PreKTeachandPlay.com Podcast

What's your superpower? Not sure?

Here are five fabulous tips for unleashing the superpowers within you, within others, and throughout your community.

Does the following scenario sound familiar?

You're playing with a child who has been coming to preschool for the last two years, and when you ask, "How many are there?"...the child always says...2, 3, 5, 8!

No one wants to think about delivering PD to students, staff, or colleagues, who are rolling their eyes, shaking their heads, and sighing heavily....

No one wants to offer PD with the knowledge that it will have little to no impact...

BUT, what if it could be different?

Have you ever wondered...why you need a vacation from your vacation?

In today's episode my goal is to help unlock a secret to how you can feel renewed, with or without and vacation...and no, it doesn't mean you have to leave the kids at home.

We all wish it were easier right?

Helping children during the middle of a meltdown!

What we wouldn't give for a magic wand or on-demand wizard who could help prevent outbursts and help children control their impulses.

Well, it's not as easy as waiving a magic wand, but it's also not as hard as it might feel. In fact, our every day actions, questions, and comments can help children become more self-regulated, and to regain a more neutral emotional state after they've had a meltdown.

In today's podcast I explore a simple, but effective way to intentionally teach a "soft skill" like self-regulation, using what we call, Power Packs™.

Serving groups of children with diverse abilities just got a bit more doable.

Reach for the Stars (RFTS), Planning for the Future has been revised and it is better than ever.

Authors, Diane and Jennifer have masterfully blended the ideas of person-centered planning, family-centered practices, and tiered instruction into a series of maps that serve as a guide to help families of young children plan and transition during critical periods.

I love visiting pre-K classrooms and watching amazing brain architects hard at work, but was fed up with all the clutter in classrooms, as well as toys and materials so broken and boring they hadn't been touched in years! So I created Pre-K Teach & Play Classroom Clean Sweep™, a process that helps early educators create learning environments that are more accessible, more engaging, and more fun!

In today's episode, I'm talking to you about solutions to what I see as an approach to assessment that really favors fear, punishment, standardized tests, and even making high stakes decisions that are based on bio scores, which often lack validity.

I've also created a quick printable for you, which illustrates all of the solutions I'll be talking about today.

As we identify these solutions, we are going to start at the systems level, and we're going to work our way to the building or agency level, and then to the classroom, where we often, to be honest, have the most power and control.

Today's episode is for those who are, or those who have not yet realize they are perfectionist. Today, we'll explore the consequences of our efforts to be perfect as it relates particularly to children's learning and development. Let's dive in and explore the hidden traps of being an early educator who's also a perfectionist.

Development and learning tend to follow typical or expected progressions. For example, our brains develop from the brain stem up, we develop from the inside of our bodies out, and we go from externally controlled, to internally controlled.

When children struggle to develop or learn, taking a look at where they fall across developmental progressions, may help us discover how best to support them.

In today's episode, we explore several developmental progressions, which can help guide our instructional efforts for children who are struggling. Also, be sure to download this episode's printable, which provides a visual of the 7 progressions.