Ministories – A way of making visible context, strategy and assessment
The rapid expansion of technology in everyday life has meant that the tools available to early childhood educators to use in pedagogical documentation are many. The early childhood sector has responded enthusiastically to their arrival and a lot of documentation in children’s programs reflects some use of technology. This makes sense. Photographs and visual artefacts can be gathered over a...
Educators Are Worthy Of Care
Educators are worthy of care As a consultant, I am fortunate enough to be invited into the lives of early childhood professionals. More recently, many individuals seem to be exploring what educator wellbeing means for them both personally and professionally. The element that comes up most frequently can be found within the investigation of identity nurturing, specifically the concept of...
The digital space as a Piazza of participation
What is in your head? What is in my head? What is the gap in between? Digital software for use in early learning environments has transformed the way that information about children and programs is generated, documented and distributed. Advantages that are proffered with these types of technologies are that they provide to educators and families increased flexibility, greater...
Storywriting with intention
Come on a journey with me through time. Watch with me the growth of a flower, the wind in the trees, the chirping of the bird known to take haven in the shelter across the playground. Come on a journey with me as we capture the aesthetics of the natural environment that intrigues you so, bundling this up digitally in...
Translating pedagogy into practice
Indulge for a minute on your image of the child. As you are capturing the delight in their smile through a photograph; watching them as they stand back and look at the amazing play dough creation that they have just constructed. For a moment there are mixed feelings arising because you (the educator) are the person who gets to witness...
Distributed leadership for professional learning
We all know that we need to be lifelong learners in early childhood education (ECE), and for most of us, this is part of the joy of teaching. As a leader in ECE, one of the traits I look for in great teachers is enthusiasm for professional learning. So what kind of leadership environment helps nurture teachers as learners? I...
Documentation and the image of the child through a Reggio lens
When the term documentation is discussed amongst early childhood educators there is often a feeling of fear…a pause in time where professionals stop and hold their breath, the angst of the topic written clearly all over their face. What feeds this feeling in professionals and can we find some grounding through exploring the Reggio way of documentation? Looking abroad The...
The assumptions, theories and practicalities of room leadership in ECE
Many early learning services operate with various leadership structures that are purposefully designed to help meet certain expectations and benchmarks set forth in quality area seven of the national quality standard. Whilst the process of a leadership structure supports educators to participate as members of a professional team, the realistic practices that are involved in the role of being a...
A call for action: Improving the mental health outcomes of our educators
A call for action: Improving the mental health outcomes of our educators Being an early childhood educator comes with a responsibility to inspire, cherish, provoke and entice deep learning processes in the children we care for and educate. This sees us working as a member of a team, an influential unit coming with individual perspectives and beliefs on how children...
Self soothing
When you have a child who doesn’t sleep – the words “self-soothe” can make you break into a cold sweat. As the months went on and on and on and my youngest child continued to not sleep, and not sleep – and I went quite mad – I felt like all I ever heard was those two irritating words. He...