For Your Binder

This link will bring you to a Master's Thesis from a Bank Street student. In it she explores (the lack of) play as a social justice issue. "Helping low income kids" often gets translated into "eliminating play" and we know this flies smack in the face of what the research (which she does a fantastic job reviewing!) tells us should be happening for all children regardless of socio-economic status. The paper is informative; her references are invaluable.  #DAP #play #equity #teaching #learning

Play and exploration requires enormous amounts of unscheduled time - time to do whatever one wants to do, without pressure, judgment, or intrusion from authority figures.  #play #teaching #learning #mixedages

In a nutshell - nope. Read it anyway and get the details! #DAP #teaching #learning #reading #play

In this brief update from Boston College, guest editor Peter Gray gives an overview of the articles appearing in the August 2011 issue of The American Journal of Play in which he had a few pieces. #play #teaching #learning #parenting

It's hard for some to think that working with littles is just as complex as working with olders because historically we have implied that anyone can do it.  #teaching #learning #care #relationships

When it feels like common sense and everyone should just "know it" (but they don't) it can be affirming to read about why it feels that way.  Bottom-up behaviors are instinctual and unintentional. Top-down ones are deliberate and intentional. There is a difference. And how we approach them needs to be differentiated as well! #teaching #learning #relationships #specialed #expulsion #environment

Enough with the false dichotomies already!!!!  Child-centered doesn’t mean the kids run the show and warm & caring early childhood settings are not the opposite of intellectual ones.  #DAP #play #learning #teaching 

This article explores resistance to the inclusion of students with disabilities into mainstream classes and the solidification of special education as an institutionalized practice. #DAP #specialed #teaching #learning

This articled appeared in The Medicine Hat News (Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada) when I was up there doing a presentation. More fuel for your #play fire!! #DAP #teaching #learning 

We need to change the language of the early childhood narrative; we have drained education of it's ability to invoke wonder and passion and have left behind lifeless clichés such as:  investment... outcomes... returns... assessment... quality... #DAP #teaching #learning #DAP

You do not need to live in down under to benefit from the tips on how to build a more diverse story book collection that are shared in this article by Australian author Helen Joanne Adam. BONUS!  This is one of those great resources where the links within the link will all be beneficial for you and your exploration of this topic! #equity #books #stories #teaching #learning

Mixed-age classrooms might also have the benefit of muddying age-based comparisons and competition between children.  #mixedages #teaching #learning #parenting #DAP