
Show Notes
In this seasonal episode, Cathy explores the gift of slowing down through a gentle reading of Bear and Wolf by Daniel Salmieri. As the year shifts - into winter’s stillness for some and summer’s brightness for others - this episode invites educators to pause, notice the small wonders around them, and reconnect with curiosity and connection. A quiet moment of calm and reflection for early childhood educators everywhere.
Bear and Wolf by Daniel Salmiere
More from The Intentional ECE
Mentorship is not a hierarchy - it’s a relationship. Kerry Drake joins the conversation to explore what genuine mentorship looks like in early childhood education, from the reciprocity and vulnerability that both mentor and mentee bring, to what it means to step into a formal mentoring role with intention, capacity, and the right support in place. A rich and honest conversation that includes peer-to-peer mentorship, reflective practice, and what it really means to help someone find their voice.
What if professional learning looked less like a workshop everyone sits through, and more like the way we hope children learn: hands-on, relational, and full of questions? In this panel conversation, Rosalba Bortolotti, Paola Lopez, and Heather Jackson explore who the educator really is, with their own history, their own ideas about teaching, and their own need to belong before they can take risks. They talk about what it takes to learn alongside educators rather than direct them, from a ladybug inquiry that turned into map making to the leadership that protects time for thinking together. It’s an invitation to see educators as complex, diverse learners, and to build a culture where they have the trust and agency to thrive.
Childhood isn't a waiting room for adulthood. It's a valid place on the life cycle, with its own perspectives, ideas, and theories. Through a story of moss, a spray bottle, and a fairy town built on the carpet, we explore curiosity as a disposition rather than a strategy, and what becomes visible when developmental milestones move out of the foreground: the nonlinear, joyful, whole child in front of us. Inspired by my workshop, Children are Capable & Whole. The Intentional Educator
What would it mean to create a learning environment that children don't have to recover from? Kisa Marx - educator, author, and Liberation Architect - invites us to look through a kaleidoscope rather than a binary lens, shifting our perspective until we can truly see the child in front of us. A powerful conversation about cultural humility, child-affirming spaces, universal truths, and what it means to free the children in our care.
The most important readiness isn't academic - it's social, emotional, and human. Norline Wild joins the conversation to explore what it means to prepare future educators to truly see children, know their students, and bring intentionality and joy to their practice. From picture books and play to developmentalism and systemic change, this is a conversation about what teacher education can be when relationships and curiosity are at the heart of it.