The Powerful Pedagogy – Details, episodes & analysis

Nicola is a progressive early childhood educator with over 20 years experience in cultivating impactful and effective learning spaces for young students.

Her passion and expertise is an ability to balance play and rigor while integrating the arts and community to create a holistic, child-centered environment that fosters multiple intelligences, socio-emotional growth, character and a love of learning.

Jane Racoosin has worked in early childhood education for over 20 years and she has witnessed how children’s learning and emotional development are impacted by an exploration-based education approach. In her own classroom, she saw that children gained confidence and creativity when curriculum was developed in collaboration between teachers and children. 

She wanted to offer the same high quality early learning experience to all children across the five boroughs regardless of cost. In 2013, she started Teaching Beyond the Square to fulfill this vision and to elevate early childhood education’s importance in a public way. She has attended workshops at Reggio-inspired schools in the United States and been to Reggio Emilia, Italy to visit their early childhood programs and study their philosophy. She has presented at the 92nd Street Y, Kean University, and The European Early Childhood Research Conference in Birmingham, England. 

Jane has been an adjunct lecturer in the department of Early Childhood Education at Hunter College, received a BA in Psychology from the University of Vermont, a Masters in Early Childhood Education and a Masters in Supervision and Administration from Bank Street College. Jane served on the board of ISAAGNY from 2020-2022.

Link:

https://www.teachingbeyondthesquare.org/

Ms. Ashley (she/her) is an early childhood expert and play advocate. She brings her 20+ years of experience as an early childhood teacher, museum curator, and performer as the Founder of Play Plan Afrikan (playpanafrikan.org), an early learning collective, and Nguzo Babies (nguzobabies.com), a children's puppet show. Ms. Ashley is also a prolific curriculum author, the popular being her Kwanzaa 365 curriculum to help classrooms integrate cultural diversity. Her passion is offering support and quality resources to families with young children to restore the beauty of childhood and family pastimes.

Links:

www.nguzobabies.com

www.playpanafrikan.org 

Instagram handles:

Instagram.com/nguzo_babies

http://Instagram.com/playpanafrikan

Sally Haughey is the CEO and Founder of Fairy Dust Teaching and Wunderled. Fairy Dust Teaching is built on the passion for the wonder and magic of early childhood, the idea that young children have the right to play, to be collaborators in learning, and to dream. After 20 years of successfully teaching in various school settings, she has committed herself to what she loves most: Empowering and Inspiring Educators! Her focus is to provide a deeper level of service and training that help educators own their true teaching self.

Sally Haughey began Wunderled™ in 2010 from a desire to share her own journey, bringing play-based education to public school settings that often left little room for imagination, curiosity and wonder. After 20 years working on the frontlines, Sally knew there was so much work to be done – so she began sharing what she had learned about how to bring play-based practices into even the most traditional learning environments.

Wunderled™ has now grown into a thriving team that supports a community of over 200,000 educators — and a worldwide movement that is changing the face of childhood education, day by day.

Links –

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FairyDustTeachingBlog

Sally's website :

 https://fairydustteaching.com/

https://wunderled.com/

Sally on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-haughey-4b902163/

Carla Ward is an Early Childhood Educator and the founder of Early Learning Foundations, a business dedicated to education and enhancing the work of Early Childhood Educators. She has held a variety of roles in the education field for more than 17 years. Carla is a certified Wunderled educator and brings a sense of wonder and passion into every aspect of her business, from hosting The Everything ECE Podcast, to workshop development, to digital course creation as well as running a full-time online tutoring business. Carla loves to share actionable and inspiring ideas with fellow educators both in and out of the classroom to help support professional practices in Early Childhood Education.

Links:

Website: www.elfoundations.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elfoundations

Facebook: https://www.fracebook.com/elfoundations

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-ward

The Everything ECE Podcast: 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3wlXOT02I2x1MKX8jz6lMx?si=676bf714eb7e4f90

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-everything-ece-podcast/id1546511138

Napcast is a podcast co-hosted by two male educators of color working with our youngest citizens. Together, they challenge, tackle, and discuss topics at the intersection of education, race, culture, and identity.

Bio:

Nick Terrones (he/him) is Mexican-Native American, a descendant of the Chumash people whose traditional lands span a large part of southern California. Nick has been in the Early Childhood field for over 14 years, 12 of those years working directly with toddlers and families. Currently he is the program director at Daybreak Star Preschool in Seattle, Washington, an early learning program that implements an indigenous curriculum. Outside of the school setting, Nick is an active member in the World Forum Foundation on Early Care and Education’s Men in ECE leadership team. Along with his buddy Mike, he co-host a podcast called "Napcast" that looks at the intersection of race, culture, and identity in early childhood education. Be sure to check out his book, A Can of Worms: Fearless Conversations with Toddlers through Exchange Press (https://www.childcareexchange.com).

Mike Browne (he/him), has lived a multitude of lives. He has danced ballet and tap for 7 years. He played Division 1 Football. He lived in London and Spain for 4 years. He co-hosts a podcast called Napcast with his buddy Nick! All before returning home back. No, not to Seattle. He’s an east coaster. But back home to Early Childhood Education. Mike currently serves as the Sr. Director of Community Engagement for Cultivate Learning at the University of Washington, using his experience as a preschool teacher to dismantle systems of oppressions in our early learning environment. Be sure to check out his series of articles that he wrote for Exchange Magazine - "You Wanna Be What? Be Realistic: A Reflection on Black Boys Dreaming," "The Beautiful Resistance: Black Humanity and Black Boy Joy" and "Black Boyhood Just Don't Stop: A Reflection on the Necessity of Meaningful Boyhoods."

 Links:

Napcast on Apple Podcast 

Napcast on Spotify

A Can of Worms: Fearless Conversations with Toddlers

A Can of Worms - Webinar

Charnea Paris is an educator seeking to make dynamic change in the lives of children where it is most needed. She teaches Pre-K at a public school  in the South Bronx. One of her passions is incorporating identity work throughout the year. She believes that children need to learn about the world and the people around them early in life and that failing to teach children the truth at an early age will negatively affect their overall development in all aspects of life. For children to become productive citizens, teachers and families must be willing to discuss topics such as race, skin color, culture, nationality and religions at school and home. Charnea provides a guide of how to do this with her online read alouds and parent engagement. 

Links:
https://linktr.ee/classroomofparis

Semeka Smith-Williams is a member of the The Institute for Social and Emotional Learning (IFSEL) which empowers educators, young people, and parents to transform their schools into caring, inclusive communities.  For the past six years she served as the Director of Diversity and Equity at the Packer Collegiate Institute, a Preschool through grade 12 independent school located in Brooklyn, New York. Over the last ten years, Semeka has collaborated with other school leaders and  diversity practitioners  through her work with  New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) Diversity Committee. Semeka has also facilitated curriculum investigations to broaden the anti-bias and equity approach being used at various schools to be culturally responsive and focused on student experience.

Semeka received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) in African American and American Studies and has a Masters of Science degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Bank Street College of Education, in NYC.

Links: 

https://www.instituteforsel.net/team/semeka-smith-williams-2

Suzanne Axelsson has worked with children for over 30 years in roles.  She works as a pedagogical consultant using experience and research in listening, philosophy with children and Indigenous Knowledge to guide creating democratic learning and play spaces in early childhood education. She works on the EY program at the Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University, as well as in preschools with children and educators.. Suzanne has a masters in ECE and has traveled globally to hold workshops, presentations, and visit EY settings. She writes about play, listening, neurodiversity, and sustainability etc on her blog, Interaction Imagination, and curates the facebook group “The Original Learning Approach”. Her book on Original Learning, where play and learning are equally valued and interwoven will be published in 2022. Suzanne is published in books and articles in English, Swedish, Turkish, Hebrew Italian, Croatian, Romanian etc covering topics such as risky play, art, and the Reggio Emilia Approach™.

https://www.interactionimagination.com/

https://www.interactionimagination.com/blog

Chloe Taylor Technology is a STEM Education consulting company based in New York City. Her company provides future-focused services for schools in STEM education and digital design to help facilitate meaningful learning experiences through the use of technology. As an entrepreneur, author and educator, her focus is to equip the next generation with the skills they will need to succeed. Chloe has collaborated with brands including HP, BrainPOP, and Sphero Robotics to promote the importance of STEM education for youth, and to bring awareness to gender discrimination in the tech industry. In 2020, she published her first book, The Big Book of Invisible Technology, a hands-on guide for children that introduces coding, robotics, machine learning, and 3D printing, among many other topics. 

Links:
https://www.chloetaylortech.com/