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
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
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 and Cindy Green, RECE. In the Reggio Emilia preschools, the space encourages encounters, communication, and relationships. Such care is taken in the preparation of the environment that it acts as a third teacher. For decades we have worked with early learning students who were required to do placements. When we … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. The Rhythm of Learning in Nature is a professional knowledge retreat held every summer at beautiful Swan Lake in York Region, Ontario. It is an intensive six days of connectiveness to nature and is designed for adults and children. As the children play in the meadow and the forest, the … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. It has been a few weeks since my return to Reggio and I am still processing the experience. The opportunity to spend a week in this historically beautiful environment with others on the 2018 Canadian Study Tour was one that I will always cherish and hold close to my heart. … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I regret to say that when I worked with young children I did not fully embrace the opportunity to help them build nature connections. I have made that confession in a previous post. However, in the last five or six years, nature pedagogy has become both a passion and a research … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I would like to make a confession. When I was a practising early childhood educator, I would take children outdoors to a fenced in playground for one hour in the morning and another in the afternoon because outdoor play was required by legislation. It was not my favourite time of … Continue reading
Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Of all the professional learning experiences that I have taken part in over the years, none have been as meaningful as those designed as collaborative and emergent experiences. On the top of my list is the Rhythm of Learning in Nature with the York Region Nature Collaborative which this summer takes … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Over the many years that I have been an early childhood educator, I have been fascinated with developing trends. I always found it very interesting to reflect on what topics are being written about and spoken about the most. A trend in fashion, can be something that comes and goes. What … Continue reading
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 