Chapters International

OVERVIEW:

Picture books are valuable tools for young children exploring emergent literacy, as making visual connections to written content assists in understanding. In a similar way, visual documentation (videography + photography) can facilitate children’s full participation in the stories and plans of their work and thereby invite a deeper literacy of agency and belonging. The shared medium of still and moving images invites shared power in the design and ongoing decisions about learning (and living!). Jodi works with teachers to optimize the benefits of visual documentation, showing them how to use smartphones and digital cameras to:

Amplify children’s interests and ways of knowing and being
Fully partner with children by teaching them camera skills (strong preference for children using digital cameras over smartphones)
Co-create mindsets, heart-sets, environments, and practices that nurture greater connections, openness to distinct possibilities, and healthy development.

REQUIRED TOOLS:

smartphone (for teacher use to capture photos / videos)
digital point-and-shoot camera with wrist strap (for child use)
overhead projector (for everyone’s use)

AGENDA & OBJECTIVES FOR THIS 3-SESSION WEBINAR SERIES:

Session 1 (2 hours): Camera Skills 101 - Theory and Practice

Explore how visual documentation nurtures distinct possibilities (vs. new possibilities), as much of what videos and photos capture has been there all along, only often outside of adult awareness or acknowledgement.
Like any tool, the camera can be used to contribute, distract, or even cause harm. Session 1 will explore this spectrum of possibility.
Build camera skills around a focal point
The focal point for this series will be technology, specifically overhead projectors and point-and-shoot digital cameras (required tools for this series).
During 2 weeks between Sessions 1 and 2, teachers and children will capture and submit documentation that will serve as anecdotes for Session 2.

Session 2 (2 hours): Show Children’s Approaches to Technology Through Visual

Documentation Employ overhead projectors and digital cameras to:

Promote focused engagement and collaboration with each other and materials / tools of interest
Show children’s authentic interests and delight (through documentation)
Invite multiple perspectives and connections

Session 3 (2 hours): Reflect and Integrate

Participants share takeaways from this experience
Explore measurables that match beliefs about partnering with children
Clarify immediate application of visual documentation in your learning community

POTENTIAL AUDIENCE: Documenters + Auditors

Documenters: early years teachers (Pre-K to grade 2) and special rights teachers
Auditors: university teachers, curriculum supervisors, teacher leaders, teacher trainers, and school directors

There are two ways to participate in this 3-session series.

Participate on a documentation team
1. Fee: USD 400
2. Practice techniques learned in Session 1 of this series (Camera Skills 101) to capture documentation that will serve as anecdotal examples for Session 2 of this series (Show Children’s Approaches to Technology Through Visual Documentation). Yes - Your work will help to propel our collective thinking and learning!
3. 1 team = 5 teachers from the same school
4. There will be 4 teams total (cap is 20 teachers total)
5. There can be more than 1 team from a school

Participate as an auditor
1. Fee: USD 300
2. Learn documentation skills through this highly interactive approach and participate by offering feedback that will help the documentation teams reflect on their experiences and launch next steps - an exercise that will likely inspire ideas for your own context!
3. Unlimited space for auditors

JODI WERT

Jodi is an educational facilitator and integrator who loves to co-create healthy culture that nurtures myriad authentic relationships. She is particularly skilled at inspiring practical application, collective leadership, and holistic transformations (big and small), which is evidenced in her work with senior executives, program directors, teachers, families, and children. The experiences that most profoundly shape her work include:

26 years teaching (preschool, primary, tertiary),
documentation team lead while teaching preschool,
studio arts,
storytelling,
enterprise-wide change management practitioner,
pediatric care specialist at Duke University Health System,
trainer: positive and adverse childhood experiences,
preparing horses for equine therapy with children,
international living and teaching in México, Argentina, and Singapore,
interning with Reggio-inspired and IB Primary Years programs,
professional learning with the educational project of Reggio Emilia, Italy,
co-creating 2 Early Learning Centers inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach®, and
motherhood.