Early Childhood educator and consultant Katie Heiser (puddlejumprs on Instagram!) stops by to talk about why she doesn’t give a s— about letter of the week, and what she does instead to support young children’s literacy.

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In addition to his work as Chief Interpreter and Translator for Anji Play founder Ms. Cheng Xueqin, Jesse Coffino has also authored numerous articles and essays on the history and practice of the Anji Play Approach, including “The Anji Play Ecology of Early Learning” (Childhood Education, Vol. 95, No. 1).

Jesse has lectured on the historical significance of the work of Ms. Cheng and the educators of Anji County, China at organizations and institutions including Google, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and BRAC.

Jesse works closely with Ms. Cheng to translate the ideas and concepts of Anji Play for a global audience. Together they have identified pilot programs and cultivated practice leaders in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

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Miriam Beloglovsky is a professor of early childhood education, sought-after public speaker, CEO of Playful Transformation, and author. Play is her passion, as she works to ensure that all children have equitable access to play. 

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Dale Farran, Professor Emerita at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, joins the show to discuss her groundbreaking longitudinal study into the efficacy of PreK in Tennessee, and what the results tell us about what preschool should be.

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/10/1079406041/researcher-says-rethink-prek-preschool-prekindergarten

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Carol Garboden Murray! Lizz Nolasco! Tiffany Pearsall! These women bring their brilliant minds and passionate souls to the show for a conversation about “developmentally appropriate practices,” doing no harm, reflecting intentionally and boldly advocating for children’s right to childhood, healthy diets for play and learning, and hyper-caffeinated podcast descriptions…

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Samuel Broaden of Honoring Childhood is here to talk about weapon play, community, and being willing to be uncomfortable in our work with young children.

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Vivien Geneser (editor) and Josh Thompson (contributor) join Heather to discuss the brilliant collection of essays covering 16 theorists from “diverse spaces to see what they each have to say about play” in the book Scholarly Snapshots: The Importance of Child Play as a Human Right.” 

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Author and playspace designer Rusty Keeler drops in to discuss this quote from his book “Adventures in Risky Play: What is Your Yes?”

“And yet, I also understand that in a modern world full of pressures and constraints on children’s time in and out of school, something as obvious as play needs some scientific support and lobbying from adults who care enough to recognize that somehow without us looking, good old-fashioned free play has been limited, sidelined, sublimated, and even decimated for way too. many children in our busy, high-achieving, over-stimulated, over-scheduled, over-protected, overly biased, overly adult-oriented view of what children should be doing, accomplishing, competing and completing.” 

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Richard Cohen and Mike Huber lead the discussion regarding curiosity and humility around the idea of cultural diversity.

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In the book “Child Care Justice: Transforming the System of Care for Young Children,” Michael Gramling writes about child care as a human right and offers a challenge to those of us in the field of early care and education: “If the early childhood workforce wishes to participate in meaningful change to bring about child care justice, we must be engaged in the broader movement for racial justice.”

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Click here for more Heather.

For a small fee we can issue self-study certificates for listening to podcasts.