Winter Staff Development Day

By Seyon Verdtzabella, Teacher

The beautifully designed and spacious yards at Bing Nursery School would not exist without the vision of its founding director, Edith Dowley, PhD, a Stanford professor of education and psychology. When Dowley had the yards created in the 1960s, she had the architects kneel down to see the environment from a child’s perspective. A tree was planted for each child and a carefully planned outdoor environment was designed. Dirt was brought in to create hills for children to run up and down.

Our winter staff development day, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, was devoted to working with playscape designer Leon Smith on initial plans for improving our outdoor play areas, while staying true to Dowley’s vision. Smith works with Rusty Keeler at Earthplay, designing custom natural play environments for preschools, childcare centers and communities around the United States and overseas.

In the preliminary planning effort, we considered: What are the children’s major outdoor play activities? What elements do teachers enjoy or appreciate about the play yards? What do teachers want to improve? What elements would teachers like to see included in the outdoor environment? Preceding the group discussion, Chia-wa Yeh, a head teacher and the research coordinator at Bing, shared a DVD of historical images of Bing landscapes. Smith facilitated the rich discussions to follow and engaged the collective creativity of Bing staff using slides of natural playscapes across the country, brainstorming activities, conversations about community and natural resources, and an appeal for everyone to share his or her dream about ideal playscapes. Teaching teams from each classroom met to further collaborate on designs for their rooms. Through subsequent sketches drawn on detailed maps of each yard, designed and handcrafted by teacher Stephanie Holson, all staff enjoyed showing their visions of the new Bing playscapes.

After the workshop, staff with a strong interest in the process carried on with meetings, considering current licensing requirements for center-based nursery schools and addressing the needs of each classroom.

Changes became visible this summer, when after 46 years the pergolas in West and East room yards were replaced. The bridge in West Room was rebuilt as well. A new play structure replaced the old one in the Two’s yard complete with a new slide and a tunnel. The re-design and implementation will continue this year through the efforts of Bing staff and the generous support of Stanford University to ensure that its playscapes remain as beautiful, natural and inviting as possible.