On Tuesday, November 6, St. Anne’s Day School hosted educators from across North America and Europe for an all-day initiative entitled “Dialogue with Places”. 

Dr. Margie Cooper and Leila Gandini addressing participants.

Over 300 educators attended the initiative at St. Anne’s in Buckhead including educators from Brazil, Chile, Israel, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands and Sweden.  This event was held in conjunction with the annual NAEYC (National Association of Educators of Young Children) Conference & Expo that took place on November 7-10 at the World Congress Center.

This initiative was created by Project Infinity; a group of seven different schools in the Southeast.  Project Infinity is an extension of a local non-profit organization, Inspired Practices in Early Education, Inc., founded in 1999 by Dr. Margie Cooper in Atlanta, Georgia.  The Project seeks to build strong and lasting relationships of professional exchange between schools by uniting in ongoing study of the philosophies and experiences of the birth through six schools of the world renowned Reggio Emilia, Italy.  Since its inception, Inspired Practices has created and produced a wide variety of forums for educational exchange among a broad audience.

“Project Infinity is very unique in the education community in that each school commits to supporting all of the other schools, within the project” said Janet Reinersten, Director of St. Anne’s Day School. “ Instead of competing with each other, we work together to promote the highest quality of education for our children with the common belief that all children are fully competent at birth and have their own theories, understandings and ways of solving problems.”

Each school in Project offered power point and video presentations of their on-going work with children.  The day also included a tour of St. Anne’s Day School and virtual tours of the remaining six schools in the project.  These presentations highlighted the different ways children’s hands on learning supported the creation of wonderings, hypotheses, stories, mapping, mathematical and physical understandings.

Educators at St. Anne’s Day School organically incorporate important academic skills and concepts, such as science, mathematics, literacy and much more, into children’s explorations. “The key to the development of higher level thinking, of which we know young children are capable, is the ability to ask good questions, generate theories and apply the problem solving strategies needed to experiment, test hypotheses and build knowledge based on direct, first-hand experiences,” said Janet Reinersten. “We were thrilled to host this initiative for so many like-minded educators from around the world and look forward to hosting again in the future.”

Established in 1966, St. Anne’s Day School fosters each child’s natural capacity to reason while encouraging a spirit of inquiry in a creative learning environment.

Monica Murray, Dr. Margie Cooper and Janet Reinertsen

Educators tour St. Anne’s Day School during the initiative.