Reflecting in Communities of Practice: A Workbook for Early Childhood Educators

Enhance the quality of your teaching with collaborative, critical, and reflective thinking

Teaching young children is complex work. While you manage the day-to-day events that unfold in your classroom you also have to keep up with the demands of assessment and documentation. With all these challenges, how can you maintain the equally important tasks of encouraging children’s curiosity and supporting their joy of learning? How can you sustain your own curious mind and joyful spirit in your work? Reflecting with other teachers in a community of practice can strengthen your abilities to respond to the children in your classroom and share meaningful experiences with them.

This workbook is designed to be used with a group—a community of practice—but it can also be a self-study tool. The exercises help you to understand and practice the key elements of reflective teaching. Ten study sessions provide opportunities to engage with peers as you collaborate and connect theory and best practices in your classrooms. These experiences will help you evaluate and grow your reflective teaching skills; use the Thinking Lens™ protocol to align your daily work with your larger goals, values, and vision; gain a heightened sense of self-awareness and a stronger image of children; examine the details of your environment; and challenge yourself with new perspectives.

Deb Curtis, Debbie Lebo, Wendy C.M. Cividanes, and Margie Carter each have more than thirty years of experience teaching young children and adults. They lead professional development initiatives for child care organizations and are highly respected presenters and trainers across the country.

• Professionalism in Early Childhood Education: Doing Our Best for Young Children
• The Visionary Director, Second Edition: A Handbook for Dreaming, Organizing, and Improvising in Your Center
• Inspiring Early Childhood Leadership: Eight Strategies to Ignite Passion and Transform Program Quality
• Wonder Art Workshop: Creative Child-Led Experiences for Nurturing Imagination, Curiosity, and a Love of Learning
• Designs for Living and Learning, Second Edition: Transforming Early Childhood Environments
• Spotlight on Young Children and Families (Spotlight on Young Children series)
• Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children (Loose Parts Series)
• The Language of Art: Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Settings
• Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, And Identity (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives)
• Reflecting Children's Lives: A Handbook for Planning Your Child-Centered Curriculum