Author Archives: yesjesswoodsgmailcom

Thanks for showing up for my latest blog post!  In this post, I will reveal to you a process of my own reflective practice, as I consider the ways I am showing up and coming across in early years spaces.  I will reflect on anti-Black racism, and speculate on how it might be showing upContinue reading “Witnessing my whiteness at the EarlyON”

When ECEs arrive at a staff meeting, a problem-solving session about a struggling child, or a workshop (which they are attending very regularly), no one wastes any time. They start pushing tables and chairs into a meeting format, conversing about the day or giving each other reminders for tomorrow, bantering loudly over the sounds ofContinue reading “ECE Appreciation Day 2025: A Tribute to ECEs”

In the early years and primary grades, the term responsive has become a standard descriptor for effective educators.   At the same time, it seems rare that anyone ever attempts to define this word.  On first thought, we could say that being responsive means literally responding to children’s many communications in a present, thorough and fully-engagedContinue reading “What does it mean to be RESPONSIVE?”

February 28th, 2025 In my previous blog post on co-regulation called “Coregulation: Reflecting on my own habits”, I explained that when I teach about co-regulation, I imagine it on a spectrum like this: Reflecting on my personal tendencies throughout that post, I explained how and why I think I habitually fell too far towards “adultContinue reading “Co-regulation: Bringing our habits to consciousness”

Cover photo for this post: Parents and children at High Park Alternative School [Image]. (N.d.). URL https://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/highparkalt/Parents JESS WOODS, December 19th, 2023 One day this past spring, on my way out of High Park, I ran into a group of school agers headed down a wooded path after a teacher.  It was a few days afterContinue reading “Prescribed burns in so-called-High Park: Decentering colonial narratives in inquiry-based learning PART 1”

November 20, 2023 As you read the following case study, I invite you to stay present in your body as you imagine yourself in this situation.  Instead of mapping ideas that “we know”, or “have learned” onto this case study – instead of engaging in a rational process of deciphering what the main character “shouldContinue reading “Co-regulation: Reflecting on my own habits”