By Susan Weintraub
Silvana G. Nazzaro Clark is pleased to announce one of her first initiatives
as new Head of School a collaboration between Rider University’s Department of Teacher Education and Princeton Junior School (PJS) that will bring numerous resources and benefits to teachers and students of both schools.
Beginning the week of September 24, 2012, graduate and undergraduate students from Tamar Jacobson’s Developmental Methods and Assessment in Early Childhood Education will begin internships with Princeton Junior School’s preschool and kindergarten teachers. PJS teachers and Rider interns will read a common text, The Reggio Way (Wurm, 2005)) to inform their conversations and collaboration and will begin by focusing on two key topics: the nature of play and the environment of the classroom. According to Jacobson, Rider students will "deepen their understanding of child development, gain an appreciation for the professional responsibility of ongoing assessment of children, and develop necessary skills to gather, record, and interpret information in a deliberate and reflective manner."
Teachers and students at Princeton Junior School will benefit from a strengthened connection between research and classroom practice. According to Clark, "This partnership provides opportunities for teachers to conduct action research and pose critical questions of their own teaching practices and student learning in their classrooms and then work collaboratively with interns to examine these questions."
As part of their Rider coursework, interns will create documentation panels, communication tools used in Reggio-inspired practice, consisting of collections of data (photos, artwork, quotations) representative of the children’s learning and exploration process combined with teachers’ conceptual thinking and insight. Documenting and making learning visible in this way will be beneficial to administrators, experienced teachers, interns, children, and their families.
Both institutions are excited to begin working with, and learning from, each other and look forward to discovering other opportunities that will evolve from their partnership.
Princeton Junior School will be hosting an Open House on October 14, 2012 from 2:00 to 3:30 for families interested in learning more about the program.
Princeton Junior School is an independent school offering the highest standard of education for children age 2 through Grade V. The school is situated on seven acres near the intersection of Route 206 and Fackler Road in Lawrenceville. The site, near a branch of the Shipetauken Creek, includes meadows, woods and wetlands. For additional information on the school, please visit our website at www.pjs.org or contact Courtney Shannon, Admissions Coordinator, at (609) 924-8126.

