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It may well be the next iconic parenting manual, up there with Spock and Leach and Brazelton…

— Lisa Belkin, New York Times more reviews

Got the Winter Blues? Time to Plan a New Project!

Featured article

January 25, 2012

Julie A. Riess, Ph.D., is the Senior Advisor on Child Development and Education at Families and Work Institute. She is a developmental psychologist and the director of the Wimpfheimer Nursery School at Vassar College.

This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal by Gannett Publications on January 22, 2012.

Two years ago, my son started a “365” project. He wanted to improve his skills as a photographer and made a pledge to himself to take at least one picture a day for the calendar year. On New Year’s Eve,  2010, we watched them as a slide show on our TV. We had had many sneak previews, including following along on his Facebook photo album. Yet the whole show, a year in pictures, was poignant in a new way.

There were some obvious things that made us smile, such as family blowing out birthday cake candles or the annual posed picture at our family’s summer vacation spot. Surprisingly, the more salient photos for me were the unexpected moments in daily life. There was the light switch in a darkened room at 11:59 p.m. (determination to keep the project afloat on a day he forgot to take a picture). There was the half full glass of water on a nightstand, from when he was sick in bed. There was a photo of a train window and another of car tail lights, as he traveled to interviews for graduate school.

Research on children’s memories, including interviews with children, often highlight the snapshots of our daily lives more than the center stage events. Memorable moments come in all shapes and sizes, yet the details sometimes tell the story better than the canvas. It isn’t as much about the trip to Disney World as discovering the little chocolate on a hotel pillow. It isn’t as much about a new bicycle as the moment a parent let go and you didn’t fall.

read more

UPDATE: Ellen Galinsky on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams

January 19, 2012

 Update: The segment on 24-7 child care has been postponed. Check back here for updates on an air date.

Modern ECE Professional Learning Communities Webinar with Ellen Galinsky. Join us!

January 18, 2012

On February 1, 2012 at 2pm EST Ellen will be doing a webinar called Modern ECE Professional Learning Communities hosted by Early Childhood Investigations. The presentation draws in part upon lessons learned from Mind in the Making learning communities work. 
Here is the link for more information and to register.

From the Early Childhood Investigations announcement page:
 
"Soon after Ellen’s book Mind in the Making (MITM) was published in 2010, she found that groups were convening around the book in professional learning communities. Webinars and symposiums were being held, book clubs were forming, professional groups were studying the book to apply what they had learned, training was being offered, and Mind in the Making became the focus of conferences, websites, and chat groups.
 
Ellen observed that these Learning Communities have ten characteristics in common. Specifically, Ellen believes these ten common characteristics illustrate the future of Professional Learning Communities. She observes that modern Professional Learning Communities:
  1. Bring new players together.
  2. Seek to reach the most “in need” among us.
  3. Focus on learning from and with each other and share a belief that there is expertise among us all.
  4. Focus on active learning that is experiential  and engages participants in self-reflection and self-discovery.
  5. Use new media to connect in creative ways.
  6. Actively create new curricula based on sound principles of child and adult learning and development.
  7. Focus on assessment, but tie assessment to child development.
  8. Reframe teaching as teaching AND learning together.
  9. Connect policy to practice.
  10. “Play it forward.”
     
In this session, Ellen will share what she has learned about Professional Learning Communities, and show you how your organization can replicate some of these models to use Mind in the Making in your community or organization. The session will also include live testimonials from early childhood professionals who have lead some of these innovative initiatives." 

Learning Communities: An Emerging Phenomenon by Ellen Galinsky

Featured article

January 18, 2012

The current edition of NAEYC's Young Children, pages 20-27, has an article by Ellen called Learning Communities: An Emerging Phenomenon. Here is a link to the issue.

Raising a Puppy: A refresher course in Basic Parenting 101

Featured article

January 09, 2012

Julie A. Riess, Ph.D., is the Senior Advisor on Child Development and Education at Families and Work Institute. She is a developmental psychologist and the director of the Wimpfheimer Nursery School at Vassar College.


This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal by Gannett Publications on January 8, 2012.

On December 11, 2011, our family life changed forever: we adopted a 13 week old puppy.   Like classic expectant parents, we were excited and a little bit nervous.  What would we name him? How would our lives change?  Were we ready? 

As a veteran parent of three children, I was most focused on impending sleepless nights or at the very best, interrupted sleep. Coping with being sleep deprived has never been one of my strengths as a parent.  I was confident that expecting to be sleep deprived was half of the adjustment.

We are now at day 22 and I’ve only been awakened once during the night. Chai Latte sleeps through the night like a perfect puppy. My biggest worry turned out to be no worry at all. Hum, I thought, this is just like when I became a parent for the first time 25 years ago; nothing was what I expected.

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Daily Kid



Here is a list of Mind in the Making researchers and educators filmed to date

Community Schools: “Mind in the Making and Community Schools: Crossing Boundaries and Creating Strong Linkages for Children Birth through Eight and their Families,” is a collaborative project with The Children’s Aid Society’s National Center for Community Schools and the Institute for Educational Leadership. (Read more)

Learning Communities: Throughout the country, groups of parents, educators, and other family support and health professionals have joined together to learn more about the research on children’s learning from birth through the early elementary school years, and about how to use this research to promote better outcomes for children. (Read more)

Learning Modules for Educators: Mind in the Making Learning Modules for Educators is an 11-part, facilitated learning process designed to bridge the gap between research and teaching practice. (Read more)

Seven Skills Modules: We have created new Modules from the book, called the Mind in the Making Seven Essential Skills Modules. (Read more)

Experiments in Children's Learning DVD: This two-volume series of 42 videos take viewers on a series of virtual “field trips” to laboratories in the U.S. and abroad. (Read more)
View a crosswalk of the experiments to the seven essential life skills

Download a companion Catalogue to Mind in the Making: Experiments in Children's Learning

Have you seen the Marshmallow Test?

What does eating marshmallows have to do with how your kid does on the SAT?
Watch the video

Ask a MITM team member to speak at your event.

The MITM staff is having conversations about Mind in the Making with audiences across the country. Click here to invite a team member to speak at your event.

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