Hey there!
Taking a minute to say hello and welcome to all of you.
First of all— thank you for being here with us. We are very grateful for this community.
Who are we?
The “we” behind this Substack is Kristi Mraz and Christine Hertz Hausman. Kristi lives with her family in the LA area and Christine lives with hers in Vermont. (But if it keeps snowing she’s going to crash on Kristi’s couch for the next month).
We are former classroom teachers, professional learning facilitators, and authors. Mostly, we love a good puzzle. And, lucky for us, working with educators to create joyful, playful, responsive classrooms is one giant puzzle. Always, but especially now.
Why Substack?
We want the next iteration of our work to be just as responsive as your work in your classroom. And just as we do in the classroom, we want to create a community with a strong sense of belonging where resources can be shared, problems can be tackled, and joys can be celebrated. Substack allows us to work in a medium that centers a process, a conversation, and innovation.
Why Taproots?
Taproots are the main, central root of plants. From there, secondary and tertiary roots grow. For us, the image of the child as capable and curious and making meaning in an ever changing world is our taproot. It’s from there that our beliefs about classrooms, teaching, and learning all come. When we feel we have drifted too far astray (into the weeds?!) then we return to our taproots and ground ourselves.
Who is this Substack For?
Everyone? Our primary question of inquiry that we are pursuing right now is how can we preserve and promote a child’s right playful learning and a teacher’s right to responsive, research backed instruction in this era of education? The materials we are sharing, the experts we are listening to, and the classrooms we share stories from are our collaborators in this journey, as are you, our readers. As much as possible we share from a range of grade levels and settings, but will be primarily representing the particular challenges in public schooling. The more you are able to interact with us via substack, the more we can refine our part of the conversation.
What might you see here?
Deep dives into the environment, playful learning and explorations, and documentation.
A focus on creating emergent curriculum through playful learning.
Practical strategies for integrating play and joy into your day.
Ample connections to the research and thinking that drives the work.
Interviews with teachers and experts.
Ask us anything, questions and responses.
Book lists, materials recommendations, and links to favorite pens.
If you are interested in collaborating more with Christine or Kristi (either in person or virtually) reach out: christinehertz@gmail.com and kristimraz12@gmail.com
We’d love to hear from you.
For more on navigating our Substack, check out this video we made a few weeks ago:
Onward,
Christine & Kristi
P.S. Our hope is to keep this Substack free and accessible to all, but if you do have the means to contribute, you can support our work and help us pay the teachers we collaborate with. Thanks for considering becoming a paid subscriber.