Fellow Bloggers

I love language, children's stories, narrative-play (a method I use of narrating mine and my student's activities to help them develop their language skills in context), and anything else related to words. Today, I hit the blogger's jackpot. I discovered Playing With Words 365, a blog that is entirely dedicated to early childhood language development. Mom and writer, Katie, seems to have a very similar approach to education as I do, constantly bringing her kids outside to explore and allowing her little ones to take charge of their own learning, emergent curriculum style. Great blog filled with inspiration and resources.

Alfie Kohn has a blog! Alfie Kohn is by far my greatest influence when it comes to philosophy of education. I have so far read 4 of his books and just started another. His ideas are just make sense in every way. This guy deserves Arne Duncan's job as the Secretary of Education. Our school's would finally see the kind of transformation our children deserve.

Check out Teacher Tom's blog. I have been following Teacher Tom from the very beginning of my career as a preschool teacher. My Lauren owner/director of Bella Mente introduced me to this Seattle preschool blogger who offers daily wisdom from his cooperative, play-based preschool program in Woodland Park. He has written on just about every subject related to education and never ceases to leave me feeling inspired and encouraged to keep working toward a better future for all students of all ages.

I am relatively new to Spin Education and I discovered it through the Independent Project's Facebook page, which I joined a few months ago to connect with other educators and students working toward the same transformation of public education as I am. David Cutler, a high school teacher in Florida is the founder of this website dedicated to providing a space for educators to share ideas and continue their own learning in the field of education. He has interviewed some amazing people and usually offers a downloadable podcast of his interviews. Spin Education is packed full of resources, interesting articles, and thought-provoking questions that always leave me excited about all there is still to learn and where education is headed in the quickly approaching future.


Lori Pickert is a former Reggio preschool-grade 3 owner/director turned writer and homeschool guru. Her book, pictured to the left, is packed full of inspiration and ideas for parents and teachers alike, homeschooling or not. Her website and Camp Creek Blog is just as fantastic. I follow the Project-Based Homeschooling page on Facebook and Lori's posts are always the ones that get me motivated to get to work; they make me think, make me shout out and enthusiastic "yes!" knowing that someone so completely "gets it." With people like Lori Pickert out there I know the future of education, at home and at school is headed in the right direction. She is an admirable leader and an increasingly important voice in education today. Definitely check out her stuff, you won't be disappointed! Lori also has a Pinterest page with over 1000 pins to provide inspiration for teacher and parents all over the internet.

Healthy Child Healthy World is a California-based non-profit organization that offers tons of resources and information for parents and those who work with children. They also happen to have a really great blog that I have been thoroughly enjoying lately. Check it out, and the rest of the website for tons of inspiration and ideas that fall under the large umbrella term of "healthy living" in regards to children.

Jean Van't Hul is the author of the arts & creativity kid blog, The Artful Parent, which is filled with fun arts and craft ideas for children and parents/early-ed teachers. Not only does she provide a great website filled with resources and inspiration for projects, but she also wrote a book, which I haven't had the pleasure of reading yet, but am excited to check out as soon as I get the chance. Luckily for us, Jean is also super into Pinterest and you can check out all of her inspiration at the Artful Parent's page here. This is an especially great blog to follow for parents, though there is plenty of inspiration for teachers and anyone else who regularly works with or for young children. Check out her book here on Amazon.