Report from Calgary

Addendum to Professional Development Report – Feb.2009 Board Meeting - Pittsburgh

Report from Calgary,

The Early Childhood Education Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association annual conference, Edmonton, Alberta, featured Carlina Rinaldi via webcast as a keynote speaker.

The Calgary Reggio Network Association hosted a Fall Fundamentals workshop, November 29. This was a full-day workshop with 45 in attendance. People came from other parts of Alberta to attend. We showed the film, Not Just Any Place followed by discussion groups, and materials workshops in the afternoon.

We will host a Spring Fundamentals Workshop on April 4th.

We have been in collaboration with Creative Kids Museum (CKM), an arts focused children’s museum that opened two years ago in Calgary. It is unique in that it has an artist’s space where professional artists come for a residency, interact with the public and work with children. It is connected to our children’s science museum, Telus World of Science and it is our long-term goal of incorporating “Revived Objects” as part of the programming when these museums move to a new site within the next few years. We hope that the new museum will collect and sell revived objects and that the CKM becomes known for innovative use of materials. Creative Kids Museum has begun to collect and sell “revived objects” on a small scale, and is offering workshops for educators on using revived objects in their classrooms. The next workshop on “the Aesthetics of Revived Objects on February 25th is being presented by two artists and is co-sponsored by the Calgary Reggio Network. CKM’s annual children’s art show has selected the use of Revived Objects as the theme for this show, although all works submitted will be considered. See Creative Kids website www.creativekidsmuseum.com.

The Calgary network collaborated with Creative Kids Museum to have a “coffee and conversation” evening with Sue Fraser, author of Authentic Childhood on February 9th.

University of Winnipeg and Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba are hosting a conference in Reggio Inspired Care & Education Conference May 6-9. Lella Gandini and Carol Anne Wien will be two of the speakers. Details are on the NAREA website.

Pat Tarr

February 13, 2009