Management training

During the last weeks we worked with 34 management teams of
Dalton schools from the whole country.
In four groups 76 head teachers and Dalton co-ordinators worked
on leadership aspects and shared the "pearls" of their schools
during a Dalton Laboratory.
Wenke Dalton Consultants/KPZ is the leading institite in Holland
for Dalton in-service training, counselling and coaching.
This institute is 'Member of Dalton International' and some of
the consultants are working abroad in international projects.

Sharing Dalton

Sharing Dalton was a real topic during last weeks and not only
the title of the 14th International Dalton Conference in Brno.
More that 160 teachers participated in this conference, coming
from 9 different countries.
The network of Dalton International is growing, the mixture
between friendly and professional contacts is the most important
element. Dalton is the international cement in many initiatives.

Last week 24 directors from Kindergarten in Poland accompanied
by some teachers from universities visited Holland.
The group visited Dalton schools in Utrecht, de Meern, Amersfoort
and Leiderdorp. In the next future we expect an enormous grow of
the Dalton development in many schools in Poland.

For the next school year Dalton conferences are planned in
Thüringen/Germany, Bilbao/Spain, Warsaw and Krakow/Poland,
Zvolen/Slovakia and Brno/Czech Republic.
In Holland our institute 'Wenkedalton/KPZ' organizes several so
called 'Mini conferences'

Shocked by the situation in Poland

Since this weekend our thoughts are with so many colleagues and
friends of our contact schools in Poland.
Just this year we have several visitors from enthousiastic schools
in Holland. Inspired teachers who want to reform their education.
On this place I want to wish them strenght and power to overcome
this tragedy.

Team School4Child visited Holland

A new leaf on the tree of Dalton International is the private school
in Lódz - Poland, 'School4Child'.
The director of the school, Anna Sowinska, took all the teachers of
the school with her on a trip to Holland.
We were lucky that one of the best Dalton schools in the Netherlands,
'De Achtbaan' in Amersfoort was in full swing last Thursday.
Teachers and children opened all the classrooms and were happy to
show the foreign visitors their way of working.
Wendy van Beurden, director of 'De Achtbaan', introduced a lot of
specialties of this school.
Teachers exchanged material and ideas, children explained in English
their week assignment.
An inspired group of enthousiastic teachers went back to Poland today.
During the conference in Brno this school will get the membership of
Dalton International.
The school likes to be active in international exchanges and is
searching in the first place for a project partner in 'Webcamclasses'.

International Dalton Conference

On May 4th the International Dalton Conference takes place in Brno.
This 14th conference is the most important Conference in the world
of Dalton.
Participants from 11 different countries can make a choice out of
14 workshops.
The international character is shaped by a special organization of
the workshops. Specialists from two different countries prepared
together a workshop about an actual topic.
Information about the conference on the website of Dalton International

The precursor of Parkhurst ?

The year before Helen Parkhurst went to Dalton, Charleton Washburne
set up a similar schooling system in the school district of Illinois.
This system is known as the "Winnetka Plan".
The Winnetka Plan emerged as a result of Evelyn Dewey's work in the
University of Chicago Laboratory School.
Dewey's work inspired teachers to attempt innovative pedagogies in
their classrooms.
Prior to the Winnetka plan, the most common practices in elementary
schools stressed the intellectual development of children by
teaching skills in reading writing, spelling, and arithmetic.
The subjects were taught by methods of memorization and drill
through books and ordered arrangements in the classrooms.
By the early 1900s, more emphasis was placed on the well-rounded
development of the child, including emotional, social, and physical,
in addition to the intellectual.
As a result, the overall-effect was a break from routine, from
formal learning through textbooks, and the emergence of more
emphasis on the individual by stressing the improvement of actual
behaviour, personality, and character.
The Winnetka Plan sought to develop the "whole child" and was
concerned with the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual
education.