What I Do | Workshops | SummerCamp |Arrangements & Fees

What I Do

I consult in person, by e-mail, and by telephone.  I've invented something called SummerCamp (but it's really year round) which allows people to come and study with me in greater depth.  Follow the link above for more information.  I give workshops and speeches. I influence good people doing good work with children For example, scroll down to Heidi Joyce and read to the end. Another example and, again, scroll down to the photo and text about working with me.

My three main areas of concern are:

A.  Creative activity  (art, music, drama, and more) for children, including the many lessons from Reggio Emilia, Italy, and from my research subject, Sylvia Ashton-Warner. (Here is a small sampling where I was interviewed about art by SUNY. The whole hour is discussed in SummerCamp.)

B.  Learning that is driven by the interests and passions of the people in the classroom. Some people like to call this "hot cognition." This includes Emergent Curriculum, Key Vocabulary, and the arts ... but you're beginning to see the overlap in my work, aren't you?

and

C.  The hard subjects: death and dying, divorce, sensitivity, transition to school, public calamities (this includes work around the Sept. 11, 2001 events, Challenger disaster, various earthquakes/bombings/assassinations, and most recently a big focus upon  CHILDREN OF PARENTS IN PRISON).

All of my workshops and consulting support a pro-diversity, developmentally appropriate, constructivist, whole child, learning-in-context commitment.

I believe that young children in institutions should receive care similar to the very best care young children can receive in homes, with the added delights of having other children to be their companions and work, make investigations, and play with them.

These dispositions and beliefs will likely come into any workshop I give, no matter what the subject. They aren't out of the question, you know ... during World War II well funded and well staffed programs were set up to entice women into the workforce, and it can — and must —- happen again.

All of my workshops are designed for grownups — teachers, caregivers, providers and parents — people who think about children under the age of eight. And all of the workshops are, to the greatest extent I can make them so, interactive, so the people present are constructing for themselves their own perspective on whatever I am presenting.

When I am asked to keynote I try to make that interactive, as, for instance, having people discuss and compare their experience to that of the person next to them. Some workshops are sensitive and must have a limited number of participants so they can really feel safe and get some work done.

For a photo of me and a paragraph about my background click here.

E-mail:  sydney@eceteacher.org, www.eceteacher.org • (C) Copyright Sydney Gurewitz Clemens, 2009