The Curious Educator Collective

September affirmations for ECEs, but the real ones.

Not the laminated poster version. The version that actually gets you through week two, when the schedule’s still shifting and half the group cries at drop-off and you’re washing the same hands for the four hundredth time.

Separation anxiety isn’t a review of your classroom. Routines that haven’t clicked yet aren’t a red flag. And your room doesn’t need to be Pinterest-ready by the second day back for it to be a good room.

You’re allowed to love this work and still be tired. Still be underpaid for it. Still say no to one more thing this month, because saying no is how you stay in it long enough to keep showing up.

Swipe through and take the one you need today. Save this for the next hard morning. I see you and believe in you ❤️☀️

You’ve spent years thinking the loud ones are the leaders.

The ones who talk in every meeting. Who get the recognition, the shoutout, the “you’re such a natural leader” comments.

And you kept waiting to become that.

But you were never supposed to be the lead singer. You were the drummer the whole time. The one holding the tempo so everyone else could find their rhythm. The one who shows up on the hard Tuesday and the easy Thursday and never makes it about her.

Pedagogical leadership isn’t loud. It’s steady.

If you’ve been quietly leading from the back, holding the beat so someone else could take the verse, this one’s for you.

Every time you write down what a child said, you’re arguing they were worth listening to.

That’s not a soft claim. Pedagogical documentation is political the second you decide whose words make it onto the wall and whose don’t. Who gets a photo taken mid-thought and who gets managed through the moment instead. Who becomes the evidence of learning happening and who becomes a behavior to redirect.

I think about this every time I pick up a camera or a notebook in a classroom. What am I choosing to notice. What am I choosing to skip past because it’s easier or faster or doesn’t fit the story I already had in my head about that child.

Documentation isn’t neutral record-keeping. It’s a value statement about who counts.

Eight books didn't hand me a finished practice. They handed me different questions.

I keep coming back to these when I need to check myself before walking into a new room, a new consulting engagement, a new conversation with a director who's asking me the hard stuff. Freire cracked it open first, the idea that education is never neutral. hooks gave me the language for what a room built on love actually feels like versus one built on control. Kimmerer isn't an ECE book at all and might still be the one that shaped my outdoor practice the most.

And Chris. A mentor who taught me how to sit in discomfort instead of rushing past it. That's the part no book can do for you.

This isn't a syllabus. It's a record of the moments I had to unlearn something before I could teach anything, and I'm still not done.

What's the book that changed how you show up in your room? Tell me below, I'm always looking for the next one.

Time is the barrier almost every ECE names first, and for good reason. You cannot slow down for documentation when the day was never built with slowness in mind.

That comment on my last reel said it plainly. Between diaper changes and intake paperwork and managing a team, where is the time supposed to come from. If that is your reality, believe it. Understaffing, low wages, and no paid non-contact hours are not a mindset problem you can think your way out of. That is the job as it is currently funded.

So this is not a post about finding more hours. It is about what the hours you already have are actually for.

Swipe for what that can look like when the day is already full

Every ECE has a meeting that keeps them up the night before. This one’s mine.

I’ve been on both ends of this, too vague to actually help a family and too clinical to feel human. Fifteen years and hundreds of these conversations later, here’s what actually works: relationship first, seeking first to understand , and never ending on the concern. End on the plan.

But here’s the thing. Educators can only bring the version of this work they’ve been supported to bring. If your team is winging these conversations with no framework, no practice, no backup, that’s not a “them” problem. That’s a support gap.

Stay tuned. I'll be sharing an upcoming post on what I think every child care organization needs to have in place so these conversations don’t fall entirely on one educator’s shoulders in the moment.

Save this for the next time your stomach drops before a family meeting. 🤍