Category: EarlyON

Please join us!

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We are excited to be collaborating with some of our local service providers to offer Virtual Tours of your early learning spaces. This will be an opportunity for programs to share their strengths and the incredible work that they do for the children and families in our District. What brings you joy in your program? We are looking for volunteers who would be interested in giving a tour of their environments, services, or share how you practice Early Childhood Education in your settings.

These tours will be less than an hour with some time at the end for questions and conversation. The format of the tour is up to you. For example, we can go live, pre-record videos, create a PowerPoint, present pedagogical documentation, or any other format you can imagine!  

Do you need a better understanding before diving in?! Join us for our first tour with Abiinojiishiik-amino-yawook EarlyON Centre on Tuesday, March 29 from 10-11am!

Our hope is to share all of your beautiful spaces. Let us know if you are interested by e-mailing us at early.years@tbdssab.ca!   

COMBAT ANTI-BLACK RACISM

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“There are many actions we can and must take to start to eliminate anti-Black racism in Canada and drive lasting change. It starts on the individual level, where we encourage Canadians to speak up, identify inequities, commit to action, and become allies in the movement for change.” – Civic Action, 2020

Three Things You Can Do To Help Combat Anti-Black Racism

Source: » anti-Black Racism Social Action Cards from Centennial College and City of Toronto

 1. Acknowledge how racism has shaped you

Racism is like an invisible gas that we all breathe. Whether we benefit from it or internalize messages that harm us, racism shapes our thinking and actions, often unconsciously, even if we don’t want it to. Once we acknowledge that, we can begin to explore how we contribute to the problem and what we might do to stop it.

2. Educate yourself

Become aware of the holes in your knowledge. Once you are aware of the holes, it is your responsibility to begin filling them in.

3. Speak up and do your part

Too often, the job of speaking out against racism is left to people of colour. This is unfair. To be effective, all people must be willing to do a good part of the heavy lifting.

EXCITING EVENTS COMING UP!

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Make sure to check out our calendar for upcoming events. Some exciting plans we have in store are:

  • Virtual Trivia Night! – Wednesday, February 23 from 7-8pm [we’ve got PRIZES!}
  • Virtual Tour with Abiinojiishiik-amino-yawook EarlyON Centre – Tuesday, March 29 from 10-11am

Don’t forget to register! You can visit the Calendar for more details, or register HERE.

Anti-Black Racism in Canada

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“Black History Month in Canada is essential since it educates Canadians. Few Canadians know that slavery once existed in Canada, or that many of the British Loyalists who came here after the American Revolution were Black. They do not know that segregation was accepted in Canada well into the 1960s. It is a reminder to all Canadians that racism is not a matter just of the past.” – (Donald H. Oliver, 2008)

Despite how far society has come, anti-Black racism remains an ongoing issue in Canada. A 2020 report from Civic Action sheds light on the pervasive reality of anti-Black racism in Canada and what to do about it.

To encourage ongoing learning in honour of Black History Month, we encourage you to read this report to better understand how anti-Black racism continues to impact Black Canadians: https://www.bcg.com/en-ca/publications/2020/reality-of-anti-black-racism-in-canada

Some highlights from the report include:

  • Black students are four times more likely to be expelled from a Toronto high school than White students
  • Black university graduates earn only 80 cents for every dollar earned by White university graduates – despite having the same credentials
  • Black women are three times less likely to have a family doctor than non-racialized women in Ontario

For more information about the pervasive issue of anti-Black racism in Canada, you can read the Civic Action report or check out the following educational resource from the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion on the history of race relations in Canada: https://ccdi.ca/media/2342/20200804-toolkit-a-brief-history-of-race-relations-in-canada.pdf

Black History Month

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February is Black History Month. Black history in Canada has not always been celebrated or highlighted. Though this month is an important time to reflect on, learn about, and address anti-black racism, it is also an important time to recognize and celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Black Canadians and their communities who, throughout history, have done so much to make Canada the culturally diverse, compassionate, and prosperous nation it is today.

Black History Month offers an important opportunity to celebrate and amplify Black voices while continuing to address racism and embrace anti-racism in our lives. There are many ways we can celebrate Black Canadians everyday – including supporting Black-owned businesses, immersing yourself in storytelling and culture while supporting Black storytellers, and learning more about the rich history and contributions of Black Canadians.

If you’re not quite sure where to start, here are some suggestions:

For more information about Black History Month in Canada, visit:

Tell Us About Yourself!

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We apologize! Our form wasn’t working correctly, but we have fixed the issue!
We want to recognize and celebrate all of the incredible people that are working to support child care and early years — you included! Please take a moment to tell us a bit about yourself so that we can feature you on our Child Care and Early Years’ Portal.

Click HERE to complete the form and receive a SUPERSTAR shoutout on the Portal!

Piazza ORA 2022: The role of the teacher

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The TBDSSAB pedagogical team will be participating in this year’s Piazza ORA (see information below). We encourage you to reach out to us if you are interested in this opportunity; a group of 5 or more from our community will allow everyone to receive a discounted rate. The focus this year is “Co-researcher, designer, provocateur: The role of the teacher”, more information about the content will be presented soon!

“In response to enthusiastic response from last year’s participants, ORA is providing another extraordinary opportunity to engage with Tiziana Filippini, pedagogista from Reggio Emilia, over the course of four encounters, in Piazza ORA 2022.

Embracing an image of the child that is central to the philosophy that is lived every day in the infant-toddler centres and preschools in Reggio Emilia (and that inspired our provincial pedagogy in Ontario) requires us to also embrace a corresponding image of the educator.  This is a teacher who can enter into a kind of intellectual dialogue with a group of children, who will recognize their questions and theories and strategies.  Tiziana Filippini wrote “We feel that the teacher must be involved within the child’s exploring procedure, if the teacher wants to understand how to be the organizer and provoker of occasions, on the one hand, and co-actor in discoveries, on the other”.  In this, our third Piazza ORA series, we will explore with Tiziana what it means to meet the view of the child to which we aspire, to create contexts for learning that recognize each child’s uniqueness within relationships, keeping in mind what kind of human being and what kind of planet we want.

Active engagement with ideas and translation to practice is essential for deeper understanding, so the series includes interim gatherings with break-out sessions where participants can share how their changing views are affecting what they are noticing, what they are curious about, what they are trying and understanding differently. The practice may be with children or with adults who are working with children. Documentation-in-the-works will be shared among participants to invite other perspectives.

There will be four 2-hour ZOOM gatherings with Tiziana, one per month beginning in early March, a “pre-series gathering” of participants and pedagogical companions to set the stage, and four interim gatherings. We are grateful that again this year, Reggio Children will make a recording of the gatherings with Tiziana available to registrants online for a period of time following the live gathering in order to make it possible for everyone to participate, regardless of work schedule. This makes the series more accessible to everyone. The gatherings with Tiziana take place from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. and interim gatherings will be scheduled in the evening.

ORA’s mission is to walk with courageous educators who inhabit a place of hope and optimism, who listen and act with intelligence and compassion, and always in relationship with…. We are in dialogue with the educators in Reggio Emilia, and exist to organize opportunities to come together to interrogate our assumptions about children, educators, families, communities, and the places we inhabit, and to recognize and challenge our discourses so we can incline toward the level of joy, creativity, relationship, complexity and engagement that is the “everyday utopia” of Reggio Emilia’s education and cultural project.”

Piazza ORA 2022 Dates

February 22 6:30-7:30 pm (introduction)
March 1 12:30-2:30 pm (gathering with Tiziana)
March 8 6:30-8:00 (interim session)
April 5 12:30-2:30 pm (gathering with Tiziana)
April 12 6:30-8:00 (interim session)
May 3 12:30-2:30 pm (gathering with Tiziana)
May 10 6:30-8:00 (interim session)
May 31 12:30-2:30 pm (gathering with Tiziana)
June 7 6:30-8:00 (interim session)

All participants who are interested in participating in these gatherings will have to be a member of the Ontario Reggio Association which comes at a minimum cost of $50 for the person or organization.

Please click HERE and complete the PD Registration form to express your interest in joining us. The deadline to join the TBDSSAB group is Tuesday, February 1st. If you have any questions, please contact us at early.years@tbdssab.ca.