By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. I love my chosen profession. The emotion is deep and embedded. While it was not my original intention to become an early childhood educator, I am so proud to be one now and I have never regretted the decision. Even though I have been an early childhood educator since … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. It was a year or two ago that I received a message from a Facebook friend asking me whether I had heard of “hygge”. Pronounced hue-guh hygge describes a quality of coziness that makes a person feel content and comfortable. It originates from Denmark and is not specific to the … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. Professional identity is the concept which describes how we perceive ourselves within our occupational context and how we communicate this to others. I have been fascinated by this concept for many years, as in days gone by, I often struggled with my identity as an early childhood educator as I … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. When I began this blog six years ago, I had just started on a journey of professional learning through social media. Prior to 2012 I was not engaged on any platforms. Now I manage three Facebook pages, Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research, Resources to Support Early Childhood Development and York Region Nature … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I will begin this blog post with a pledge to always be first and foremost a proud early childhood educator and member of both my professional association, the Association for Early Childhood Educators of Ontario (AECEO) and the regulatory body, the College of Early Childhood Educators (CECE) , that oversees my chosen … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Rose Walton, OCT, PhD Candidate. This post is the second in a series about rants. A rant is an argument that is fueled by passion. The early childhood education sector has suffered from a position of silence. Ranting helps us find our voice. Ranting makes visible our passion for … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Well over a year ago, I wrote a blog post entitled Quotes to Provoke Reggio-inspired Teaching and Learning that has been recently shared by my friends at StoryPark and it has received some renewed attention. In my brain’s current context, I am again thinking about quotes but this time, I am looking beyond … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. In my last blog post, I wrote about outdoor play and encouraged early learning teachers to look beyond their fenced in playground in the hopes that children may be given the gift of place. I referred to a quote that I read many years ago from Loris Malaguzzi that asks … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. When I first began teaching early childhood education about three decades ago, there were many discussions about the language that we use to name what we do. I remember that our conversations related to moving away from using the term, “activities”. At the time, early learning teachers were setting up activities … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. On August 11th, 2016, I helped organize a workshop attended by 100 educators: Global Perspectives on Reggio-inspired Practice in Context: Global Perspectives. There were four presentations, two of which represented a United Kingdom context, Debi-Keyte–Hartland and Hayley Peacock from Little Barn Owls Day Nursery and Farm School. Suzanne Axelsson, a preschool … Continue reading
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 