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Just as illness can sometimes heal us, some have speculated an unexpected silver lining of COVID-19 may be an invigoration of a prosocial vision as the 'new normal' necessitates new ways of thinking and doing things differently across society and in preschool. This article explores this and reports survey research completed with preschool practitioners post-lockdown across several locations in England and the USA. This repeated a previous survey we did in 2014 which found notable levels of 'social distancing' -- that is restrictions in social connection between preschool practitioners and children and their parents in poverty. Yet, since 2014 with austerity and then COVID-19, the pressure, and need, for prosocial preschool systems to work flexibly and inclusively with children and families in poverty has never been greater. We report findings from our 2021 survey and raise some concerns in the context of COVID-19 recovery policies emerging across both countries post-lockdown.

Parent-practitioner engagement in the early years has become a key policy in remediating the negative effects of poverty upon children's early educational outcomes. Although this approach is shared across several developed countries, there has been limited attention upon how practitioners think about poverty and their engagement with parents in poverty. Our mixed methods study in England and the USA provides rare evidence addressing these issues. Among our practitioners in both countries 'parent blame' for poverty featured to some extent in the accounts of a majority of practitioners. We also found a relationship between the extent to which our practitioners felt individual parents are culpable for poverty and their reporting of more negative engagement with parents -- particularly in England. We claim this is worthy of further study as a potential threat to the 'child-parent-practitioner triangle' and to remediation of poverty's effects within early educational contexts.

Living in poverty disadvantages young children reducing school readiness. "Pedagogy of listening" can potentially support resilience remediating against poverty's negative effects. Little, though, is known about how early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners work with children in poverty and the attainment gap between such children and their peers remains significant within England and the US. This article reports research using a mixed methodology which explored these issues in localities across both these countries. We argue a dominant technocratic model of early years provision in these contexts creates normalisation and diversity reduction. This, and austerity measures, stymie pedagogical space and practice organising out listening to children in poverty. We suggest this may help explain why the attainment gap remains so stubbornly resistant to reduction across these countries.

The importance of a good parent-teacher relationship has been well documented. The author presents a guide to getting parent-teacher relationships started in the right direction and then maximizing the benefits of their interactions.

This article describes "thematic teaching," defined as a process of integrating and linking multiple elements of a curriculum in an ongoing exploration of many different aspects of a topic or subject. Thematic teaching is about students actively constructing their own knowledge. In classrooms where successful thematic work is in progress, ownership of learning is in the hands and minds of the students. This article suggests how to choose a theme, describes the teacher's role as that of an observer and guide, and examines the value of group explorations for students to share what they discover. The spirit of thematic teaching is what it is all about---finding the magnet, the twist, or the point at which students cannot wait to get to school to continue their activities.

Investigated the agreement and stability of three teacher rating scales used to assess attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in preschoolers. Found that agreement among the rating scales and interrater agreement between teacher and assistant teacher ratings yielded noticeably stronger correlations at elementary school than at preschool 4 years earlier. Over the 4-year period, there was a significant decrease in the number of children identified as potential ADHD risks. (Author/KB)

Describes an artist-in-residence experience at a private Montessori school. Discusses the Montessori philosophy regarding art education, the artist's challenge to the Montessori approach, and art experiences. Asserts that the artist-in-residence demonstrated a merging of the precepts of the Reggio Emilia approach, Montessori principles, and the Project Approach. (KB)

To increase its counselor retention rate, a New York camp developed a course for counselors that focuses on leadership training and earns participants college credit. The class teaches situational leadership and focuses on the camper, not the activity. Course curriculum and objectives, course elements, and lessons learned about program improvement are discussed. (TD)