History of Creative Curriculum
For over 30 years, Teaching Strategies has helped early childhood educators across the country to plan and implement content-rich, developmentally appropriate programs that support active learning and promote children’s progress in all developmental areas. For more than a decade, The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, & Twos has helped teachers understand developmentally appropriate practice and how to create daily routines and meaningful experiences that respond to children’s strengths, interests, and needs.
Today, The Creative Curriculum® is widely regarded as a forward-thinking, comprehensive, rigorously researched curriculum approach that honors creativity and respects the role that teachers play in making learning exciting and relevant for every child.
Teaching Strategies: The Creative Curriculum
Today, The Creative Curriculum® is widely regarded as a forward-thinking, comprehensive, rigorously researched curriculum approach that honors creativity and respects the role that teachers play in making learning exciting and relevant for every child.
Teaching Strategies: The Creative Curriculum
The Theory Behind The Creative Curriculum:
The Creative Curriculum’s foundation is based off the findings of six main theorists. Through their views on children, the curriculum is constructed as a guideline for how provide the best possible care and education for young children.
T. Berry Brazelton and Abraham Maslow believed that children need their basic needs met, which include safety, belonging and esteem. Erik Erikson and Stanley Greenspan focused on the necessity of having supporting, trusting relationships with adults, which increases social, emotional development. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky discussed how interactions with others are crucial in cognitive development.
The Creative Curriculum at Marquette University Childcare Center
The Creators of The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos
Diane Trister Dodge, MS, is the founder of Teaching Strategies, LLC. She is the lead author of The Creative Curriculum® and many other Teaching Strategies resources. She has been a preschool and kindergarten teacher; served as the education coordinator for Head Start and child care programs in Mississippi and Washington, D.C.; and directed national projects in education and human services. Diane served on the Governing Board of NAEYC (1990–1994) and the Center for the Child Care Workforce (1995–2002), and was a member of the D.C. Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development (1984–2009). In 2004, she received the Bank Street College Alumni Association Recognition Award for outstanding accomplishments in the field of education. In 2010, Diane was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers Hall of Fame for her lifetime contributions to education.
Kai-leé Berke, MA, is the Chief Product Officer at Teaching Strategies. She has taught and cared for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners in public, private, and Department of Defense programs. Before joining Teaching Strategies she was the program administrator for a multisite preschool organization. In addition to her local and national work as an early childhood trainer and consultant, she has served as an adjunct faculty member at Honolulu Community College and Pacific Oaks College. She is a co-author of many Teaching Strategies resources, including the Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment system; The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool; The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos; and A Trainer's Guide to The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos.
Toni Bickart, MS, is co-author of Teaching Strategies' newest products: The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool and the Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment system. She is also a co-author of Building the Primary Classroom; Math Right From the Start; Reading Right From the Start; and What Every Parent Needs to Know About 1st, 2nd & 3rd Grades. During more than 18 years at Teaching Strategies, she has been responsible for product development and production and provided professional development services, keynote speeches, and workshops at schools around the country.
Diane C. Burts, EdD, is a former preschool, Head Start, kindergarten, and university teacher, as well as professor emeritus of human ecology at Louisiana State University. She is former director of the LSU Preschool Laboratory, Grace Drews Lehmann professor, and division head of family, child, and consumer sciences. She was the endowed chair and director of the Emma Eccles Jones Center for Early Childhood Education at Utah State University. Dr. Burts is co-editor of the book Integrated Curriculum and Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Birth to Age Eight.
Cate Heroman, MEd, has worked in the field of education for over 35 years. She has been a preschool and kindergarten teacher as well as an administrator at the Louisiana Department of Education, providing leadership, training, technical assistance, and support in the areas of early childhood and elementary education. She is a co-author of many Teaching Strategies resources, including the Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment system; The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool; The Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum Assessment Toolkit for Ages 3–5; Helping Children Rebound: Strategies for Preschool Teachers After the 2005 Hurricanes; Building Your Baby’s Brain; Literacy: The Creative Curriculum Approach, and numerous others.
Sherrie Rudick has more than 25 years' experience with early childhood and Head Start programs. During that time, she has been a teacher, child development center director, licensing specialist, trainer, reviewer, materials developer, and consultant. As a trainer, she has developed and conducted both individual training sessions and training conferences on the local, regional and national levels. Sherrie has developed materials that have been distributed nationally by the Department of the Army and the Head Start Bureau. At the American Institutes for Research, she helped develop the Head Start Bureau's PRISM process, and was one of the lead trainers for the project. She was project director for training on Head Start's Moving Ahead curriculum. She is co-author of Putting the Pro in Protégé, a Guide To Mentoring in Head Start. At Teaching Strategies, she co-authored The Creative Curriculum® for Infants, Toddlers & Twos; A Trainer's Guide to The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos; The Implementation and Planning Tool for The Creative Curriculum for Infants. Toddlers & Twos; The Creative Curriculum for Family Child Care; and Teaching Strategies’ eCDA program.
Teaching Strategies: The Creative Curriculum Authors
The Creative Curriculum’s foundation is based off the findings of six main theorists. Through their views on children, the curriculum is constructed as a guideline for how provide the best possible care and education for young children.
T. Berry Brazelton and Abraham Maslow believed that children need their basic needs met, which include safety, belonging and esteem. Erik Erikson and Stanley Greenspan focused on the necessity of having supporting, trusting relationships with adults, which increases social, emotional development. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky discussed how interactions with others are crucial in cognitive development.
The Creative Curriculum at Marquette University Childcare Center
The Creators of The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos
Diane Trister Dodge, MS, is the founder of Teaching Strategies, LLC. She is the lead author of The Creative Curriculum® and many other Teaching Strategies resources. She has been a preschool and kindergarten teacher; served as the education coordinator for Head Start and child care programs in Mississippi and Washington, D.C.; and directed national projects in education and human services. Diane served on the Governing Board of NAEYC (1990–1994) and the Center for the Child Care Workforce (1995–2002), and was a member of the D.C. Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development (1984–2009). In 2004, she received the Bank Street College Alumni Association Recognition Award for outstanding accomplishments in the field of education. In 2010, Diane was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers Hall of Fame for her lifetime contributions to education.
Kai-leé Berke, MA, is the Chief Product Officer at Teaching Strategies. She has taught and cared for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners in public, private, and Department of Defense programs. Before joining Teaching Strategies she was the program administrator for a multisite preschool organization. In addition to her local and national work as an early childhood trainer and consultant, she has served as an adjunct faculty member at Honolulu Community College and Pacific Oaks College. She is a co-author of many Teaching Strategies resources, including the Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment system; The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool; The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos; and A Trainer's Guide to The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos.
Toni Bickart, MS, is co-author of Teaching Strategies' newest products: The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool and the Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment system. She is also a co-author of Building the Primary Classroom; Math Right From the Start; Reading Right From the Start; and What Every Parent Needs to Know About 1st, 2nd & 3rd Grades. During more than 18 years at Teaching Strategies, she has been responsible for product development and production and provided professional development services, keynote speeches, and workshops at schools around the country.
Diane C. Burts, EdD, is a former preschool, Head Start, kindergarten, and university teacher, as well as professor emeritus of human ecology at Louisiana State University. She is former director of the LSU Preschool Laboratory, Grace Drews Lehmann professor, and division head of family, child, and consumer sciences. She was the endowed chair and director of the Emma Eccles Jones Center for Early Childhood Education at Utah State University. Dr. Burts is co-editor of the book Integrated Curriculum and Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Birth to Age Eight.
Cate Heroman, MEd, has worked in the field of education for over 35 years. She has been a preschool and kindergarten teacher as well as an administrator at the Louisiana Department of Education, providing leadership, training, technical assistance, and support in the areas of early childhood and elementary education. She is a co-author of many Teaching Strategies resources, including the Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment system; The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool; The Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum Assessment Toolkit for Ages 3–5; Helping Children Rebound: Strategies for Preschool Teachers After the 2005 Hurricanes; Building Your Baby’s Brain; Literacy: The Creative Curriculum Approach, and numerous others.
Sherrie Rudick has more than 25 years' experience with early childhood and Head Start programs. During that time, she has been a teacher, child development center director, licensing specialist, trainer, reviewer, materials developer, and consultant. As a trainer, she has developed and conducted both individual training sessions and training conferences on the local, regional and national levels. Sherrie has developed materials that have been distributed nationally by the Department of the Army and the Head Start Bureau. At the American Institutes for Research, she helped develop the Head Start Bureau's PRISM process, and was one of the lead trainers for the project. She was project director for training on Head Start's Moving Ahead curriculum. She is co-author of Putting the Pro in Protégé, a Guide To Mentoring in Head Start. At Teaching Strategies, she co-authored The Creative Curriculum® for Infants, Toddlers & Twos; A Trainer's Guide to The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers & Twos; The Implementation and Planning Tool for The Creative Curriculum for Infants. Toddlers & Twos; The Creative Curriculum for Family Child Care; and Teaching Strategies’ eCDA program.
Teaching Strategies: The Creative Curriculum Authors