Welcome to today's ECE Power Hour, where early childhood educators come together to reflect
and learn and shape the future of education.
I'm Erica Sikoccio, the moderator for today's event, and we are going to have a conversation
that's long overdue.
One that centers on us, the educators.
Over the past year, we have faced so many challenges, adapted to new realities and done
our best to support children and families.
But today, we're taking a moment to focus on how we can better support ourselves as educators
and each other.
In today's roundtable, we are exploring self-care, leadership, collaboration, advocacy, and
mentorship, and why these are essential to our personal and professional growth.
We'll also dive into the importance of play, not just for children, but for us educators
too.
How often do we take time to laugh and play and engage in activities that spark our own
creativity and passion for teaching?
This isn't just about making it through the day.
It's about fueling ourselves so we can continue to inspire and nurture the children in our
care.
Today, we are joined by a group of passionate educators, podcasters, and some of which I
am so grateful to call my friends.
Bringing together their own unique perspectives to the table.
We'll reflect on the lessons that we've learned over the past year and talk about how we can
use these insights to guide our focus for the year ahead.
And along the way, we'll talk about some important things.
And so, I'm going to give everybody, without further ado, a chance on the mic.
We'll just go right down.
We'll start with Jamie.
Introduce yourself and tell us about your podcast.
Just a short little synapsis about yourself.
Of course, this is so exciting.
Thank you for organizing this.
I'm Jamie Wagler.
I'm from Stratford, Ontario, and I host the Forgotten ECE Podcast, which is all about
before and after school educators and that group that kind of gets forgotten.
Suzy?
Hello, everyone.
My name is Suzy Beguine.
I am an educator, daycare owner, and I'm also the host of the ECE Classroom.
And I do a lot of other things too, but there's a long laundry list.
Kayla, you're next.
Unmuting myself might be a good idea.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Kayla Papalia.
I am from ECE Honestly, a podcast all about talking about some of the truths that we may
not want to hear when it comes to the world of early childhood education.
I am from Port Moody, British Columbia.
I am also the owner and operator of an in-home multi-age childcare here in Port Moody.
And I've been in this field probably 11, 12 years now.
And I like pot stirring.
That's what you need to know about me.
You're gonna bring the spice to the show.
I apologize.
Of course, girl, you know it.
And I'm Latina, so yeah.
I hope I don't pronounce your name wrong.
Is it Aveda?
I didn't see your name on.
I thought.
It's a very good name.
I'm Latina.
Most people can't.
So I don't really take it personally.
I'm Aveda.
I'm from the Shaping Little Minds podcast.
I give teachers basically implementable tips and tricks to bring into their classroom if
they need it.
My podcast is actually bite sized information.
So like eight to 10 minutes, as long as I don't have a guest.
So that teachers can really listen to it on the go.
And I am from New Jersey.
I teach full time.
I went back after three years and also mentor teachers as well.
Melissa, you're next.
So I'm Melissa.
I'm a New York City public school pre-K teacher and I host pre-K Spot Talks.
And I am all about spreading the play-based love.
Yes, love that.
Hello, my name is Carla Ward.
I'm the host of the Everything EC podcast, which is literally about everything to do
with early childhood education.
I am from Mississauga, Ontario, just outside of Toronto.
And I have an education business from consulting to running courses to the podcast.
Next we have Kate.
I am part one of Child Care Conversations with Kate and Kerry.
We are based out of Texas.
We have been in the industry each over 30 years.
Started out as an in-home program, multi-site program, and we have been training directors
across the country for the last 23 years.
And we're on year five of the podcast.
So we are so excited to join y'all and you Canadians are awfully close and dear to my
heart since I am an unofficial dual citizen.
One of these days I'll make that happen for real, but that's where my father grew up
and he didn't become a US citizen until I was like 18 or 19 because he wanted to drive
a bigger boat.
But that's a whole other podcast.
So with that, I'm going to flip it over to my other half or my business partner or also
my cousin.
Well, I don't think she left anything for me to say, which yeah, we support directors
and owners because there are so many people helping all of the teachers like most of you
guys that sometimes the directors get forgotten and the directors have to be there to support
the teachers.
And so somebody needs to fill up their cup.
So next we have Marcy.
Hi, I'm Marcy Nicole from founder of I am inspired to educate.
I am also the host of the inspiring ECE podcast where I talk about all things inspiring, motivating
and empowering educators to thrive throughout their profession, as well as a huge advocate
for educator wellness and wellbeing.
For those of you who don't know me, I am Erica Sokoschel, the host of the childcare directors
chair podcast.
I am a coach, I am a multi location owner, and I like Kate and Carrie am all about feeding
my administrators love and support that they need.
So we all have so many great perspectives that we're so excited to share with you today.
So I let's start with right because I really want to focus on the folks right now in the
field, right?
So I'm going to throw this question over to my friend Marcy in the corner here.
How do you prioritize self care in a profession that asks so much of us every day?
One thing I want educators to know and to do right away is stop feeling guilty about
it.
Your self care is important.
We need to remove the stigma of guilt around it.
We're always filling pouring from an empty cup.
We can't do that.
So stop taking the guilt on.
You need to take care of you.
So number one, let go of the guilt.
Number two, do what brings you joy.
We always do so much for everyone else.
What about us?
I know my friend Carla loves to read a book.
I not so much.
Audio books now are my love language because I can do it on the go.
So find out what brings you absolutely joy and do that.
The smallest things like even finishing that cup of coffee that's actually hot that you
didn't have to warm up 20 times for the day, that's a win.
So celebrate the little things and really find out what brings you happiness.
That's my piece.
Love it.
Anyone you want to add?
Jamie.
I was just going to add that's awesome.
But I was just going to add like setting boundaries, which is huge for me because I am not great
at it.
So setting boundaries to protect your time and your home time, not blurring those lines.
And then also being a part of a supportive community like this and being able to like,
it's not just about rest.
It's about fueling your passion that drives you to make a difference for the lives of
the children and like these things that we're doing and these round tables.
It's a huge way to do that.
I love it.
Yeah, Melissa.
Go ahead.
I wanted to say something really similar to Jamie, especially like public school teachers.
I'm lucky enough to have a union and a contract and holding those boundaries that your contract
allows you.
We're helping newer teachers understand that protecting your prep time, we're allowed 50
minutes of prep time.
That's how I make sure I get my work done so I don't have to bring it home and making
sure and nobody's allowed to tell me what to do with that prep time except for myself
and making sure I'm doing things like protecting that prep time and helping myself and other
newer teachers understand that making a fuss about that is not making a fuss.
It's protecting that contracted time and understanding that that's okay.
You're allowed to ask for that.
Yeah.
Suzy, I know you wanted to add to that.
Absolutely.
I just did a workshop with a group of educators about educator burnout.
The definition of burnout is consistent stress that is not managed.
I think we forget about ourselves when we don't manage our stress on a daily basis.
We just let it accumulate, accumulate, accumulate until it gets to a point of burnout.
I think we just have to be aware of ourselves and this applies to all of us here in this
room.
This happens to me.
This past week, I was just feeling myself burning out because I was just under a lot
of stress that was continuous one thing after another.
You just need to be aware of yourself.
As Marcia said, just not be afraid to look at yourself and go, okay, I need a break right
now.
I need to just do something just for me, something that I like to do and not feel guilty about
it and not worry about the 10 million other things you have to do on your to-do list.
Just focus on yourself, get yourself back to a little bit of equilibrium and then you're
ready to deal with the next stress.
Not just let them accumulate because that's what's going to eventually burn you out.
Yeah.
Go ahead, Carrie.
I was raising the roof, but yes, I had something to think about it too, which is we talk a
lot in early childhood education and early education in general, whether out of school
time or in our programs, about helping the kids regulate their emotion.
We use the term co-regulate.
Well, for us to co-regulate, we have to be regulated.
Teaching the kids how to take deep breaths and count backwards from seven and things
like that, for them to co-regulate, you have to be able to handle your emotions.
If we're not sleeping, if we're not eating, if we're not coming to work when we're feeling
like we've got a cold coming on, every time that kid does that one thing in your room
or in your program that drives you bananas, you're going to lose it.
You're going to snap at a kid, you're going to say something you shouldn't have said
to a coworker, to an employee.
Us doing some self-care might be as simple as what we teach the kids to do.
Wash your hands and then put on hand lotion.
Take a deep breath of the fresh air when we walk outside on the playground.
The stuff we teach the kids to do, we have to remind ourselves that we as adults should
be going outside every minute, not every minute, every day in the morning and in the afternoon
so that we're getting some sunshine and some good breath.
I think we need to remember that if it's good for the kids, it's also good for us.
Kate, you wanted to add something?
Erica, can I wrap?
I would love to just add real quick, for those of you who are listening who don't actually
know what this means for you, other than myself because I may not be the only person who's
listening to this going, self-care, I'm not really sure what that means.
When people used to ask me, I'd be like, I like to organize my calendar.
I had four kids at home, so four kids and a spouse and business or two.
That took some planning.
It's not necessarily about getting your nails done or that pedicure or that massage because
there was a time period where that felt like an obligation and there was nothing relaxing
about that.
You might have to start with literally a couple of times a week, find things that make you
laugh or put a big smile on your face.
I loved the coffee example because for the longest time, my 30 minutes a week when I
really had to try to figure out what was self-care for me started literally as a cup of coffee
and playing with my poodle.
It's okay if you aren't really sure what that looks like and you can try the things that
people say are self-care for them, but yours may look very different.
It may be a hike, maybe a swim, it may be playing a board game, it may be playing a
video game on your phone and that's okay.
Okay, sorry, I had trouble unmuting myself.
My big thing when I talk to other teachers especially is giving yourself time to decompress
in whatever way that looks like.
Again, that's I guess another way to say self-care.
This year, something that I've been implementing is just coming home and having 10 minutes
of silence because being in a classroom can be really over-stimulating especially in early
childhood and I don't remember who said it, but someone said about regulating – I think
it was Carrie – who said regulating your emotions, it can be really hard to regulate
your emotions after you've just been overstimulated for a full day as an educator.
For me, my peace and quiet for 10 to 15 minutes after school is done is like the biggest – has
made a big shift in the way I approach the rest of the day.
How long do you want?
Do you have anything you want to add?
I didn't raise that.
There's a couple of things I'd like to say and those are all amazing tips, ladies.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I think for myself when I think of being a leader in my program, it's so often we want
our staff to take care of themselves, but do we always?
Do we come in sick?
Are we there from open to close?
Are we being a good role model?
So often we talk about silly ways that we will reward our teachers by like, oh, we bought
you pizza or we brought you donuts.
So maybe it looks like you stock the refrigerator with different flavored water and tea and
things that will help people be able to take care of themselves while they're at your
center.
I can't tell you how many times I've eaten animal crackers for lunch or haven't packed
a lunch and you're kind of eating on the fly.
So I try to do those things now more than I had in the past.
And so I think that is, again, when you're the leader, you got to lead by example.
And the other thing I think is finding joy in the things like somebody had mentioned
like stroking their dog, their poodle, like that brought, I think it was Kate, brought
our joy, right?
Finding the things that really spark your passion for life.
Not about, not necessarily about education, but for your life.
I think is, is so important to do that.
And it'll be reflective because if you don't ask yourself the question, you may just kind
of breeze over it.
So just really being reflective to you, what really does make me happy?
You know, what, what does decompressing look like for me?
Or what does self care look like for me?
So I think, you know, checking in with yourself and checking in with the folks around you
and being a leader and an example.
So let's go to our next question.
Why is play critical for educators?
And how can we incorporate more of it into our work to stay energized and engaged?
Go ahead, Carla.
She's like, me, me, me.
Oh, I was, I was excited to answer this one.
So first of all, life is way too short to not play.
Like we hear all the time that age is just a number, but when you think about so early
childhood education, it's fun.
It's lively.
We play.
Then somehow the school system.
And if you're in the school system, I'm sorry, it like sucks it out of you.
It just sucks that joy and that innovation, that creativity.
Like it is not designed.
Like I tell people all the time, the school system was not designed for people like me.
I showed up.
I was a good kid.
I did my work.
I got okay grades, but I could not wait to get out of there and do what I was meant to
do.
And so I feel like early childhood education has allowed us to continue to be, I don't
even want to say children, but feel like we actually have life inside of us and there's
joy and you know, what career path honestly and truly wants to know your favorite dinosaur?
Like who goes to work other than ECE and gets to say, well, my favorite dinosaur is a Triceratops.
Right?
Like, hello, like that is so much fun.
And so play is part of that and we can play as adults.
Like for me putting up my Christmas tree this week was play, right?
So play doesn't have to look like playing dinosaurs, but playing is important.
You know, getting your hands dirty, doing your craft, going into nature, right?
Play could also be, you know, having a little fun on your phone, but to me, play is so much
three, it's so three-dimensional, but then also like to make sure that you are playing
at work is look at your space.
What does your space look like?
Does your space represent who you are?
Right?
If you don't like your classroom environment, change it because you have to be there all
day every day.
So how can it be more playful for you?
There you go.
Hi, Kayla.
I just wanted to add to Carla talking about joy and play and I love your dinosaur comment
because I love dinosaurs.
Anybody who knows me knows I love dinosaurs.
So thank you for that.
But I wanted to add to that I think we're also in such a unique position where we get
to see every single day how joy can be found in the smallest things.
Right?
And so feeding off that energy I think is so important.
Like, I'll give you an example.
The other day I had a little guy who was so excited because he found the most beautiful
rock in the forest and it was just the most amazing thing in the world and he had to take
this rock home to show his mommy and daddy just how phenomenal this rock was.
And when you're surrounded by that just that limitless joy, it does something to you where
you're like, oh yeah, there is greatness in the smallest things.
There is, you know, there is beauty in the littlest things.
Right?
And so that is so wonderful to be able to constantly be in the proximity of wonder and
of awe and of seeing the world through little eyes.
And Melissa, I just feel like play is so important for educators because play is important for
children.
So like, why wouldn't we play with our kids?
Right?
So I just I mean, I feel like Carla and Kayla said it so beautifully and we all know that
play is learning.
So when you're playing with your kids, you're all learning together and you just it allows
so much space to feed off of one another and respond to one another and bring all of that
joy that Kayla was just talking about.
Right?
Like, or even just co-regulate like we were talking about before, or even just like be
in each other's sadness.
Just I'm thinking about my my teacher, Bestie, he taught pre-k with me last year and, you
know, he went through a breakup and he was really, really sad the next day in school,
but he knew he had to come to school because it just it actually was better for him to
be at school and he couldn't hold it back and the kids were like so great with him and
he was so he found it was such a profound moment for him because they were taking care
of him and he found so much joy in playing with him that it made him feel better.
And just having those moments of play and joy and response and being together is what
play brought out in everybody and because he was a play educator, it just it just brought
community and peace and just all the words.
I can't even come up with all the words because there were just like so many words that it
brought but it's just it's so important for us as educators to bring in because it's just
so important for children to experience and I just wish it could go beyond ECEs and I
feel like we're all mostly ECEs of the fives and unders and I feel like this needs to speak
to ECEs of the Ks to twos as well.
And because just like Carla said, I'm in the public school system and this is why I fight
so hard for play in the public school system because it does suck the wife out of kids
sometimes as much as I wish it didn't.
So we really need to just bring the play.
It's just it's so important for everybody because it's it's natural, it's authentic,
it's what everybody wants to do.
Yeah, thank you, Melissa.
Hold on, Jamie.
Carrie, go ahead.
I just wanted to say Ankylosaurus is the answer to Carla's question.
Ankylosaurus is my favorite dinosaur.
Also the the quote that comes into my head every time we talk about play is Albert Einstein.
Like I don't know if you've ever heard of him.
He's kind of dumb, but you know, he said that play is the highest form of research.
So if Albert Einstein can play and that's what allowed him to revolutionize the way
we think about the universe, maybe more people should be playing and they should get their
paints out and they should get their blocks out and every adult should be given each other
Legos or paint sets.
Like those are socially acceptable play for adults.
So give it to other adults and make them go out and play and build with Legos or give
them clay.
That's also apparently an adult, you know, socially acceptable play because they're not
nobody's going to give you flack because you started doing pottery, but they will if you
say, yes, I just spent four hours on Fortnite.
Right.
So thinking through how do we help other adults, the parents, the administrators, the teachers,
giving them opportunities for play throughout their life.
Yeah, Jamie.
I'm so excited because this is like the school age topic and the learning and through play
all the way through and it's so true like it stops at an age and it just we lose it.
But I agree as adults, I think I guess I'll wrap it up like this like a quick little thing.
I think that we would have better adults in a lot of areas if they all took time to play
than we currently do now.
And looking directly at our political areas in both Canada and the States.
I'm sure if they would take some time to play, it would be a little bit better.
But then, Carrie, you said about Fortnite and I'm laughing because I run a nursery school
center, but I am not very good at it because I spend a lot more time in the classroom than
I do on the administrative stuff I do by choice.
And I was just in the classroom the other day with the schoolagers, it's my favorite
group and they were saying they're bored because that's what they like to say.
And we ended up making our own Fortnite characters and building our own 3D town or village or
they get mad at me when I say it wrong.
But you know what I mean?
And it's just it's taking that all the way through from EC, just like you said, all the
way through all the grades, there's aspects of play that we could use all the way into
adulthood and it's so important that that gets pushed and stood up for.
Hey, Suzy.
I'm chomping at the bit here guys.
I want to chime in here so badly.
I have two books, okay, one's called Learn to Play, the other one's called Parents Learn
to Play 2.
This is my thing, my mission is to teach people to play because play is how we learn whether
you're one year old, five year old, 10 year old, 50 year old, this is how we learn.
We learn because we like something.
We like something that we're doing so we learn about it and that is what play is.
Play is joyful and so learning to play is like my mission for people.
If you take nothing else away from this, it's play, be curious, tap into that childlike
innocence within you and just go with it.
Be inquisitive, ask questions, like look at the world in a different way and other people
have said the same thing.
Look at the eyes, like look through the eyes of a child.
You'll find so much new about everything you thought you knew that you didn't really know.
Hey, Carla.
Hey, Rika.
It's being weird on the meeting.
No, I was just very excited because I was like, yes, absolutely.
And I couldn't help thinking about exactly what we're doing here.
None of us were podcasting in kindergarten.
We all ended up becoming podcasters because we wanted to play.
We wanted to do something and we were curious about it.
So I just felt like I had to give a shout out to all of us as podcasters because based
on what Suzy just said, play is how we got here.
Yeah, Carla.
I just want to add, Carla, you know that all of us were the little girls who got the speaks
too much on the report card evaluations, right?
Or maybe they have excellent leadership potential.
Yeah, for sure.
Or just downright bossy.
That's a good skills to have.
Or all of the above.
You never know.
Okay, quit telling on me.
Can I just ask something?
Yes, of course.
I just realized, I don't know why I just realized this right now.
I've been married to my husband for almost 10 years and I just came from like one of
those trampoline adventure parks and my husband was inside the dodgeball area with all of
the kids and I just realized that I'm married to a man who loves to play.
And I don't know why it took me this long to realize that this is probably why I married
him and why I get along with him.
But yeah, playing is important for everybody.
So I think there's so many ways to think about it, but I can't imagine any other field where
you can like have Play-Doh on your desk, come to school in your pajamas if you want, break
out into song in the middle of a classroom, or tell jokes.
This is a place for children.
We should be smiling.
We should be happy.
Where do you walk in?
Can you imagine working at a bank and you walked in and 20 people flocked up to you
and hugged you so hard they almost took you off your feet?
I'm pretty sure that's not happening at the bank.
Well, maybe if you cash in a billion dollar check, but for the most part, you walk into
your classrooms and you are literally just these little people hugging your legs.
You can like you're walking like this, there's 10 kids hanging on your leg, at least in my
experience.
We keep this joke calendar on our desk and it's not mine.
It belongs to the director and it has these kind of corny dad jokes, but some of them
are so good that when I come in the morning, I'll call another center and I'll be very
serious and be like, hey, I got to ask you something.
And they're like, yeah.
And then I just break out into a joke and like, oh my God, I feel crazy.
But like that might be just how I start my day.
No, some professions you can't do that, but ours we can.
So again, what we do is serious work, but we don't have to take ourselves so seriously
all of the time.
And so I think that that is coming back to the point of why it's so important for you
as an educator to be joyous in what you're doing.
You can't walk in with the brooding face and because your energy feeds the building, the
room, especially if you're the administrator and you walk in and you've always got that
kind of face.
It's important that we don't do that.
So as we talk about leadership, as I bring that up, let's go to our next question.
What does true leadership look like in our classrooms and our communities and how can
we lead with empathy, vision and purpose as we navigate this very quick changing industry
that we're in?
Do you want to tackle that one?
I think we have to remember we're key to the, that we are key to every community.
A lot of times we are unforgotten or just, you know, people just kind of push us to the
side.
And nothing else out of our lovely COVID experience five years ago to the present, you know, we
are absolutely behind every other industry and it's okay for us to try to remember to
toot our own horn, to toot our industry's horn and to just have that key role in the
community because the parents, the families, every employer needs to know what quality
early learning looks like and we get to be at, you know, that pivot point for a lot of
our teachers and directors because they may sometimes forget about it because they are
only thinking about maybe the kids in their classroom.
So I didn't raise my hand.
I just talked.
Sorry.
Say your name for me again.
Is it Avad?
Is it correct?
I don't know.
Okay.
I was, I was just going to say that also something that you said on my podcast, Erica, was that
teachers are also leaders in the classroom.
And I think a lot of teachers struggle with that.
Something that I've been promoting for a long time that teachers aren't actually leaders.
So taking that leadership role doesn't mean you have to be in an administrative role or
in any kind of leadership position.
You can take that leadership inside your classroom.
And one more thing to add is just about energy and the energy that you bring into a school
building as a person, whether you're a teacher or administrator, it doesn't really matter.
Everybody will feed off of your energy.
So if you're in a bad mood, sometimes people will feed off of it or sometimes a person
will just come up to you and say something really nice and switch that energy for you.
But if you're coming into school positively, whether you're a teacher or administrator,
you're going to get that positivity right back to you.
Yeah.
Go ahead, Carla.
And to piggy on that, because that was perfect.
I'm so glad you went first because I did not have a good segue was that as supervisors
and directors, we have to trust our team of educators that they are professionals.
I have been the supervisor that is questioned and it's okay to question, but it's not okay
to assume they don't know anything.
I've worked with a center in the past where the staff were so nervous to do anything and
it came down to everything they did was questioned and it's okay to question it.
But you also have to remind your team, I trust you, you are a professional.
You can do this.
That's part of being a leader is you should be able to leave your center and the ship
doesn't go down and it stays perfectly afloat, but it takes time.
But you have to sometimes help your teachers know that they are leaders.
Go ahead Carrie.
So how can you tell the difference between a leader and a duck?
It's that the leader has people following them.
So the duck is just walking out there doing duck stuff.
So if you want to be a leader, you have to turn around and make sure people are following
you, which is where we get that concept of servant leadership.
And I have been in classrooms where the teacher is not a leader, they are a duck and they
are running around like a duck trying to get other people to be interested in what they're
doing and it's not working because they're trying to be in charge and they're quacking
all the time and the kids aren't getting into it.
So you want your teachers, you want your administrators to be leaders, not ducks.
So people need to be following you for you to be a leader.
Yeah.
Go ahead, Jamie.
I think it's also important to look at the differences between managers and leaders and
that just because someone's a manager, as you said, that doesn't make them a leader
and probably a better manager would have those leadership qualities.
And it's that combined passion for education and what we do.
Like right now, I would say we're all leaders because not only are we doing this, we're
going out and making podcasts, but we're advocating for this incredible field that is the cornerstone
of the future.
It is where we're raising all these children and we're making a difference in these communities
and in the world and we're fighting the good fight.
And I think that these leadership qualities, they're not easily come across.
You have to build on them a lot.
Go ahead, Melissa.
I was just, when Jamie was talking, it really occurred to me that oftentimes I say when
I'm trying to tell it, okay, sorry, my thoughts are not coming out because it's like brewing
in my head.
Teachers are taught to be managers.
Teachers are not taught to be leaders.
They're taught to manage a classroom.
We're taught to be ducks.
When you go to teacher school, you're taught and you're praised for good management.
This is what people are looking for.
So this is why I'm thinking it's so difficult for most teachers to step out of that management
role and to actually think of themselves as a leader.
And unless it comes naturally to you, because this is what people look for.
Oh, your classroom is so quiet.
Oh, you control those children so well.
Oh, you have such great management skills.
Management, management, management.
That's what they're looking for.
And that's what gets praised.
So I think that's why there's that disconnect there.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Go ahead, Kate.
Like, oh, I'll try to follow the rules.
Okay.
I so agree with that statement.
And if you think about how many people in our profession have felt that the only way
they can demonstrate their knowledge, because we've all had this.
Well, okay, I won't say all.
I would suspect a lot of us online have had at least one relative or friend that makes
a comment about how smart we are and why are we in this field.
And we try to justify it by getting master's degrees or doctorate degrees or doing something
so that we can go, look, we're serious.
This is a real industry.
We're really professionals.
And that management versus leadership is such that like you got it.
And yeah, I mean, you're right.
Leadership is not natural for a lot of people.
And if you've got a PhD, you've got a doctorate in education doesn't necessarily make you
a leader.
But yet every principal, every superintendent, everybody in education leadership has that
doctorate in management.
And if you guys are listening to this and you are not currently doing something that
you want to go find how you can build your authority by demonstrating that you know what
you're doing.
And it doesn't necessarily require more education.
And it doesn't require you to have advanced degrees, because chances are you are making
an impact and you know exactly what you're doing.
And I applaud you for listening to today's episode because that means that you are part
of that lifelong learning community.
So yay for listening and hopefully you'll connect with all of us and you get to learn
more.
Does anybody have anything they want to add to that?
So let's talk about mentorship.
How can mentorship help people grow as professionals?
And how can we support and learn from each other to strengthen our field?
You know one of the things you know we I think I want to change the language.
I don't know how I'm going to do this myself, but that's why I think you know having so
many folks like you who also have voices and people listen.
Why do we even have to identify and I think I might have said this before we turned to
recording but why do we even have to identify as early childhood professionals?
Why can't we just say we're educators?
Why is this like hierarchy of of a college because as soon as like you said justifying
right Kate?
You say you know I I'm an early childhood educator.
Oh you work you work in a preschool you work in a daycare.
Oh and immediately you see the body change.
No I'm an educator.
It doesn't matter if I work in a high school level a professor a you know a college professor
doesn't matter.
We're educators and we teach in a way that's age appropriate for the age that we're working
with right just like you know.
So I think we all as the industry need to start using that language to say I'm an educator
period because we do it to ourselves and so we're not using that language.
So I expect other people to understand.
Mama I see you girl go ahead call it go ahead.
So I'm about to ruffle some feathers so I'm actually going to counter what you're saying
and I want people to say they're an early childhood educator and be damn proud to say
it because and this is a running joke in my house my husband will tell people I'm a teacher
and if you are a teacher I mean no disrespect but I have said to my husband do not tell
people I am a teacher tell people I'm an early childhood educator because I am not in the
same category.
I am not dealing with great seven attitudes and grade eight attitudes that is a whole
nother skill that is a whole nother industry.
I am dealing with the social emotional behavior of three four and five year olds that is a
whole nother skill on a whole nother industry.
And if we are not proud when we say I am an early childhood educator and I don't care
if people go oh so you like play all day I maybe it's a personality thing I am the first
to come at you and be like yeah actually I do because I'm building neural pathways every
single day is that not incredible what I do as an early childhood educator like I will
shut you right up absolutely.
Well I mean I agree with that but I guess what I'm saying is educators are educators
yes and as I had said it has to be for the age that we're working with right so it has
to be age appropriate so yes that's what looks that's what it looks like when working with
kids who are three to five or you know infant to five right and I think they're working
on social skills in high school and in college by the way.
I just think that the respect of saying we are educators because I think when we divide
ourselves is how we get esteemed rolled over where educators we all deserve the same respect
doesn't matter what the tools are that we use the teaching philosophy that we use there's
this hierarchy that I can't stand is really my point I am very passionate it doesn't matter
what age right we all have the ages that we love and we all have the philosophies and
the tools and the skills that we use but at the end of the day the respect should be the
same and when we meet folks no matter if they're early childhood school age it doesn't matter
to me to me we're educators and and so that's my thoughts.
Jamie is your hand raised honey yeah go ahead Jamie.
No I think you're both right because I think it's about actively working to create the
systems and policies to ensure that all educators are respected regardless of what age group
but I also understand Erica what you're saying because you're like if I say that I'm a teacher
it doesn't matter to people if I'm a high school teacher elementary school teacher I'm
a teacher but if I say I'm a teacher educator and I say ECE all of a sudden it's like oh
you're not a teacher but the advocacy has such a huge part in this because we are all
fighting to make this and anyone listening should be fighting to make ECE that that it's
it's it's accepted and generally accepted like yeah I'm an early childhood educator
I'm an educator.
Yeah that's all I see everybody I see that's all of you I promise go ahead Kate.
Really what I'm going to do is I'm going to put Carrie on the spot because Carrie has
a great story that's a perfect example of this because there is that difference of perception
when you say educator versus ECE versus professor and Carrie's probably going which story am
I telling so it's the one from Linda about smart people.
Just that she said you know you're too smart to be doing that work you should you know
are you sure you want to work in early childhood you're too smart for that and I was like so
you want dumb people working with the children with human beings in their most vulnerable
stages and when they are most able to build cognitive function you want dumb people doing
that and she was like well when you put it that way no.
Okay so what is the background of the person who asked you that question you don't have
to like but.
Well she was a high school English teacher and then an attorney and an attorney who was
very well known in their field an assistant attorney general for the state yeah pretty
well did you have your hand up I know you did.
I was just gonna say I think one of the challenges that we have as early childhood educators
is our job is unfortunately seen as the one that any woman can do right first of all we
are predominantly predominantly female holy I'm having the same problem of ideas in there
they're just not making their way home properly.
Not to say that that is a problem but unfortunately you know that does get looked down upon a
lot right and because we are working with children because we do tasks for lack of better
words like wiping noses like diaper changing like helping potty train you know it's seen
as not being important and therefore again the glorified babysitter right this is you
know oh you're an early childhood educator I literally had somebody say to me and you
know I'm hoping this is not going to sound too vulgar on here but I literally said to
somebody one time I'm an early childhood educator and the exact words out of their mouth was
oh so you wipe asses for a living I'm like yeah and like bro what what is this right
bad Susie missus I just want to say so do yes just make more Susie.
So I think we're all on the same page here and I really feel that this is something that
we all have to deal with and this is the reality of the situation we're all educators yes
but there is a pecking order right there's a there's a hierarchy you know if you teach
at the university level you're a better teacher if you teach at the high school and then elementary
and then we're at the very bottom because we teach the youngest of children so there
is that order and we got to realize that but that doesn't mean that it's true it just means
that's what people believe and we can change those perceptions and we have to do that as
a community by leveling up our profession no we're not babysitters we are educators
I think language matters so when we say daycare provider you know that kind of a little bit
irks me because we're not daycare providers we're educators and I always use that language
and we have to get used to using that language that we're not just providers of daycare we
are educating at every level and and every and you know I really believe the first six
years are the most important they're more important than the university years so you
know you know that should be the order the order is you know ECEs first and then the
other teachers you know as far as you know affecting the brain and changing how the brain
works and all of that so we're all you know on the same page I understand that but we
can all we have to understand there's that perception out there and we have to change
that perception.
Yeah there we go now I can unmute my mic so love listening to all of the perspectives
that's the point of having different perspectives and to be able to have this conversation let's
think about now that mentorship piece we're in a room full of wonderful educators with
years and years of knowledge how do we bring it out to the sector that needs us that needs
this voice that needs the appropriate language that needs us to articulate what's okay for
our profession because like you said it's us it starts with us we need to be the ones
that start the conversation and that goes through the mentorship process through our
leaders through our child care providers on the floor it starts with us we have to be
able to be the ones we've all started podcasts for a reason that mentorship pro process is
key right now as a professor and going through what's coming out as our new educators in
the field we do not want to be afraid what's coming in the field we want to trust these
people with the children and their development so we need to arm them with the right tools
and that is the proper language and the support they need when they need it not being retroactive
but proactive in this situation that's what I'm going to say I love it yes yes yes we
are shaping little minds you're next okay I love that um I just wanted to piggyback
off of what Marcia was saying because I find that the new teachers who I do speak to who
come into the coaching program with me do not have the tools that they need to be able
to succeed in a classroom and it drives me crazy because you go to school for teaching
and you think that school is going to prepare you to be a classroom teacher and then you
are thrown all of these crazy obstacles when you're in the classroom and so many times
these teachers do not get the support that they need something that what I really want
to do is bring that piece into the mentorship world which is helping the college students
who are coming from that education program and bridging that gap into the classroom so
that they can have the tools to stay in the classroom and to feel successful in the classroom
and I think a big part of that is you know that's why we're losing so many teachers these
teachers are coming from college thinking that this is what they want to do and then
they go into the classroom and they are met with so many different challenges and obstacles
that they just don't know how to deal with and don't necessarily get the support to be
able to handle so they say okay this isn't for me I'm not going to do this anymore I'm
gonna I'm gonna say goodbye at the end of the year.
Go ahead Jamie.
I love how you threw in that support piece because it really goes back to everything
that we're talking about here but it's funny how much early childhood educators we support
families and we support the children but then looking at us like where is that support where
is the educator support coming from and it's it's I mean obviously it's us advocating but
what else is out there to support us there's like unless we're fighting the good fight
for ourselves it's it's not there.
Jamie I think that's probably why I thought this would be a great topic for our very first
roundtable because it is so important and you know it isn't just the teachers it's the
administration too they don't always have the tools that they need and many times that
the admins have been promoted they were teachers for a long period of time and they've done
a great job as an educator and now you are now responsible for everything everyone is
supposed to have the solution for every question that's ever asked of you and you don't have
to be a teacher you know we talked about you know the difference between a leader and a
manager and you may have managed things you know tasks pretty well to get promoted but
maybe you really haven't had that opportunity to develop your leadership skills and so we're
seeing that too and I know Kate and Carrie as they go train directors all over the country
that many of these folks are folks who didn't have the business side of education because
it is a business too for most of us right so there's just so many pieces so yeah where
does the support come we have to advocate but then there also has to be like what's
the action because we can talk all day everybody here knows the problem right we got to start
figuring out what are some of the solutions and who are the people who can help us move
that forward Melissa hold on Carrie I see you Melissa did you have something you want
to add honey I didn't want to I didn't want to hop over you if you had raised your hand
no it's okay there was just it was mostly just kind of sharing the same kind of story
I just there's something interesting going on in New York City right now which might
be sort of the action but it is becoming really kind of problematic and I feel like it kind
of fits into this piece so you know New York City being the biggest public school system
has started to implement funding into child care systems right which I know has happened
in many cities but this is also partly and early childhood kids were excited about it
because it was going to help sort of legitimize some early childhood education but it's also
become really problematic because there are all of these different pieces as we've actually
been talking about because now it's become this continuity piece where they're saying
do this creative curriculum everybody has to do this everybody has to it has to look
exactly the same so now we're asking child cares that are being funded by the department
of public school system to do the exact same work that I'm doing where I'm getting paid
a massive amount more money than these teachers are getting paid I'm not gonna lie my salary
is online I get paid six figures these teachers and these child cares don't get paid anywhere
near that and that's just one piece of all of this right the pay where they're asking
to do the same work they don't get my union preps they don't get my union contracts but
then also I have a huge problem with making the continuity piece across every single classroom
I don't want my classroom to look exactly the same as somebody else's classroom and
as somebody else's classroom my children should not be studying trees because you're I'm being
told to study trees what if they're not interested in trees right so that's like another whole
piece and so I feel like in one way they're trying to put the action into place and then
they're trying to help this by adding in these mentors from the department where the childhood
education but then they don't have the tools because they're coming down some of them were
teachers but they're being told from the district and it's just again sort of the hierarchy
of like things happening and exploding and maybe I'm just like putting New York City
on the spot here but it's not necessarily working because it works in one area or it
works with one school because of one mentor is really great and then one teacher like
accepts it but then it's not working with another mentor because one mentor is just
really coming down the pipe you know it just it's really interesting and I don't know
like I said it sort of fits into all this because of a little bit of the actions futures
like it's a conversation for sure yeah we could do yeah yeah so it's just like really
interesting to think about all of that and how it kind of could look yeah and how it
could probably like see about call out or hand for us go ahead calla or you just we
just wave any hands around clap it okay go ahead Kayla okay I was gonna say Melissa
I think you bring up such a good point and I think one of the issues that we have is
we're always trying to I think it comes back to this idea of proving ourselves right like
we need to prove that we are doing good we need to prove that our job is of value we
need to prove that children are learning something so if something is working in classroom a
well then it must be working in every single one we seem to have especially when it comes
to like administrators or heads there seems to be this disconnection of understanding
that there is you know children are individual beings and not everyone cannot treat them
with this robotic mindset right um I know I'll give a perfect example here in BC alone
right there is this huge push that every has to be regio inspired and regio regio regio
and that's great like I have nothing against that but the disconnect is regio means nothing
in British Columbia because you're trying to come at it from an Italian perspective
this is not Italy this is BC right completely different um histories countries societies
uh like mind immunities whatever and the other thing that I have a hard time with is that
majority of times when we're trying to implement these ideas they're coming from an extremely
privileged lens right um like for here for example like again I'll use British Columbia
very specifically I'll narrow it down to um Metro Vancouver where we have this idea that
what they're doing in the big universities with the million dollars of funding is what
everybody across the board should be doing that would be great if I also had a million
dollars worth of funding I could do that as well but I don't I have to work with what
I have and most importantly my children are not predominantly you know privileged they're
not predominantly white they're not you know there are centers where children come to school
maybe with an empty stomach there are children who come to school I I had dinner with a friend
a couple of weeks ago who talked about working with children who lived in shelters and you
know working with children who came from abusive backgrounds and child care was the one place
where they had safety and so it wasn't about you know pedagogy and pedagogical narrations
and all this wonderful airy fairy stuff it was about is this the only place where they
can get their basic needs met and is this the one place where they can feel safe if
I have done that I've done my job yeah thank you for bringing that up Kayla go ahead Carrie
okay so my brain has like stuff I want to talk about from Marcia and Kayla and Melissa
and so I want to see if I can get it all into one thought process which is that regardless
of where you're finding the mentor whether the mentor was your is your college professor
the head of your college department is your mama is the director at your school is a coach
or consultant like some of us are you have to find one that works for you and for the
type of program you're in and and this is the part that I sometimes have a challenge
with is that that mentor needs to be someone who has been in a program recently that makes
some sort of connection to the type of program you're in I've taken you know ECE classes
at Harvard and you know what my professors I don't think have been in a classroom with
children for 35 years and I get all of the pedagogical wonderfulness but if that professor
has not had to deal with post-covid kids and Gen Z employees I don't need them to be trying
to mentor me because they don't know what's happening in the real real and if they're
still spouting Freud and anal retentive I don't need to hear from them because all that
stuff's been to their varch I need mentors who have lived the real real with kids recently
if the last time they were in an early childhood classroom was in a lab school in 1985 at the
university then that's not who your mentor should be your mentor needs to have been in
programs that have some similarities to the program you're working in or the type of program
you want to work in and have done it at least in this century it would be great if they've
done it in this decade like that that's what I want for people when they're looking for
a mentor so you can go hire people who have their MBA in organizational leadership but
does that help your school do they understand it you know my dad my grandfather PhDs I respect
the work you have to do to get those advanced degrees but you know my dad uses it it was
way to sort his mail anything that comes to his name PhD or doctor his name he knows he
doesn't need to open that email or that mail but we have to find mentors who resonate with
us and if you're somebody who's all about the research go find that PhD but please find
one who's actually touched children in the most recent decade in a good way like touch
them emotionally cognitively not in a creepy way sorry that came out weird go ahead Susie
so that sparked something when you were speaking Carrie about mentorship and I was thinking
about you know in our centers we have experienced educators and we have new educators and Marcia
touched on the fact that you know we have a lot of new educators coming out at the college
system right now who don't feel equipped to manage a classroom don't feel equipped to
lead a classroom and I was thinking about okay so we have experienced people out there
and then we have new people and how do we get them to work together and learn from each
other because I know the experienced educators can work from the new can learn from the new
ones because they've got new ideas they haven't been in school for a long time maybe they
don't know the new strategies and then we have newer educators who could learn from
the experienced ones who you know have lots of experience on how to deal with different
kinds of issues that come up in a classroom and how to lead and so how do we get them
to work together and learn from each other I think is the key right and that's I guess
what I'd like to hear about too if you guys have any ideas I have all kinds of ideas yeah
Carla I love this question and the segue was perfect was I think if you are a seasoned
professional we first of all have to be open to your point to learning from the new grads
like I think about from when I was in school I was trained as a theme based educator and
I was getting students that were play based trained 10 years in and it opened my eyes
so I think one we have to be open for sure but also we can't assume that the new grads
are excited to be here we would love for them to all come and be excited to be here but
part of our like journey as the mentor I think is finding out why they're here and not writing
them off if you know mom picked their career path but not writing them off but helping
them see the joy in the industry because they're in our profession because we don't know how
they got there so love your question and I'm not here very said something that was amazing
and that is you have to find the right mentor with that being said not everybody's meant
to be a mentor okay as veteran educators out there not all of us are equipped to take on
students you might not be in that part of your journey yourself and that's okay then
don't take the student pass it on to someone else right we do not want to do a disservice
either because we're trying to grow a profession so make sure that you and your mentee if you
are taking on that you are prepared and ready to take them on because yes that comes with
you having that responsibility as well and again I'm gonna say it not everybody's a mentor
okay so find who works with you works for you and is there to push you grow and watch
you service first and thrive or else it's just it's not going to be worth it Melissa
go ahead I was just sort of about to say that the Carla and Marcia kind of said wasn't say
so we do that in in our public school system when you have a brand new teacher you're required
to go through a certain number like 40 hours or something that of mentoring from a teacher
who was on your grade level who has a certain number of years of experience and that was
me one time and I totally beefed it I was terrible but out of that experience also I
learned that the mentor also or the mentee also needs to want to be mentored so now maybe
in our situation because of the way that it's set up it's set up it's kind of like an arranged
marriage right so in probably in the situations that we're talking about we're choosing and
picking and choosing so you obviously all the points that everybody has made are wonderful
points but yeah so just you know right not everybody's meant to be one but you can only
always hone your skills by just communicating and talking and thinking about it and having
time to go about it so the arranged marriage can work because I've done it again and I
did much better the second time around so I but I love I love the fact that I was kind
of pushed into it because I had never really thought about doing it until I had to and
I actually it had it took me into a direction and actually sort of in this direction which
I never thought I was actually going to go.
I think the other thing is when when you talk about mentorship I think that you know we
said the word journey and for me I feel like you should yourself always have a mentor and
somebody that you're working with right somebody that inspires you to push yourself to be your
best self and it doesn't matter if you've been in the field for a week or you've been
in the field for 30 years I think you know always finding those people who motivate and
inspire you and you know are in the places that you want to go right and so I think it's
important that we as seasoned professionals as college said that we also continue to get
that mentorship and to continue to you know be hungry for whatever that next thing is
for us in our journey and I know so many of you are on that path now you're either coaching
you're coaching other folks you're mentoring or you know started multiple businesses or
whatever that looks like because that's also another thing that we are seeing in the early
childhood education field or educators in general starting these additional businesses
becoming consultants for school departments or or you know just the new folks coming in
or you know just you know I think we all have this kind of sense of leaving some type of
a legacy because those of us in this industry really are called to that you know giving
and giving all that you can before you before you leave on into the night however that looks
like for you but yeah I think I think these are all really amazing points that you ladies
have made is there anything anybody wants to add to that to that last question okay
this is going to be our last question as we start to wrap it up this is one that Jamie
had kind of brought up you know we thought the word advocacy around a lot what does advocacy
mean to you and you know in real life and how do we like raise our our voices in support
of what we're doing here right because we could we could have a whole nother show on
the challenges we know the challenges we know the challenges right okay good you take the
lead thank you so I was an after school alliance ambassador so I'm considered an an ambassador
emeritus and that was like its second year of creating this national advocacy system
for out of school time in the United States so like in twenty two thousand four and one
of the things that really hit home during that time period and I sit here and kind of
reflect on it after twenty years of watching things not really change the way we had all
hoped for them to change on a larger scale but what I can absolutely say is that advocacy
work at a local level and even a state level is the only place it's going to start so although
we might all want huge you know changes on our own national level we do have to remember
that we can change it at the community level and that we can change it at the state level
and that advocacy is really educating those not in the industry and the only way we're
all going to do that is together and in mass so I love the question and I love the fact
that we have ten people on this call who are willing to do that education and our podcast
is our podcasts are a great way to share that information so glad that Eric brought us all
together anyway I'm done.
Yeah I agree and I also think though it's getting the educators who are in our field
who think they can do nothing to change what the perception of EC is to believe that they
can do it and it's collectively coming together to do that I think defending and standing
up for our value of work as educators for fighting for the fair wages for fighting for
professional development opportunities and aren't during our own time that's actually
paid for by the government or by the cities whoever the people that have the money pay
for that and the working conditions are in and getting that support but it's letting
people like those people who are working with us also know that they have a voice and sharing
it is super powerful.
Yeah that Carla.
I also think even on like a smaller level because when I used to speak to my staff about
advocating for early childhood education this look of just like sheer like fear would come
over them because they would think that the next thing that was going to come was me having
them make giant signs and go stand on Parliament Hill and while that is advocating that doesn't
have to be the only advocating like you can be an introvert which clearly I'm not but
you can be an introvert and still advocate but it's also it's about us being so excited
about what we do.
I can honestly say that excitement is contagious and that's probably the thing that has worked
in my best interest of gaining respect as an early childhood educator is when I talk
about my position as an early childhood educator in a positive and excited way so it's changing
words like I have to to I get to I get to spend my week with four-year-olds studying
the wind because that's what we were interested in this week so getting excited and sharing
what we do with people I mean that's where podcasts social media like we don't have to
have pictures of the children to be able to post what we're doing on social media and
to be proud of it.
Good Kayla.
I was gonna say I think we all of us all ten of us are also in a very unique position where
clearly we have these platforms where we can have you know where we can talk and we're
trying to get our voice out there but also and I think many of us do this already but
using our platforms to give a voice to those who feel voiceless right to those who maybe
don't feel like they can say much because they're tied to a company or they're tied
to this child care or you know for whatever reason I know one of the things that works
really well is giving people the abilities to word what they need to say but also keep
them anonymous that gives them so much power because they're able to say what they're feeling
what what's on their mind or even just vent out the frustrations or the changes that they
want to see without feeling like they're going to get prosecuted by their employer by somebody
who may not agree with them.
Okay Melissa.
Honestly when I think about advocacy too tiny things can be advocacy like I advocated for
a longer period of play in my classroom by asking to switch my prep like my prep time
is when the children go to like their music class or to their outside gym class and it
was in the middle of like I was like 10 30 in the morning was just chopping up their
play time and so at one point in the year I asked I went to my principal's like hey
can I have this at like 8 45 in the morning which gave me a two and a half hour stretch
of time and she said well I'll work on the schedule and she was like I can't give it
to you this year but then she gave it to me next year and it's been like that every year
since then.
Awesome.
And just something like that advocated for you know my philosophy and for my children
and that's good.
Go ahead Carrie.
Well I wanted to say that what Adva does is a form of advocacy.
She's helping the teachers take what they know and leverage it into how they can do
it in the classroom and helping them advocate in communicating with their administrative
team about what they need and what their classroom needs.
So it can be supporting other people on your team can be advocacy or it can be rolling
up on your city council or your your legislators so you can go as big or as small as you want
and I think we tend to just think about the oh I went and dealt with you know the head
of this that or the other thing but a lot of times the advocating is advocating for
a child in your classroom to help their parent understand this child needs an assessment
or advocating for a teacher and helping them own their own power and own their own professionalism.
Suzy?
Yeah I was going to take it sort of on the same source of similar level.
I was going to say you know sometimes when we think advocacy we think big right we think
okay like Carla said we have to go to the government you know doorstep and advocate
which I have done actually but that's not always what is needed like sometimes it's
like you said the little things right like even just as an educator you think okay what
impact do I have but you've got parents that come to your classroom all the time and that's
advocacy like you talking to parents and even just educating them about different things
about their child is advocacy for that child so you are an advocate all the time every
day in your classroom even just every little thing you do with the parents that you see
every day and that to me is even bigger because you're influencing the public you're influencing
perceptions and just influencing how that child develops right.
Yvonne?
My first thought when you said advocacy was really on a much smaller level which a lot
of people have said and that is advocating for your children in the classroom.
You know this year I'm back in the classroom and I have one child who needs help a lot
of help and it's really challenging because we have 14 other kids we have to focus on
and part of what me and my co-teacher are doing is really just going to the parent going
to the director and making sure that things are getting taken care of so that this child
can have his needs met and you know as Carla said you can be an introvert and still advocate
I am the biggest introvert I am the biggest homebody but I still advocate for my students
and now I took on the role of advocating for teachers and the support that they need to
get inside their classrooms.
Does anybody else have anything they want to add to that?
No?
Okay great.
Go big or go small.
Go the way that feels comfortable to you.
If you're big now like me and a couple of other people who are like yes I will walk
up to a legislator and tell them stuff then do that but if you're somebody who's like
I would like to advocate for people who are under two feet tall then advocate for people
who are under two feet tall it doesn't matter it's still owning the fact that you're a professional
and as a professional you have a responsibility to speak up for other people who can't and
by definition the kids we're working with can't.
And with that being said don't forget to advocate for you.
You're so quick to advocate for everybody else we cannot forget to advocate for you.
For sure for sure.
Alright so here's how we're going to wrap some of this up.
Jamie the Forgotten EC give us a one and a half second commercial about your podcast.
Okay so the Forgotten EC is a podcast all about that just that the Forgotten EC is focusing
on before and after school programs school age programs summer camp March break all of
the above and in a wider sense anyone who is in the EC program or in the EC sector and
they feel forgotten.
We're doing big things over there you can find us on Spotify, Apple Music and anywhere
you listen to your podcast and if you're looking to find me you can find me on Instagram at
Miss Jamie underscore R E C E.
Awesome and the ECE Classroom with Suzy tell folks a little bit about your podcast.
Thank you.
So the ECE Classroom is a fairly new podcast it's just in the first season so we just started
it out this year and my format is to bring guests on the show so I welcome all of you
to come out and you know be heard by my listeners and I just tackle any ECE topic so as I mentioned
I'm a daycare owner so I have three daycare centers and so I canvass my ECEs every day
and say you know what topics do you want to hear what do you want to know more about and
those are the topics that make my episodes of the ECE Classroom.
The coolest thing is where are you from Suzy?
So I'm in well greater Toronto area let's say in Toronto Canada.
And Jamie where are you from?
Stratford Ontario Canada so just south of Toronto.
Alright next we have Kayla at ECE Honestly go ahead give us a scoop about your podcast.
Thank you.
So I'm Kayla Papalia from ECE Honestly and my podcast is all about again talking about
the issues that we may not want to talk about in the world of early childhood education
as sometimes they're hard to swallow pills that are hard to swallow but I think they're
necessary conversations to have because unless we're willing to have these hard conversations
we are not going to see growth in our field.
And you can find me on Instagram and Facebook at EC Honestly.
You can also check me out on my in-home multi-age child care page it is Blossoming Ninos and
you can find us on Instagram and on Facebook.
And yeah same thing if anybody out there listening or any of you here have anything that they
like to say or any topics that they want to discuss that they feel are important give
me a shout out and I'm more than happy to set that up.
Where are you located?
I am all the way west of Susie and Jamie.
I am in Port Moody so that's a suburb of Vancouver.
And my friend over here at Shaping Little Minds a Vid.
I'm Amar Ba.
I am the host of Shaping Little Minds podcast.
Shaping Little Minds is really just giving teachers bite-size implementable tools and
strategies to use inside of their classroom.
I do a mix of solo and guest episodes.
I have definitely had some of you on the podcast and I am located in the US in New Jersey.
Melissa.
So my podcast is Pre-K Spot Talks.
It's basically an everything early childhood variety podcast but through a play based lens
and I've just recently started doing interviews so everybody is welcome.
So I do a mix of solo and interviews and you can find me at Pre-K Spot on Instagram and
I am located in the great city of New York.
Awesome.
Carla.
So my podcast is the Everything ECE podcast.
Pretty much in the name we literally talk about everything ECE.
I'm located in Mississauga just outside of Toronto, Canada and you can find us on any
podcasting platform and if you want to find me on Instagram at EL Foundations for early
learning foundations I would love to chat.
Okay next we have Kate.
Well I'll do the first half I'll let Kerry do the second half.
So you can find us on any of the social media platforms from YouTube etc. at Child Care
Conversations.
So real easy and Kerry can tell you what we're about.
Oh okay.
So we're about we talk about all kinds of different things for early childhood leadership.
Most of ours have attendance to be for directors, owners and managers.
The first year I don't think we had a single guest on our podcast because we had 30 years
worth of pent up stuff we needed to talk about.
And now we have a lot of guests because we've purged some of that stuff and so we talk about
stuff from insurance to toilet learning to talking to parents, marketing, all of that
kind of stuff.
And we always are looking for guests just like the rest of you guys so we'd love to
have each and every one of you on.
We even have a place where you can apply.
You can email Kate Kate at child care Congress at child care conversations.com.
And Kerry at child care conversations.
Fine.
You have to spell out the word and and she'll get you all those links or you can just message
her anywhere.
I don't take that monkey.
That's her monkey.
And we just love supporting directors and owners.
I didn't say we're also authors like Suzy.
We've written a few books over the past few years.
You can get those on Amazon or at your local bookseller.
Okay, my friend Marcia at I Spy to Educate.
I'm Marcy Nicole and my podcast is called the Inspire in ECE Podcast.
On the podcast, I talk a lot about inspiring, motivating and just empowering educators to
continue in a profession they absolutely love.
I recently just started to have guests on and we talk about all things early childhood
education, but mostly we're there to inspire and motivate, especially on those rough and
challenging days that podcast in your ears.
Hopefully it brings you a smile.
So I'm hoping that I have all of you lovely individuals on my podcast to share all of
these juicy nuggets and definitely follow me on Instagram.
I'm on all of your platforms for podcasts wherever you listen and I can't wait to keep
growing this wonderful community.
Thank you so much, ladies.
I am Erica Scoscia with the Child Care Directors Chair podcast.
I have a podcast and a very quickly growing YouTube channel that I'm very excited about
and this beautiful episode will also be hosted on there.
It's the Child Care Directors Chair podcast.
Super easy to find.
And we really wanted to create this ECE power hour to offer a space for all of our early
childhood educators where we can reflect, recharge and grow together.
All of our voices together really, really matter.
And so we hope that you've got that point today.
If you are an ECE professional out there, an early childhood professional, school age
professional, college professor, don't worry, we still love you too.
You're welcome to come on our show as well.
We will be doing this once a month.
So if you're interested, you're a podcaster and you have something to say, please hit
me up.
Child Care Directors Chair, super easy to find me, all the places, social media, you
got it.
So that's it for today.
Thank you so much for tuning in and we love you.
Have a great day.