ETFO PLEY Chat

We were so very excited to welcome the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) to our classroom today in order to have our very own PLEY Chat recorded in our classroom! The children were very excited to share their learning and play with our visitors and did just a tremendous job showcasing our program! The children had many questions about how the cameras worked! A big thank you to everyone involved in helping to make us feel comfortable and eager to share our classroom with others!

Although it was one of the most interesting and honouring events in my career, I had some pretty strong nerves heading into this opportunity. I recognized the significance of the PLEY chat and wanted it to be the best I could offer. Of course once the recording stopped I had many more ideas of what to say and show on camera, but this is the life of an educator; we are continually revisiting and reflecting on our experiences and considering how to make them even better moving forward. I know very few educators who can say they are ever truly satisfied with something and have no need to learn and improve. This is a good thing I think!

One of the most rewarding aspects of my career is helping to inspire and provoke learning in educators as well as children. I do not take my role as AQ instructor lightly; I see our classroom reflected in the hundreds of retweets, Facebook likes, and blog visits we have each week and know that what we say and do is important. It's humbling to know that our deep love of kindergarten and early childhood is shared by so many invested and attuned educators from Ontario and beyond and we are working hard every day to not only provide the best learning environment for our youngest learners, but also make the pedagogical choices behind every classroom decision we make visible beyond the walls of our classroom.  Thank you for sharing this journey with us. When we engage in rich PD opportunities with you through Twitter, Facebook, email, and AQ course discussions, you help US become better educators too, as we reflect upon our practice, consider your comments and questions, and implement your suggestions into bettering our classroom and program. Our professional learning network inspires us to be the best we can be each day, and ultimately the FDK children of Ontario are the ones who benefit the most!