Jeannie Hamrin

Professional Affiliations:

• National Association for the Education of Young Children

• Council for Exceptional Children

Committees:

• Childcare

Student Involvement:

• FS101

Degrees:

• BS in History/Science, Springfield College and Idrætshøjskole, Denmark
• MA in Curriculum and Teaching (k-8),Teachers College, Columbia University
• Fil.mag.(not completed) with 36 credits is Swedish language and culture, history and government Stockholms Universititet
• Ed.D. in Special Education
• Teachers College, Columbia University

Teaching Philosophies:
I believe that intelligence is in our mind/body systems and a teacher should create “smart environments” for students to live and learn and develop their mind/body systems. Intelligence is defined as:

• The ability to solve problems that one encounters in real life.
• The ability to generate new problems to solve.
• The ability to make something or offer a service that is valued within one’s culture.

I provide sufficient opportunities for students to interact with each other in pairs, small groups or as a whole; resources are available such as books, computers, databases, bulletin boards, etc.

My approach to education is committed to the creation of conditions for learning that will enhance and facilitate student's construction of "his or her own powers of thinking through the synthesis of all the expressive, communicative and cognitive languages" (Edwards and Forman, 1993).  My  approach is based upon the following principles:

Emergent Curriculum building upon the interests and field experiences of students. Team planning is an essential component of the emergent curriculum. Teachers work together to formulate hypotheses about the possible directions of a project, the materials needed, and possible  community support and involvement.

Project Work: Projects, also emergent, are in-depth studies of concepts, ideas, and interests, which arise within the group. Considered as an adventure, projects may last one week or could continue throughout the semester. Throughout a project, teachers help children make decisions about the direction of study, the ways in which the group will research the topic, the representational medium that will demonstrate and showcase the topic and the selection of materials needed to represent the work. Long-term projects enhance lifelong learning.

Representational Development: Consistent with Howard Gardner's notion of schooling for multiple intelligences, integration of the graphic arts as tools for cognitive, linguistic, and social development. Presentation of concepts and hypotheses in multiple forms of representation -- print, art, construction, drama, music, puppetry, and shadow play -- are viewed as essential to children's understanding of experience. Children have 100 languages, multiple symbolic languages.

Collaboration: Collaborative group work, both large and small, is considered valuable and necessary to advance cognitive development. Children are encouraged to dialogue, critique, compare, negotiate, hypothesize, and problem solve through group work. Within the Reggio Emilia approach multiple perspectives promote both a sense of group membership and the uniqueness of self. There high emphasis on the collaboration among home-school-community to support the learning of the child.

Teachers as Researchers: The teacher's role within the Reggio Emilia approach is complex. Working as co-teachers, the role of the teacher is first and foremost to be that of a learner alongside the children. The teacher is a teacher-researcher, a resource and guide as she/he lends expertise to children (Edwards, 1993). Within such a teacher-researcher role, educators carefully listen, observe, and document children's work and the growth of community in their classroom and are to provoke, co-construct, and stimulate thinking, and children's collaboration with peers. Teachers are committed to reflection about their own teaching and learning.

Documentation: Similar to the portfolio approach, documentation of children's work in progress is viewed as an important tool in the learning process for children, teachers, and parents. Pictures of children engaged in experiences, their words as they discuss what they are doing, feeling and thinking, and the children's interpretation of experience through the visual media are displayed as a graphic presentation of the dynamics of learning. Documentation is used as assessment and advocacy.

Environment: Within the Reggio Emilia schools, great attention is given to the look and feel of the classroom. Environment is considered the "third teacher." Teachers carefully organize space for small and large group projects and small intimate spaces for one, two or three children. Documentation of children's work, plants, and collections that children have made from former outings are displayed both at the children's and adult eye level. Common space available to all children in the school includes dramatic play areas and worktables for children from different classrooms to come together.

Features of The Reggio Emilia Approach

Teacher Role:

• to co-explore the learning experience with the children
• to provoke ideas, problem solving, and conflict
• to take ideas from the children and return them for further exploration
• to organize the classroom and materials to be aesthetically pleasing
• to organize materials to help children make thoughtful decisions about the media
• to document children's progress: visual, videotape, tape recording, portfolios
• to help children see the connections in learning and experiences
• to help children express their knowledge through representational work
• to form a "collective" among other teachers and parents
• to have a dialogue about the projects with parents and other teachers
• to foster the connection between home, school and community

Projects:

• can emerge from children's ideas and/or interests
• can be provoked by teachers
• can be introduced by teachers knowing what is of interest to children: shadows, puddles, tall buildings, construction sites, nature, etc.
• should be long enough to develop over time, to discuss new ideas, to negotiate over, to induce conflicts, to revisit, to see progress, to see movement of ideas
• should be concrete, personal from real experiences, important to children, should be "large" enough for diversity of ideas and rich in interpretive/representational expression