Report on ADHD project
IERG has been involved in a significant project in Romania concerned in part with how IE ideas can be useful for children with ADHD. The project was designed, coordinated and implemented by Nadia Tarnoveanu, Stefan Popenici and Ciprian Fartusnic. They have now produced a report on the project (in English) which will be of interest to anyone concerned with this area of educational difficulty.

First IE Charter School opened Sept. 2009.
The first Charter school based on Imaginative Education principles has opened in the Corbett school district in Portland, Oregon. Corbett is a small school district that currently has an Elementary, Middle, and High schools on a single site. Teachers and administrators in the district have been associated with IERG for a number of years.

Japanese text that describes IE
We are pleased to announce the publication of Prof. Kiyotaka Miyazaki’s new book, "Children's leaning, teachers' learning: Saito Kihaku and Vygotskian education." A number of the chapters are derived from papers that Prof. Miyazaki first presented at the IERG conferences during the past five or six years, where he has been a regular presenter, bringing Japanese ideas, especially those of Saito Kihaku, to our attention. His work has proven valuable for us, as we hope his introducing Vygotskian and IE ideas to Japan will also be fruitful.

Learning in Depth on CBC Radio
Linda Holmes, a teacher in Langley, B.C. and a graduate of the IERG M.Ed. program, has been implementing the LiD program in her classroom. The experiment was the subject of a report on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. National News on Friday11th. Sept. 2009.

IE in China continued
We are delighted to announce the publication of Dr. Qingyu Pan’s new book about Imaginative Education. The book is titled IMAGINATIVE TEACHING; its first printing is 5,000 copies. This comes close on the heels of Dr. Pan’s recent article in the Chinese journal Educational Research, which also describes IE and what it offers to Chinese education.

Learning in Depth Resource materials
The Learning in Depth project continues to gather interest and increasing numbers wanting to implement the program. More programs are planned to begin in Sept. 2009, and others plan to use the Fall semester for January 2010 implementation or the academic year to prepare for full implementation in Sept. 2010. In response we have prepared a DVD of Resource materials to help any teacher or administrator wanting to become involved in the implementation process.

IERG Workshops
We have been giving workshops throughout the summer, in England, Singapore, the US, and nearer to home. The picture to the left shows activities at a one-day workshop at Crofton House school in Vancouver, using the Resource materials described below. We have been introducing the general principles of Imaginative Education and also the Learning in Depth project.

IE Resource Materials & Suggestions For Their Use
We have available a limited number of new kits entitled: “Introducing Imaginative Education: Resource materials & suggestions for their use.” They are designed to help anyone who wishes to introduce Imaginative Education in professional presentations, workshops, or classes.

New M.Ed. cohorts.
We had planned to open a new M.Ed. cohort beginning Sept. 2009 at our Surrey campus, but were surprised and delighted to be flooded with applicants. We had so many excellent teachers applying for the program that we have opened two cohorts instead.

IERG 2009 Conference
This year's conference keynote speaker, Eleanor Duckworth, inspired the audience with a talk that included both bits of history about her own education on the way to becoming a Harvard education professor and successful author, and examples of children having imaginative and "wonderful ideas." Hear Eleanor's talk by going to the video...

More on the conference
Global recessions are one thing, but when they affect our conference that’s something else again. This year we had a smaller than usual group, but the interest level was perhaps higher, and many people spoke of the added pleasure of more frequent interactions with people.

IERG receives funding towards environmental school
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has committed $20,000 in initial funding to support preparation of a $1M+ grant proposal for a new school based on ecological education principles. The lead researchers are Drs. Sean Blenkinsop and Mark Fettes.

IERG related Publications
Various IERG members and associates have been busy scribbling away, and we are a little awed by the number of publications that have emerged recently about our work. You can download a list of books, articles, curriculum materials, journal special issues, resource “kits,” etc. here.

IERG Wins Grant to Study LiD
We have been awarded a grant to study pilot implementations of the “Learning in Depth” program. Dr. Allan MacKinnon will be one of the lead researchers, aided by Melanie Young, a Ph.D. student at Simon Fraser University. The project is to run for two years.

Further books in Romanian
Stefan Popenici, “our man in Romania,” soon to move to New Zealand, has continued with Nadia Tarnoveau and Cipriam Fartusnic to develop IE ideas for children in Romanian schools with the symptoms of ADHD. They have recently published two further books that show how forms of imaginative education can significantly mitigate the problems such children experience and demonstrate.

Imaginative Media Education
For three years now Kym Stewart, the amazing Media Lab crew, and IERG have created memorable experiences for students, opening their eyes to the magic of TV, movies and videos as part of their unique media-education program based on the theories of Imaginative Education.

IERG ideas discussed on TV
You can see a discussion of the IERG’s aims and work on the TV program “Your Education Matters,” hosted by Paul Shaker.