big dreams and practical action

This week, members of staff have been talking at great length about our space, its troubles, and its opportunities. We even were so lucky as to have an opportunity to talk to two lovely teachers and a preschool director who practice the principles of the Reggio Emilia approach at the New School West in Southern California. The discussion included the practical (the shelves should be shorter), the short term (you can improve your welcoming space right now), the abstract (beautification of the space, community values, materials as a language of expression), and the long term.All of this was just in time for a weekend work day. From 10am-5:30pm several parents, Gever and I were in the space.We built new tables.We chopped our shelves in half.Lumber was moved to longer term storage.Materials where re-labeled, re-sorted, re-organized, and put onto our new half sized shelving. I have a lot to say about this, but will have to save it for another day.The kitchen was scrubbed and reset. A fridge may have been slid down a set of stairs.The library got a new look and a new table (table not pictured here).Kaia and Ben where instrumental in keeping our space dust free.And we kept dreaming. We took many practical, gritty, and important steps toward laying a foundation on which we can build. Not the least important of which was taking many moments to write down our hopes for the space.