Open Discussion Forum

  • 1.  Looking for NAEYC Proposal Partner for Session on Place Based Learning

    Posted 02-04-2020 12:43 PM
    Hello!

    We're hoping to submit a proposal for NAEYC 2020 about placed based learning and how educators can utilize their community to take learning outside of the classroom, no matter where their community is. At the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, we are fortunate to have lots of museums to visit in conjunction with our curriculum, but also value the numerous community spaces nearby such as gardens, stores, restaurants, a construction site, the metro, etc. 

    We're looking for a partner or two to join us in our proposal so we can make it more robust for participants to see how this can be done in multiple settings. If you're interested in collaborating, please message or email the following:
    • What type of setting do you work in (i.e. home care, school, etc)?
    • What ages do you work with?
    • How do you use the community?
    • What type of community do you work in (i.e. city, rural area, small town, etc.)?

    Hope to hear from you!

    Cynthia and Brooke

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    Cynthia Raso
    Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center
    Washington DC
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  • 2.  RE: Looking for NAEYC Proposal Partner for Session on Place Based Learning

    Posted 02-05-2020 06:29 AM
    Hello Naeyc,
    I enjoyed reading the information concerning the NAEYC Proposal Partner for Session on Place Bas. The idea is incredible and I believe that it will benefit the young creative minds we serve. I would love to become apart of these discussions. Once reading these ideas, I immediately came up with several ideas I could move forward with implementing in my classroom. I look forward to learning more. I am a North Carolina NC Pre-k & Durham Pre-k teacher from Durham, North Carolina.

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    Pebbles Lucas
    Instructor
    Durham Technical Community College
    Durham NC
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  • 3.  RE: Looking for NAEYC Proposal Partner for Session on Place Based Learning

    Posted 02-05-2020 09:30 AM

    Great project! I am sure you already are incorporating his work - but just thought I'd put it out there - David Sobel is amazing on this topic!

    We are a preschool campus based program - we are fortunate that within walking distance we can create collaborations with a farm and farmer, a pond (with tadpoles and frogs, and a library (where we have an art show every year).  Because we visit these places regularly - we often incorporate mapping into our curriculum.  We also have a beautiful relationship with an ancient sycamore tree across the street from the nursery school. The children visit it regularly, take it gifts, sit beneath its branches for picnics. We invite an Aroborist to join us on our walk to the sycamore tree a few years ago and she taught us how to measure the height and age of the tree.

    Best wishes,

    Carol



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    Carol Murray
    Bard Nursery School
    Red Hook NY
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  • 4.  RE: Looking for NAEYC Proposal Partner for Session on Place Based Learning

    Posted 02-06-2020 09:21 AM

    Hello Cynthia

    I am excited to hear about the place based curriculum. I have approached the topic from a different angle. Because many preschools can not get out or don't have interesting places around them, I created a field trip website that is produced by South Florida PBS. The website is free. But if preschool teachers need CEU or In Service hours they can pay a minimum fee for the credits. The website is http://www.KidVisionPreK.org. The site hosts 100 virtual field trips. They are each 8 minutes long and concentrate on learning standards that are naturally found at the location. With each field trip there is an instructional video for teachers so they are alerted to the standards that are presented in the field trip. Also included are standard based lesson plans and student assessments and Take Home pages. All in English and Spanish. My thought in developing the program was that if teachers or parents could also go to these places they could compare and contrast the experiences and would have supporting lesson plan activities. It would be interesting to see how Place Based could be enhanced with technology or the other way. A thought. I would love to hear more about how you set up and follow though your field trips.

    Thank You

    Penny Bernath

    KidVision PreK



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    Penny / Charlotte Bernath
    Education Director
    South Florida PBS
    Miami, Florida
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  • 5.  RE: Looking for NAEYC Proposal Partner for Session on Place Based Learning

    Posted 02-06-2020 03:00 PM
    Hello Cynthia and Brooke,
     
                    My name is Leonica Cox and I am a Early Head Start Site Director for Higher Horizons. I work in a center based and supervise a home based setting as well. We are unique in the sense that we offer a home based option to our families whose children maybe too small to attend or are facing other barriers. We service pregnant moms and child until they are 5 years old. For the home based options, we do what we call socialization to help the families to connect with the community and interact with their children. Therefor this proposal would be a get tool considering how we could use it in the particular population we serve. We partner with our community to use resources to help our families make the connections and support the entire family unit to be the best for the child's support system. We use many different community partners to help us make the neighborhood our classroom as well. We are located in Fairfax county, in Falls Church closes to Bailey's crossing and Barcroft neighborhoods. 
     
    Hope to hear from you soon,


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    Leonica Cox
    EHS Education Site Supervisor
    Higher Horizons
    Falls Church VA
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  • 6.  RE: Looking for NAEYC Proposal Partner for Session on Place Based Learning

    Posted 02-07-2020 01:45 PM
    Thank you all for your responses both in email and here on the Hello platform. We've gotten LOTS of interested people, and we're excited that place based learning is also important to so many of you. The limit for presenters is 4 people, so I think we are set, but hopefully we can connect with more people in the future on other proposals and/or projects.

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    Cynthia Raso
    Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center
    Washington DC
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