The last week in our second year of the Early Learning Kindergarten program has commenced.  I am still able to picture the children dressing in snowsuits and can't believe we are off for summer holidays already. 
The last year my partner and I spent vigorously working to improve the program we were providing to our group of children.  Us both being relatively new to providing the ELK program and working together for the first time was a rewarding challenge and amazing opportunity for growth.  My first year of the program was much the same; the four of us in our ELK department worked hard towards making small steps along our journey together to meld Early Childhood Educator perspectives with Kindergarten Teacher perspectives and provide a high-quality program for our children and families.  

We've experienced many courageous conversations, successes (and mistakes), aha!-moments, team-bonding, very good times and some very trying times.  I feel like the learning in our classroom for all of us is continuous and ongoing, and I am grateful to have a group of children to teach me so much.

I feel so lucky now to be able to dive into new and deep learning with a group of professionals and colleagues and an instructor and facilitator I admire.  I am very optimistic about our program and hopeful that I am going to learn things that will benefit my practice and therefore our children and their classroom and most importantly in the children's families.  I feel that I am on the brink of putting a lot of scattered learning from the last two years into a solid shape.  

Reading Lotje's welcome email was like a fire-starter for me.  Being new to the education system I am learning much about what can be a slow pace of progress and change in underlying concepts of education.  It is easy to become detached from advocacy and strong belief in new ideas (such as Dr. Charles Pascal's HUB model of a school system).  However knowing that there are slow movements afoot to improve how we support early learners and their families is inspiring and motivating.  It reinvigorates my desire to do more. 

I am looking forward to continuing on my journey this summer and next year and the next five years as I learn as much as I can about how to make a significant contribution to progress in the field of early learning and education.