"Your image of the child, regardless of whether it is the first time you have reflected upon it, defines and determines the way you approach every interaction you have with children," writes Ron Grady in his book Honoring the Moment in Young Children's Lives: Observation, Documentation, and Reflection. Ron joins Heather in this episode to dig deep into a phrase ("image of the child") that is becoming more and more common in our field. What does it really mean? Why does it matter so much? Find more of Ron here: https://www.childology.co/Support Heather's work with a one time donation, or membership levels with even more content, here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/heatherf Thanks for listening! Save 10% on professional development from Explorations Early Learning and support the show with the coupon code NERD. Like the show? Consider supporting our work by becoming a Patron, shopping our Amazon Link, or sharing it with someone who might enjoy it. You can leave a comment or ask a question here. Click here for more Heather. For a small fee we can issue self-study certificates for listening to podcasts.

Listen in as host Heather Bernt-Santy, and fellow ECE Nerds Bethany Corrie and Mike Huber, talk through the article When Boys Won't Be Boys: Discussing Gender with Young Children, where authors Hannah Katch and Jane Katch discuss the ways Jane is seeing gender roles enacted in her classroom.  Thanks for listening! Save 10% on professional development from Explorations Early Learning and support the show with the coupon code NERD. Like the show? Consider supporting our work by becoming a Patron, shopping our Amazon Link, or sharing it with someone who might enjoy it. You can leave a comment or ask a question here. Click here for more Heather. For a small fee we can issue self-study certificates for listening to podcasts.

Have you ever noticed that most of the theorists and philosophies in our early childhood textbooks are the same handful of men-plus-Montessori? Heather got curious….who are the women (past and present) who are influencing and informing the work we’re doing with young children. This episode is the third installment of a new tradition–episodes in May that invite some of my favorite women in early childhood to talk about the women who guide our work. In this episode, Heather is joined by Krystina Tapia and Kisa Marx to discuss how bell hooks, Emmi Pikler, and Lisa Murphy inspire them. 

Sometimes it seems like "mindfulness" in our work with young children has become more of a product than a process. Bethany Corrie and Richard Cohen join Heather to talk about how we can bring back its authenticity. 

Richard Cohen joins Heather for another episode on teaching ECE in higher education. How can we break away from traditional teaching models to provide spaces and experiences that teach critical thinking? 

Lisa Murphy and Heather discuss the difference between having 30 years of experience teaching and having one year of experience 30 times. What are the implications for the profession and for children?

An all star Nerd Panel comes together in this episode (Lisa Murphy! Sam Balch! Lizz Nolasco! Mike Huber! Richard Cohen! Heather!) to look at real examples of phrases heard in early childhood programs that demonstrate a disconnect between theory and practice. 

Mobile STEM teacher Laura Weilert has some thoughts about real STEM experiences, play and those google-search-volcano-science-experiments. 

ECE advocate and school director Rixa Evershed joins Mike Huber and Heather to talk about the language of "achievement gaps" and how capitalism and deficit approaches to children and families fuel policies and practices that have a negative impact on the people they claim to be helping.

You may have seen child care center director Cori Berg's interview with NPR--it went viral fast! Cori joins the show, along with Richard Cohen, to talk more about the "special kind of hell" the pandemic has created for directors and for families.

Richard Cohen is Heather's cohost for this episode, continuing the conversation about "professional love." 

Jesse Coffino, Krystina Tapia and Emma Pickering join the show to help us understand how the "reflection" element of Anji Play adds depth to children's play and how it can be implemented in any early care and educations setting.

Lisa Murphy is Heather's guest in this episode, to talk about one of their mutual favorite topics--nursery rhymes! A recent teaching experience showed Heather that nursery rhymes may be becoming obsolete or unfamiliar to early childhood teachers. This episode provides a rationale for bringing them back.

Have you ever noticed that most of the theorists and philosophies in our early childhood textbooks are the same handful of men-plus-Montessori? Heather got curious….who are the women (past and present) who are influencing and informing the work we’re doing with young children. This episode is the second installment of a new tradition–episodes in May that invite some of my favorite women in early childhood to talk about the women who guide our work. In this episode, Heather is joined by Stephanie Goloway, Stacy Benge, and Nancy Rosenow to discuss how Sylvia Ashton Warner, A. Jean Ayres, Vivian Gussin Paley and Chris Athey inspire them. 

"I've heard this one before," writes Michael Gramling in his book The Great Disconnect, "If her kindergarten teacher is going to make her miserable next year, we better make her miserable now so she can get used to it." Listen as Lizz Nolasco and I wander around as we explore this quote.

Have you ever been told it was unprofessional to love children you are caring for or teaching? How are boundaries different from detachment? Listen in as Sam Balch, Mike Huber and Carol Garbodan Murray join Heather for a discussion of Carol's upcoming article, "Professional Love."

Heather is joined by Lizz Nolasco and Richard Cohen to discuss the ways holiday practices in early childhood settings can work against our anti-bias goals.

her and Mike Huber welcome Emmanuelle Fincham and Amanda Fellner to discuss their article Including Autism: Confronting Inequitable Practices in a Toddler Classroom.

The author of the book A Young Writer's World: Creating Early Childhood Classrooms Where Authors Abound joins Heather to discuss emerging writing in the early years.

Richard Cohen joins Heather to talk her through some disequilibrium around teaching college ECE students.

Author Francis Wardle drops by to discuss his article "Unpacking Developmentally Appropriate Practice" and the need for accepting some absolutes in early care and education.

Heather's conversation about the book Can of Worms: Fearless Conversations with Toddlers continues with Richard Cohen and Mike Huber.

Is baby play random? Do they need us to stimulate them? Bethany Corrie joins Heather to figure it out.

Sam Balch, Richard Cohen and Heather discuss the book Can of Worms: Fearless Conversations with Toddlers by Nick Terrones.

Have you ever noticed that most of the theorists and philosophies in our early childhood textbooks are the same handful of men-plus-Montessori? Heather got curious....who are the women (past and present) who are influencing and informing the work we're doing with young children. So, here's the first installment of a new tradition--episodes in May that invite some of my favorite women in early childhood to talk about the women who guide our work. In this episode, Heather is joined by Rixa Evershed, Carol Garboden Murray and Lizz Nolasco to discuss how Robin Wall Kimmerer, Carol Gilligan, Janet Gonzalez Mena and Rhoda Kellogg inspire them. 

Heather's talking to an editor about a book project, and to help her process her ideas, she's asked Nerd cohosts to listen to past episodes and interview her. Here's the first, where we revisit the episode called Sticker Charts vs Human Complexity

People keep asking about what to do when children swear, so we'll keep talking about it.

Three of the authors (Encian Pastel, Julie Nicholson and Nathanael Flynn) of the book Supporting Gender Diversity in Early Childhood Classrooms bring their very important work to the podcast.

We've noticed an increase in online talk about "bullying" in early childhood programs, and we don't think that's possible.

Lydia Bowers provides education and consulting on early childhood sexual health topics, and she joins the show to talk about her new children's book "We Listen to Our Bodies."

Heather is getting tired of hearing about Universal PreK, but she invited Dan and Richard to share their thoughts anyway.

When we talk about "able-bodied" and "disabled" children, we reduce them, yet again, to a potentially damaging binary. How can we think about "ability" and "needs" in more inclusive ways?

TECN Study Hall is back! Heather is joined by Richard Cohen, Lisa Murphy, Lizz Nolasco and Carol Garbodan Murray for a panel discussion of the article "Beyond the Investment Narrative" by Peter Moss.

TECN Study Hall brings Carol Garbodan Murray, Lisa Murphy, Emma Tempest, Lizz Nolasco, Richard Cohen and Heather together to talk spiritual development.

Dan Hodgins and Heather wonder if there aren't more authentic, appropriate ways to plant the seeds of responsibility and community than job charts in early childhood classrooms

Heather is TIRED of non-expert stakeholders trying to tell her what is and isn't "quality" for young children's spaces and experiences. In this episode, she invites Carol Garboden Murray and Richard Cohen to help her process how problematic it is when we lose sight of children's current, lived experiences in favor of placing the weight of solving adult problems on those children's shoulders.

Dan Hodgins, Mike Huber and Heather use the article "Rough and Tumble Play: A Way to Tackle Socially Constructed Norms" by Nick Terrones as a starting point for this conversation

LeeAnn Soucy and Kathy Gallo (ECE's "Two Pushy Dames") join the show to push back on the academic pushdown

It's the 200th episode! Wow! Tune in for Lisa Murphy, Dan Hodgins, Richard Cohen, Bethany Corrie join Heather to talk about ditching theme planning. Pajamas were worn. Wine was drunk. Themes were...well, tune in to find out.

Early childhood consultant and author Rae Pica joins Heather to discuss her blog post, "What if We Took Control of our 2021?"

Heather talks to author Carol Garbodan Murray and Lunch Room Supervisor Extraordinaire Melissa Luebbe about pushing the care revolution UP into elementary schools.

In what started out as a germ of an idea about talking about "men in ECE," Richard Cohen and Mike Huber take it much deeper--we need to break up with the binary.

We need to move away from making moral judgments on children's behavior and seek to understand and support children's development.

Mike Huber listened to the episode with occupational therapist Greg Santucci, and has some follow up questions for Heather

Sam Balch joins Heather to discuss her experiences with, and recommendations for, working with children who have or are experiencing homelessness.

Part two of a conversation with Richard Cohen and Michelle Salcedo, author of Uncover the Roots of Challenging Behavior: Create Responsive Environments Where Young Children Thrive.

If there's one thing host Heather Bernt-Santy loves, it's a nerdy panel discussion! And this one is a good one...including Heather, Richard Cohen (Zen and the Art of Early Childhood), Nancy Rosenow (author of Encouragement Every Day), Carol Garboden Murray (author of Illuminating Care: The Practice and Pedagogy of Care) and Stacy Benge (author of The Whole Child Alphabet: How Young Children Actually Develop Literacy). Listen in as we talk about what we think we should call ourselves as we work with young children--teacher? Developmentalist? Caregiver? 

In this episode, Heather brings on Carol Garboden Murray, Richard Cohen and Tiffany Pearsall to connect our Care Revolution to rest times and napping.

Louisa May Alcott? Charlotte Bronte? Jane Austen? Charles Dickens? They all have something to say about supporting young children.

Lizz and Heather use a story of mud play in an early childhood setting to discuss how children's bodies are considered within different cultural perspectives.