A Playful Educator:
When I started teaching, my mother, who was a teacher for 27 years, said to "get out of their way. Children know how to learn. Your job is to help make their experience rich." This advice continues to shape my work.
I see my work as an educator to be a carer and researcher of children, as well as a passionate advocate for playful learning. I strive to make engaging learning environments, create systems that help me to listen, observe, ask questions and then document the rich threads of inquiry and wonder children experience, all the while keeping the curriculum in mind. I have found that creating videos of learning stories, making the children's thinking more visible, shares the power of exploration and discovery with the children themselves as well as the wider learning community.
These are a few of the many videos that I have made over the last few years:
Supporting Parents to be Playful:
I made a series of videos to support parents with some of the ways they can foster wonder and creativity at home. The following are samples from this series that show me explaining and modelling Project-Based Learning, Loose Part Play, and Creative Thinking. They were made during the pandemic, but I continue to share them today.
Kath Murdoch shared my Project-Based Learning video, describing it as an amazing tool for both parents and teachers!
Playful with Colleagues:
When we returned from Online Learning, I noticed the fear that everyone was carrying. I wondered how I could encourage a playfulness in us so that we can be relaxed in ourselves and for the children. That is when I asked my team if we could host playdates out on the playground with other grade level teachers. It was a hit and so I made this silly video to challenge the rest of the school to get out and play together!
Playful in Nature:
While teaching in Moscow I started taking children on nature walks through the woods near the school. Very quickly it was evident how joyful the children became, allowing their curiosity and natural instincts to take over! It took me nearly two years to receive my Forest School Level Three qualification, and since then, I have been committed to supporting children’s reciprocal relationship with nature. I believe that humans and nature are interconnected partners who take care of one another. Over the years, the nature walks turned into an Outdoor Learning Program and I started Green Leaves Forest School, providing a Forest School program for my own children and others in our community in Moscow.
In Bangkok, it was a struggle to replicate this experience, however, I worked very hard to connect the children with natural materials and find the joy and wonder in the nature around us; the snails in the plant pot, the little frog that has jumped into our playground, or the impressively quick moving worms from under the stump in the mud kitchen. My work in South Korea has led me back into the woods, and I have spent the last year building an Outdoor Learning program for the elementary school, supporting educators to use the natural environment to connect children to both nature and to the curriculum.
* Permission has been granted for the use of all images and videos featured on this website.