Presenting on Aug. 22 and Aug. 23.

Janice Novakowski is a district teacher consultant in the Richmond School District, learning alongside K-12 teachers and students. She is also an adjunct professor at UBC where she teaches mathematics educations courses. Janice facilitates the BC Reggio-Inspired Mathematics Projects and is a member of the BC Numeracy Network and the Indigenous Mathematics Network. She also serves as a director on the board of the Vancouver Reggio Association.

Qualifications and Experience

• Adjunct Professor at UBC, teaching elementary math methodology courses for teacher candidates and graduate level elementary math curriculum and pedagogy courses.
• Facilitator of the BC Reggio-Inspired Mathematics Project since 2013.
• Board Member of the Vancouver Reggio Association.
• Two study groups with Reggio Children in Reggio Emilia. 
• Pedagogy of Play course (2020) with Harvard Graduate School of Education.
• Presenting across Canada and the United States in the areas of mathematics pedagogy, including mathematical inquiry, Reggio-inspired mathematics, and professional learning practices.
• Collaborations include the Opal School in Portland, NCSM, NCTM, BCAMT, and the Northwest Mathematics yearly conferences. Hosted a Reggio-Inspired Mathematics mini-conference for 200 participants in collaboration with the BCAMT in 2019.

As a director on the board of the Vancouver Reggio Association Janice has attended collaborative sessions with Reggio Children, NAREA, and other Canadian provincial organizations and have hosted professional learning sessions focused on the principles and practices of the Reggio Emilia approach.

She is an active leader within the Indigenous Math Network and the BC Numeracy Network and has sat on three cycles of BC Ministry of Education K-12 mathematics curriculum development and advisory teams.

Presentation: Experiencing Mathematics and Science through a Reggio-Inspired Lens

Exploring key concepts of mathematics and science in the early years and how concepts can be developed through discourse, play, inquiry, and investigation with and through materials. Drawing upon principles and practices of the Reggio Emilia approach, I will share starting points for mathematical and science inquiry and how to design for learning experiences that are meaningful to young children. There will be opportunities to pursue personal inquiry in the area of early mathematics and science as we explore documentation, resources, and materials.

Pursue your own professional inquiry question such as:

• Exploring math and science concepts through art materials
• Designing of mathematical and scientific invitations/provocations drawing from materials materials
• Exploring children’s books as a way to nurture community and discourse, including diverse perspectives and cultures, and inspire
• Exploring pedagogical documentation as a means to enhance the view of teacher as researcher and grow pedagogical content knowledge
• Guiding questions and prompts will be provided for participants at the end of the presentation as well as at each material experience

Presenting on Aug. 22 and Aug. 23.

Qualifications and Experience

Misty is an experienced and artful facilitator, currently working as a freelancing consultant and as a teacher mentor in a public school in Vancouver, Canada. Previous positions include Adjunct Teaching Professor, Faculty Advisor and Cohort Coordinator at The University of British Columbia; and Vice Principal and IB Coordinator of the first public IB PYP school in Western Canada. Misty works closely with artists and is involved in arts-based inquiry. Misty completed her concept-based training with Dr. L Erickson and Dr. L. Lanning in July, 2015.

From Misty:

I bring over twenty-five of teaching and professional development experience with preschool, kindergarten, and primary (K-7) classrooms. Leadership roles have also included special projects teacher, IB PYP Coordinator, Vice Principal, Adjunct Teaching Professor, Faculty Advisor, and Inquiry Cohort Coordinator. I currently serve my school district as a teacher mentor, supporting the professional learning of K-7 teachers in the West Vancouver School District.

I first learned about the Reggio Emilia Approach in 2005 through Dr. Laurie Kocher when I was Laurie’s Vice Principal. My exposure to Reggio principles informed my original research (MA) at UBC through the Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiry, with a focus in Living Inquiry. Living Inquiry is a key thread in the Early Learning Framework.  I have attended professional learning annually through the VRA since 2005. In conjunction, I received two Innovation Grants to imbue Reggio- inspired practice in my Kindergarten classroom in 2014-2015. This included grant work and collaboration with multiple partners to renovate the learning environment and inform pedagogy. I participated in one study group to Opal School in 2015 and one study group with Reggio Children in Reggio Emilia in 2023. I also participated in the Project Zero Classroom, with a focus on Pedagogy of Play, Agency by Design, Studio Thinking and Making Thinking Visible (2018) with Harvard Graduate School of Education. My facilitators were two Arts Ed scholars from Lesley University. 

I currently present my original approach, informed by Reggio principles, internationally in the areas of play, inquiry, responsive, experiential, sustainable, and arts-based pedagogy, including IB PYP, Reggio-inspired provocations, and professional learning practices. I've been a keynote presenter, conference panelist, project coordinator, policy co-creator, and school-wide consultant.  As such, I can share multiple examples of transforming schools, including preschools and societies, into sought-after, creative hubs, featuring special experiential projects with children and the community. With regard to Arts, special collaborations include Arts Starts, the Vancouver Biennale, and the Bill Reid Gallery.  

You can read more about my approach in my book, with contributions from Janice Novakowski, called, "Pop-Up Studio: Responsive Teaching for Today's Learners".  My website offers a window into my work, including services, testimonials, and photos.  You can also see a live interactive workshop here.

Workshop: Designing for Holistic, Connected Learning Across the Curriculum

Be ready to learn like our youngest inquirers: by playing! Through embodied and emergent inquiry methods, we’ll pull back the curtain on 3 critical design elements for sustained, playful, academic inquiry as inspired by Pedagogistas and Atelieristas from Reggio Emilia. In particular, we’ll attune to the teacher’s role in facilitating intellectual engagement through hands-on, carefull and experiential learning. This offering is inspired by decades of designing and facilitating inquiry “on the ground” as well as through academic scholarship.

Through material experiences, we’ll respond to questions such as:

• How do we follow children’s interests when interests change quickly or when managing a large group?
• How do we “go deeper” with inquiry?
• What might help us connect multiple approaches such as Reggio, Slow Pedagogies, and Inquiry, with what we know about current neuroscience?

Presenting on August 23.

Qualifications and Experience

Matt Glover has been a teacher, principal, and consultant for over 35 years. He is the author of the Heinemann titles Craft and Process Studies: Units That Provide Writers with Choice of Genre and Engaging Young Writers, as well as the co-author of Already Ready, Projecting Possibilities for Writers, I Am Reading, and Watch Katie and Matt...Sit Down and Teach Up, a video-enhanced e-book. An international literacy consultant, Matt works in schools with teachers on topics related to nurturing writers of all ages, early reading, oral language composition, and supporting children’s intellectual development.

Presentation: Valuing More Than We Can See: Nurturing Language Composition

Young children are capable of remarkable compositional thinking. Whether they are composing with pictures, clay, words, blocks, paint, or language in dramatic play, children compose by putting things together to create meaning.

On this day we will examine a Language Composition Framework that supports teachers in more precisely naming what children can already do when composing language, and possibilities for small next steps.  The ongoing development of this framework reflects language components that have been observed in early childhood classrooms. 

 Using authentic video clips, we will learn how to:

• Look closely at the language children create in various areas, including book making, reading, and dramatic play.
• Determine next steps for nudging children language composition
• Use language composition and oral rehearsal to support children’s writing
• Build language composition on a foundation of book making
• Understand how children compose language in reading experiences
• Observe differences in language composition in various areas
• Leverage language strengths in one area to lift up language in another