Hello everyone!

We are planning for our final documentation study session of this school year on Saturday, May 27, 2017, in our usual location Room 283B, Winters College, York University, at our usual time 10:00 – 12:00. Please feel welcome to attend with documentation or without.

Last meeting in April was a full house with people attending from child care and classroom settings, along with college and university students, and education administrators. It is fortunate too that some people attended with their colleagues and will be able to carry on their discussions about the documentation study processes together in their workplace. Thanks also to those that invested so much time travelling to attend. The efforts of everyone to be there rewarded us all with your diversity of experience and understandings. Gathering together is valuable in so many ways, but particularly because it offers us opportunities to learn about the variety of ways of considering how we think of being with young children.

Thank you to those that shared your documentation with us to study. This is such a generous act, allowing us to discuss your work and learn about your experiences. We appreciate this gesture of sharing. There were all sorts of formats and ideas and theories of what we thought the children might be thinking from the information that had been gathered in the documentation at this session. It’s so interesting to me how surprising it is to learn a completely different interpretation of the same study of documentation is completely plausible. For it is impossible to know what a child or any other another person is thinking, isn’t it?

A notable conversation for me was made by a person at the session and was shared with excitement. She noticed that she was coming to realize that the study of documentation was more than the study of children – it was the study of her own practice. This is an astute observation and one that I agree with completely. The opportunity to study documentation is an opportunity for professional development and doesn’t cost a thing – except your time, which in itself is the most valuable thing one can offer to another.

I hope that you have been enjoying these free sessions this year. Don’t forget to check out other interesting events that the Ontario Reggio Association is planning including: A Study Week in Reggio Emilia, Italy in March 2018; Emergent Curriculum Certificate program sessions this summer in Toronto, Ottawa, York Region, and Elora; and interesting speakers’ events.

We will be meeting in our usual Room 283B, Winters College, York University on May 27th from 10-12. Please register using Eventbrite for this free event. I look forward to seeing you there.

Best wishes,

Ellen