By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Laura Salau, RECE. To early childhood educators around the world, but especially to those in our province, Ontario, Canada, this blog post is designed to support your continuous professional learning. It is the fourth post in a series focused on the pedagogical approaches from How Does Learning Happen? (2014). These approaches … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I feel like I lived a year in a month. In my last blog post, I revealed that I spent last year battling breast cancer and have stepped into 2020 as a survivor. I left for a holiday with my husband 10 days after my last radiation treatment. We … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. This past year has been a difficult one for me. Early in 2019, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Between surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, my year was about healing and recovery. Normally, I would have been traveling and presenting workshops to the early learning community. I missed this … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. Constructivist theory in education suggests that learners are the makers of meaning. This theory is especially relevant in early learning. Meaning-making refers to the personal epistemology that learners create to help them make sense of influences, relationships and sources of knowledge in their world. Teachers create experiences for learners … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I am a member of countless early childhood education groups on Facebook. I learn so much from members from around the world. Recently, a photo appeared in one of these groups that depicted a plastic bin, decorated with coloured shapes and labelled “Show and Tell”. The text that went … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. One of the benefits of a long career in early learning is the opportunity to see how the profession evolves and responds to new thinking, ideas and concepts. A concept is an abstract idea. Conception is the act of conceiving a child or an idea! A misconception is the result … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I use this blog to share reflections and musings about the practice of early childhood education. In a recent post, The Broken Circle: Rethinking the Practice of Circles in Early Learning I wrote about a topic that fascinated me as a beginning teacher. Currently, circles continue to spiral in and out … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I wrote a blog post last fall about themes in early learning, expressing surprise/concern that they were still a thing! It has become one of my most shared posts reflecting that, indeed there are those who continue the practice. I have always found the use of themes to be … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. When I taught introductory early childhood education courses, I presented developmental domains by raising my hand. One by one, I would count down the big five, cognitive, social, emotional, language and physical which I would divide into gross and fine motor. Lately, I have been wondering about other domains … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I have written about early childhood education basics such as blocks, art and dramatic play before. By basics I mean that these are experiences that are essential and should be commonplace in every early learning environment both indoors and outdoors. By no means though, are these experiences simple. Rather, … Continue reading
