By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. The 21st century began on January 1st, 2001. Today’s children deserve learning experiences grounded in practices that are in keeping with a new era of play and learning. Now is the time to critically reflect on the practices that linger on from the previous century. I am a child of … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. How do you see yourself? Are you a mentor? Are you a leader? Are you a supervisor? You have probably thought about these roles and what they mean, but have you considered yourself as a coach? In this blog post, I will be exploring the coaching role in early childhood … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Rosalba Bortolotti, RECE. It was twenty-five years ago when our story began. We were brought together by a mutual interest in early childhood education and the Reggio Emilia Approach. When we met, Rosalba was working at a child care centre and I had just begun to teach early childhood … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. What worlds to discover does wood hold for children? Made by nature, wood has so many benefits when offered to children. During the time of COVID, in group settings, there may be restrictions on the use of wooden toys and blocks, but I am confident in a post-COVID world that … Continue reading
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
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
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 