Prospect Center

2010 SUMMER INSTITUTES

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:01:04 -0500

SUMMER INSTITUTE ON DESCRIPTIVE PROCESS

(Summer Institute 1)

July 25 to July 30, 2010

Bennington College

North Bennington, VT

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SUMMER INSTITUTE ON DESCRIPTIVE INQUIRY

(Summer Institute 2)

Expanding Our Sense of the Possible

July 25 to August 6, 2010

Bennington College

North Bennington, VT

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JENNY'S STORY: Taking the Long View of the Child

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:38:21 -0500

Prospect’s new book, published in 2010, Jenny’s Story: Taking the Long View of the Child, Prospect’s Philosophy in Action, written by Patricia F. Carini and Margaret Himley, with Carol Christine, Cecilia Espinosa, and Julia Fournier is now available for purchase online or at your local bookseller. It is published by Teachers College Press.

Here’s what one reviewer, Sarah Hudelson of Arizona State University, said about the book: “This detailed portrait of Jenny as person and as learner affirms the assertion that careful observation of one child influences our thinking about all children and the schooling they deserve. Jenny’s Story challenges us to continue the struggle to return children to the center of our teaching.”

Another reviewer, Shirley Brice-Heath of Brown University said, “A splendid book, a long view of children as advocates for justice, empathy and fairness in the world and a testament to the insightful powers of teachers who listen, observe, and wonder at children’s ways of teaching.”

A description of the content of the book, taken from the back cover:

“By carefully documenting how space was made for Jenny-a child who didn’t fit the school mold-this book offers a renewed sense of human possibility and an attainable vision of what schools can be. The authors demonstrate that it is only by attending to each and every child that schooling can begin to achieve its most noble aim: equality. Readers are introduced to Prospect’s educational philosophy and descriptive processes, with details about what the processes are and what they offer teachers, parents, and children. Jenny’s story is told through these processes-ways of looking at children and their work that make it possible to know each child as a person, a thinker, and a learner. While Jenny’s journey through elementary school is the heart of the book, this is also the story of a big urban school serving many immigrant families. Jenny’s Story offers readers a compelling look at:

• How teachers, staff, and the principal successfully worked with a richly
diverse community.
• What it means to ground teaching in knowledge of the particular,
careful observation, and collective inquiry.
• How to challenge school policies and mandates that work against children’s
well-being and dignity.”

Please recommend this book to colleagues: teachers, administrators, and friends; to those you meet or have met at conferences, meetings, and study groups.

Sincerely,

Ann Caren
President
Prospect Board of Trustees

REMEMBERING ALICE SELETSKY

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:36:47 -0500

Alice Seletsky died Wednesday, November 11th. Some of you knew her. Many of you did not. She was a memorable teacher of children and of adults. Alice was a founding teacher at Central Park East 1 in New York, where she worked with fifth and sixth graders - "the big kids" she called them - and later, with beginning readers. She taught at Brooklyn College, she supplied many of us with book titles, and she studied ancient Greek. And she loved Jane Austen.

Alice's long association with Prospect started during the summer of 1974 or 1975 when she was part of a group of teachers, administrators, and researchers who began to plan what was to become Inquiry Into Meaning, a study of children learning to read. From then through the 1990s Alice participated in summer institutes, where she made major contributions to Prospect's thought and works (and humor.) She worked on the development of the Reference Edition of the Prospect Archives, and was a member of Prospect's Board of Trustees for many years.

We invite you to write your remembrance of Alice and to post it in comments to this entry. We will collect these and give them to Alice's family.

PROSPECT CENTER'S 2009 FALL CONFERENCE

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:59:54 -0500

THE LONG VIEW OF THE CHILD

THE BIG VIEW OF THE CLASSROOM

Saturday, November 14th and Sunday, November 15th

We hope you can be there! Please continue reading.

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IMPORTANT: DIGITIZING SLIDES FROM THE REFERENCE EDITION

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:56:50 -0500

We announced the following in our letter of December, 2008, and published it on our weblog on May 25th, 2009:

"The Prospect Board recently approved a project, with full agreement and involvemnt of Special Collections at Bailey/Howe Library [at the University of Vermont] 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."

This digitization project has begun.

The University of Vermont is the only entity permitted to digitize slides from the Reference Edition.

Slides from the Reference Edition of the Prospect Archives can be rented from The Prospect Center, prospectcenter@sover.net . Prospect's telephone number is 802 442 8333.

SAVE THE DATE FOR PROSPECT'S FALL CONFERENCE

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:46:39 -0500

THE LONG VIEW OF THE CHILD, THE BIG VIEW OF THE CLASSROOM

PROSPECT CENTER'S 2009 FALL CONFERENCE

Saturday and Sunday, November 14th and 15th
at Wisdom House, Litchfield, CT

We hope you can be there

Program and registration form will be available in September for download in PDF.

CONTACTING PROSPECT CENTER

Mon, 25 May 2009 21:43:26 -0500

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

CLOSING PROSPECT AS A CORPORATE ENTITY

Mon, 25 May 2009 17:29:24 -0500

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

2009 SUMMER INSTITUTES

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:22:56 -0500

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.

INQUIRY GROUPS

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:01:02 -0500

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
The Elementary Teachers Network
2008 - 2009 Worktime Inquiry Study Group

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
Saturday Inquiry Group

When: Feb. 9, April 25

Where: Lehman College
Contact: Andy Doan--andy.doan@calhoun.org

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
Inquiry Group

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.

Chicago, IL
Teachers' Study Group

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
January (February 7, March 7, April 4, May 2)

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
Saturday Inquiry Group

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
Marilynne Robinson (in The Death of Adam)

March 7: Descriptive Review of a Child

April 4: Narrative Reports

May 2: Descriptive Review of Practice or Review of an Activity

Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Teachers' Learning Cooperative

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
Website: www.ptlcteacherspace.blogspot.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
The Art of Teaching: Teaching and Learning for the Classroom Professional

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

THE PROSPECT REVIEW

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:40:52 -0500
PROSPECT REVIEW #30 (e) October 2008
The current issue of The Prospect Review (#30) is now posted under Prospect Review (link is on left hand menu). We again thank both the writers and our wonderful editors,
Betsy Wice and Cecilia Espinosa.
Warmly, Lynne Strieb

Editors’ Note: “I've worked in public schools since the early 1980s, and though I can now look back on that time as roomy, I felt then as I feel now that programmatic and top-down views of children made classrooms smaller places than I wanted mine to be. I haven't always succeeded at keeping those forces at bay. I always feel that I'm trying to juggle external expectations, views of children, and the language used to talk about children and families with what I value. For me, Prospect has been a place I can come to re-connect with what matters to me in education….”

We teachers feel a jolt of recognition in hearing again these words from the Sunday morning panel at last year’s Prospect Fall Conference. Ellen Schwartz was introducing the speakers on “Making Space for the Art of Teaching.”

This edition of The Prospect Review gives us a chance to revisit Ellen’s thoughtful comments, along with the diverse and vivid accounts from the four panelists: Katharine Walmsley, a young first-grade teacher from an urban school in Holyoke, Massachusetts; Therese Arsenault, a middle-school science teacher in New York State; Laura Garcia, Principal of the Ella Baker public school in New York City; and Bruce Turnquist, first grade-teacher in rural New Hampshire.

We see their testimony as a continuing source of strength and of thinking for us all.

Sincerely, Betsy Wice and Cecilia Espinosa

PROSPECT'S FALL CONFERENCE DEADLINE

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:55:47 -0500

We have extended the deadline for registration for Fall Conference to October 27th.

ATTENDING TO NOW: IMAGINING AHEAD

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:32:19 -0500

PROSPECT CENTER'S 2008 FALL CONFERENCE

Saturday and Sunday, November 8th and 9th

We hope you can be there! Please continue reading.

Program and Registration form are now available in PDF. Download these with Adobe Reader. Just click on the link below and then click on Print on the toolbar.

Download file

IMPORTANT: If you want to request financial aid, you should do so BEFORE you send in your registration form, since you will need that information when you register. The procedure for requesting financial aid is on the registration form

Summer Institutes 2008

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:57:17 -0500

SUMMER INSTITUTE ON DESCRIPTIVE PROCESS

July 27 - August 1, 2008

Benninngton, VT

SUMMER INSTITUTE ON DESCRIPTIVE INQUIRY

July 27 - August 9, 2008

Bennington, VT

To download the flyers and applications in pdf, click on "Institutes" in the menu to the left.

PROSPECT REVIEW

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:18:29 -0500

PROSPECT REVIEW #29 (e) - December 2007

The current issue of The Prospect Review (#29) is now posted under Prospect Review (link is on left hand menu). The following are Editors' Notes by Betsy Wice and Cecilia Espinosa. We again thank both the writers and our wonderful editors. Warmly, Lynne Strieb

Editors’ Note:

"And here we are, twenty or thirty years later, coming to this work. The
school is closed. The child is grown up. Whether we are seeing it for the first
time, or the fourth or twentieth time, we come to it fresh with a new group.
There is always more to see and know and question. There is a relationship to
create, with the work, with the child, with one another. There is, in this
collaborative looking and describing, new knowledge created and new work, as
fresh and powerful as the child's work. This is always true, but takes on added
importance in these times."

With these words, Joan Bradbury speaks of the immediate relevance of the
Prospect Archives of Children's Work.

This issue of The Prospect Review lets us in on the thoughts of a special
education teacher in New York City (Lariza Martell), a third-grade teacher in
Illinois (Eve Richards), and a middle-school teacher in Vermont (Nancy
Mildrum). Each of them tells how the Prospect Archives have enriched her
classroom life.

How did the Prospect Archives come to be? Pat Carini tells some of the history
in her essay "Made by Hand," where she also explains the descriptive process
for studying a child's work. How can we get access to the works in the Prospect
Archives? The FAQ fact sheet below answers this and other practical questions.
We hope this issue of The Prospect Review will inform current teaching and
connect more of us with this rich resource.

Sincerely,
Cecilia Espinosa and Betsy Wice, co-editors