Greetings from Baltimore

I had the opportunity to spend two days with early childhood educators in Friends Schools from up and down the east coast. We gathered at Friends School of Baltimore, and it was so wonderful to connect with so many like minded people, and to realize that the excellent progressive Friends education happening at AFS is also happening in places from North Carolina to Rhode Island. I particularly loved connecting with other schools who are inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach.

It was also wonderful to articulate to my colleagues some of the deep work that we do at Abington Friends, and to have so many people be so interested in our work. Of course, I shared the Turtle Blog and one of the student portfolios (with permission) and people loved to see this innovative use of technology.
The Interim Director of Education for Friends Council had also brought the booklet Education for Liberation: Preschool Peace Education aka my Masters Thesis which was published by Friends Council.

I came away with a list of schools to visit, books to read (including The Sanctuary Garden), projects to do (like making a "picking garden" of herbs and lettuces) and colleagues who I look forward to keeping in touch with throughout the year. And, somehow I managed to get myself volunteered to help coordinate next year's conference. See what happens when you get excited about the work you do?