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 … Continue reading
Filed under Nature Connections …
A Seasonal Pedagogy: Documenting Stories within Stories
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 … Continue reading
Small Worlds in Early Learning: Now is the Time!
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I think I have always been fascinated by small world play. As a child and as an adult. I have fond memories of creating miniature worlds especially outdoors. I used rocks, mud, grass, straw and sticks to form a world that I could play inside of. I was in control. … Continue reading
COVID Gifts in the Early Years
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. After going into lockdown a few days after facilitating my last face to face workshop in March I have pivoted to online professional learning as webinars have become the new normal. This is unprecedented as we are now required to maintain physical distance but be socially connected. During these uncertain … Continue reading
Competence and Capacity in the Early Years
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. We are living in extraordinarily difficult times profoundly impacting the three subjects of education; children, families and teachers. Every day, I find myself in a paradox. I see images and words shared on social media that demonstrate that choices are being made to continue within the restrictions and limitations to … Continue reading
Continuous Professional Learning for Early Childhood Educators: Creating Environments as a “Third Teacher”
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
Sunrise, Sunset: A Year of Hope for Early Childhood Education
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
2020 Visioning in Early Learning: My One Word for the Year
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
Pedagogical Documentation: Sharing Stories of Meaning
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
Show and Tell: Tell Me Why, Tell Me Why Not?
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