Book Study

From Teaching to Thinking: A Pedagogy for Reframing Our Work by Ann Pelo and Margie Carter.

For the first time, NJEEPRE is hosting a book study opportunity for everyone in the education field, especially teachers and administrators. Please join us in this journey to explore new ways to reimagine our work with children and how this reimagining of our work leads to reorganization of our schools in support of our reimagined world of teaching and learning.

In From Teaching to Thinking, Ann Pelo and Margie Carter invite us to inquire into new ways of viewing our pedagogy, children’s learning, engaging families and communities in our work, and how to develop leadership that supports these new perspectives. Ann Pelo and Margie Carter take an ecological view of the work of teachers and schools that leads to including a broader community than just the school itself.

In our meetings, we will be exploring every aspect of teaching and learning, beginning with the idea that we are going to write “a new story”, a story of our work that has at its heart inquiry – inquiry of ourselves, our lived experiences, beliefs, and values, and how to begin to anchor our organizations in which we work as an inclusive system with a revised vision, a strong set of agreed upon values ultimately reflected in the culture of our schools.

Ann Pelo and Marge Carter have developed a tool to help us reimagine our work, a protocol for disciplined and reflective study, a process that an organization can adopt to put its values and commitments into action, providing a structure that is followed for all conversations, which leads to creating “collective understandings” (p.171): The Thinking Lens (p.164). The Thinking Lens for Learning Together with Children includes (1) Know yourself – open your heart to this moment, (2) Take the Children’s Point of View, (3) Examine the Environment, (4) Collaborate with others to expand perspectives, (5) Reflect and take action (p. 165-166).

We look forward to stimulating discussions anchored in the ideas presented by Ann Pelo and Marge Carter.

Book Study Event 2019-2020