Preschoolers benefit from Italian teaching approach

The world-famous Reggio Emilia approach to teaching young children is being introduced at the NMSU Preschool.

Simply called "Reggio" by educators, the approach is named for the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia, which has gained international Reggio facilitates experiences that grow out of children's questions and interests rather than following a preconceived curriculum, according to NMSU Preschool director Nancy Baptiste, '91, who earned her doctor of education degree at NMSU. A child's question about dinosaurs, for instance, can spark a project on the topic that might engage the preschoolers for several weeks, Baptiste said. The approach emphasizes the importance of children's symbolic language. A book of essays about Reggio reflects that emphasis in its title, The Hundred Languages of Children. The hundred "languages" are the many modes of expression - such as speech, writing, movement, drawing, painting, sculpture, shadow play, collage and music - through which children communicate and learn about their world.

A light table with a drawing surface and mirror inspires creativity at the NMSU Preschool. From left are NMSU Preschool director Nancy Baptiste, '91, Sterling Ellis and preschool teacher Kate Puckett, '99.

Ideally, a Reggio classroom provides plenty of space and natural light as well as ready access to a variety of school supplies. Long-term projects, problem solving and self-expression are encouraged. Teachers, parents and other community members work together to enrich preschoolers' learning experiences.

"Teachers are not viewed as the education experts but as learners as well," Baptiste said. "The training of staff is ongoing."

"We're in the very early stages of Reggio," said Kate Puckett, '99, an NMSU Preschool teacher. "For me it's a change to let the curriculum be emergent from the children's interests. Instead of giving out a calendar of what we will do during the day, I write a daily log of what we did do that day. Parents tell me they do enjoy it. But some parents also want an activity plan."

Before NMSU introduced Reggio at the preschool, education faculty members and students teamed up with colleagues at the University of New Mexico's Manzanita Early Learning Center to study the approach and visit each others' classrooms. The project received an $1,800 grant from Eastern New Mexico University's Center for Teaching Excellence.

The NMSU Preschool moved off campus temporarily following a December 1999 fire in O'Donnell Hall. (See related story on Campus/Sports page.)

Rita A. Popp, '93

She's one in 3.2 million

Chavez

About nine months after her 5-year-old cousin died of leukemia for lack of a bone marrow donor, Loretta Chavez got the call. Would she consider being a donor to someone she didn't know? She was the only bone marrow match out of a national registry of 3.2 million. About three months later and several rounds of testing, the secretary in the criminal justice department found herself in surgery to help save an 18-year-old Albuquerque girl with leukemia. A year later, the bone marrow transplant appears to have worked, and no one is more grateful than Monica Trujillo and her family.

Recently, Monica's father, Larry Trujillo, wrote President Conroy: "...had it not been for [Loretta], Monica would not have survived....I know NMSU has donor recruitment drives from time to time on campus, and this is a perfect opportunity to sing the praises of such school sanctioned functions."

The importance of such drives at places like NMSU cannot be overstated because of the shortage of minority donors, Trujillo pointed out.

In fact, two drives held on campus last fall added about 160 potential donors to the National Marrow Donor Program.

Many people might be afraid to donate because they have the impression that it's painful, Chavez said. She had the bone marrow removed from her hip bone on a Friday and was back at work on Monday. She was sore for a couple of weeks and "I couldn't wear high heels." But she says she'd recommend it. She really didn't think too much about what she had done until she met Monica and the family in December 1999. Then she knew what it was to be one in a million.

Nena Singleton

Researchers seek sound solutions to assist visually impaired Web users NMSU researchers are working to help visually impaired users overcome some of the obstacles in navigating World Wide Web sites in the classroom. With a three-year, $600,000 National Science Foundation grant, the researchers aim to develop assistive technologies to help audio browsers recognize and read Web page elements.				Pontelli		Karshmer
Visually impaired users often navigate the Web with audio browsers that read text out loud, but the software can't recognize or read forms, frames and tables. Art Karshmer, head of the computer science department at NMSU and the grant's project director, is working with Gopal Gupta and Enrico Pontelli, '97, from computer science and Doug Gillan from psychology, to create two new tools. One will enable these browsers to better understand the page's structure. The other will present information on the page, including the tables, to the visually impaired user in a comprehensible format. The goal is to enable teachers to use these tools in classrooms. When students use audio browsers, information is presented mostly in a linear or sequential fashion, Gillan explained. His challenge as a cognitive psychologist is learning how to read information from a table so it makes sense to someone who can't see it. To discover what kind of information is needed and why, and how to present it, Gillan will give sighted users the same information disadvantages as visually impaired users. For example, they may see the table's information as a string of text. Then he will add components to see what helps. "They may be able to search in different directions, get an overview of the columns or rows, or mark a particular cell that is relevant to return to it easily," Gillan said. Developers will implement the most helpful devices with tools Pontelli and Gupta already have created for reading the structure of Web pages and for filtering information between different formats. "We're providing the technological part of the project," said Pontelli, who also received a prestigious four-year, $200,000 NSF Career Award, funding his work in parallel computing. Once working systems are developed, Gillan will test users to ensure the implementation performs as expected, all the parts work together and the tools are easy to use. Rachel Kendall