May 25, 2009
CONTACTING PROSPECT CENTER
Prospect's address is the same, and it's P.O. Box 328, North Bennington VT 05257
Prospect's e-mail is prospect@sover.net
Prospect's telephone number is 802-442 8333
Rhonda Rosenburg is the Executive Manager
The Prospect's Descriptive Processes booklet is available for $20 and can be purchased directly from Prospect Center.
Slides from the Reference Edition of the Prospect Center Archives can still be rented directly from Prospect Center
To learn more about the Prospect Archives at the Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections, at the University of Vermont, please contact Chris Burns at Chris.Burns@uvm.edu
Posted by lstrieb at 9:43 PM | Comments (1)
CLOSING PROSPECT AS A CORPORATE ENTITY
December 2008
Dear members and friends of Prospect and former Prospect students and families,
The Prospect Board of Trustees voted at its annual meeting (October 2008) to set in motion a plan for closing Prospect as a corporate entity. The plan is to be carried out over a two-year period to permit the financial and legal business of the corporation to be brought to orderly closure. During this period Prospect projects now in progress will be completed and the Prospect website, the online Prospect Review, Prospect’s annual Fall Conference, and rental of slides of children’s collections from the Reference Edition will continue. The single immediate change is that Prospect will cease forthwith to be a membership organization or to conduct an Annual Campaign. The actual dissolution of the corporation will occur in October 2010.
The projects now in progress are as exciting as ever – and as hope-filled. The Prospect Board initiated a long-range plan to produce a series of books with the aim of making Prospect’s ideas, philosophy, and descriptive methodology more widely available. The results to date are the following three books: From Another Angle (now in its 6th printing), Starting Strong, and Prospect’s Descriptive Processes. Both From Another Angle and Starting Strong have been translated into Japanese and Chinese. Jenny’s Story: Prospect’s Philosophy in Action, the fourth book, is under contract with Teachers College Press and to be published in 2009. All chapters of the fifth volume, with the working title Making Space for Children, are drafted, and we will submit a prospectus for the final book in the series this coming spring (2009).
The Prospect Archives, gifted to UVM Special Collections in 2006, is entering a new and forward looking phase in its development. The Prospect Board recently approved a project, with full agreement and involvement of Special Collections at Bailey/Howe Library, to digitize the Reference Edition of the Prospect Archives. This step will greatly expand access to this rich resource for educators at all levels, for historians of American education, and for researchers from a variety of disciplines. We are very pleased to have the archives in a safe and accessible space, available for future teachers and researchers.
With Prospect projects and activities as vital as ever, why close? There is still sufficient money to continue more or less as usual. There certainly isn’t a dearth of ideas. What has happened is that after 18 years of doing all that Prospect does on solely volunteer labor, and after deep thought and lengthy discussion spanning several years, the Board was forced to recognize that lacking the financial resources adequate to hire a director and support staff, this corporate structure was not sustainable and had been stretched to the breaking point. It was important to all on the Board not to have Prospect simply dwindle away. The decision to implement a plan that would allow Prospect to close with dignity followed from that resolve.
Does this mean there will be no more Prospect after October 2010? It does not. Though Prospect will no longer exist as a corporate structure, Prospect work will go on. It will continue through the use of its resources now safely housed at Special Collections, Bailey/Howe Library Chris.Burns@uvm.edu. It will continue through the influence of the books that preserve and make available in ever widening circles its intellectual and educational philosophy. It will continue through the many local inquiry groups and summer institutes that meet at locations across the country to do Descriptive Reviews of Children, of Children’s Works, and of the Work and Art of Teaching. Most especially Prospect will continue through the lives and in the hands of the many who have been influenced by Prospect since Prospect School opened in 1965.
We take this opportunity to offer heartfelt thanks to all our donors for contributions, large and small, that have helped to sustain Prospect for the past 43 years and most especially to make Prospect’s ideas, teaching, and Descriptive Processes accessible to the larger educational community. We thank with equal gratitude each and every one of you for your commitment to the ideas and philosophy that make Prospect what it is and will continue to be. We know that Prospect has made and will continue to make a significant contribution to the larger movements for educational change, with its bold proposition that it is only by attending with care to each child that the noble aim of equality of education for all children can be achieved.
If you have questions about the closing or about continuing activities and projects, please contact Ann Caren (acaren@twcny.rr.com) (607.257.7959).
Sincerely,
Ann Caren
President of the Prospect Board of Trustees
Patricia F. Carini and Louis Carini
Prospect Incorporators
Posted by lstrieb at 5:29 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2009
2009 SUMMER INSTITUTES
SUMMER INSTITUTE ON DESCRIPTIVE PROCESS July 26 - July 31, 2009 Benninngton, VT SUMMER INSTITUTE ON DESCRIPTIVE INQUIRY July 26 - August 8, 2009 Bennington, VT To download the flyers and applications click on "Institutes" in the menu to the left.
Posted by lstrieb at 12:22 PM
Below are schedules from Inquiry Groups that use the Descriptive Processes developed by the Prospect Center. We invite you to add your group's schedule in a comment: New York, NY When: Sat. Feb. 7, Tues. Mar. 3, Sat. April 4, Sat. May 2 (CUE Conference at LIU), and Tues. May 12 Where: Central Park East I School, E. Harlem Contact: Elaine Avidon--eavidon@aol.com Other: We have been meeting for 17 years. This year's seminar focuses on the visibility of the child and the connections and choices we make in relation to our growing understandings of children as workers, persons, and learners. We are exploring the possibilities inherent in particular materials—wood, print making, soft sculpture, blocks, sand, paint—using our own worktime experiences with these materials during the class and the experiences of our students to consider the implications for teaching and learning. The group is co-led by Elaine Avidon, Jane Andrias, Erin Hyde, and Yvonne Smith. New York, NY When: Feb. 9, April 25 Where: Lehman College Other: We have been meeting for 17 years. The work of this group is built around a shared reading, which is put alongside practice. This year the group is reading is John Dewey and the Philosophy and Practice of Hope by Fishman and McCarthy Central VT Who: teachers, teacher educators, education students When: once a month, Friday January 23, Thursday February 12, Friday March 13, Friday April 3, Friday May 8. Friday meetings begin at 3:30, Thursday February 12 begins at 4:00 Where: River Rock School, Montpelier, VT EXCEPT Thursday February 12 which will be at either River Rock School or Johnson State College Contact: Gina Ritscher-Winters--Regina.Ritscher-Winters@jsc.edu or Allison Caldwell--akcaldwell@comcast.net Other: We do Descriptive Reviews of children, work, and practice in relationship to the River Rock School. Who: Participants come from Chicago and vicinity and include teachers, retired teachers, administrators and teacher educators. When: 10 a.m.-noon, the first Saturday of each month, October - May, skipping Where: Francis Parker School, usually in Mary Anne Hamilton's classroom Contact: Joan Bradbury--joanbradbury@gmail.com Other: We have been meeting for 5 years now. We use the Prospect descriptive inquiry processes, usually beginning the year with each person bringing a recollection or arising concern from the beginning of school. In the last couple of years, we've had a loose "theme" running through the year, one around children's questions, and last year's around children's choices. VT, NH, NY State, Western MA Who: educators in a variety of settings, from nursery school through college When: 9:15 a.m.-12:15, once a month, Sept. through May Where: Hiland Hall School, Shaftsbury, VT Contact: Ellen Schwartz--eschwa1@verizon.net Feburary 7: Discussion of Reading: "The Tyranny of Petty Coercion," by March 7: Descriptive Review of a Child April 4: Narrative Reports May 2: Descriptive Review of Practice or Review of an Activity Philadelphia, PA Who: educators from Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs When: 4:45 - 6:45 Every Thursday during the school year (except school holidays) Where: Participant's homes. Come early for conversation and refreshments Contact: Betsy Wice--BetsyWice@aol.com Other: We have been meeting for thirty years. January 15: Review of Practice January 22: Discussion of Draft Chapter of Inviting Families: A Teacher Remembers January 29: Descriptive Review, 4th Grader February 5: Descriptive Review of Work: 8th Grade Student February 12: Descriptive Review: Adult Mentoring February 19: Description of Four Works, 7th & 8th Graders February 26: Children Adapting to New Routines: “That’s not how Teacher Gill Does It!” March 5: Discussion of a portion of Whatever It Takes by Peter Tough (about Harlem Children’s Zone) March 12: Where Am I Now in My Work? March 19: Planning Meeting March 26: Post-Its™ and Other Things We Make with our Kids (Bring Post-Its™ and other supplies that fit into a shoebox) Bronxville/Yonkers, NY Who: Sarah Lawrence College Art of Teaching alum and host teachers as well as other interested educators, including teachers, administrators, etc. Focus is mainly early childhood and elementary school. When: Four or five Saturdays over the academic year. Where: Sarah Lawrence College Contact: Mary Hebron (Assoc. Director, Art of Teaching Graduate Program, SLC) -- mhebron@slc.edu Other: The fee is $25 per Saturday. There is one SLC credit offered for attendance at all of a series, for an additional cost of $100. Though the series began in December, we have included the schedule for future sessions. February 7: Prospect Descriptive Review of a Child March 7: Prospect Review of Practice April 25: Making teaching work visible Posted by lstrieb at 4:01 PM
January 14, 2009
INQUIRY GROUPS
The Elementary Teachers Network
2008 - 2009 Worktime Inquiry Study Group
Saturday Inquiry Group
Contact: Andy Doan--andy.doan@calhoun.org
Inquiry Group
Chicago, IL
Teachers' Study Group
January (February 7, March 7, April 4, May 2)
Saturday Inquiry Group
Marilynne Robinson (in The Death of Adam)
Philadelphia Teachers' Learning Cooperative
Website: www.ptlcteacherspace.blogspot.com
The Art of Teaching: Teaching and Learning for the Classroom Professional
