Full Transcript for BLIPS: Tom Schreiber - Another Maiden Voyage

educator because it really does make the connection between the kind of play we associate with the arts and with music and with the free play of childhood, of discovery, of learning, you know, when we think about young children, we're thinking about young artists and scientists in a pure state of nature, just soaking in the world and and constructing their own sense of how things work. 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:29.520 And it runs across everything that, you know, later as adults we're gonna characterize as okay, that's chemistry or that's math, or that's social emotional learning. 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:31.360 It's just play for them. 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:36.240 Yeah, and if we can remember to do this as we grow older, that keeps our minds sharp. 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:37.759 Absolutely. 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:43.120 What type of work do you do with the kids? 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:45.840 Are you doing artwork or things beyond that? 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:47.599 What's a typical day? 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:55.120 It is generally going to start with what in Reggio we call provocation. 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:59.680 In uh Italian it means something quote we'll have to bring Armando on. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:04.479 Um it means something a bit different than it means in English. 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:21.839 Within the Reggio Emilia framework, uh provocation is uh uh something you put out as a teacher, as a guide to learning, to create questions, to to spur curiosity. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:26.959 And and so what we practice is an emergent curriculum. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:39.839 That is to say that we we uh study as teachers what the children are learning and what they're interested in, and how we can extend that learning by going deeper. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.000 You know, it might be learning about water. 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:56.319 Well, then uh is there interest in learning about um what makes up water, molecules, or how water affects our um atmosphere, and we learn about rainbows and such. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:15.600 And so it's it's really a free play of uh going deeper and making jumps, and provocations will generally start out as something to interact with on a table, and uh something that creates conversations. 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:22.560 There are conversation pieces, and and children learn best through experiential learning. 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:25.279 And so they're immersed in an experience. 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:33.040 Uh they're you know in the sensory bin, they're uh picking up gooey things, they're they're building things with cardboard. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:35.199 It's it's really great fun. 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:35.839 Right. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:44.079 You're making me think of my friend Lisa Murphy, the educator and author who is seriously into the art and the science of play. 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:47.920 And I must say I have her book on Yes Foundation. 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:51.040 It's amazing, and she's a

great public speaker. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:56.319 For me, I've gone, like I said, from elementary to middle, and now I'm with high schoolers. 00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:23.839 But since I've moved to California in 2013, I'm really up on the constructivist approach, which has a lot of illusions into what you're talking about because I'm about to start a job as the director of a music academy, and I have to build this program from the ground up, and I have everything from kids playing in modern band or orchestra or things like that to choirs. 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:35.360 But my first two days are coming up this Thursday and Friday, and the first thing I'm gonna do is have the kids build out a survey, find out what they're into because I want to give them incentive. 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:35.920 Yes. 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:43.360 Like I said, with a constructivist approach, when I ask them a question, I want to hear what they have to say first. 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:50.399 Well, because number one, it might be better than my idea, and number two, it has to be interactive, just like what you do. 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:53.680 You know, you and I always talk about jazz and improvisation. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.399 Right back to the beginning of this conversation, right? 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:39.199 Right. 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:44.319 Yeah, I mean, what you're talking about might be thought of as the head in in jazz. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:08:01.519 You know, the idea that you start within um the the existing frame and how is new knowledge going to find its way into and find a home within an existing frame. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:08.240 Uh yeah, that's very much what we what we mean when we talk about uh extending a child's learning. 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:17.759 It's building on what they already know and what more can be fit within that those paradigms. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:21.199 And of course, sometimes you create a whole new paradigm. 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:23.279 That's that's particularly exciting. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:44.720 And I love your metaphor of jazz and playing the head because I'm laughing because I'm thinking, all right, we get to school, we all at the beginning of class, we play the head, we play the melody, and then each kid takes a solo, blows over the changes, but we all have to support them in playing the chords and listening and paying attention and reflecting back. 00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:50.960 If somebody does a riff, we echo back, and then we all come back together at the end to play the head. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:09:08.799 And may I suggest to everybody there's a great Herbie Hancock song called Maiden Voyage, and I think for you and I, as we head into the year and teach these kids, we're definitely on a maiden voyage on myriad levels. 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:10.080 Would you agree? 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:13.840 Abs absolutely, absolutely. 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:24.000 To be a teacher, and that is to say, a guide to learning, it's really about co-learning. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:38.320 I think that's where you can offer the most and and be that supportive scaffolding guide to learning, is you're you're right there along you're in the front row seat. 00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:40.879 So you experience things together. 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:47.600 You experience things through the the learner's eyes and what they're communicating back to you. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:50.720 That is the full experience. 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:59.279 I'm sitting here at a quiet place, uh, Stanford Cactus Garden, which is a nice little place on the campus. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:01.279 I like to come to reflect and write. 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:04.320 I used to come here with my children when they were young. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:08.399 Um, we used to just go out and discover would be the frame. 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:09.440 Let's go discover. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:22.639 And uh it was it was a place of free play and discovery, and you know, in this case, learning about cactuses or cacti, however you choose to say it. 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:25.360 It's nice how things come around again. 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:27.919 Let's leave with this message. 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:35.919 Let's you and I go to work today, but let's not lose that frame of mind that your three to five-year-olds have going on right now. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:43.279 Totally open, totally open to play, not judging, not being jaded, just being open to everything in life. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:49.039 Let's play the melody, let's do some solos, and that's then let's come back together at the end. 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:50.159 What if? 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:51.519 What if, right? 00:10:51.679 --> 00:11:06.480 That's the I I think uh here in in Silicon Valley, that that framework, that mindset, uh a growth mindset is so fundamental to possibility and what can be. 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:17.759 And it's you know, it's really our privilege to be able to uh embrace that and as much as possible to live in that space. 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:23.759 Tom Schreiber, always good to talk with you. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.960 Good luck today on your maiden voyage, and let's make sure we return again soon. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:30.000 How does that sound? 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:41.279 And and absolutely, Malcolm, and to you too, as you uh embark into those new waters and such an exciting program and opportunity for you. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:43.600 It really feels like a perfect fit. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:48.000 All right, signing off from Van Nuys, California. 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:49.600 Always good to talk to you, Tom. 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:54.399 And signing off from the Stanford, Arizona Cactus Garden. 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:56.799 A pleasure, Malcolm. 00:11:57.039 --> 00:16:54.159 Have a great day.com. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:59.919 That is J E F F E R S O N D E L E O N E.com.