Category: Inspiration
Inspiration, tips and fun stuff
What does it mean to be a Reggio Emilia inspired early learning service?
What does it mean to be a Reggio Emilia inspired early learning service? You do not need to look hard to find early learning services aligning their programs and practices with the Reggio Emilia educational project. Early learning services often describe themselves as ‘Reggio inspired’ while others may recruit for educators that demonstrate an understanding of the ‘Reggio approach.’ It...
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...
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...
Kindergarten, our heart-shaped community
The big deep hole and the tears The first death seemed easier. Otis, the little black and white dog, that didn’t really like him much, was on mum’s knee. Otis never went in the car so something was happening. And mum was crying and dad had a look on his face that was maybe the saddest look we’d all ever...
Farewell Teaching
After 17 years as an early childhood educator, I have hung up my teaching hat and moved onto a new career with Storypark. It has been 17 years of fulfilment, joy, and immense rewards. I have laughed more than I’ve ever laughed before. I have been so proud of children that are not my own, something I never thought would...