Mindfulness and Purpose in Early Childhood Education

". . . how would you like it if at your job, every time you made the slightest mistake a little red light went on over your head and 18,000 people stood up and screamed at you?” -Jacques Plante. Goalie. Montreal Canadians. I think everyone has now heard of the everyone wins sports tournaments?  And with summer sports and camps approaching, it's a good time to consider the wisdom of the everybody wins ideal. Now that my son's hockey season has drawn to a close, his league not subscribing to the everybody wins ideal, I realized while watching his last playoff game (they didn't make the finals) how far he has come in terms of dealing with that oh so painful loss of a game. Keep in mind it's been a good ten year span of time; he played his first game at five, and in between there been many bouts of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; I still cringe with the pain of watching him, as the last shoot out player in a tie game miss the shot … complet...

What can you expect, ECE graduate, from the average day of working in the field? We asked some Ottawa ECEs what they were doing at: 8:45am, 1:30pm, and 3:15pm. Here's what they said: LAUREN 8:45: heading out to the kinder yard to greet the kids and supervise the yard. 1:30: tidying up a table for snacks, and admiring a "sleepover party" that the kids had set up by moving all our chairs onto the carpet to make beds. 3:15: playing "Mario kart", in which the kids and I each run around the painted track on our yard making sound effects and laughing our heads off.     MS-K D     8:45am (after getting my girls up,dressed,lunches made, and out the door too the bus for 8) i have put a load of laundry in from my basement that flooded on Friday! And am working on one of my online courses. 1:30 on a bus going to my school for working in my extended care 2:30 to 5:45 shift 3:15 i was outside in my kinder yard with 40 kinders playing ...

As an ECE you have great ideas, creative ones that you love to share with the children in your group.  They, of course, adore them and enjoy them on a regular basis. Now, show the greater community what you can do! Social media is a great way to put your creative self out there, and especially if you are an introvert—no problem getting in there and having a great time with the children, but self-promotion to your peers? Not so much. 4 WAYS TO CREATE YOUR OWN ECE PLATFORM where you can let inner creativity shine online. FIRST TAKE PHOTOS:   A battalion of them that showcase your activities in action.  Then add a few descriptive lines so people have a rounded idea of what you're doing. THEN CREATE PAGES:   Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Put up your favourite art activities, crafts, or circle time stories for people to see.  You're making a collection of your best programming ideas. NEXT CONNECT:   Connect your pages with like-minded...