The Curious Educator Conversations

I’m joined by Shane Woodrow, an Australian primary educator and master’s student in educational leadership, who has spent 2026 travelling with his partner and 11-year-old son to immerse himself in learning communities around the world. From the Real World School in Costa Rica to Kapila Valley School in Nepal, a summer in British Columbia, and a learning ecosystem in South Africa, Shane has been exploring one big question: why is there so often a gap between what schools say they value and what children actually experience?

Together we explore:

• What school is really for, and why excellence can be such a narrow measure
• Play, fun, and joy as a purpose of education at every age
• What Shane is learning from First Nations ways of knowing, relationality, and Ubuntu: I am because we are
• Leadership as the person who sets the weather for curiosity and bravery
• Moral injury, burnout, and the power of language to name what’s really going on
• Why childhood is not a monoculture, and what adults need to unlearn to see children more clearly

This conversation is an invitation to slow down, stay curious, and let our thinking emerge.

Follow Shane’s journey on Instagram at @thischolexists

Substack: https://l1nq.com/t4fjaht

What happens when an educator decides to build the program she couldn’t find anywhere else?

In this episode, I sit down with Veronica Kelly, owner and teacher at Tiger Lily Preschool in Seattle, Washington. We first met as camp counselors at Renegade Play and instantly knew we were kindred spirits. Veronica opened her one-classroom school with zero business experience and nearly ten years later, she’s still leading with curiosity, intention, and a whole lot of heart.

We talk about:

• The mentor who changed everything, and why the best mentorship sometimes comes with tension
• Seeing sensitivity as a superpower in this work
• Parallel practice: offering educators the same safety, trust, and belonging we offer children
• How Tiger Lily transitioned to play-based learning over a full school year, and how she brought families along through small, accessible bites of information
• Responding to developmental checklists by making children’s learning visible through play
• Hiring for shared values and why that matters for retention
• Letting go of the cringe when we look back at our earlier teaching selves
• Embracing the mess (and the mud!) of outdoor play

This conversation is a gentle reminder that you are capable, that hard things are hard, and that our growth as educators is a journey, not a destination.

https://www.instagram.com/tigerlilypreschool/

https://www.instagram.com/veronicakellyece/

https://www.tigerlilyschool.com/

In this episode of The Curious Educator Conversations, I sit down with Sam Silby, pedagogista for ELC International Schools in Bangkok, Thailand and founder of Atelier Anthologies.

Sam began her teaching career in a progressive public school in New Zealand, where her principal refused to adopt standardized testing. A honeymoon through Southeast Asia led her to Bangkok, where she has spent more than a decade in a deeply Reggio Emilia inspired community, working alongside Giovanni Piazza.

Together, we explore:

• Pedagogical documentation as a way for children to feel seen, heard, and taken seriously as thinkers
• A story from Reggio Emilia that moved a whole room to tears
• How documentation and slowness can live together
• Finding ways to wiggle between the gaps when curriculum and assessment ask for something different
• What a pedagogista actually does, and why it all comes back to paying attention
• Beauty as a right, not a reward
• Why play and curiosity aren’t just OK for adults, they’re necessary

Sam also shares a book recommendation and leaves a question for our next guest: What do we as adults need to unlearn so that we can see children more clearly and more authentically?

Connect with Sam:
DOWNLOAD HER FREE GUIDE:

atelier anthologies mini guide : noticing possibility in everyday things

Instagram: @atelier.anthologies
LinkedIn: Sam Silby

Mentioned in this episode:
Children, Art, Artists: The Expressive Languages of Children, the Artistic Language of Alberto Burri (Reggio Children)

This week on The Curious Educator Conversations, I'm joined by Jennifer Johnson, an RECE and Certified Forest and Nature School Practitioner living on Vancouver Island. Jen is a Strong Start Facilitator with the Comox Valley School District and the founder of Rooted in Belonging Early Learning Consulting.

Jen took a long, winding road into early childhood education. Along the way she worked in nursing, banking, home child care and as an education assistant, and she moved across Canada as a military spouse. In this conversation, she shares how Forest School changed her practice. She stopped trying to "fill children up" and started trusting that they arrive with every gift they need.

We talk about:

• Moral injury and burnout, and what it means when your values don't match your daily work
• Why ratios, funding and fair pay for educators shape the quality of children's experiences
• Community, belonging and Indigenous perspectives on raising children
• Holding on to hope through play and time outdoors

Connect with Jen at Rooted in Belonging:

Instagram: @rootedinbelongingelc

Website: https://www.rootedcomoxvalley.com/

Grab your coffee, get cozy, and join us.

In this episode of The Curious Educator Conversations, Jessica sits down with Krysta, Early Years Coordinator and Pedagogical Team Lead at Brass Bell Family Resource Centre, an EarlyON program serving seven communities across the North Shore. Nearly a year into her pedagogical leadership journey, Krysta shares what it looks like to take on this role in a rural context, where some of the educators she supports are 250 kilometres away.

Together they explore how Krysta stays connected to her team's thinking through deepening documentation have strengthened family engagement, and how she separates coordinator conversations from pedagogical ones in a sector that is so often compliance driven. Krysta speaks to the power of slowing down, noticing what matters and why, and making children's learning visible to educators, families, and funders alike. She also names the importance of a DSSAB that values pedagogical practice, and the parallel practice at the heart of this work: every pedagogical leader needs a pedagogical leader.

This conversation is an invitation for EarlyON communities, and anyone wondering where to begin, to see barriers as possibilities and to take that first step.

Disclaimer

A note for listeners: EarlyON Child and Family Centres operate differently from licensed child care programs. EarlyON is a free, drop-in, play-based program where parents and caregivers stay and participate alongside their children (ages 0 to 6), so there are no traditional educator-to-child ratios. This context shapes how pedagogical leadership, scheduling, and educator time can look in these settings. We invite you to think with the ideas shared here and consider how they might translate to your own context.

Krysta's message on what would I say to the TBDSSAB for seeing the value of Pedagogical Leadership in her role at Brass Bell Family Resource Centre/EarlyON?

 “Thank you for continuing to invest in pedagogical practices and truly believing and advocating for this work. Because when we invest in educators capacity to slow down, observe, reflect on what they are noticing in their programs, document and wonder alongside families, we strengthen the quality of the entire program. Pedagogical documentation brings visibility for everyone to see the learning that is already happening through play and inquiry. When educators are given the time, mentorship and support to do this work it creates a culture of continuous learning within our EarlyON programs.”

In this episode of The Curious Educator Conversations, Jessica sits down with Jamie Wagler, RECE, Ontario certified teacher, professor, and founder of Miss Jamie Consulting, to talk about a corner of early childhood education that rarely gets the spotlight: school-age and before and after school programs.

Jamie shares over 15 years of experience working with school-agers, and why she believes their sarcasm, pushback, and big opinions are not a problem to manage but a strength to nurture. She and Jessica dig into what it really means to give children the benefit of the doubt, how to read behavior as communication rather than defiance, and how small moments of trust (like tearing apart an old engine or planning a make-believe trip to Brazil) can turn into rich, emergent learning.

They also talk honestly about the tension that can show up between educators and teachers sharing a classroom, and how communication and grace can change those dynamics completely.

Whether you work with toddlers or teenagers, this conversation is a reminder that belonging, patience, and curiosity matter at every age.

In this episode:

• Why school-age children deserve the same play-based approach as younger children
• How to reframe "misbehavior" as communication
• Building trust and belonging with older children
• Navigating tension between educators and classroom teachers
• Jamie's advice for staying inspired after 15+ years in the field

Connect with Jamie:

@missjamie_RECE

missjamieconsulting.com

Podcast: The Forgotten ECE

This week on the Curious Educator Conversations, Jessica sits down with Victoria Armstrong, owner of Side-by-Side Consulting Services and published author with 20 years of experience across the early learning field. Victoria shares how supporting a children's art initiative that brought professional artists into early learning classrooms became the guiding force of her career.

Together they explore what it means to truly live your image of the child, why the materials we offer say more about our beliefs than we might realize, and how choosing fewer, more complex materials can invite deeper thinking and expression. Victoria offers a practical challenge for educators to look closely at their art materials and consider what possibilities they really hold.

The conversation closes with a reflection on imagination, its power to help us reimagine beyond the dominant narrative in ECE, and a new question passed on for the next guest.

Connect with Victoria at sbsconsulting.ca.

In this episode, I sit down with Cathy Belgrave, founder of The Intentional Educator, for a conversation that moves from the roots of play-based pedagogy all the way to what it means to lead with generosity instead of judgment.

We talk about what intentionality actually means when we set it beside play, and why so many educators have been taught to see the two as opposites. Cathy shares her journey from elementary education into early learning, her work with Suzanne Axelsson's concept of collective autonomy, and how that same lens applies just as powerfully in kindergarten as it does with children in grades four and five.

From there, the conversation opens into something deeper: what it takes to stay grounded as an educator, why collaboration is so often mistaken for cooperation, and how Cathy's generosity lens can change the way we show up for children and for each other. We also talk about educator agency in colonized systems, the courage it takes to sit with a different perspective.

In this episode:

• Redefining the relationship between play and intentionality
• Collective autonomy and educator agency across the early years
• The generosity lens: choosing curiosity over judgment
• Collaboration versus cooperation, and why the distinction matters
• Staying grounded and replenished in this work

Connect with Cathy Belgrave for Workshops & Coaching:
Instagram: @theintentionaleducator_yvr
Website: theintentionaleducator.ca

In this episode, I sit down with Heather Jackson, founder of Sunflower Studio and The Sunflower School, to talk about her 40-year journey in early childhood education and what it really means to bring Reggio-inspired practice into a licensed setting.

Heather shares how she discovered Reggio Emilia in the late 90s, what she learned from her study tours to Italy, and why she believes "Reggio-inspired" was never meant to be a copy of another country's context, but an invitation to build your own. We dig into play schemas versus interest-based planning, how she mentors new educators through the discomfort of letting go of worksheets and rigid weekly plans, and the myth that licensing and creative, risky play can't coexist.

We also talk about moral injury as a lens for understanding burnout in this field, the power of asking educators what they want to learn, and why supporting educator voice has to start with leadership.

What we cover:

• Discovering Reggio Emilia before the internet made it easy
• Why "Reggio-inspired" means your context, not Italy's
• Letting go of worksheets, theme weeks, and rigid planning
• What licensing actually requires (and what it doesn't)
• Moral injury as a different way to understand burnout
• This episode's closing question: how do you support the voice of the educator?

Find Heather on Instagram at @the_sunflower_studio and @thesunflowerschool, and check out her podcast, Actions of Play, on Apple and Spotify.

https://thesunflowerschool.ca/

With 20 years of experience in ECE, Carla inspires educators to embrace curiosity, joy, and intentional practice. She's the host of the Everything ECE podcast and the ECE to CEO podcast, and the founder of the ECE Experience, the ECE Podcast Academy, and the Yes Spaces Framework.

In this conversation we dig into what it actually looks like to lead with intention in this field, from environments as the third teacher, to the not so glamorous truth about almost quitting the classroom altogether. Carla walks us through how she moved from a theme based, tightly controlled room to one built around trust, and why the real work of a yes space starts with holding up a mirror to our own behaviour before we ever touch the shelves.

We talk about the difference between children needing to hear no and adults defaulting to no, why conflict in the classroom isn't something to fear, how childhood conditioning shows up in our programs without us realizing it, and practical first steps for anyone who wants to bring this mindset to their own space, even if their team isn't there yet.

Grab your coffee, get cozy, and get ready to feel inspired, ignited, and ready to take on a yes world.

🔗 Learn more from Carla and explore her work at www.carlatheece.com
🔗 The YES Framework FREEBIE: 7 Beliefs that Change Everything

https://early-learning-foundations.kit.com/43262653a3