In classrooms where children's voices are valued, young readers and writers possess power. Their ability to exert this power through literacy is especially evident in classrooms where children, who are traditionally marginalized, can use their voices to be change agents. In this third volume of Perspectives and Provocations in Early Childhood Education, the authors' stories explore students' agentive power to change themselves, their teachers, school administrators, and the world.

In Creating a Reggio-Inspired STEM Environment for Young Children, the newest addition in the Redleaf Press Quick Guide series, award-winning educator Vicki Carper Bartolini offers practical suggestions and resources for rethinking your early learning environment with a focus on STEM, using the Reggio Emilia approach lens honoring a student-centered, self-guided curriculum based on principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and play. Creating a Reggio-Inspired STEM Environment for Young Children will inspire teachers and give them steps that they can take tomorrow after reading the book. Includes snapshot case studies of three programs that have brought their STEM environments to life.

Understand early childhood as a unique culture to improve the quality of care provided to children. View the culture of childhood through a whole new lens. Identify age-based bias and expand your outlook on and understanding of early childhood as a culture. Examine various elements of childhood culture: language, belief economics, arts, and social structure to understand children's dispositions of questioning, engagement, and cooperation.

Early Childhood Studies: Enhancing Employability and Professional Practice explores essential aspects of best practice within children's services in order to enhance employability skills, identifying how and why key aspects of best practice have emerged within children's services. The key elements of professional practice at the centre of the multidisciplinary work in today's children's services are considered, including: * different childhoods; * child development; * enhanced learning; * professional skills; * inclusion; * holistic practice. Each chapter draws together practical teaching experience with sound academic analysis to support those training to work in the early childhood sector, and those already practising, to raise their employability potential by identifying and evaluating best practice.

Based on the popular Patterns of Power invitational approach to grammar instruction, Patterns of Wonder sets the stage for introducing PreK-1 emergent writers to the power of language and writing. It's no secret that emergent writers thrive in classrooms filled with inquiry, play, and wonder, but how can we invite our youngest writers into the conventions of language, engage them in authentic writing experiences, and capitalize on their natural curiosity around what writers do? Building on the same playful qualities of the invitational process introduced in their bestselling Patterns of Power series, Whitney La Rocca and Jeff Anderson turn their instructional lens to our youngest writers, sharing new ways we can invite them to experiment, have fun, and take risks with writing and language.In this valuable resource, Whitney and Jeff: Introduce the Patterns of Wonder Phases of Emergent Writing as a way to reflect on the work young writers are doing and plan for effective, scaffolded instruction. Outline an adjusted invitational process, adapted especially for use with emergent writers. Position grammar and concepts about print instruction across three overlapping levels of support: oral language, illustrating, and writing. Include over 50 sample lessons that pinpoint and build cumulatively across the most common needs of emergent writers. Feature over 200 engaging picture book recommendations to stir curious classroom conversations. Grounded in play, conversation, and most of all, wonder, Patterns of Wonder brings Whitney and Jeff's irrepressible excitement for inquiry and writing instruction to the ways we support our Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grade emergent writers.

Around the world, school districts and institutions are exploring ways to provide quality education to their students. With this, there is a deeper need for multiculturalism in classrooms, as many students are from varying cultures and speak different languages. Early Childhood Education From an Intercultural and Bilingual Perspective provides emerging research on the use of play, toys, and games as tools for meaningful multicultural and bilingual education. By highlighting topics such as cross-cultural psychology, classroom management, and second language acquisition, this publication explores the importance of culture in games and play. This book is an important resource for educators, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the role of intercultural education in society and modern approaches to early education.

The Standards for Mathematical Practice are written in clear, concise language. Even so, to interpret them and visualize what they mean for your teaching practice isn't always easy. In this practical, easy-to-read book, Mike Flynn provides teachers with a clear and deep sense of these standards and shares ideas on how best to implement them in K-2 classrooms. Each chapter is dedicated to a different practice. Using examples from his own teaching and vignettes from many other K-2 teachers, Mike does the following: Invites you to break the cycle of teaching math procedurally Demonstrates what it means for children to understand-not just do-math Explores what it looks like when young children embrace the important behaviors espoused by the practices The book's extensive collection of stories from K-2 classroom provides readers with glimpses of classroom dialogue, teacher reflections, and examples of student work. Focus questions at the beginning of each vignette help you analyze the examples and encourage further reflection. Beyond Answers is a wonderful resource that can be used by individual teachers, study groups, professional development staff, and in math methods courses.

A step by step guide with form drawing exercises for the four temperaments, which have a harmonising, transformative and strengthening effect on child development. Creative form drawing helps children develop hand to eye co-ordination, spatial orientation, observation skills, attention, confident movement, drawing skills and the foundation skills for handwriting. Originally developed by Rudolf Steiner, creative form drawing is used widely in Steiner and Waldorf Schools to enable healthy child development and learning. This books covers the why, what and how of creative form drawing, for balancing and deepening the four temperaments. Contents Understanding and identifying the temperaments. The purpose and benefits for children. How and why do specific form drawing exercises work? The human constitution. Overview and descriptions of the four temperaments. Form Drawing exercises, lessons and teaching methods. Clearly defined age related forms for each temperament. Over 500 colourful forms for drawing.

A male educator explores the joys of working with children in this inspirational account.

Manuel Kichi Wong shares his personal journal entries that consider the challenges and obstacles of being a male educator in a field dominated by women. Whether it's cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, dealing with parents, or interacting with children, he does whatever it takes to get the job done.

Find out what it really means to pursue a career as an early-childhood educator. Wong discusses ways to

-apply different methods to help children learn;- work with children in various settings, including at school and at home;-balance the demands of your job and personal life; and-communicate better with parents and fellow teachers.

He also provides candid stories about the questions a man fields when he is an early-childhood teacher. Life in this profession isn't easy, but the joys of giving and of working and being with children make it all worthwhile.