Are you playing the right game?
When chaos erupts, do you know what game to play? I could hear the screaming from down the hall. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that a child was being tortured. When I walked in, Joey was howling. Ms. Jackie was examining the bite marks on his arm....
When Things Go Wrong
How to find the missing piece You spent an hour last night working on your lesson plans for next week. You thought about what Marissa and Lilah were doing in the Baby Center (this month’s dramatic play area). You revisited your observation notes from the Block Corner...
3 Myths About Observing Children
And the truths that will help you really see them It was 10:47 pm on a Tuesday. I was scrolling through 1,289 photos on my phone, searching for that ONE observation of Marcus I’d captured two weeks ago. His parent conference was at 8:30 the next morning, and I knew...
There’s No Magic Wand (But There is a Mary Poppins Bag): Solving Classroom Chaos
Sprinkle fairy dust where it matters - on your environment I don’t have a magic wand. Like most teachers, I wish that I did. I would wave my magic wand, sprinkle a little fairy dust, and all those challenging behaviors would just disappear. But teaching doesn’t work...
The Santa Claus Problem in Early Childhood Education
Why your classroom looks nothing like what you say you believe The Santa Claus Question “Mommy, do you believe in Santa Claus?” my 9-year-old asked. Even though we don’t celebrate Christmas, I had to respond in a way that would keep her believing, at least for the...
Red Light, Green Light
Who's afraid of a little noise? What does the noise level in your program say about you, your children, and the learning taking place? A lot! When I first started teaching, make-and-take workshops were all the rage. I know, I’m dating myself. One of the hot topics for...
How giving up control leads to more calm
Why educators struggle with this and what to do about it When I first started teaching, I thought I needed to know everything. I thought I had to be in control of everything. I had to make all the decisions and manage every little thing in my classroom. After all, I...
Emergent Curriculum is Just Chaos!
I often ask teachers to describe emergent curriculum or play-based learning. Most teachers will tell me it’s about following the lead of the child, or some version of this. When I ask how do you do this, or what does it look like, I get blank stares. Most people like...
Top 3 tips for creating a joyful early learning environment
Sometimes we overthink things when it comes to the design aesthetic of learning environments. We see these beautifully curated photos of spotless early childhood classrooms. We get these fabulous school supply catalogs in the mail and see a gazillion options for...
Let’s work smarter, not harder
I started a new Substack!! I'll be sharing tips to help make life in an early childhood program easier. I'll also be sharing content from the book I'm writing. I hope you'll join me on this journey and share my content with other early childhood educators. Below is my...