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

In this episode of The Curious Educator Conversations, Jessica sits down with Stephanie Seidler, Director of Curriculum at WE Schoolhouse in Brooklyn, to unpack what it really means to advocate for play in early childhood education. Stephanie shares why play is so often misunderstood, both by parents and educators, and how our culture's obsession with measurable, product-driven learning pushes worksheets and drills ahead of the sensory, movement-based experiences children's brains actually need to develop.

The conversation moves through the adult work behind protecting play: releasing control, tolerating unpredictability, and reconnecting with a sense of playfulness so children can be met rather than managed. Jessica and Stephanie compare notes across the Canada-US divide on how policy, funding conversations, and inconsistent training pull educators away from developmentally appropriate practice, and reflect on the deeper question underneath it all: what is early childhood education actually for? They close on the idea of childhood as a foundation, one that gets wired into the nervous system long before children can consciously remember it, making the case for why the early years deserve far more reverence than they currently receive.

Stephanie Seidler has spent the last 20+ years working in early childhood education, supporting educators, developing curriculum, and translating child development research into practical, everyday strategies for teachers and families. Her work is rooted in the belief that children don't need us to rush them—they need us to understand them. I'm passionate about play, relationships, movement, outdoor experiences, and creating childhoods that honour how children naturally learn and grow. Outside of work, you'll usually find Stephanie with a coffee in hand, hiking, strength training, writing children's books, or exploring the outdoors with her daughter.

Follow Stephanie here:

https://www.instagram.com/weskoolhouse/

https://www.weskoolhouse.com/

Fifteen years of ECE classrooms, staff rooms and ten o'clock phone calls taught me something about this work: we are all holding pieces of the same beautiful, enormous tapestry, and hardly ever setting them down next to each other to see the whole shape. The Curious Educator Conversations is where we set them down and pay attention, together.

Each week I sit across from someone in ECE; thought leaders, directors, forest school practitioners, educators, and we talk our way toward something meaningful. Not the polished version. The real one, doubt and wonder still attached. Some weeks it's just me, thinking out loud about what these conversations left rattling around in me.

I bring Reggio Emilia, Forest School pedagogy, Pedagogical Leadership, and a stubborn belief that children and educators alike deserve to be trusted with their own capability. This isn't a highlight reel of expertise. It's a working conversation, unfinished on purpose, because that's what pedagogy actually is. If you work with children and refuse to stop asking questions about how that work should feel, this is your room. Come sit with us for a while.

Join The Curious Educator Collective Membership

Cohort 1 is open now and closes August 17th.

If anything in this episode has been sitting with you, the conversation, the curiosity, the feeling of finally being in a room with people who understand exactly what you're carrying, this is where that room lives the rest of the year. Inside: a full twelve month journey through slow pedagogy, documentation, environment design, team culture, and professional learning that respects the depth of this work. Over 30 hours of PD, a Certificate of Engagement, and a community of educators as curious as you are.

Founding members get in at the ground floor of something we're building together. This cohort closes August 17th, and I'd love to have you in the room.

⁠Join Cohort 1 before August 17th →⁠

Gratitude

A heartfelt thank you to Louise Kool & Galt for so generously opening their doors and giving us the space to film some of our podcast episodes. It means something special to start this podcast surrounded by people and a place that understands exactly why this work matters.

⁠Louise Kool & Galt →⁠

Carla,

I don't think you know the size of what you handed me. Somewhere in the middle of you cheering this idea on before I fully did, and refusing to let me shrink it back down to something safer, you handed me back myself. The version of me that started this work fifteen years ago, before I got so busy holding everyone else's confidence that I forgot to keep any for myself. You reminded me who the bleep I am. Not the polished version. The real one, who has something to say that matters. This podcast exists because you kept nudging it out of my head and into the world. Thank you for the mentorship. Thank you for the support. Thank you, mostly, for the reminder.

Rob,

There is no version of this podcast, or of me, that exists without you standing quietly beside it. You've watched me pace the house talking through ideas at eleven at night. You've listened to me present 1000s of TedTalks that no one else has listened to about how misunderstood childhood and ECE is. You never once made me feel like too much, even on the nights I absolutely was.

Fifteen years building this work, and you are the only person who has been there for every version of me while I built it. The uncertain version. The exhausted version. The one who doubted whether any of what I cared about would make a difference. You held all of them the same way, patient and certain, like it was never even a question.

I see everything you carry so I have room to carry this. I see the way you show up for our life together without needing to be thanked for it. Thank you for being my person. I love you more than I know how to put into words, and I'm endlessly grateful that whatever I'm building, I get to come home to you.

Always yours,
Jessica