Meeting with teachers and Principal, Barbie Perez at La Scuola, Miami, FL

Ashley and I launched Cadwell Collaborative in 2008. We both left our school jobs, Ashley as headmaster of the St. Micheal School, and Louise as Curriculum Coordinator at The College School, in St. Louis, MO. We both loved our schools and our jobs and at the same time, felt that it was time to conclude that chapter of our lives and to begin the next. We have come to that time once more!

We have had a stimulating, exciting, and enriching time working with schools for 17 years. We are grateful beyond measure to all the educators we have worked alongside for all these years…in 14 states… in Canada, Australia, and Tanzania, with the schools for young children in Reggio Emilia, Italy as our common inspiration.

Meeting with professors and students from Butler University at Opal School, Portland, OR

We have worked as part of your teams of administrators and of teachers. Through the practice of Shared Leadership, we have all embraced learning, risk taking, always searching for ways to nurture children’s and our own strengths and intellectual, creative, and collaborative selves. We have created learning communities. We have been surprised and amazed at what children show us every day.

At Principia School early childhood classroom with Director, Dorothy Halverson, St. Louis, MO

We would be happy to stay in touch with any of you with whom we have worked, or who have followed these blog posts, to exchange ideas about your work and to support you. Ashley is still open for business for schools interested in renovating and reorganizing space or building new buildings.

We will continue to post blogs from time to time for a year or so. Then, we will either change our website, or it will be retired. We hope to archive blog posts in some way. Stay tuned.

We have lifelong friends in so many places and have learned so much from you along the way… Find examples of blog posts on teachers’ transformation here and here; posts on the 100 languages here and here; posts on documentation here and here, and on organizing learning environments here and here.

Teaching *Field Study in Reggio Inspired Practice* with Ena Shelley at Opal School, Portland, OR

In the meantime, if you are looking for professional development inspired by the Reggio Approach and project work, developing your learning environments, documentation, community connections, curriculum development….we have several recommendations.

This year, Louise worked closely with Sarah Hassing who joined the Cadwell Collaborative team. Sarah and Louise worked with Winnetka Public School Nursery. Read this blog post to learn more about our collaboration. Sarah would be an excellent choice as a consultant in all these areas.

Another place to go for excellent course work and a masters degree if you would like that, is the UC Denver, Boulder Journey School program. Many of the schools where we have worked have followed work with us with sending teachers to this exceptional program.

We conclude with words of Vea Vecchi. These are words of inspiration for now and wisdom for our future. It is in this spirit that we have dedicated our work since we were fortunate enough to live for a year learning in Reggio Emilia in 1991-92.

With Vea Vecchi and Tullio Zini at Malaguzzi Center, Reggio Emila, Italy

The atelier (or studio that is not only a central place but also a way of working throughout our schools) has brought many materials and techniques, but also has illuminated a need, not only for children, but for human beings to communicate in a way that rationality and imagination travel together. We believe in a multiplicity of languages that are integrated and not separated. We believe that this makes learning and understanding more rich and more complete. Poetic thought does not separate the imaginative from the cognitive, emotion from the rational, empathy from deep investigation. It lights up all the senses and perceptions and cultivates an intense relationship with what is all around us. And this creates two important elements: solidarity and participation, both of which are the foundation of democracy. To conclude, we believe that identifying and researching beauty and ethics is the indispensable foundation for a livable, sustainable future that everyone speaks about but that seems so difficult to bring about. It is only with an intelligent heart, with courage and with vision that we can proceed.

We send our very best wishes to each one of you. It is hard to come to the end of a beautiful, productive time in our lives. And we are still here, making our way to our next chapter. Stay in touch! We would love to hear from you!

Louise and Ashley