By: Lindsay Hayes, Program Assistant Mentor, Pembina Hills School Division I love my job, but this week was hard. Really hard. Like so many people around me, the load is feeling heavy. We have a lot going on right now in our professional and personal lives with budget cuts, job [...]
As many people know, I'm a strong advocate for play-based learning. Real, authentic, student-driven and led play. Free play. I've called this play many things over the years, including "free exploration time" and "work time" -- for play is a child's work -- but this year, my teaching partner, Paula, and I switched to [...]
This is my 19th year of teaching. I've taught at 8 schools in our Board, and worked with hundreds of students. But sometimes, no matter what previous experiences you may have had, a child's comment stops you. It makes you think differently. This is one of those times. Yesterday, our school [...]
Recently, I shared my Self-Reg journey on The MEHRIT Centre Website. As I mentioned in my profile here, I now find myself seeing everything through a Self-Reg lens. I was reminded of this recently, as I worked with the other Summer Curriculum and Site Support teacher to get things ready [...]
Yesterday started as my day often does, beginning to get materials organized for the week and setting up the classroom space prior to the start of Before Care. Soon after I started though, I noticed that some of our butterflies emerged. On Friday, we had two butterflies, but today, we [...]
As a child, I loved worms. I remember collecting them off my driveway after a good rain, and digging for them in the mud at other times during the year. There was something so wonderful about holding that wiggling worm on your hand and watching it transform into shapes, letters, [...]
As a Kindergarten teacher, I understand the value of dramatic play. I know that students communicate much of their thinking and learning in this way. There are so many opportunities for oral language, including the development of new vocabulary, as part of dramatic play. But the truth is, I rarely like [...]
The Self-Reg educator or parent seeks to understand, rather than manage a child’s behaviour. In effect, what is being reframed here is what it means to see the Kindergarten teacher as a professional and not a glorified baby-sitter: someone who has been trained to ask the right kind of “Why” and has [...]
Kindergarten marks a major transition in children’s lives: from being coddled infants to being treated as responsible individuals. They are students now, and as such they have to meet certain expectations, as noted in an article published on education.com: “He can follow the lead of a teacher and will honor [...]
By: Alison Cass Ronald,* age five, is an empathetic and hard working child. His parents have taught him love, kindness and compassion. Each day he works harder than most children in my kindergarten class. Ronald comes to school with a smile on his face—and one of heaviest backpacks in our [...]