Thursday, November 04, 2010

Earlyarts International UnConference (With Two Project Updates)

Installing our concrete pavers

Tomorrow morning I'm hopping a plane for Halifax, England where I will be taking part in the Earlyarts International UnConference on Tuesday, November 9.

I'll be running a workshop called Parents As Partners In Their Children's Learning as well as serving on a discussion panel later in the day.

Earlyarts is England's largest professional development network for people working creatively with children and families in the arts, cultural and early years sectors, providing resources with an eye toward helping develop skills to be employed in building creative learning environments and to embed a playful learning culture. Needless to say I'm honored to have been asked to take part, and particularly excited to meet colleagues from England and around the world, not to mention the keynote address from Sir Ken Robinson (who makes regular "appearances" on this blog, including both here and here) a patron of Earlyarts.

We decided to paint our giant glue collage gold

I'll be staying for the entire week and my hosts have organized a full itinerary for me. I'll be visiting early learning centers, schools, and other institutions that work with young children, where I'm sure I'll learn a lot while hopefully sharing some little piece of what I've learned about working with young children and their parents with my colleagues in England.


What will Woodland Park do without me for a week? What all cooperative preschools do. Our parent-teachers will be running their own school. I've left detailed instructions, but I've also encouraged my 5 official teacher assistants to work with their own child in figuring out what they want to do on the days I'm away. These days and weeks when I'm absent from class are probably the most child centered, child generated days they get all year. Our families could not be in better hands -- their own.


Perhaps the biggest news (at least as it impacts the readers of this blog) is that I'm not taking my laptop with me. I've written over 500 posts in the past 16 months, putting something up nearly every day, and I'm looking at this as an opportunity to take a little break and recharge a bit. And man what a way to recharge, to be surrounded by early childhood professionals, parents and creativity experts!

That said, I will of course have access to the internet while I'm away so it's possible I won't be able to keep my fingers off the keyboard . . .

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12 comments:

Amy A @ Child Central Station said...

What a wonderful opportunity! Have a great trip, recharge, and I look forward to checking in when you get back :).

Amelia said...

Have a lovely time!
It's rather wet and chilly over here so make sure you bring your warmest rainforest-wear.

Juliet Robertson said...

Hi Tom!

Enjoy your week! Wow! It will be really exciting.

Best wishes
Juliet

Annicles said...

Eee by gum!

I hope you get to see some of our lovely countryside while you are over here and your itinery isn't too packed that you don't get to enjoy some real ale in a real pub!

Barbara Zaborowski said...

I'm so jealous, Tom. Be sure to say "hi" to Sir Ken from me. I'm sure he'll know me; I'm one of his 27,780 followers on Twitter.

Marla McLean, Atelierista said...

Bon Voyage!
Wasn't familiar with this conference and it sounds fantastic.Hmmm, maybe next year.
I gave my University students the homework of watching Sir Ken Robinson's 2 Ted lectures online. He's wonderful.
Best of everything on your presenting. I'm sure you will do wonderfully.
Funny, I am presenting w/ Lilian Katz in Lima, Peru about creativity & young children, and Anna is presenting in CA for NAEYC, all at the same time! Well, we are all on the same mission and part of the same community. Have fun and get even more inspired. And I'm glad you are not taking your computer...you make me look so bad, only posting 1x every two weeks, lol!

Launa Hall said...

all righty, take a break if you must, but come back soon! I can't wait to read about the conference!

Lindsey said...

That sounds fantastic! I hope you have a lovely time in Blighty and eat a sausage roll while you're there (I really miss them out here in Ca). Such a shame that you're six weeks early, because we're going back in December and I'd have loved to try and meet up with you. maybe we'll manage to get ourselves up to your neck of the woods in the future though. I'm looking forward to hearing all about the unconference. I've actually spent a good while tonight trawling the RSA animate videos online, so that might have upped my jelousy quotient when learning that you're high fiving the likes of Sir Ken Robinson ;)

Unknown said...

I am so excited for you Tom. Will pray for your safe journey. May your learning be abundant! Love, Becky

Deborah said...

I can't wait to hear or read about your trip!! What an awesome experience! And I can't believe you left your laptop at home:)

Saya said...

That's such an awesome adventure!!! I'm looking forward to read all about it when you decided to get back to your keyboard and share your great experiences with us! :)
Have fun, and safe trip home! :)

Oh. Also... I'm impressed about your parent-teachers!

Anonymous said...

Hope your trip went well!
Thank you for all the inspiration that you give. Passed along a blog award to you!