Past Events
Fostering Inquiry, Play & Well-Being with Nature
October 25, 2024
Amber Trails School
Winnipeg, Mb.
Keynote Address: Tasha Spillet
Land as Relative and Classroom
As an Indigenous land-based educator, Dr. Tasha Spillett emphasizes the importance of viewing the land as both a relative and a classroom. Drawing from her doctoral work on gender within Indigenous land-based education, she will highlight the deep connection between land, culture, and identity. Spillett advocates for revitalizing Indigenous knowledge through land-based education, fostering reciprocity, respect, and stewardship. Spillett underscores the value of holistic, experiential learning that honors Indigenous knowledge systems, especially in urban areas where connections to land may be more challenging. Land-based education helps students build meaningful relationships with the land, fostering a sense of belonging and responsibility to future generations. Through her work, Spillett promotes this approach as a pathway to decolonization and Indigenous resurgence, empowering young people to reclaim and revitalize their cultural heritage.
Tasha Spillett - PhD (she/her/hers) is a New York Times bestselling author who draws her strength from her Indigenous (Cree) and Trinidadian bloodlines. She is also a celebrated educator, scholar and public speaker. Tasha is most heart-tied to contributing to community-led work that centers the liberation of Indigenous women and women of color and creating a world that affirms the joy and well-being of children.
Rethinking Ordinary Objects and Everyday Encounters: Celebrating Multimodal Meaning-Making Practices Among Young Children
Seemingly random items, unstructured moments, and unexpected encounters can spark rich learning opportunities and unlimited exploration for young children. In this presentation, children’s meaning making practices at different times and in various places are honoured and discussed in relation to the pedagogy of multiliteracies. Participants will consider and examine multiple forms and functions of meaning. The goal is to seek and highlight the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Download the AGM Reports: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0589/4710/9041/files/2024_Compiled_AGM_reports.pdf?v=1716336233
See the election report for the National Board positions that are up for re-election in 2024.
Bio:
Xiaoxiao Du is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. She is sincerely interested in children’s multilingual, multicultural, and multimodal meaning making practices across time and space. She has worked with and supported diverse learners and their families as well as early childhood educators and teachers in different settings.
We are excited to share news of an exciting upcoming professional learning series "Leaning into the Edge: Collective Renderings of Pedagogical Imaginings in Early Childhood Education and Care".
In April 2021, Canada’s federal government announced its plan to support a Canadian childcare system, but to this day, we don’t really know what such a system would look like. In Canada, responsibilities for early education and care are fragmented, notably lacking a pedagogical vision or how we might rethink the concept of care in response to the world's present conditions. Moreover, despite an increase in rhetoric about “recruitment and retention,” the identity of the early childhood educator and the working conditions of persons working in the field do not reflect the complexity of the role.
In response to our current reality, this colloquium series brings together critical and creative voices of researchers and educators who are actively engaged in speculative exploration of possible futures for early childhood education and care to change the narratives within which early education and care are entrapped.
The Canadian Association for Young Children (CAYC) is creating spaces for dialogues for co-thinking, co-speculating, co-imagining and co-envisioning pedagogical possibilities for early childhood education and care. The colloquium extends across different temporalities encompassing a series of virtual encounters leading to a face-to-face gathering in Fall 2024 (details TBA).
The first event in the series is the workshop, "Found Objects, New Worlds: Speculative Storytelling for Early Childhood Education", with Emily Ashton and Brittany Tomin, happening Thursday, February 29th 2024 3:00 pm PT/6:00 ET. All CAYC members can attend this workshop at no cost. More information can be found at this link and in the attached poster. To register for this event, you will need to become a member of the CAYC today! Once you become a member you will be sent the registration link for this workshop.
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Re/Thinking Stories: December 5, 2023
Presenter Bios
Ali Morrow graduated from Capilano University’s Early Childhood Care & Education degree program and is now an educator in an outdoor classroom which was intentionally cultivated on campus. She is born and raised on the west coast, specifically growing up on the traditional, unceded, ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the x-ma@kwayam (Musqueam), Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish), and Satilwatar/Selllwituth (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Ali is devoted to thinking deeply about inclusive spaces, and also holds a passion for attending to (un)common, contextual lifeworlds through heart-felt-sensing, and experimenting with(in) language and reflective textual interpretations.
Veronica Ibanez is a mother, an educator, and an alumnus of Capilano University's Early Childhood Care & Education. Degree program: She has become deeply inspired by place-conscious pedagogies and artistic practices and works at Rosedale Playschool in Calgary. She also finds inspiration in designing environments that provoke curiosity and wonder, and in her free time, she enjoys creating children's stories. Veronica feels blessed to have met so many children during her 18 years of experience as an early childhood educator who taught her to see a new world through their eyes.
CAYC AGM 2023:
Public Talk @ 6:30
Followed by AGM @ 7:30
May 25th, 2023
5:30-7:00 CDT
9:00-10:30 Nfld
7:30-9:00 Atlantic
6:30-8:00 Eastern
4:30-6:00 Mountain
3:30-5:00 Pacific
Click Here to download the CAYC 2023 AGM Agenda Package.
Featured Presenters:
Luis Velasquez
My name is Luis Velasquez, I work as a Preschool Educator at Oak at Holy Trinity Early Childhood Learning Centre in Sarnia, Ontario and I have been with London Bridge since 2013. Sharing a little bit about myself, I was born in Colombia and years ago, I had the opportunity to work in a community setting with children diagnosed with Down Syndrome during one of my University work placements as a Social Communicator and Journalist. This was the most rewarding experience I had ever had and then, when I moved to Canada, I decided to follow my heart, so I learned English and then, I became a Developmental Services worker. I worked with both adults and children with different diagnosis, but it was during this stage in my life when I discover my real passion for working with children in general, so pursued my Early Childhood Education Diploma. |
Cassandra Douglas
Cassandra Douglas has worked for London Bridge Childcare Services in different roles over a span of 10 years, the last 2 years spent as a pedagogical leader within the organization. She is a graduate from Fanshawe College in both the ECE and DSW programs. Cassandra names working with children as a personal calling as she truly values the connections made through relationships and care practices. Growing up with a brother with special needs instilled a passion for advocating for inclusion and growing cultures of diversity in educational environments. In working with London Bridge, she has been able to continue her learning and growth in this passion. She works closely with centres throughout London Bridge to re imagine our environments and practices to consider the Rights and needs of ALL children. This work has led to a collaboration with others in the working community to create a Children’s Rights Committee. This is a space where educators come together to reflect on practices and learn from others in the work towards supporting the rights of children and families in our care. Cassandra believes Early Childhood learning environments are an important space in our society but we do not do this work in isolation. She strives to make connections beyond the centre and organization she works in to learn and grow alongside others in the field. |
Charlotte Prince
Charlotte is a Registered Early Childhood Educator working as the Centre Director and Pedagogical Lead at London Bridge Child Care Services, Adelaide ECLC. Charlotte has a passion for studying and rethinking our traditional practices alongside educators and young children. As a Developmental Service Worker, Charlotte also feels a deep responsibility to supporting children’s rights and holds equity and inclusion in the highest regard. She enjoys supporting others in their growth and plays an active role in community professional learning initiatives through the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario. |
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The Canadian Association for Young Children
Presents:
Seeing the Forest and The Trees
Online Presentation by Speaker Laura Molyneux
Thursday, March 2nd 2023 | 6:30 - 7:30pm EST
View a video recording of this event here.
Fitting Forest and Nature Schools into the childcare landscape in Canada.
This presentation will look at the benefits and barriers of including outdoor, play and place based programs into regulated childcare policy. While some provinces have regulated Forest and Nature School within existing regulations, Newfoundland and Labrador is seeking to create unique legislative requirements for Forest and Nature Schools highlighting the unique skills of practitioners and treating our inspectors and educators the same way we treat our children - as capable and competent individuals.
Laura Molyneux (She/her) is the co-founder of Cloudberry Forest School in St John's NL. Cloudberry is a place-based early years program with programs for children and families 18 months to adult as well as a teaching site for ECE students and in-service educators and has been operating since 2014. Over the past 2 years Cloudberry has been working alongside the provincial department of education creating a pilot program and research space to explore the barriers and benefits to licensing outdoor play programs and "outside the fence" policies to support risky play, natural and loose parts but more importantly informing policy makers to consider reflective policy making that benefits children, adults, inspectors and policy makers.
Land Acknowledgement: Cloudberry Forest School respectfully acknowledges the Island of Ktaqamkuk, the land on which we gather, work, and play as the ancestral and unceded homelands of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq. We also recognize Innu of Nitassinan and the Inuit of Nunatsiavut and Nunatukavut. Place and land are integrated into the core of the work that we do and we strive to continue to improve on the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and to learn from land as much as we learn on it.
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The Canadian Association for Young Children
Presents:
A book talk with co-editor,
Katya Adamov Ferguson
Resurgence: Engaging with Indigenous Narratives & Cultural Expressions, In & Beyond the Classroom
February 9, 2023
6:00 - 7:30 PM
Helen and Bill Norrie Library - 15 Poseidon Bay
Resurgence is an inspiring collection of contemporary Indigenous poetry, art, and narratives that guides teachers in bridging existing K–12 curricula with Indigenous voices & pedagogies. Resurgence was co-edited by Anicinaabe educator Christine M’Lot and settler educator Katya Adamov Ferguson.
This session introduces Resurgence as a new teaching resource that gives creative starting points for critical engagement with Indigenous works. Katya will share ideas for how to centre Indigenous multimodal expressions and present the inspiration for the Footbridge Framework as a guide for teachers K-12.
Katya Adamov Ferguson -- PhD candidate, interdisciplinary artist, & early years support teacher. Katya is a long-serving member of CAYC and is passionate about learning alongside her two young children.
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Join the Canadian Association for Young Children Rethinking Stories Series
Exploring Children’s Experiences of Gender and Heteronormative Disruptive Texts in Early Years Classrooms
Date: December 8, 2022
Nicole Trottier is an early years teacher working to disrupt gender norms. In this session, she will share her research that sought to disrupt dominant gender and heteronormative discourses in her grade two classroom. She will share her experiences as a teacher-researcher, her findings, and the criteria questions she developed for educators when considering the quality and potential of disruptive texts for young children.
View a video recording of this event here.
See the list of “disruptive texts” provided at the session here.
