child Development Center in San Rafael, California; Elizabeth Hicks, Christine Borgel, Cheryl Scott, and Cheryl Miller of the Point Pleasant Child Care Centres of Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Darlene Nantarath of the Acorn School in Toronto, Ontario. Yvonne Walker and Megan Montoya in the Phoenix, Arizona, area sent us detailed observations of the competencies of the special needs children with whom they work. Sue Briton of the Paradise Valley Community College Cohort Project in Phoenix made stories and photos available from our work there.

We are deeply appreciative of the inspiring work of our colleagues in Aotearoa, New Zealand, for the way they have taught us about including whnau families in documentation and the use of learning stories as both an assessment tool and professional development vehicle. Our study of their remarkable work and ongoing visits to centers have truly enhanced our understandings. Special thanks to Lorraine Manuel, Hanna Fale, and Jen Boyd at Tots Corner ; Thelma Chapman at Awhi Whnau Early Childhood Centre; Karen Wiley at Te Puna Kohungahunga ; Jenny Jones at Magic Garden Care and Education Centre ; Adrienne Wilkins, Maria Riepen, and Emma Parsons at Sophias Preschool; Chris Bayes and Gemma Smith in the Foundations Class at the Diocesan School for Girls ; Wendy Lee at the Educational Leadership Project ; and Margaret Carr at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. Gratitude to Peg Callaghan, Nancy Gerber, Donna King, and Kelly Ramsey, colleagues who continue to bring us photos and detailed stories about their time with children.

Thanks to Kerry Ruef and the folks at the Private Eye who first introduced us toand generously supplied us withjewelers loupes. And to Paul Fleishman who inspired us with his poems in two voices.

Our appreciation goes to David Heath, Douglas Schmitz, and the entire team at Redleaf Press who continue to strengthen the coherence and presentation of our work and help us to communicate our message to the early childhood field. They are a pleasure to work with.

And, as always, we are grateful to our families and friends, who continue to believe in and support us even as we get consumed by book projects. Their encouragement to pursue our passion for children and those who care for them makes it possible for us to do this work.

Im an early childhood teacher

I think of my work as

Its as if Im

The learning environment I create is clean and organized.