Dreaming and Creating with Recycled Materials Presenters: Walter F. Drew Ed.D, and Marcia Nell, Ph.D.
This session will open participants’ eyes to the amazing world of play with open-ended materials, helping teachers and leaders understand and apply the process in their own settings.
Direct, hands-on, solo play and cooperative play using a variety of open-ended materials followed by exercises including journal writing, discussion, and photo documentation and analysis, will illuminate how the play education process can advance learning and creativity for adults and children.
Early childhood teachers, education directors, ECE directors and family engagement specialists ready to dive into an engaging exploration of "Self Active Play" will go home with new ideas for classroom practice, professional development, and family engagement that will strengthen the culture of the school to improve positive outcomes for young children. KickStart 5777 Intensive Workshop - 9:35 am to 11:35 am. This workshop is designed for ECE teachers and directors, education directors, family engagement specialists, and K-1 teachers.
Walter F. Drew, Ed.D., is a national facilitator with the NAEYC Play, Policy and Practice Interest Forum (PPPIF) and Chairman of the Florida AEYC Play Interest Forum. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Self-Active Education who advocates for play using open-ended materials as a natural way to focus and challenge the mind to think creatively, ...to imagine new possibilities, ...and to awaken the creative spirit through invention and self-discovery. He is President of the Reusable Resources Association and creator of award winning Dr. Drew’s Discovery Blocks, chosen “Best Toy of the Year” by the Parent’s Choice Foundation in 1982. Marcia L Nell, Ph.D. is the Director of Research and Professional Development for the Institute for Self-Active Education. She is an assistant professor at Millersville University in Millersville, PA, where she teaches early childhood courses and supervises student teachers. Her research interests include play and creativity across the life cycle, Professional Development Schools, parent involvement, and teacher education programs. Marcia also leads Hands, Heart, and Mind self-active play workshops and symposiums. Marcia was a public school teacher in the primary grades for twenty- five years. She has five children and two grandsons.
