Parents, Teachers, There Is No Right Way Right Now

/
Parents, Teachers, There Is No Right Way Right Now

…Many of us, especially parents and teachers are feeling tremendous pressure to make everything as capital-R right as we possibly can for the children in our lives. Why wouldn’t we? We love and respect the children and childhoods that are entrusted to us. It is literally and figuratively our job to give children consistency, security, and ensure they have everything they need to develop with the best chance of success and well-being.

But what do consistency, security, and development even mean in a life-changing crisis?…

Read More

There Is No Perfect Teacher

/
There Is No Perfect Teacher

…if you sometimes feel that being a “Good Teacher” is a slippery slope of unceasing expectation...that’s because it is. The archetypal ideal, i.e., Good Teacher, is not and has never been one thing. The mores of the job have always reflected those of society’s dominant voices. But time moves on and so too can we unmoor ourselves from the unhelpful and oppressive narratives of past powers…

Read More

Reggio Emilia And The Art Of School

/
Reggio Emilia And The Art Of School

“…As educators, we design environments and experiences. We use tools and materials. We hope to provoke new ways of knowing in children, families, and in ourselves. These are the mosaic-like pieces of our project. School itself is our large-scale medium for artistic, political, and philosophical progress. And it’s a group effort…”

Read More

How Reflective Freewriting Can Help Us Live Meaningfully Alongside Young Children

/
How Reflective Freewriting Can Help Us Live Meaningfully Alongside Young Children

“As both a teacher and writer, freewriting is a practice that helps me process and understand my role within the life I live with children. Whenever I feel most stuck, I write. Not for this blog. Not for my job. But as a way to get clarity about I’m doing, feeling, and knowing deep inside. And while freewriting is a tool I discovered in my life as a creative, freewriting is not just for “Writers.” Freewriting is an accessible  way of mindfully checking in with yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings…to put it simply: You just write. By Hand. For a while. “

Read More

What To Observe When You're Observing (In the Preschool Classroom)

/
What To Observe When You're Observing (In the Preschool Classroom)

“…what does observation mean in a preschool classroom? What does it call on us to do? That we simply watch the children? That we can recall what they did in a day? That we know who gets along with whom and can account for the feelings the child shares at home. In some senses, yes. But really, observation is more than having a general sense of each child or interaction for the purpose of reporting. If used effectively, observation is the foundation upon which we choose our next steps as teachers...”

Read More

T’was The Month Before Kindergarten: Supporting Children with Big Transitions and Big Behaviors

/
T’was The Month Before Kindergarten: Supporting Children with Big Transitions and Big Behaviors

“…Over the next few years I started to see, every year around summertime, pre-kindergarten children just...got like that. The calmest, most predictable children would have moments of pure unadulterated push-back against their care-takers and friends, strange bouts of anxiety before school or during drop-off, or sometimes they’d have accidents again after being toilet-learned for years. I started to call this phenomenon kindergarten feelings…”

Read More

Practice, Not Magic: “You’re not my best friend!”

/
Practice, Not Magic: “You’re not my best friend!”

“…To very young children, however, these words are useful. Children employ “Best Friend” and it’s inverse, “Not My Friend,” because it communicates something very clearly and with great effect - closeness or space, sometimes tears, sometimes adult attention…”

Read More

Gender Bias in Early Childhood, Part 1: Raising The Issue

/
Gender Bias in Early Childhood, Part 1: Raising The Issue

“…I was ready to rumble over the idea of “boy colors,” “girl colors,” and the rights of all children to wear any dress they want. But as I gained more experience, it wasn’t the children I worried about any longer. I found young children to be open and accepting of interventions like, “Oh, actually colors are not about boys and girls. They are just about color.” Not such a big deal. What I found instead, as if so often the case, if that it was the adults who couldn’t shake the gender habit….”

Read More