More thinking about thinking

I am in that moment after giving a workshop where I am slowly coming back down to earth... and I am starting to collect thoughts about the experience I have just had standing in the very spot that Lella Gandini had stood just two weeks ago... A bit daunting... I mean how do I compete with that?

with thanks to Diane Kashin for taking this photo...

But that is the beauty of sharing experiences and wisdoms learned... there is no heirarchy... who would have thought people would have been interested in listening to what I have to say... I found out that there are those who are VERY interested in what I have to say, and had amazing questions that allowed me to dig deeper into my own understandings and reflections of my work... To see new perspectives of the work I do with young children and to hear that I have been able to do the same for others... I feel honoured to be a part of a community of learners where my contributions have been appreciated.

I have learned a great deal about myself... During my workshop and over the last few days... what kind of teacher am I? What kind of teacher do I want to be... and the wonderpus glory of so many different approaches to early childhood education that allows me to the opportunity to pick and mix...

I have been talking to Diane (Kashin) afterwards about Reggio and that for me the most empowering part of Reggio Emilia Approach has been the fact that Malaguzzi read and listened to many inpiring theories of childhood, learning and development and chose and mixed together a combination that suited the children in Reggio Emilia at the time... And that this would be forever evolving as new research would come out, or the dynamics of the setting, the children, the city would change and therefore so would the pieces needed to support the learning, the third teacher... etc (i feel like I am not explaining this as elequantly I would like) - but for me it means that I look at the children, listen to their needs, their interests their learning and if the setting and myself are not meeting them and not challenging them appropriately then I need to look for new pieces of theory to add to my practice, or maybe rethink some of them that are already there (afterall we should not be doing things just because we have always done them that way... But because they are relevant and meaningful for the children) .

Again I find myself in that place whe my mind is filled with thoughts and I need more time to reflect and maybe even debrief after all of this - just to be able to start the sorting process of my thoughts...
afterall I have been talking about thinking pauses today... we adults need to give them to ourselves too.

So I am going to leave this post here... because to be honest I have so much to share, so many thoughts and it is begining to get jumbled up and my string of thoughts that make up these posts of Interaction  Imagination are going to be even more all over the place than usual...