Professional Contacts

This assignment is such a great idea!  With that said, I've not had any luck establishing contact... yet.  Because I am so interested in Finland's successful education system I've been gathering information recently about the Finnish culture and the nature of the Finnish Educational Reform that has progressed over the last twenty years.  I sent emails to Lasse Lipponen at the University of Helsinki and Nico Wendelin also of the University of Helsinki.  I have not heard back from either of them.  Because I was unable to establish contact with Finland I accessed a podcast from the World Forum Foundation.  As a Montessori teacher I am also interested in the schools of Reggio Emilia in Italy, therefore I chose to listen to the podcast featuring Susan Lyons of the Innovative Teacher Project in San Fransico.  Dr. Lyons went to Italy to learn more about the Reggio Emilia schools there, and managed to bring the "100 Languages of Children" Reggio Emilia Exhibit to San Fransico for 4 months.  At the same time Dr. Lyons developed the Innovative Teacher Project in the Bay Area as a way in which teachers can gain professional development in the Reggio Emilia method and implement it in their schools, both public and private.  On top of that Dr. Lyons, as a means by which to prove the effectiveness of the Reggio Emilia methodology in the public school setting, successfully established the early childhood "Stand Alone Center" in the Presidio.  Wow!  What an accomplishment!  I have envisioned the same kind of thing here in Northern New Mexico, only with the Montessori Methodology which like Reggio Emilia is a highly effective and proven method teaching young children.  My attempt to contact the Innovative Teachers Project, unfortunately failed, as I was unable to get connected to their website.  So that is where I am at the moment, and will continue to make contact with other EC professionals.  Hopefully I'll have good contact news to share over the coming weeks.