Weekend Links

I am on lunch our at edcamp35 as I put all of my links in one place this week.  I'll be writing much more about this fantastic day (and teacher professional development in general) in a post next week.  For now, enjoy some links for your weekend!





There was a bit of a buzz this week around a TED talk by Japanese architect Takaharu Tezuka.  Take a look at the video of the talk - does it speak to you?  Why?  What inspires you, and how can you act on that inspiration?

________________________________________________

I have mentioned in a few places that I am on the Think With Things team, and we launch our ambassador program with close to 50 schools this Monday!  I'm looking forward to dialogue with educators from all over the world, and perhaps some face to face visits in the coming weeks.  Learn more on the Think With Things website.

_______________________________________________

Teacher Tom philosophizes on "helping" and children's independence.  How much should we help?  How do we know when to step back?  This is something that I struggled with quite a bit as a classroom teacher, and especially as a teacher in a parent cooperative school.  This is a wonderful little read on struggle, perseverance, and scaffolding.  I always ask myself, if I do something once for a child, will they expect me to do it forever? 

_______________________________________________

I have been thinking about space lately, and I naturally gravitated back to The Architecture of Early Childhood.  The most recent post is about a daycare center in Brussels, so I am especially excited to share the site with you today.

_______________________________________________

Finally, the first-ever design week for children is taking place in Milan right now.

"The convention, which begins today, takes place at Milan’s National Museum of Science and Technology. Designers and children will be able to partake in day-to-day activities like “DO WRITE ON THE FLOOR!!”, which is exactly what it sounds like, and “A READY TO WEAR HOUSE : HOW TO BUILD AN OUTFIT TO LIVE IN (USING BOXES, FABRICS AND...)”, which is also exactly what it sounds like. There will also be workshops and lectures for designers and toy-makers on the agenda."

I would love to hear from anyone who has been able to experience this event firsthand, or any event that has focused on child-centered design.  There is a lot happening in the world of children's design that is focused on getting us out of the rut of closed-ended, one-track toys. Even if you can't be in Milan this weekend, the website gives you an idea of what is happening.

                              _______________________________________________