For Your Binder

New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever younger ages, may backfire! #play #teaching #learning #pushdown

Our feet were healthier before we started wearing shoes!  #play #risk #outside #movement

This study attempts to explain the underlying processes that contribute to the well-documented racial disparities in school readiness, educational achievement and in later life opportunity. #teaching #learning #equity #implicitbias #expulsion

This is a bit lengthy and quite dated.  Of Note: there is no publication date provided, but it references stats from the 1990s so while I wouldn't advise quoting the numbers, the general overarching premise is timely: the wildest colts make the best horses.  Are we medicating to truly assist? Or to increase compliance within a broken system?  #teaching #learning #DAP #movement

In this Not Just Cute blog post, author Amanda Morgan taps into the house metaphor I use in my PLAY book and uses true-to-life language (they were building a home at the time) that invokes both literal and figurative images of the importance of a strong foundation! #play #DAP #teaching #learning #parenting 

At the heart of this zero-sum game are assumptions that rigorous content requires work, while play is frivolous. #teaching #learning #DAP #play

While the journal ceased publication in 2020, they continue to provide their articles as an archived resource and in the summer of 2020 Louise Parks, then editor of the Texas Child Care Quarterly, shared a review of my book Lisa Murphy on...  Being Child Centered with my editor at Redleaf Press, as well as some humbling words for which I will be forever grateful:

I’m delighted that we were able to include a review of On being Child Centered by Lisa Murphy. I’ll confess to laughing out loud (and shedding not a few tears) as I read Ms. Murphy’s wise and witty words, and longing for my days back in the classroom with eager, curious, and energetic three-year-olds. In a spectacular amalgam of Lilian Katz and Vivian Paley (my ECE heroes) Murphy calls educators to task (Katz) with anecdotes and examples (Paley) that are accessible, meaningful, and empowering of both adults and the children in their care. Can you tell this is one of my all-time favorites?!

#play #teaching #learning #inthenews 

This is an impressive overview of the research collected for the Minnesota Children's Museum in 2012. Not surprisingly, White's closing comment implies that while play is under siege, we must not forget that it is play that sets the stage for a strong foundation. #play #teaching #learning #DAP #theorists

Allophilia refers to an individual's feelings of affection, engagement, kinship, comfort and enthusiasm towards members of a group seen as "different" and "other".  In this article, the author provides five ways to promote allophilia in the classroom. #inclusion #equity #teaching #learning

This essay questions the current dominant discourses in early childhood and offers alternative narratives, perspectives and debates.  #teaching 

Here is the full text of the essay Tolkein presented (in an abbreviated form) in 1938 at St. Andrews, Scotland.  A couple of my favorite quotes: "If fairy story as a kind is worth reading at all it is worthy to be written for and ready by adults."  And, "It may be better for them (children) to read some things, especially fairy stories, that are beyond their measure rather than short of it. Their books like their clothes should allow for growth, and their books at any rate should encourage it." #books #stories #fairytales #reading 

Even juries get recess!!!!!  #recess #movement #play #DAP #outside #teaching #learning