A Vibrant Vessel of Learning and Creativity

“Who would have thought exchanges between four-year-olds and simple plastic cups would result in such intricate, creative building designs?” ask Bridgette Towle and Angela Heape about their book, Cup: A Vibrant Vessel of Learning and Creativity – edited by Ann Pelo and Margie Carter as a companion piece to their book, From Teaching to Thinking, but also as a book that can stand alone on its own merits.

A project that grew out of investigations with simple plastic cups became “the catalyst of inquiry and theory making, naturally entangling the discrete disciplines of math, science, literacy and digital technology,” the authors explain. Cup is the first story from the ROW (Reimagining Our Work) collection. Each story will share descriptions and photographs teachers offer about their work that illustrate what happens when educators think deeply together with children. Ann Pelo and Margie Carter describe the series this way: “Too often in our field, the discourse about educators reflects a diminished and disrespectful view of their capabilities for challenging, rigorous, generative thought. ‘Keep things simple and easily digestible,’ is a common caution. ‘Teachers want strategies that they can put immediately to use in their classroom…”

We disagree. Strongly. We believe that educators hunger for deeper meaning in their work…In these stories, children and educators take up ideas of substance, pursuing questions in ways that are unscripted and original.”

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