By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. BIG IDEAS refer to concepts that are meaningful to the lives of children. If we look beyond development to children’s emerging interests as a focus of observation there is an opportunity to consider what is really important. Everyday there are opportunities for children to explore ideas that are rich and valuable. The examination of the topic of self is an idea that has big potential. Co-investigating our ideas about what we value in the world has big possibilities. Imagine the possibilities when topics like kindness, trust, love, and friendship become the core of ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE.  Close your eyes and visualize a coach … what image did you bring to your mind? Now do it again and see YOU! We often hear about images in early learning. An image describes a picture in the mind. If the picture you conjured up was that of a sports coach, think again. When you bring to mind, your own image, regardless of your role and position in early learning, you will be in a position to empower others. The coaching role in early childhood education is worth considering and exploring. Imagine for a minute or two what it feels like to feel empowered! To get ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D. RECE. In my last blog post I wrote about the research that I have been doing on Community of Practices (CoPs) and lamented that I have only been invited to be part of one and the experience felt like a focus group set up for the organizers to disseminate information. For me, a community should be a group that cares about each other, where everyone feels like they belong and have a voice. If CoPs are suggested as a professional learning strategy for early childhood educators, going forward, let’s be mindful of creating a community feeling. Being part of a CoP should feel ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE.  Questions can be a wonderful way of supporting children’s thinking, theories, and emerging interests. On the other hand, they can be used to test children’s memory and can end up stifling their language development. Open-ended questions are developmentally more appropriate than closed-ended and testing questions. Open-ended questions are questions that cannot be responded to with one-word answers such as yes or no. Questions should stimulate thinking and support language development. When in dialogue with children the goal should be to ask thought-provoking ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Rosalba Bortolotti, RECE. Our last post introduced our perspectives on the Studio Approach to Early Learning influenced by the ‘ateliers’ in the infant-toddler and preschools of Reggio Emilia. In North America the term studio refers to what is known as the atelier in Italy. “It is at once an idea and a place”. It is an opportunity to “look at things as if they could be otherwise” (Gandini, Hill, Cadwell & Schwall, 2005, p. 1). As long-time friends, colleagues, and neighbours we are continually considering context as we share a frame of reference for our wo ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE.  Close your eyes and visualize a coach … what image did you bring to your mind? Now do it again and see YOU! We often hear about images in early learning. An image describes a picture in the mind. If the picture you conjured up was that of a sports coach, think again. When you bring to mind, your own image, regardless of your role and position in early learning, you will be in a position to empower others. The coaching role in early childhood education is worth considering and exploring. Imagine for a minute or two what it feels like to feel empowered! To get ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. When I first started work on my doctorate, about twenty years ago, I was determined to remain true to my early childhood education roots and to focus my research on issues that connected to my context of early learning. I wanted my research to reach early childhood educators to build a bridge between theory and practice. To define a research topic, I took a trip down memory lane to reflect on the issues that I had grappled with as a young preschool teacher. I landed on themes. Now, as I look forward to retirement, I am somewhat surprised that themes continue to be ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. It was almost a year ago, May 2020, when I facilitated my first webinar for early childhood educators on Zoom. At that time, it was hard to imagine that almost a year later we would still be faced with the challenges of COVID, and I would have subsequently delivered over 100 professional learning webinars. It doesn’t appear that 2021 will be much different as I have webinars scheduled right into the fall. How has professional learning changed because of Zoom? What will the future bring? Will we return to face-to-face workshops or will there be a continuation of le ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE.  The York Region Nature Collaborative  has been offering a series of Land as Teacher webinars. On February 13th, I had the honour of co-presenting Land as Teacher: Foundations for Early Learning, the fifth offering in the series. Rather than a presentation, it was a dialogue about contexts and perspectives between Hopi Martin, approximately 150 participants and me. We specifically were considering a Seasonal Pedagogy for the early years. This seasonal pedagogy reflects an Indigenous worldview brought forward from the work that Hopi has been doing with hi ..read more

By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE.  Stories spiral in and out of my mind when I visit the pond near my house. These stories are woven together by threads of relationships. There are stories within stories that relate to my professional and personal growth in my final season. The pond is the backdrop to a documented story unfolding with my grandson that has created more threads to weave together as we play and learn from month to month. As I try to make meaning of my experiences with Griffen, over the course of four seasons, I see the cyclical nature of a Seasonal Pedagogy. I am grateful for th ..read more