Amy Schmidtke is an experienced early educator, the director of educational practice at the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, and the editor of The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)'s new textbook, “The Intentional Teacher: Choosing the Best Strategies for Young Children’s Learning, Third Edition.”
We talked to Schmidtke about her 30-year career in early education, how she updated a valued teacher resource, and what true intentional teaching looks like in the classroom.
Q: Tell us about your career in early childhood and how it’s evolved over the years.
A. I’ve spent more than three decades learning alongside young children and the adults who care for and teach them. I’ve had the joy of teaching every age from infants to fifth graders in settings ranging from public schools to child care centers to after-school programs. Some of my favorite memories are from my own intentional teaching—watching children’s eyes light up when they discover something new, make a friend, persist through a challenge, or experience the joy of learning in community. Early childhood classrooms truly are magical places.
After 15 years in the classroom, I began coaching teachers: co-planning lessons, shaping learning environments, prompting reflection, and helping them discover the joy in their work.
Today, my focus is on systems building and program implementation in public schools. I work with teams of leaders, coaches, teachers, and family engagement staff to transform early learning environments so that both children and families thrive.
Q: What’s kept you in the field?
A. What has kept me in early childhood is simple: children and educators. Each time a child tries something brave, asks a question no one else has thought of, or makes an unexpected connection, I’m reminded why this work matters. And every time I see a teacher lean into that curiosity and nurture it, I know I am exactly where I’m meant to be.
Q: You edited the new edition of NAEYC’s “The Intentional Teacher” textbook. What does intentional teaching mean to you? What does it look like in practice?
A. To me, intentional teaching is about balancing the “both/and” of early learning: the structure of curriculum and instruction with the power of play and child-guided inquiry. It looks like a teacher who is deeply attuned to children’s interests and developmental needs, and who purposefully weaves together exploration, curiosity, and rich content learning.
In practice, this could involve designing a math or science experience that begins with a child’s question, then scaffolding it with purposeful instruction so that children gain a deep understanding and the joy of discovery.
Q: What’s it like to write and edit a learning guide like this?
A. Editing a book like this is both a challenge and a joy. The challenge comes in weaving together the lessons from researchers and the wisdom of practitioners, so the resource was deeply evidence-based and firmly grounded in the realities of classrooms. I wanted to stay true to the themes of the original edition while also bringing in new insights and approaches. I developed an outline for enriching and updating the text drawing on emerging research, current practice, and the evolving needs of today’s educators.
One of the most rewarding and challenging parts of the process was collaborating with the contributing authors. My role was to ensure their voices came through while still maintaining a consistent flow, voice, and structure across the book.
Q: What resources did you pull together?
A. I pulled from many resources: research literature, classroom observations, teacher stories, and the professional learning practices I’ve seen make a difference. What mattered most was not just collecting strategies but presenting them in a way that felt both accessible and powerful to educators working with different age groups and in different contexts.
At the heart of it all, I wanted the book to highlight what intentional teaching is really about: joy.
Q: How does this version expand upon previous editions?
A. This third edition expands on the original vision by emphasizing intentional teaching that balances rich content learning with children’s agency and exploration. Because the last edition was published a decade ago, it was vital to add new research, updated examples, and fresh strategies that reflect the realities of today’s classrooms and the evolving needs of children and educators.
Q: What was important for you to include?
A. What mattered most to me was highlighting practices that truly place children at the center: knowing each child well, creating playful and content-rich environments, and ensuring meaningful inclusion for children with disabilities and multilingual learners.
Over the past 10 years, our field has gained a deeper understanding of how young children make sense of complex ideas in math, literacy, science, and beyond. This edition reflects that growth by offering concrete strategies grounded in developmental research while also honoring the creativity and curiosity that fuel children’s learning.
Q: How do you create a guide that’s useful for a wide range of educators working with different students and in different settings?
A. The key is to ground strategies in principles of child development while also offering concrete, flexible tools. The examples are drawn from varied classroom contexts so that readers can see how intentional teaching might look in their own setting. I wanted the book to meet teachers where they are and spark ideas they could adapt to their children and communities.
Q: What key points or strategies do you want readers to take away from this book?
A. The key message of this book is that educators don’t have to choose between rich, rigorous instruction and playful, child-led exploration. The most powerful learning happens when children’s curiosity and creativity are nurtured alongside intentional guidance from adults. When math, literacy, science, and other content areas are explored in developmentally informed, joyful, and interest-driven ways, children gain both deep understanding and a genuine love of learning.