Last weekend I attended the annual conference of the NS Childcare Association, both as an educator and a trade show participant.
The keynote speaker on Saturday morning, Anne Marie Coughlin, is the Educational Director at London Bridge Child Care Services in London, Ontario, Canada. She spoke about the many different gifts we bring as educators, and to make sure we value those, not try to fit ourselves into some stereotype of what an education ‘should’ look like. She also emphasized the importance of language when working with children, to make sure we are not de-valuing their learning or skills or autonomy by assigning labels like ‘cute’ when in fact so much of what child do and say and learn every day is more like ‘awesome’!
The break-out sessions focused on topics like looking ourselves, knowing who we are as educators, and providing information about the new NS Early Learning Framework that is being developed and piloted in many centres across the province.
It was an excellent event and I met many new people in the field. My trade show booth had plenty of visitors, and I have lots of follow-up to do in booking visits for the upcoming summer. If you are planning to book, do it soon! 🙂
T K Adventure Play 