Guest Bio:
Denita Dinger has traveled the globe since 2009 leading empowering and inspiring keynotes and workshops to all sorts of adults with children in their lives. As her work with children in her former family child care program — and current, child-led, multi-age school — has evolved, so has her message. What began as her first consulting company, Play Counts, evolved to a name that better reflects her message: Listen to the Children.
Denita’s work includes operating Kaleidoscope Play School (a three-morning-a-week, child-led, ages 2-10 school), coaching, keynotes, workshops, and online training. She doesn’t just talk the talk; she walks the walk. Her trainings are inspired by what she learns from children. She has co-authored three books:
Let Them Play: An Early Childhood UNcurriculum,
Let's Play, and
Let's All Play.
Host Bio:
“Teacher Tom” Hobson is an early childhood educator, international speaker, education consultant, teacher of teachers, parent educator, and author. He is best known, however, for his namesake blog,
Teacher Tom's Blog, where he has posted daily for over a decade, chronicling the life and times of his little preschool in the rain-soaked Pacific Northwest corner of the USA.
For nearly two decades, Teacher Tom was the sole employee of the Woodland Park Cooperative School, a parent-owned and operated school knit together by Teacher Tom's democratic, progressive play-based pedagogy. Teacher Tom came into teaching through the backdoor, so to speak, having enrolled his own child in a cooperative preschool, where he began working daily in his daughter's classroom as an assistant teacher under the tutelage of veteran educators — although he'll be the first to tell you that most of what he learned came from the children themselves. When it was time for his daughter to move on, he “stayed behind.”
Today, Teacher Tom shares his play-based pedagogy through online e-courses for early childhood educators; produces online early childhood conferences; consults with organizations about his “Family Schools” program; and inspires early-years audiences around the world (Greece, UK, Iceland, Australia, China, Vietnam, New Zealand, Canada, and across the US) both virtually and in-person with his engaging views on early childhood education, play, and pedagogy.
He was pressured by his blog readers into authoring his first book, aptly named
Teacher Tom’s First Book, and is thrilled about the 2023 release of
Teacher Tom’s Second Book.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Mirasee Teacher Tom’s website:
TeacherTomsWorld.com Denita's website:
Kaleidoscope Play SchoolDenita’s Facebook Page:
Listen to the ChildrenDenita's Intagram Page:
@listen.tothechildrenDenita's Linkedin Page:
Denita DingerLet's Play: (Un)Curriculum Early Learning Adventures Book
Peter GrayCredits:
Host: Teacher Tom Hobson
Producer: Michi Lantz
Supervising Producer: Cynthia Lamb
Audio Editor: Marvin del Rosario
Executive Producer: Danny Iny
Music Soundscape:
Chad Michael Snavely Making our hosts sound great:
Home Brew Audio Music credits:
Track Title:
Blueberry Jam Jam
Artist: Simen Andreas
Writer: Simen Knudsen
Publisher:
A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION Track Title:
Childlike Wonder
Artist: Reveille
Writer: Brendan St. Gelais
Publisher:
A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION Track Title:
Tick Tock
Artist: Ivy Bakes
Writer: Erick Pena
Publisher:
A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION Special effects credits:
24990513_birds-chirping_by_promission used with permission of the author and under license by AudioJungle/Envato Market.
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Episode transcript: Rethinking Kindergarten Readiness (Denita Dinger).