On Saturday, March 18, The Advent School welcomed over 60 educators to its annual Collaborative! The theme for the day was "Reframing Our Image of the Child."

The Collaborative is Advent's signature educator event. The event allows educators to learn and engage in conversations about Reggio-inspired social justice education. This day-long conference brings together educators from public, private, charter, and independent schools in shared dialogue and learning.

This March, individuals from across the country visited Advent's Boston campus to hear from Akiea "Ki" Gross, the founder of Woke Kindergarten, "a global, abolitionist early childhood ecosystem and visionary creative portal."

Advent faculty also presented on topics ranging from how to make math more inclusive and the role of the teacher researcher in Reggio-inspired classrooms.

Liz Collins and Rosa Vega, both teachers in Kindergarten Charles, presented "Teacher Research & Emergent Projects." They shared that their guiding questions as teacher researchers are “What are we seeing? What are we hearing? What do they need?" when co-creating emergent projects in their classrooms. They highlighted the types of emergent studies - social-emotional needs, academic needs, and teacher goals/interests - and presented real-life examples of each.

Sixth Grade teacher Cassie Pagnam and Erik Wormwood, the Associate Dean of Faculty, uplifted new ways to approach math with their presentation, "Inclusivity in Mathematics." Their interactive presentation highlighted how math is a language and a tool that can be used to understand and explore social justice topics.

Pagnam and Wormwood shared a project which wove together math with representation in government, as one of the ways to create a more exclusive math program is to incorporate identity. During this project, the mathematicians asked themselves, "How well have the candidates in the primary races for Boston mayor every four years reflected the diversity of Boston?" They used census data for their research and in forming their final observations.

Maura Kiernan, First Grade Brimmer, and Erina Spiegelman, Associate Dean of Students, closed the morning workshops with their presentation "Co-Constructing a Daily Schedule: A First Grade Story."

One of their guiding questions was, "How can we use the daily schedule to support all children's emotional, social, and academic rights and needs?" They listened to what students told them through their actions and words and made changes based on that information. Using their values as the foundation, they developed new strategies to meet the needs of their current group of learners.

The event closed with lunch, hands-on workshops, and tours of the Brimmer St buildings. The afternoon workshops were led by Advent faculty and administrators and were on the topics of reframing classroom conflict, creating successful student affinity groups, Reggio-Inspiration in the Upper Grades, and bringing Reggio-Inspiration into Music.