Watching Teachers Work

Yesterday the  New America Foundation event in Washington DC marked the official release of Watching Teachers Work,  co-authored by alum Susan Ochshorn’99  with Lisa Guernsey.  This work  highlights the use of observation tools in assessing teacher quality.

You can access the video here: http://newamerica.net/events/2012/watching_teachers_work.

Bank Street is  front-and-center in Susan’s  portion of the presentation, which features alumna Amy Dombro, remotely, in a terrific Skyped video, and the TuTu and Me preschool program in Hawaii, which used Toni Porter’s (Institute for the Child Care Continuum) Child Care Assessment Tool for Relatives  (CCAT-R).

This is an especially hot policy issue right now—not only for early childhood but for teachers across the K-12 spectrum.  In fact, “An End to the Teacher Wars,” an op-ed that Susan  wrote with her co-author Lisa Guernsey, based on their  work, is slated for this weekend’s Sunday opinion pages of the LA Times.

Trust Your Intuition

By Bank Street alumna, author Jane Bernard 

When it counts, people trust their senses and use their intuition. Just ask any policeman, fireman, doctor or member of the armed forces. They trust their intuition to keep clear about what really matters. When it comes to intuition, everyone has it. Intuition is an inner guidance system you’re born with. It’s a focusing, balancing and awareness lens.

Getting my masters degree in Special Education at Bank Street opened an awareness of my senses. Because I worked  and played with and autistic, minimal brain damaged and emotionally challenged students, I had to learn to see, hear and touch differently. This sensitively snowballed through my life opening doors to my intuition. It has turned into books, programs and continued opportunities through media to share the delight and advantages of thinking with your senses. Your senses are the way of keeping in direct touch with your body and your world.

Play Attention

 

Bank Street’77 graduate Claire Wurtzel has been an educator for 40 years. She was on the faculty of the Bank Street Graduate School for 17 years, where she taught  courses and chaired the department of Special Education. Claire and her husband, jazz musician Bill Wurtzel, are the authors of Funny Food which will be released in April,2012. www.funnyfood.us/

Claire blogs  on Lifetimemoms about healthy eating and cognitive development using Funny Foods.

 

Creating healthy, silly food plates helps children learn to pay attention.

 

When children are absorbed and having fun, they learn to plan, focus and sustain their attention. They learn to control their impulses, and not eat whatever is in front of them. Instead they preview and plan ahead-essential aspects of attention.

 

How great it is to learn these skills early in life!

 

 

Even young children have to acquire attention skills in order to have friends and learn in school.

 

By age 4 (like Daniela) many children can delay eating a treat if they are having fun making it.

 

Kids who can’t control their impulses benefit from working with an adult who can help them plan the food play and delay the instant urge to grab the food.

 

 

 

After working hard and using lots of mental energy (another part of attention) they will enjoy gobbling up their creation.

 

 

Bank Street’s Children’s Librarian Lisa Von Drasek on Buying Books for holiday gifts

Books to Give Kids You Don’t Know Very Wellhttp://www.earlyword.com/category/childrens-and-ya/

So, there I was in the Bank Street College Bookstore, looking for my holiday gifts when I found myself helping other shoppers find the perfect book for their nieces, nephews, grandchildren and young cousins. I must have lost track of time and was startled when I heard my husband shout over from the stairs, “She doesn’t work here! Lisa, get back to your own shopping!”

My gift to readers for this holiday season is the 4th annual Books to Give Kids You Don’t Know Very Well.

Networking Hour for Bank Streeters Jan. 25

Bank Street Network: Our First Meeting of 2012

January 25, 2012

6:00 PM Sharp

Location: 1115 Broadway, Floor 12

Light refreshments.

Please RSVP to lreing@bankstreet.edu with subject “BSN” — please make sure your NAME is included in the RSVP.

Agenda

6:00 PM
Welcome and Introduction – Host: Keith Berman, ’03, Bank Street College Alumni Advisory Board, President, Options for College, Inc.

6:05 – 6:45
Introductions
Each member will say the following VERY BRIEFLY
a. Name
b. Current or desired position
c. One thing you are specifically interested in networking for (e.g., to find a new job, to find specific partners, to get ideas on how to complete a certain project — please just don’t say because you like free coffee, that goes without saying!)
d. The best way to contact you (business cards welcome)

Meet and greet
6:45 – 7:00
Talk to the people whose networking interests match yours. Exchange contact information.

What do you do at Bank Street Network events?
You come to the BSN with an idea of what opportunity you want – this can be finding a job, finding potential project partners, finding possible employees, finding partners to start a company, etc. – and then you get about 30 seconds to say why you are here. After everyone introduces themselves, and you and talk to people whose ideas interest you.

Can you bring flyers, materials, business cards, etc.?
Yes– that’s why we are here! There will be folders at the meetings to collect whatever you want to pick up.

Why come?
To meet people!

Current students: Sources of interns, future teachers, innovators, people to mentor
Alumni: Sources of seasoned leadership, people who have applied Bank Street thinking and have theories of action and don’t have to learn Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky, etc. from scratch!
School leaders: May be hiring, may be teaching workshops, may know someone who is doing either
Business owners: Business-to-business connections, colleagues in the world of small business

Where can I find Bank Streeters in general?
The faculty is still at the college (remember your advisor?), there are alumni events throughout the year listed in the alumni enewsletter and on bankstreet.edu, there is a Facebook group for BSC news, an Alumni Blog, an alumni  Twitter feed (@bscaa) and there are 510 active alumni on the networking site LinkedIn.

A Parent and an Educator; Do I Really Have to Choose?

Dr. Hollee Freeman is a 1994 Bank Street graduate. Visit her  blog: http://www.bellabark.wordpress.com/

So…after much back and forth with teachers via email, I was able to make an appointment at my daughter’s school in order to get a better sense of what the curriculum is for my 6th grader. To my surprise, well-not really, the teachers on her team invited the assistant principal to the meeting. Maybe my emails were intimidating. I wrote and rewrote them in order to take out the sting that I was feeling in my gut.  I am cognizant of the fact that I have to maneuver between being a parent who happens to know a lot about education and teaching and being a parent who is just interested.

Faculty Respond to NY Times Block Play Story

On November 28, the New York Times published an article discussing the importance of block play in early childhood education. As long-time advocates of open-ended play, Bank Street faculty submitted a response, which was published on December 2. An expanded version of that response appears below.

As early childhood faculty at Bank Street College of Education, we are heartened that the article of November 28 on block building has brought attention to the importance of blocks as an essential educational material.

Lucy Sprague Mitchell, the founder of Bank Street College in 1916, studied children’s block building as a teacher at City and Country School, and recognized its unique value in the education of young children. Block building then became and continues to be an integral part of the teacher preparation curriculum.  Indeed, we are one of the few teacher education institutions in the country that offers a course devoted specifically to block building.

In the current educational climate, opportunities for children to engage in play are being eliminated in many schools, despite the mounting research by neuroscientists, developmental psychologists, physicians, and educators showing the critical role of play in children’s healthy development, physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally. The benefits of block play flourish only when children are allowed to engage in open-ended, imaginative play and are given the time to explore, experiment and represent their growing understanding of the world.

Signed,

Nancy Cardwell ’88
Betsy Grob M.S. ’70, Ed.M. ’99
Adrianne Kamsler
Nancy McKeever
Michele Morales
Denise Prince
Rena Rice ’77
Salvatore Vascellaro ’75

Sal Vascellaro’s New Book

Sal signing a book at his November 16th book launch at Bank Street

Click here to watch Sal Vascellaro talk about what inspired his new book.

Bank Street alumnus and faculty member Salvatore Vascellaro is the author of  “Out of the Classroom and into the World: Learning from Field Trips, Educating from Experience, and Unlocking the Potential of Our Students and Teachers ”

RUN, DON’T WALK, TO JIM HENSON’S FANTASTIC WORLD AT THE MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE

Photo by John E. Barrett. Mahna Mahna and back-up singers © The Muppets Studio, LLC

Many of you know that Jim Henson created the Muppets—those lovable creatures who have appeared on Sesame Street and in Muppet movies for decades now. But did you know that Jim was also a legendary pioneer in film and television, creating Muppets inititally as a vehicle to enter into those medium?

A trip, or two, or three—to the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) in Queens to experience Jim Henson’s Fantastic World will give you and your students or your family members a chance to further appreciate the creative processes behind Jim’s voluminous and astounding body of work.

The exhibit runs rom July 16, 2011 – January 16, 2012 and features the following: 120 artifacts which include drawings, storyboards, and props from The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, and Sam and Friends; 15 iconic puppets, including Miss Piggy, Bert, Ernie, and Kermit the Frog; photographs of Henson and his collaborators at work; and excerpts from Jim’s early projects and experimental films, including his pioneering work in commercials.

A bit of Q and A with MOMI’s Deputy Director for Education, Christopher Wisniewski, reveals additional reasons to go and see the exhibit:

Eleanor: What makes Jim Henson’s Fantastic World special?

Christopher: Jim Henson is indisputably a singular creative figure in the history of film and television. When one thinks of the legacy he’s left–the Muppets, his characters for Sesame Street, the Fraggles, and his films–one is immediately impressed by how singular they are and how they continue to occupy a special place in popular culture and collective memory. This show is extraordinary in the breadth of its approach. It gives a wide-ranging overview of Henson’s career, his creative process, and his unique artistic sensibility. I think everyone who visits it comes away feeling they’ve learned something new about Henson and his work.

Eleanor: What is the educational value of taking a child or a group of children to this exhibit?

Christopher: For young people, there is great educational value in Jim Henson’s Fantastic World. It gives insight into the creative process, to be certain, and so it helps to teach not only about puppetry specifically but also about how television and films are made and marketed. Also, Henson got his start in advertising, and he very shrewdly adapted what he learned about marketing and branding to projects that were educational and artistic. I think that is a valuable lesson. I also think that in creating characters who appeared across media, Henson anticipated the phenomenon we now refer to as trans-media, and it is valuable for young people to think about that innovation and to see it in a broader historical context.

Additional Information about MOMI and Jim Henson’s Fantastic World:

There’s good news for those of you who would like to get out and see the exhibit with your students and young family members: In the remaining eight weeks of Jim Henson’s Fantastic World, there are plenty more screenings, discussions, and workshops to attend. For a list of those special events, visit  The Museum of the Moving Image

Also: MOMI’s education department provides curriculum-based educational experiences to about 60,000 students every year. These offerings include school group visits, tours, talks, workshops and screenings. If you would like information about MOMI’s educational opportunities, click here. 

Read Creative Times posts about the Jim Henson exhibit at MOMI:

• All Kinds of Crazy Cool Stuff at Jim Henson’s Fantastic World describes “Hands Up! Puppets Down!”: An Inside Look at Puppetry for Television
• Jim Henson: Friends and Family documents the reflections of six folks gathered in of the museum’s auditorium to show and talk about film clips from Jim’s body of work.
• The Wonderful World of (Frank) Oz reports back on a live interview with Henson’s right hand man and the Muppeteer for Miss Piggy, Bert, Animal, Cookie Monster, and more

Eleanor Traubman (Class of ’95) is the Editor-In-Chief of Creative Times, a blog designed to celebrate and inspire the artists and entrepeneurs of New York and beyond. Eleanor also leads Creative Conversations, a goal-setting group for women artists and entrepreneurs. Eleanor can be reached at ETraubman@aol.com.

Volunteer Opportunity at Harlem Hospital

It’s 4:30pm and I haven’t finished my To-Do list for the day.  Well, that’s not even entirely true- I haven’t finished it, but it’s because I didn’t have a chance to get it out of my bag.  On the plus side, I did start the paperwork for pet therapy for my inpatient unit, spoke to several people about a grant for program funding for my outpatient clinic, ordered T-shirts for volunteers, and wrote “Child Life Department, Harlem Hospital: Please Return!” on every surface of three new distraction toys that I’m bringing for use in the pediatric emergency room.  (Now that I think about it, why weren’t any of those things on my To-Do list in the first place, so I could cross them off now?)  But I didn’t start writing any grants, I still haven’t laminated the prep book for the pre-surgical patients, I haven’t finished writing the prep book for radiology, and I didn’t get a chance to get over to the clinic to help out the staff there today.