So...... after many months of humming and hawing, thinking of excuses and generally avoiding this, I have decided to start writing. I'm still working on the exact purpose of this blog. There are a few different reasons that I have been thinking about, in no particular order:

1) In order to stop all of these thoughts from rolling around in my head and interfering with my dreams and sleep habits, I can write them down and have them for others to ponder as well;

2) It will keep me accountable to myself and to my profession;

3) It will help me to engage in more professional dialogue with colleagues around the province and around the globe;

4) It scares the living bejeezers out of me and I am told repeatedly that I need to step out of my comfort zone.

5) My friend and colleague Tina (misszita.wordpress.com) issued a challenge entitled      "The #20hourproject" and it sounded to me like she was calling me out to try something new. 

A word about the name/title of the blog - somewhere in my trolling/perusal of the Twitterverse, I came across the term "mindful authenticity".  Those 2 words sparked something in me that had me thinking. So I looked up the definitions of both words:

Mindful - paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally

Authenticity - truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity and intentions.

I put the two definitions together and came up with this:

Mindful authenticity - Paying attention in the present moment to the truthfulness of origins, sincerity and intentions in a non-judgemental way.

This definition speaks to me and the way that I teach in my classroom. Each and every day, I want to pay attention, in the present moment, with each child, to his or her origins, sincerity and intentions in play, without judgement.  Easier said than done, I know, but not a bad goal to strive towards either. Posted in my classroom is the question, 

"Why this learning, for this child, at this time, in this way?" 

I try to be cognizant of this question when I interact with my students and look at ways to help them become successful. 

So, here it is. I am not guaranteeing any mind-blowing, earth shattering knowledge. I'm just writing what's on my mind and sharing interesting things that I come across that relate to Inquiry based learning, Kindergarten, Reggio-inspired learning or things that I think are kind of neat. 


Thanks for checking this out!

Mindfully yours, 
Pam