Am Workshops: 10:30-12:00
1. Children’s Thinking and Their Use of Play Materials
Presenters:
Julie Diamond is a former NYC kindergarten teacher; author of Welcome to the Aquarium: A Year in the Lives of Children (The New Press, 2008). She taught for many years in the NYC public schools and currently supervises student teachers for New York University and The City College of New York’s School of Education. She is a graduate of Bank Street College of Education.
Fretta Reitzesis, Director of the 92nd Street Y’s Goldman Center for Youth & Family, and Wonderplay Early Childhood Initiative. She is the co-author of two books for parents of young children and early childhood educators, Wonderplay (Running Press, 1995) and Wonderplay, Too! (Running Press, 2007). She is a graduate of Bank Street College of Education.
Workshop Description:
In this workshop we will work with participants to describe the learning that can be fostered by children’s use of a range of classroom play materials. Other questions we will ask relate to the teacher’s role with these materials, methods for assessing use of materials, and ways of communicating with parents about children’s thinking and use of play materials.
2. Film: Where Do the Children Play?
Presenter:
Mary Rothschild, Director, Healthy Media Choices of Brattleboro, Vermont and Brooklyn, New York
Description:
This presentation will feature a screening of the PBS documentary Where Do the Children Play?followed by a discussion. Where Do the Children Play?is a documentary made for public television about changes in childhood from now and the past. It examines life for children and their families in small town, suburban and urban environments. Among the topics explored are the role of nature, the impact of technology and the media, and the role of parents in children's lives.
3. Bringing Stories to Life Through Play
Presenters:
Alison Porcelli, Staff Developer, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University
Cheryl Tyler, Principal, PS 277, Bronx, NY
Cara Biggane, teacher, PS 277, Bronx, NY
Jenna Campbell, teacher, PS 277, Bronx, NY
Description:
In this workshop, we will spotlight choice time and suggest concrete ways to teach into children’s explorations. We’ll suggest that we can bring the workshop structure into our choice time, teaching skills and strategies of effective learning through minilessons, conferences and strategy lessons. We suggest that a choice time workshop can provide a rich and supportive opportunity for children to develop language skills while also learning many of the constituent skills of strong reading and writing. In a choice time workshop, children can imagine, predict, envision, and problem solve, and they can do all this with support from each other, teachers, and literature. This work is about giving all children entry to the highest levels of comprehension by making meaning of their world through play. The constructivist nature of choice time (blocks, drama, and art) gives students a way to retell, infer, revise, interpret and synthesize stories and ideas.
4. “Fenced In Trees Cannot Play” - Nature, Mind and the Play of Imagining
Presenter:
Richard Lewis, Founder and Director of The Touchstone Center for Children in New York City. Begun in 1969, the Center's major interest, through its arts and education residencies and workshops in public schools, has been the life of the imagination and its relation to the natural world. In addition to his teaching, Richard Lewis is the editor and author of books (all published by the Touchstone Center) related to the creative and imaginative worlds of childhood, including When Thought is Young, Living By Wonder, I Catch My Moment, and a forthcoming collection of writings and reflections, Taking Flight, Standing Still: Teaching Toward Poetic and Imaginative Understanding.
Description:
This session will feature a conversation centered around the inseparable link between play in nature - and the 'nature' of our thoughts and imaginings - at play. Particular attention will be paid to the vital importance of this relationship as it manifests itself so profoundly throughout childhood - and beyond. Examples of the work of The Touchstone Center in public schools in New York City will be shared, in particular its In The Spirit of Play project which explored the many ways children express their own understandings of play, both in themselves, and the world and universe they inhabit.
5. Learning About and Through Our Built Environments: Active, Interdisciplinary Learning
Presenter:
Alan Feigenberg is Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture, The City College of New York and Affiliate Professor of Environmental Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has been a practicing architect for over 40 years and a teacher-facilitator for over 35 years. As a colleague of renowned architect/engineer/educator Mario Salvadori, Alan helped initiate programs in New York City public schools through the Salvadori Center on the Built Environment that use the urban environment as source for interdisciplinary, active learning. Through this work, the Salvadori Center has reached thousands of teachers and students, bringing an excitement about the learning potential that the urban environment holds.
Description of presentation:
This workshop will engage participants in an exploration of the CCNY environment to illustrate how teachers can use the built environment as a resource for math, science, social studies, and language learning. Implications will be drawn for how to structure active learning experiences for children to learn through and about the environment around us.
6. Block Building: A Hands-On Understanding
Presenter:
Betsy Grob is on the Graduate Faculty of Bank Street College of Education. She has worked for many years as an early childhood classroom teacher and now does staff development in early childhood classes in and around NYC. She also teaches Early Childhood Curriculum class and Observation at Bank Street College as well as summer weekend workshop on Block Building at The City College of New York's School of Education. In addition, she serves as a consultant at Goddard Riverside Head Start in New York City.
Description:
Attendees will be spending part of the workshop building and then we will “deconstruct” the learning that takes place as children, and adults, engage in meaningful block play.
7. Ordering Childhood: Explorations of Play in Teaching, Learning and Culture
Presenter:
Charles Malone is Lecturer in the Literacy Program of the Department of Childhood Education at The School of Education, The City College of New York. Additionally, he is a consultant at Global Neighborhood Secondary School in Manhattan. He has taught preschool, high-school, and many undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy, writing, teacher education, rhetoric and child studies.
Description:
Workshop participants will "play" with found poetry followed by a discussion of how play can be incorporated into literacy learning.
8. Mech-a-Blocks: Making Mechanisms in K-1
Presenters:
Gary Benenson is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The City College of New York, and Project Director of City Technology, an NSF-funded effort to promote and support technology education in the elementary grades. He is co- author of five Stuff that Works! curriculum guides, published by Heinemann Press, which are currently being used in urban, suburban and rural classrooms in 18 states. These materials make use of artifacts and problems from children's own environments, as sources for analysis and design; and integrate standards- based learning in math, science, ELA, and social studies.
Jim Neujahr is Professor in the Childhood Education Department at The City College of New York's School of Education and Co-Director of City Technology. He teaches the introductory undergraduate course in childhood education, Inquiry in Education, as well as science education courses and the Masters Degree research courses. He has been engaged in various National Science Foundation funded projects with colleagues in Physics, Engineering and Architecture for nearly 30 years. He is co-author, with Gary Benenson of the Stuff that Works! curriculum guides.
Travis Sloane is a teacher in the New York City Department of Education
Description:
Participants in this workshop will build things with Mech-a-Blocks, materials developed by the NSF-funded "Physical Science Comes Alive" Project to support the development of understandings of force and motion. Understandings will be expressed in words and drawings. We will share classroom experiences with K – 1 children and discuss how curriculum can be integrated around science.
9. Meet the Health Mandate: A Pre-K-12 Perspective on Movement in theClassroom
Presenters:
Martha Eddy, CMA, RSMT, Ed.D., is the Director of the Center for Kinesthetic Education. Her programs such as Conflict Resolution through Movement and Dance, Moving Dialogues, Moving Math, Dancing with the Brain in Mind, and Body Mind Dancing are known internationally. They all draw upon her expertise in Laban Movement Analysis and Body Mind Awareness. Martha has co-founded Moving-On Center for bridging bodily awareness with education, health, and/or the performing arts. She has published widely. Her articles are available at www.WellnessCKE.net with annotated citations of articles and book chapters.
Michelle Cohen is a professional dance artist and movement educator. She maintains a private movement practice in NYC where she specializes in spinal and joint health, performance training, and organ health.
Description:
This workshop will explore how movement awareness and activities can enhance lessons, transitions, and classroom management.
10. Language Enrichment Games as a Vehicle for Language Acquisition. This presentation will be conducted bilingually (English/Spanish).
Presenters:
Jesús Fraga is a Lecturer in the Bilingual/TESOL Program in the School of Education, The City College of New York. Previously he was the K-12 Director of World Languages and English Language Learner (ELL) Programs for Long Beach Public Schools, Long Island, NY and the Director of Dual Language Programs for the New York City Department of Education, where he provided leadership, staff, and program development to nearly 70 Dual Language programs/schools citywide. He is a product of public education and a strong advocate for its success.
Normita Aponte is a native of Puerto Rico with many years of experience in the labor movement. Currently she is a Bilingual Social Studies teacher at the International School for Liberal Arts (ISLA). She is a candidate in the Graduate Program in Bilingual/TESOL Education at the CCNY School of Education.
Miriam Ruiz came to the United States from the Dominican Repúblic at the age of 19. She has worked in a variety of contexts in New York City public schools and is currently completing her Master’s Degree in English as a Second Language (ESL) at The City College of New York.
Katsumi Yuso Ruiz is an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor for the Adult Literacy Program at The City College of New York. Born and raised in Mexico City, She currently is pursuing her masters in Secondary Spanish Education. Prior to coming to CCNY, she was an elementary school teacher for 4th and 6th grade at the Tepeyac Institute in Guadalajara, Mexico and a research professor at the Sierra Juarez State University in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Description:
This workshop will share language enrichment games that promote the four language modalities (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Implications for teaching and learning and the use of language games in bilingual and ESL classrooms will be discussed.
11. Crisis in the Kindergarten: New Research on the Disappearance of Play in Public Schools
Presenter:
Edward Miller is a founder of the Alliance for Childhood, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization. He is co-author of Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School(2009) and the editor of the Alliance’s two reports on children and technology: Fool’s Gold(2000) and Tech Tonic(2004). A former editor of the Harvard Education Letter, he has taught at Harvard University and at Sarah Lawrence College, where he is a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Child Development Institute. He is currently a visiting professor at City College and coordinator of the New York Coalition for Play.
Description of presentation:
Presentation of the research studies conducted in New York and Los Angeles that form the basis of the widely discussed 2009 report, Crisis in the Kindergarten. The session will include conversation with participants about the report’s recommendations for improving classroom and school practices to encourage complex play and playful learning, and ideas for effective advocacy for play-friendly policymaking.
12. Weaving Literacy Throughout a Playful and Joyful Choice Time
Presenters:
Connie Norgren is a New York City public school teacher with over 40 years of teaching early childhood in New York City, mainly at P.S. 321. Now retired from full-time teaching, she is a consultant at P.S. 10 in Brooklyn, helping to keep playful literacy experiences alive in early childhood classes.
Renée Dinnerstein worked for over 40 years in the New York City public schools, primarily as a teacher and staff developer in P.S. 321 in Brooklyn. Currently she is a consultant for Literacy Support Systems, helping teachers to keep playful and explorative literacy experiences alive in their early childhood classes.
Description:
Two experienced early childhood teachers will share stories, examples, ideas and activities for how to create a joyful and literacy-rich explorative Choice Time in kindergarten and first grade classes.
13. The Zoo And You! - A Perfect Place For Play And Active Learning
Presenters:
Robyn Charlton and Jennell Ives, Wildlife Conservation Society’s Professional Development Department
Description of presentation:
Discover ways the Zoo is a resource for place-based education emphasizing real world, “minds-on” learning experiences that promote academic achievement across the disciplines. Learn how play and active learning at the Zoo fosters stronger ties to our community, develops appreciation for the natural world and encourages social growth and contribution. During this presentation, you will learn about the research supporting the national “leave no child inside” legislative movement and learn about how youcan use the Zoo as a resource for learning. Zoo-based curriculum materials will be provided.
14. Organizing to Re-Claim Early Childhood Education
Presenter:
LaTrella Thornton is the Director of the City College Child Development Center at The City College of New York and an Adjunct Lecturer in the Graduate Program in Early Childhood Education at the college's School of Education. A past President of the National Coalition of Campus Children's Centers and member of the Advisory Board for Universal Pre Kindergarten at the New York City Board of Education District 5, she is currently the President of the Eastern Region of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and the Chair-Elect of the Child Care Council at the City University of New York.
Description:
This session will engage participants in a discussion of the importance of early childhood education as part of the broader education continuum. Focus will be on how to help policy-makers and the public understand the importance of education in the early years and how to advocate for appropriate environments and teaching strategies for young children.
PM Workshops: 1:00-2:30
1. “Curious Minds: Discovering Science Through Play”
Presenters:
Ted Chittenden is an evaluation consultant to the Science and Nature Program for Young Children at the American Museum of Natural History. One of his responsibilities is meeting with parents to obtain their observations of what children ‘take away’ from museum experiences. His background includes extensive research with teachers on development of alternative methods for documenting and assessing children’s learning in science and the language arts.
Ann Prewitt was a founding force and the designer of interactive exhibits and activities for the creation of the American Museum of Natural History Discovery Room in 2001. Although she recently retired from being the full-time Director of the Room, she continues to use her experience in anthropology and informal science education working part time on special exhibits and professional development.
Donna Spadoni is the Coordinator of The Early Adventures and Explorations Program at The American Museum of Natural History, which she designed for children aged 2 – 5 who are accompanied by parents, grandparents, or caregivers. To encourage exploration, her classroom environment includes displays of natural materials, puzzles and games, live animal habitats, and science-related literature for children. By way of background, she has been a preschool teacher, design consultant for children’s environments, and a participant in a Reggio Emilia study group.
Daniel Zeiger is Manager of the Discovery Room at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). He uses his background in biology and environmental science to encourage visitors of all ages to develop an understanding of science. By providing hands-on interactions with museum specimens, scientific equipment and live animals, the Discovery Room makes science accessible and allows visitors to explore the natural world in an inviting setting. Before coming to AMNH, Daniel worked as both a zookeeper and educator for the Philadelphia Zoo and Wildlife Conservation Society. American Museum of Natural History: Discovery Room & Science and Nature Programs
Description of presentation:
This session will highlight the role of play in young children’s investigations of the natural world and in developing abilities for scientific inquiry. It will be based upon instructional approaches and materials for preschool/elementary children (and families) that have been developed in two programs at the American Museum of Natural History. The presentation will include power point illustration, examples/displays of materials and activities, and discussion of possible classroom applications.
2. Let’s Play and Talk!
Presenter:
Denise L. McLurkin is Assistant Professor in the Childhood Education Department of The School of Education, The City College of New York where she teaches literacy methods classes and supervises student teachers. Denise earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan. She is a former elementary and alternative education classroom teacher.
Description of presentation:
This workshop focus on how educators can create dramatic play centers that can enhance children’s literacy. Participants will work in small groups to use a variety of materials to create their own dramatic play centers. Discussion and reflection will follow this activity focusing on how to engage children in meaningful conversations to enhance oral language and vocabulary.
3. Film: Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood
Presenter:
Mary Rothschild, Director, Healthy Media Choices of Brattleboro, Vermont and Brooklyn, New York
Description of presentation:
This session will feature a film showing and discussion of Consuming Kids, which “throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kidspushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids. “ (Media Education Foundation)
Featuring: Dan Acuff | Enola Aird | Michael Brody | Nancy Carlsson-Paige | Josh Golin | Allen Kanner | Velma LaPoint | Diane Levin | Susan Linn | Robert Reiher | Michael Rich | Gary Ruskin | Nick Russell | Juliet Schor | Betsy Taylor | David Walsh
4. Developing And Implementing Project Based Curriculum
Presenter:
Emma Markarian is a pre-K teacher at P.S. 63, District 9 in the New York City Department of Education. Emma immigrated to the United States from Moscow, Russia in 2002. A graduate of the Graduate Program in Early Childhood Education at the School of Education, The City College of New York, she has taught early childhood grades in New York City public schools in Harlem and the South Bronx.
Description of presentation:
This workshop will share ways of integrating different subject areas in developmentally-appropriate/culturally-responsive theme-based studies.
5. Exploring the Use of Theatre and Dramatic Activities in the Early Childhood Classroom.
Presenter:
Jennifer Strycharz is the Director of the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at the School of Education, The City College of New York. Jennifer holds an M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University and a B.A. in Theatre and English from Fairfield University. She is also completing her Ph.D. in Urban Education with a focus on Arts Education Policy at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her work focuses on how educators can effectively use dramatic activities in the classroom to engage and enhance student learning. Prior to her work at CCNY, Jennifer taught Theatre at MS 136/MS 821 in Brooklyn, NY and worked as a freelance teaching artist in Pre-K through 12th grade classrooms, most notably, with the New Victory Theatre and Arts Connection. Jennifer has also served as the Education Director at Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Manhattan, and as the Theatre Specialist for "Life Lines Community Arts Project." She served two terms as the New York City Regional Chair of the New York State Theatre Educators Association and worked with the New York City Department of Education on the writing and development of the Theatre Curriculum Blueprint for grades K-12
Description of presentation:
This interactive workshop will explore some of the major ideas in Educational Theatre and how to incorporate them into the Early Childhood Classroom. Some of these strategies include Building Ensemble and Improvisation and Pantomime. The workshop will also explore how to present student performing arts work.
6. The Energy Playground: Investigating Gravity in K – 1
Presenters:
Gary Benenson is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The City College of New York, and Project Director of City Technology, an NSF-funded effort to promote and support technology education in the elementary grades. He is co- author of five Stuff that Works! curriculum guides, published by Heinemann Press, which are currently being used in urban, suburban and rural classrooms in 18 states. These materials make use of artifacts and problems from children's own environments, as sources for analysis and design; and integrate standards- based learning in math, science, ELA, and social studies.
Jim Neujahr is Professor in the Childhood Education Department at The City College of New York's School of Education and Co-Director of City Technology. He teaches the introductory undergraduate course in childhood education, Inquiry in Education, as well as science education courses and the Masters Degree research courses. He has been engaged in various National Science Foundation funded projects with colleagues in Physics, Engineering and Architecture for nearly 30 years. He is co-author, with Gary Benenson of the Stuff that Works! curriculum guides.
Travis Sloane is a teacher in the New York City Department of Education
Description of presentation:
Participants in this workshop will explore activities developed for the "Physical Science Comes Alive" Project – Kindergarten and primary grade energy curriculum materials that begin on the playground and are continued in the classroom. Participants will do the classroom activities and discuss the current curriculum development process with an R & D teacher and curriculum developers.
7. The Courage to Lead
Presenter:
Sherry Cleary is the Executive Director of the New York City Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, which is housed at the City University of New York. She is also the President of the New York State Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NYSAECTE). She co-chairs the Work Force Workgroup of the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council. Ms. Cleary has worked in the field of early childhood education as a classroom teacher, a program administrator, and as both a faculty member and higher education administration for more than 30 years. For the 14 years prior to this, Sherry was at the University of Pittsburgh where she was the Director of the University Child Development Center, the founding and Executive Director of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood Education, and a faculty member in the School of Education, teaching a full-time load of graduate courses. Before re-locating to New York City, Sherry served on several Boards of Directors and College Advisory Boards as well as presided over national and regional membership organizations. Sherry is often a guest speaker, presenter, and consultant.
Description of presentation:
Defending childhood and advocating for play requires strong focused leadership. Children deserve advocates that are informed, articulate and demonstrate courage in speaking truth to power. This session will explore the role of leaders and the opportunity for all to accept leadership as a civic responsibility.
8. Exploring the City: Trips in the Curriculum as a Form of Active Learning
Presenters:
Margery B. Franklin, Ph.D taught psychology and child development for more than 35 years at Sarah Lawrence College.
Donnie Rotkin, M.A. is currently a curriculum coach at Central Park East I in Manhattan. Over the last 30 years he has taught nursery school, daycare, and K-6th grade. He is a graduate of Bank Street College of Education.
Maggie Wright, M.A. is a classroom teacher at Central Park East I in Manhattan. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College's Art of Teaching program, she worked formerly at Saturday Night Live.
Description of Presentation:
This workshop centers on how to integrate urban trips into the curriculum as meaningful learning experiences. Examples of trip-based curricula will be provided, with focus on a curriculum on the bridges of New York City.
9. STAGING PLAY: The Physical Environment of Play in City Schools
Presenter:
Roger A. Hart is Professor in the PhD Programs of Environmental Psychology and Earth and Environmental Sciences Coordinator of the Children's Environments Research Group, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Roger Hart has two major overlapping strands of research and writing: The first is on how children use and experience the physical environment. The second is a broader concern with fulfilling the rights of children through finding ways to better understand their lives and their perspectives. A great deal of his work concerns children’s play environments and he has been the representative to the UN since 1983 of the International Play Association
Description of Presentation:
This presentation will look at schools through a spatial lens. It will show how the school landscape, both indoors and outdoors, has influenced play and what the potentials are for creating a different range of affordances in how we design and manage space for play. It will outline how the particular ideologies of learning adopted by different schools have created very different opportunities for children’s play. In discussing practical alternatives for the future, the presentation will focus not only on how to improve the design of schools but, of much more relevance for most school administrators and teachers, it will discuss no cost and low cost ways of redesigning space with children, and alternatives for schools in the management of schoolyards.
10. A Balanced Approach to Early Learning: Child-initiated Play Coupled with Focused Learning through Play
Presenter:
Joan Almon is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Childhood, an advocacy group for children. She is the co-author of Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School.
Description of presentation:
This workshop will explore the challenges involved in creating healthy, successful play-based programs.
11. Introducing Toddlers to Multiculturalism through Music and Movement Play
Presenter:
Gay Wilgus is an assistant professor in the Graduate Programs in Early Childhood Education at the School of Education, The City College of New York.
Description of presentation:
This workshop will engage participants in music and movement activities that celebrate different cultures.
12. “Play” for Young Children through Technology
Presenter:
Dr. Sheila Offman Gersh is the Director of Technology and International Projects for the Center for School Development, School of Education at the City College of New York of the City University of New York. For the past 20 years, she has directed a variety of instructional technology projects that engage students in inquiry-based, collaborative telecommunications projects. She is an expert on the uses of technology for education. She has presented and keynoted at conferences in the U.S. and around the world (Japan, India, Dominican Republic, Australia, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Finland, Denmark, UK, Israel, Italy, and Slovenia). Most recently she has been co-directing the CultureQuest project and has helped bring the world into the classroom. Dr. Gersh has also written articles about technology integration that have been published in the U.S. and abroad.
Description of presentation:
Become familiar with the technology-rich resources and activities that engage young children in meaningful play and learning. This hands-on workshop will also introduce you to digital/audio stories, Skype and the SmartBoard and how to use these with young children.
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