Resources

The factory visits of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood—when Mr. McFeely visits Mister Rogers with video tapes of "how people make things"—are rich with opportunities for wonder, connection, and delight.

Positive learning outcomes are related to healthy social-emotional skills, and both are strengthened through quality interactions with adults. As a Youth Services Librarian, I am interested in this connection, and how I can support children's learning through programming like storytime.

This year's Mid-Year Convening on January 21 included ten educator-led breakout sessions on topics such as trauma aware care, QRIS peer learning communities, and building community in early childhood and secondary classrooms.

Slowness—as both an idea and practice—is a significant layer of what we can learn from Fred Rogers and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. And slowness is about much more than going slowly. Slowness opens a space for what is essential for children and their helpers.

Press play on any episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and you'll find yourself invited to slow down and notice something. Settle in, take your time, look carefully, listen deeply.

"A child was having a hard day, slumped in the corner of a classroom, shirt pulled over his head. He poked out of his shirt to yell to the teacher across the room who was engaged with the other children in the class: Hey, can we play that love song again?"

"That I might do things differently, and that's the way it's supposed to be." The voice is coming from one of the Pre-Primary teachers in the center where I worked as an administrator at the time. It is September of 2020 and we have just finished our weekly Zoom share ...

Our educators of the neighborhood were in full swing in their classrooms in March, ready with next episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood to play, and creative ideas to try out with their students. Then, schools closed. Now, they remain closed. In challenging times, Fred Rogers is often quoted saying something he lear

The importance of wonder and asking questions is nothing new to educators. Early Childhood educators especially, know how to allow opportunities for children's "why?" and "how?" and "hmm..." and "oh, my!"

The 2019-20 school year is in full swing and educators who are part of the Fred Rogers Center's Educators' Neighborhood have been selecting and playing episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood for their young students since September.

"As schools search for ways to educate children this school year, my heart reminds me to slow down to notice for what's already here. We have a beautiful example of how to inspire joyful, curious learning through a screen. That example is Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

One of the many gifts of teaching and learning in our Educators' Neighborhood community is the continuous finding of something new... in the Fred Rogers Archive, in episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and in our seeing of how this connects to children, families, educators, and other helpers.

In 2017, we began a pen pal project with our Kindergarten classes, both in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, but in different parts of the city. What began as a project for our students grew into a friendship and ongoing professional relationship, including our learning about Mister Rogers' Neighborhood with Educators'...

School year 2020-21 was a year of wide-ranging and significant everything. Full of layered emotions and experiences existing between the ever-collapsing dichotomies of together-alone, 2D-3D, right-wrong, real-unreal, then-now, time-no time, nowhere-here.

In Mister Rogers Talks with Parents (1983), Fred Rogers, in collaboration with Barry Head, outlines six "basic necessities" for children's learning readiness, one of which is "the capacity to look and listen carefully" (p170).