About Todd
Todd Wanerman, MA, has contributed to the advancement of Early Childhood Education for more than 30 years. He worked with children for over 20 years at The Little School in San Francisco, where he helped develop their unique practitioner-based approach to inclusion. Todd is the author of Including One, Including All: A Guide to Relationship-Based Early Childhood Inclusion (with Leslie Roffman and Cassie Britton) and From Handprints to Hypotheses: Using the Project Approach with Toddlers and Twos.
Todd has lectured in Early Childhood Education at San Francisco State University since 2010, where he was Curriculum Director for the innovative, practice-based PATH early childhood educator program. Through his individual practice, Todd has coached and mentored countless educators in partnership with First5 programs in the Bay Area and with multiple individual programs, school districts, and even state or federal education departments around the world.
What I Am Reading
Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Educators: Relationship-based approaches that support healing and build resilience in young children by Julie Nicholson, Linda Perez, and Julie Kurtz
This is one of the most complete works on how we can draw from our ECE toolkit to respond to the effects of trauma in individual children and in general. It provides a clear overview of how trauma functions in the brain and affects development and then connects key concepts like attunement to specific best practices. Besides making the principles of trauma-informed care clear, the authors include illuminating case studies and teacher reflections to show, and not just tell, how we can apply what we have learned about ACES and trauma in our everyday care of children and families.
From Teaching to Thinking by Ann Pelo and Margie Carter
The flagship work in the Reimagining Our Work (ROW) collection - an initiative I hope every early educator will investigate! Two of our field’s leading lights boil down exactly where we are and where we need to go in ECE now in their inclusive, reflective, and passionate way. A huge inspiration for my coaching approach!
Children’s Lively Minds: Schema Theory Made Visible by Deb Curtis and Nadia Jaboneta
ECE guiding light Deb Curtis and my longtime colleague Nadia Jaboneta provide a hands-on tour through Schema Theory, showing us how children intentionally investigate hypotheses in their spontaneous exploration. Filled with illustrated stories and examples - this will unlock your understanding of how to support child-initiated acts.