BIG PICTURE Social Emotional Learning Podcast

There are thousands and thousands of incredible, kind, caring, loving, nurturing, inspired and inspiring early childhood educators … and you, dear listener, may very well be one of them.  In this episode, I’ll be introducing you to one of the brightest stars on your noble team:  Nick Terrones.  Since 2006, Nick has been working with toddlers, and with those lucky kids’ families. I c...

A major criteria I have for inviting people to share conversation with me on this, the Big Picture Social Emotional Learning podcast, is that they have rich experience and creative insights into an essential dimension of social emotional learning … EVEN if, from the common understanding or point of view, their focus area is not immediately associated with social emotional learning. Hello. My name...

This’ll be short, but I can’t NOT emphasize with you one essential suggestion from the book written by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté , upon which I focused in the last episode, and it has to do with strongly establishing ourselves (parents and/or teachers) as the primary attachment relationship for the children in our lives … in our care. I feel the strong need to emphasize this for you because we...

NOTE:  This is a non-commercial podcast.  When I recommend  or refer to books or other resources, it is done independently and very often without the source's knowledge, and always without monetary exchange.     If and when that ever changes, I will be 100% upfront about it.  Promise!!! Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers Paperba...

Do you ever get frustrated by the kids in your life (your students / your own offspring or young family members) who aren’t really taking in what you’re consistently trying to teach them about other people’s feelings? About how to get what they want without being obnoxious or breaking rules? About the best way to make friends? About sharing? About pushing? About yelling? About fighting? About ever...

Much as we all wish there was a way to protect our young students from heartache caused by the death of loved ones - relatives, friends, animals … there is no getting away from it: Life happens, and sometimes Life is rough. There are times when we are called upon to evoke our most courageous instincts to find the words and actions that will provide the greatest comfort to the young ones in our car...

Rusty May is a great example and a true inspiration for educators to understand and connect with all students, which results in more teachable time, more time on task, improved outcomes, including students’ social, emotional and behavioral skills …. all leading … so importantly: to teachers' increased job satisfaction. In this episode, Rusty May shares important insights about Attachment Theory, w...

We have a duty to teach children the ways of kindness and thoughtfulness within and throughout all of their actions. In this conversation, Wendy Zacuto deepens and expands the boundaries of what even our youngest students need and deserve to understand about the critical role of kindness in the world,  which is in so much need of more kindness, more justice, more equity, more fairness, more c...

Since 1980, Rae Pica has been an education consultant specializing in whole child development, children's physical activity, and the mind/body connection. Rae is a former college instructor, and she's the author of 19 books. Rae's experience and insights have been sought out by Sesame Street Research Department, Head Start, Centers for Disease Control, the President's Council on Physical Fitness a...

Children’s sharing is definitely a topic that belongs in any conversation about young children's Social Emotional Learning, but sharing is not a Black & White topic for Cassie Tondreau, today’s guest on the Big Picture Social Emotional Learning Podcast. In fact, sharing is SO not a Black & White topic for Cassie, that she describes sharing as a subject that is “murky” and multi-layered in...

As an early childhood college instructor, Francis Wardle sees his job as more than just teaching teachers what is best for children. He also sees a big part of his responsibility to teachers of young children as giving them advice, guidance and tools for resisting inappropriate expectations from “the powers that be,” so that teachers can most effectively advocate for what their education AND their...

Recently two dear friends of mine gave birth to their second child, and their first children, who had been the center of their parents’ attention, were having a time with adjusting to their new life with a new family member … one who required a LOT of attention and energy. Why is this topic on the Big Picture Social Emotional Learning Podcast? Because, and I’m sure you know this, social emotional...

In this our second conversation about his book, Francis deepens our understanding about How & Why the specific needs of young boys in early childhood environments must be appreciated and appropriately addressed. Francis also provides practical advice for bringing men into young boys’ learning environments in ways that fulfill everyone’s “goodness-of-fit” requirements. Francis does not in any w...

As a mother of two sons, the conversation you’re about to listen to is extremely personal for me. If you have sons or work with boys, I hope you’ll find it valuable, and I’d also like to encourage you to read the book upon which we’ll be basing our discussion. The title of the book, OH BOY! , was written by my guest, Francis Wardle, formerly a Head Start Director, a Head Start education manager, a...

Thinking is an on-going, non-stop process for all of us, starting from our earliest ages.  As educators, one of our major responsibilities is to awaken students’ awareness about how to expand their thinking processes to achieve more and more constructive outcomes … meta-cognition is an essential key. Please subscribe to this podcast, and LIKE our Facebook page:   https://www.facebook.com...

Pretty much all of us appreciate that Mr. Rogers related to young children in ways that were truly, genuinely, unquestionably meaningful to kids. Children’s innate radar for what is True, what is Real was never a stumbling block for Mr. Rogers… because connecting with children, with their hearts, with their spirits was as natural to him as breathing … because, truly, he “saw” each child he met, sa...

Jordan’s perspective is profoundly respectful of the kids he works with, (even, and perhaps especially, the so-called ‘troublemakers’). The foundational philosophy of Jordan’s approach is that kids, all kids, have everything they need to succeed… within themselves… and he’s just there to help them bring it out from within themselves… which is why our conversation eventually came around to the most...

Documentation has been deemed necessary by the profession of early childhood education, which is why I think you'll appreciate ANN PELO's  approach to reclaiming the task  as one that is rich with potential to name and honor each child’s uniquely lived experiences of joy, grief, angst, curiosity, intelligence, their unique proclivities, and ... you know … the full range … (in addition, o...

This episode of the BIG PICTURE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING Podcast is specifically focused on upcoming Halloween celebrations, and the ways in which teachers and parents can provide thoughtful environments for children who’ve been effected by trauma, which implies that they might be, or will probably be, more sensitive to the intensity of experiences they’ll be encountering around October 31st. Kel...

As we all know, students need to feel safe before they’ll ever be able to get any real advantages from their time at school. Brenda Yoho, our guest educator on this episode of the Big Picture Social Emotional Learning podcast, is a heartfelt proponent of communicating through back-and-forth journal writing as an effective tool for establishing students’ all-important sense of safety, and equally i...

     Rusty May is a practical, deeply passionate educator, and a former basketball coach, committed to helping teachers create connected, caring, working relationships with every student. In this episode, Rusty provides us with unique and highly educated insights for interacting with even the most challenging students that walk into our schools and classrooms. Rusty was th...

CHOICES ARE GOOD for children because they create a sense  of being RESPECTED, and because legitimate choices provide the opportunity for children to move from reactionary impulsiveness to more mindful and considered evaluation of available options that are constructive, which, of course, lights up important - in fact - critical areas of neuronal development that might otherwise not get the e...

Sometimes, when something or someone is markedly different from what we’re used to, our minds automatically jump to conclusions based on something or someone we've previously encountered… or maybe just read about, or just seen on the news or even in a movie … Science explains that automatic response, which we all have - to one degree or another, as the brain’s attempt to maintain a sense of order...

There are so many ways to  build healthy belonging in schools... ways that require little to no formal training in order to implement.  This episode suggests just a few of the wide-ranging options available: Therapy dogs in the classroom are dogs specially trained to provide both physical and emotional health benefits for students. According to one  study published by the National I...

Linda Glaser, a former LAUSD teacher, created Community Circle LA over 7 years ago.  Linda is on fire about this program, because it’s proven to be powerfully effective at helping students, TK thru 5th grade, focus on and improve their social interactions, their emotional well being and their life skills development. Her program is uncommonly creative and wide reaching… and it is th...