By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Expertise on emergent curriculum is difficult to attain. It is like a utopian position that can never be realized. Learning about emergent curriculum is ongoing. I remind myself often that I will never get to the point in my professional career where I can say that I have reached the … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. It was in the early nineties that I first heard about the infant-toddler and preschool centres of Reggio Emilia. I was at a professional conference and attended a workshop about this unique approach to early learning. I remember being overwhelmed and feeling uneasy. I was experiencing cognitive dissonance as I reflected … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I have been involved in the early childhood education community in York Region, Ontario for almost three decades. Throughout this time it has been my privledge to support professional learning and training at both the pre and in-service level. I have had the opportunity to build professional relationships with many others … Continue reading
By Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I have been doing a lot of thinking about inquiry lately. In my capacity as the chair of the York Region Nature Collaborative I was invited to take part in a pilot environmental inquiry project with the York Region District School Board, which involves two different full day kindergarten classes. The … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I have been an ardent proponent of emergent curriculum in early childhood education well before I became Reggio inspired. In the early nineties I became aware of the work of Elizabeth Jones and John Nimmo and used their textbook, Emergent Curriculum as the foundation for the curriculum courses that I taught to … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I am fortunate to have colleagues and critical friends in my life that motivate me to think. As an early childhood educator and teacher of teachers, thinking about practice and theory, leads to new knowledge and understandings about the way children learn, the way adults learn and the way I learn. … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I have recently been delving into “How Does Learning Happen?” Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years (2014) and thinking deeply about how I can use this document to guide my practice. This is a document that asks educators to challenge the status quo. It suggests we engage in critical reflection because as … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D., RECE. I am feeling inspired lately. Even though it has been a long time since I first discovered the philosophy and guiding principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach at times over the years I have gotten disillusioned about my ability to bring Reggio home. But lately I am feeling very encouraged. My … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. On January 10th, I had the honour of co-moderating an international #ReggioPLC chat with Suzanne Axelsson, a friend from across the globe. Educators from Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Turkey across the United States and Canada joined in a fast paced hour of professional collaboration on the topic of listening. A Twitter … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I am thrilled, that thanks to fellow Reggio inspired educators our Twitter chats at #ReggioPLC have become a dynamic time to connect and collaborate with others from around the world. Our plan when we started the chat was to work through Reggio principles. For Loris Malaguzzi, the central notion for … Continue reading
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 