Breakwater School is proud to bring Dr. Lella Gandini, United States Liaison for the Dissemination of the Reggio Emilia approach, to Portland to offer an exciting professional development opportunity for early childhood and early elementary education educators.

Breakwater will host a one-day conference on Saturday, October 1, 2011 entitled Reflecting on the Learning: Stories that show the relationship between experiences and assessment. The conference will take place from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm at Breakwater School, 856 Brighton Avenue in Portland.

Breakwater will offer the option to build upon this first day-long conference. A small cohort, limited to 20 participants, will come together again with Dr. Gandini on Saturday, December 3, 2011. This full-day gathering will be followed by monthly 2-hour workshops facilitated by Breakwater and Creativity in Learning on Saturday mornings from January through May.

Full-day Conference

Seminar Series

Both the conference and the seminar series will bring together early childhood and elementary school educators with Dr. Gandini to explore ways to make children’s learning visible to families, children and teachers. Participants may earn CEUs from the University of Southern Maine.

Participants will enhance their knowledge and practice relating to their use of observation and documentation as a tool to assess both individual and group learning. This assessment will enable the educator to adapt the learning environment and create new experiences that engage individuals or groups of students in building upon previous experiences. Attendees will also explore strategies for “mapping” predetermined standards (e.g., state or national) onto the documentation to ensure that the standards meet the actual/intrinsic learning needs of the child.

For information about the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, please visit the Reggio Children website at http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/reggiochildren.htm.

For further details, please contact Laura Friedman at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 207-239-2347.

Click Here to register for the conference and/or the seminar series.

A discount at Fireside Inn and Suites (81 Riverside Street, Portland) is available to conference participants who reserve a room before September 15th.  Call the hotel at (207) 774-5601 to reserve a room.

Click Here for directions to Breakwater School

About Lella Gandini, Ed.D.

Lella Gandini is Reggio Children’s United States Liaison for the Dissemination of the Reggio Emilia Approach, and serves as Associate Editor of Innovations in Early Education: the International Reggio Exchange. Lecturer and author of many articles and book chapters about early childhood education in Italy, she is co-author and co-editor of The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education;Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials;Bambini: The Italian Approach to Infant/Toddler Care; In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia; and Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia: Stories of Children and Teachers from North America.She is the author of several books in Italian for children, as well as books about parenting and early education.