2019-2020 Annual Report - Unprecedented

2019-2020

Unprecedented A HISTORICAL YEAR IN REVIEW

60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

EXHIBITS , ATELIERS, AND CONFERENCES

VIRTUAL LEARNING CIRCLES

The image on the front cover captures a moment during the mandated quarantine, an unprecedented time in history. While it might seem we are alone, the sense of belonging of the Peachtree community was evident as we experienced uncertainty, holding in our hands and our hearts the possibility of a new day.

"Nothing can replace physically

A YEAR UNLIKE ANY OTHER The words historical, unique, unprecedented, and circularity come to mind when reflecting on the 2019-2020 school year. The year began with great excitement with anticipation of celebrations, innovative learning, community involvement, and vital contributions to the wonder of childhood. Little did we know that the year would prove to be distinctive for other reasons as well.

being with YOUNG CHILDREN BUT WE FIGURED OUT WAYS OF STAYING VERY CONNECTED. " -ANNA FIVEASH, TEACHER

Educators at Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool firmly believe the Reggio Emilia Approach is the framework that best supports the pedagogy of early childhood education. Through collaboration with the schools of Project Infinity, The North American Reggio Emilia Alliance, and the educational project of Reggio Emilia, Italy, the Preschool fostered the creation of a daily life that gave substance and voice to the rights of children and adults during an extraordinary time. Peachtree is grateful to the families and colleagues who accompanied us as we encountered possibilities, realities, and uncertainties in our 60th anniversary year.

"A STRONG AND CONNECTED COMMUNITY IS KEY.

IT CAN SERVE AS

THE FOUNDATION FOR EVERYTHING ELSE." -CINDY BOHNTINSKY, TEACHER

60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CREATION OF PEACHTREE PRESBYTERIAN PRESCHOOL

Sixty years ago, just around the corner on Mathieson Drive, Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool opened its doors to 20 five-year-old children for kindergarten.

Over the years, the Preschool has evolved into what began as a traditional school into a Reggio-inspired school with a robust inclusion program for 24 children with special needs. The founders knew that early childhood was important and the Preschool mission remains the same today to "provide an early educational program of the highest quality, founded on a firm commitment to God and a dedication to the highest professional standards".

The 60th Anniversary of the opening of the Preschool gave us reason to commemorate and celebrate. The year of celebration was kicked off by a social media campaign highlighting our beginnings and celebratory events. The Annual Fund "60 for 60", was launched to raise funds to enrich the learning environment through program enhancements, underwrite professional development, special events, and activities; and provide for improvements in technology and facility. The goal was to raise $60,000 and have 100% participation of staff and families.

COMMEMORATE AND CELEBRATE

The annual fundraiser for the Inclusion Program, Springtime at Peachtree, commemorated the anniversary with a 60's style "Madmen" theme and was on course to be an excellent time for the Preschool community to come together for a worthy cause. Along with much of North America, the Preschool received the "stay at home" order, which happened one week before the event. Parents and staff worked hard to adjust and offer the first "Springtime at Peachtree"livestream. while it was not what we had envisioned, it successfully raised funds for the Inclusion Program. It underscored the determination, dedication, and flexibility of the families and staff who faced the challenge and quickly pivoted to offer an exciting virtual evening.

THE 15TH NAREA SUMMER CONFERENCE

"I THINK AN UNWAVERING LOVE AND STRONG CONFIDENCE IN CHILDREN IS AT THE HEART OF EDUCATION IN REGGIO...NOT ONLY DOES THIS WAY OF THINKING SUPPORT CHILDREN'S LEARNING, IT REASSURES THEM THAT THEY HAVE A VOICE, THAT THEY ARE SMART, AND THAT THEY ARE CAPABLE OF DOING WHAT THEY PUT THEIR MINDS TO." - FELICIA JONES, TEACHER CONFERENCE REFLECTION

""DEFENDING SPACES FOR CREATIVE FREEDOM: SPACES OF JOY, TRUST, AND SOLIDARITY" JUNE 27-29, 2019 Working with Reggio Children, The North American Reggio Emilia Alliance, and schools of Project Infinity, the Preschool hosted the 15th NAREA Summer Conference featuring Claudia Giudici, President of Reggio Children, and Marina Mori, atelierista from Reggio Emilia, Italy. Over 380 participants joined together for dialogue, exchange, tours of Project Infinity schools, exhibition encounters, and participatory ateliers.

Educators from the Preschool served as hosts, participants, organizers, volunteers, and general support throughout the months leading up to the conference.

Working with Marina Mori to prepare the atelier was a highlight of the summer conference preparation. A dedicated team of educators worked with the renowned atelierista from Reggio during the week preceding the conference. Hours spent organizing, curating, and displaying materials to use in the hands-on encounter were peppered with pedagogical discussions focused on the values of creativity, organization, the Hundred Languages, and beauty.

"Working with Marina opened my eyes and mind to the nuances found in simple materials such as paper and mark-making tools. I understood, in a deeper way, that the materials hold within them the extraordinary ability to call forth childrens' potentials for knowledge building.

It is the responsibility of the educators to give value and honor to these encounters and materials."

-Angie Pope, teacher

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"THE WONDER OF LEARNING- THE HUNDRED LANGUAGES OF CHILDREN" EXHIBITION As a Reggio-inspired preschool, we believe in supporting experiences that offer opportunities for dialogue and exchange with children, families, and the community.

This year, we had the honor to collaborate with NAREA and Project Infinity to bring two exhibitions from Reggio Emilia, Italy, to Atlanta, "The Wonder of Learning-The Hundred Languages of Children" and "Mosaic of Marks, Words, Materials". "The Wonder of Learning- The Hundred Languages of Children" was located in The SunTrust Garden Plaza and included several professional development opportunities.

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"The exhibit promotes children's rights through pedagogical and cultural discussions between teachers, educators, academics and researchers. We (the Preschool) support children's interests by researching common interests and making known and visible the support of the Hundred Languages. " -Amanda Boswell, teacher

The highlights of the exhibit included:

The Preschool's first staff meeting was at SunTrust and was followed by exhibit encounters. The Peachtree Pedagogical Team facilitated the study of the exhibit and discussions.

80% of faculty encountered the exhibit in teaching pairs and studied the exhibition together.

100% of the Preschool staff donated to the exhibit fund.

Preschool staff served as facilitators and participants in Deep Dives, an in depth study of a particular section in the exhibit.

Staff participated in the installation and deinstallation of the exhibit.

The "Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material" exhibition and atelier brought together children's works and processes on the themes of drawing and narration in Reggio Emilia's municipal infanttoddler centers and preschools. Peachtree served as the host location for this new style of exhibit and hands-on encounter. The exhibit and atelier served as conduits to community educators, offering opportunities to study and focus on the strong language of drawing. Within daily life, teachers researched the interplay between markmaking and narrative.

The educators' commitment to give visibility to children, to work collaboratively within the community, and to grow professionally was visible through the concrete actions taken to host the exhibitions.

"MOSAIC OF MARKS, WORDS, MATERIAL" EXHIBITION AND ATELIER

Peachtree educators facilitated and attended "Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material" (MOM) community ateliers Peachtree educators attended MOM community ateliers Peachtree collaborative groups studied the exhibition during afternoon meetings and worked to carry the inspiration into the daily life of the classroom The studio team studied the exhibition and focused on "mark-making" in the studio for the year, including Virtual Learning Circles Classroom teachers worked to intentionally incorporate mark-making in the classroom The studio team committed to documenting mark-making research making it easily accessible to children, teachers, and families

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Educators began the year with a strong desire to play an active role in professional formation. The passion did not wane, even in the face of a national "stay at home" mandate. Conditions for dialogue, growth, and exchange were unparalleled, Staff from Peachtree attended and presented at local and national conferences, including: Bing Summer Institute, Stanford University North American Reggio Emilia Alliance ( NAREA) Summer Conference NAREA Atelier Encounter with Maria Mori, Reggio educator NAREA Winter Conference-Livestream NAEYC Annual Conference, Nashville, TN Young Child Conference, Virtual Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference, Virtual Nurtured Heart Approach Atlanta Speech School Cox Campus, Virtual "Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material" Exhibition and Community Atelier "The Wonder of Learning- The Hundred Languages of Children" Exhibition and "Deep Dives" "Museum of Modern Art Online, New York, NY Project Infinity Whole Project Professional Development Day Project Infinity New Teacher Experiences Project Infinity Summer Institute Project Infinity Educator Exchange Days Project Infinity Identity Group Work Staying Connected in a Virtual World Inclusion Forums

Daily Life of Research "We are trying to understand the expressive depth and learning embedded in mark-making so we created contexts to support this research."

-Cindy Neal, Studio teacher

The educators of the Preschool utilized the presence of the "Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material" exhibition to heighten the commitment for the research of markmaking. The circularity of study, analysis, designed plans, and documentation strengthened the understanding of markmaking as a valued language.

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Teachers used large sketchbooks as the container for documentation making it easier to revisit and share the work with the children, families, and colleagues. The Studio teachers organized much of the work into mini-stories. Drawing and telling stories means imagining and exploring spaces, colors, words, techniques, and rhythms, entering into a narrative world that plays on the real and imagined, the known and the unknown, the simple and the complex.

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A Daily Life of Encounters It is not unusual for Atlanta to receive a lot of rain. What may be uncommon in most preschool settings is how the teachers and children research rain.

The teachers and families work together to ensure that the children have rain gear ready, for when the drops begin to fall, they are ready.

From testing the water's depth, the way it fills in space, and strategies for displacing the water, the children investigate and discover the properties of water.

The adults' willingness to offer children out of the ordinary experiences recognizes children's abilities and desires to make sense of their world and the natural phenomenon that happens around them. Parents were eager to share photo evidence of the encounters during the mandated closure.

"Ahhh! The water is so deep it goes up to my knees here but there it is not so deepmaybe to my toes." - Jackson Fleetwood "My big sister and me jumped in a puddle in a road." -Layla Hafeez

A DAILY LIFE TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

"THE VIRTUAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE AT PEACHTREE DURING THE SPRING OF 2020 WAS ACTUALLY QUITE AMAZING ON MANY FRONTS" -FAYE TRAYNELIS, TEACHER

On March 12, 2020, the Preschool closed the campus indefinitely following Governor Brian Kemp's orders. The following day the administrative team conducted intense training on transforming the school from inperson learning to Virtual Learning Circles with objectives, strategies, support resources, and clarification of roles.

"These adjustments are difficult; some painful, but important to be madeworking together so we can minimize the impact. We feel the cost of gathering together could lead to the loss of life. This is wisdom; not fear based but based on data. Accordingly, we are taking these actions."

- Jane Montgomery, Director

Teachers and children stayed connected to work that had begun during in-person school to honor children's interests, support creativity, and innovation, and, most importantly, to keep the group together. School-wide efforts fortified relationships with families during this pivotal time in history and included a social media campaign with contributions from educators and families. Family recipes, gardening tips, health and fitness routines, funny pet stories, favorite bedtime stories, and childhood accomplishments came together on social media to give insight into life at home. Peachtree staff crafted a weekly "Good News" broadcast to share the triumphs, events, and news of children and families. Together, we celebrated riding bikes, climbing trees, and new babies!

"THE ZOOM CALLS SUSTAINED ME. IT ALLOWED FOR ONE ON ONE TIME, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION INTO THE CHILDREN’S DAILY LIVES. THE INCREDIBLE FEEDBACK THAT I GOT FROM FAMILIES ALSO HELPED PROPEL ME FORWARD. THE JOY I SAW IN THE PICTURES THE PARENTS SENT AND THE KIND WORDS THEY SAID MADE THE WORK THAT MUCH EASIER." - HEATHER FREANEY, TEACHER

Virtual Learning Circles Honoring the Collective Wisdom of the Group

Through the Virtual Learning Circles, educators noticed how children stayed connected to previous work with the natural world, imaginative play, and building and construction. Children focused on new encounters of childhood rites such as bike riding, which they eagerly shared with classmates during zoom meetings. Class communities stayed connected through Zoom, US mail and other platforms. It was apparent that everyone missed each other! Families crafted hearts as a sign of love, solidarity, and encouragement; placing them in house windows for the world to see.

"Franklin's eyes lit up as he heard that his teachers would be calling him.

The excitement was more than he could handle-being able to share his home, toys and creations with his teachers. As we moved into daily Zoom calls things only got better. This became the most important time of the day where Franklin would get to engage not only with his friends, but intellectually. He prepared for the Zoom meetings and took them seriously as he did school." -Jen and Pat Bonuso, Parents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Staying Connected Over 23 days we estimate the following: 1000 videos created and shared with families via Dropbox, YouTube, and Instagram 2500 individual Facetime calls to children and parents 460 journal entries posted on the Shutterfly platform highlighting class work 150 Class Zoom meetings 320 Zoom calls between administrative team and teaching teams took place.

8 weekly administrative Zoom meetings 150 letters and postcards sent to children through the US Postal Service 1000s of photos posted on Instagram, Shutterfly, iphoto, and google photos of the children's life at home during this time 5 parent evening Zoom meetings focused on "Technology and Children", "Preschool Updates", "Children's Big Emotions", "Families Coping with the Virus", and "Children with Special Rights and the Virus" 110 families participated in the last day of school portfolio pick up for Pre-K and 5/6 classes.

8 weekly Inclusion program meetings over Zoom and Facetime 100 Virtual Learning Circle reflections collected 1,000,000s of smiles and laughs shared between children, families, and educators

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VIRTUAL LEARNING CIRCLE REFLECTIONS

"Sending you love! I can only imagine the heartbreak and stress that you must carry with this crazy school year. WE want you to know how much we appreciate you and our amazing teachers. Your team is incredibly strong, resilient, and brave. Thank you for all that you are doing to keep our community connected."

The Kaineg Family "The Virtual Learning Circles strengths that emerged were: my ability to stay connected, as best as I could, to the Reggio Approach; my ability to encourage and support the teachers I work with; my ability to learn and explore the necessary technology; my confidence with “putting myself out there” in the videos I created and my desire to connect, explore and learn with the children throughout this strange crisis."- Cindy Neal, Studio Teacher "To me the key word for this moment is: connection. The opportunity to enjoy every moment with the children, appreciate more the resources we have- not only in the classroom but inside of us. Smile, smile more, and value human touch."- Elene Quintana, Inclusion Teacher "It is a lot harder to work on the Reggio Approach through a computer than it is to do in person and I thought the staff did a great job given all the challenges."- Katie Manning, Administrative Team

"We can apply the lessons of time as a resource, nature as a resource, and children as capable. It underscores that children’s experiences and observations are inspiring enough to create a “curriculum.” Also, we can learn how valuable it is to share a space together and to appreciate physical expressions of joy."- Marian Justice, Teacher "Our new responsibilities were laid out and at first felt overwhelming. The first few weeks consisted to working what felt like around the clock, mostly because if we weren’t actually making a video or physically on a Facetime call we were thinking about them or setting up ways to try to work more efficiently. I feel like we bonded in extremely special ways with families by communicating in so many different/creative forms/ways."- Paula Larson, Teacher

Dear Audacious Staff of PPP, Happy last Friday of VLC! What a historic year this has been! Sixty years of being The Preschool, the first year of hosting two exhibits from Reggio and the NAREA Summer Conference, and of course, the rapid response to COVID-19 #stayathome with Virtual Learning Circles. These are critical points in the year which was filled with many many others. As we come to a close of the year, words from the Rolling Stones come to mind, "No, you can't always get what you want-You can't always get what you want-You can't always get what you want-But if you try sometimes, you find-You get what you need." We hope that even though we didn't get what we wanted- being with children, family, and colleagues in person- we still got what we needed- moments filled with the love and laughter of those who share the daily life of the school with us! We hope that as the hustle of VLC calms down, you look back at this time clearly and see how much you did to make life better for the children and families. Your abundance of attentiveness, patience, playfulness, and loving ways certainly helped to heal hearts that were bruised by being apart. We look forward to the time we can be together and bring "what we need" into the future. Enjoy the summer, and continue to let your greatness be evident to all. Blessings for a safe, healthy, and happy summer. ,- Last email sent to staff by the Administrative Team

May 22, 2020 AstaffThe Admin Staff. (May 22, 2020

A Connected Community The Preschool hosted opportunities for children and adults to come together to form a community.

Record-breaking attendance at the Peachtree Pumpkin Patch celebrating the season

Project Infinity Stroller-K The Preschool invited families and teachers to walk to show solidarity in supporting early childhood education through the Project Infinity Virtual Stroller-K: push for good

Afternoon of Stories included teachers and parents sharing stories told in the oral tradition Night of Stories Reggio Emilia, Italy included Peachtree staff reading stories to a global community

Dads' Day and Visiting Days welcomed families to the Preschool's daily life. The children and teachers celebrated Moms' Day virtually with unique videos created by the children and teachers

Springtime at Peachtree was virtual for the first time in its history. Sadly, Peachtree Family Festival was canceled due to COVID-19

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Peachtree community outreach contributed to a sense of belonging to a community by caring for others

WHO WE ARE THE PRESCHOOL WAS CREATED TO PROVIDE AN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROGRAM OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY, FOUNDED ON A FIRM COMMITMENT TO GOD AND A DEDICATION TO THE HIGHEST PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS.

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293

72

358

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Classes in Total 6 Toddler 8 Two-Year-Old 7 Three-Year-Old 6 Pre-K 1 Five/Six

Families

Staff members 9 Administation 5 Resource teachers 42 Co-teachers 14 Inclusion teachers 2 Therapists

Children enrolled Ages 12 months to six-years-old

Animals in the Preschool 3 Chickens 3 Turtles 2 guinea pigs 1 rabbit 10 fish

WHEN OUR HEARTS RETURN During the stay at home order, families created hearts to bring back to the school upon reopening. The hearts represent each unique family.

The creative and distinctive designs remind us of the rich possibilities that live within each of us. When our hearts come together, they will create a composition that is a concrete example of our learning, love, life, and the joy of being together.

It is with genuine appreciation that we thank the children, families, and colleagues who share in the daily life of the Preschool. We gratefully recognize the contributions of Project Infinity and for Reggio Emilia, Italy, who continue to share this inspiring, innovative, and relational, educational project with the world.

Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool 3434 Roswell Road Atlanta, Georgia www.peachtreepresbyterianpreschool.org