Leadership – Learning to Listen
“It seems rather incongruous that in a society of super-sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.” – Erica Jong Listening effectively starts first with an attitude – an attitude of genuine interest in understanding what another person is trying to communicate. However, even for very experienced listeners, it is difficult to listen well. One simple reason is...
Leadership – Creating a Personal Approach
Leadership – Creating a Personal Approach Leadership is ultimately a choice to act. When we conceive of leadership as action, many of the apparent conflicts and paradoxes found in a review of research, become resolved. The imperative then becomes to explore and inquire into both the personal and collective meaning of leadership for each individual and group. What is your...
Leadership in ECE
Learning About Leadership At a young age, we are encouraged to take on leadership roles in our family, at school, in the community and in sport. Without knowing it, many of us are already leaders in ways we may not recognize. As a parent, we lead our children when we teach them and model values or when we support sports...
The Power of the Question
The theme for the 2019 KU Annual Conference ‘The Power of the Question’ invites participants to consider the art of questioning to stimulate thinking and inquiry. This years conference keynote speaker is Alise Shafer Ivey. Alise spent a few minutes telling us how the theme of this year’s conference ties in with her work, and what we can expect to hear...
Nurturing Authentic Connections at Journey Early Learning
We recently caught up with Journey Early Learning Quality and Compliance Manager, Mel Comerford from Astute Early Years Specialists to discuss Journey’s switch to using Storypark. With twelve learning services under the Journey Early Learning umbrella, Storypark is now the only platform used for documentation of all children’s learning. It is used not only for learning stories but also for...
How to choose the right digital documentation platform for your early learning service
How to choose the right digital documentation platform for your early learning service “D” is for diligence. Early childhood educators are required to provide rich, meaningful information about learning and development to families, to the community and to each other, that demonstrates a way of articulating and evidencing what they are doing, how they are doing it and what it...
You do not fit the child into the theory
The word theory has its roots in ancient Greek, basically meaning a view, a notion or contemplation. In the domain of early childhood education, theories are the overarching ideas that influence our pedagogical practices, and each theory or theorist has a perspective that has generally evolved over long periods of time. Iterative in nature, theories are often contributed to and...
Supporting te reo Māori
Storypark for Families app learned its first words in te reo Māori Storypark has taken further steps towards providing more support for te reo Māori. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) is 9–15 September this year, and as a New Zealand company, we wanted to show our support for te reo in Storypark. Educators have been able...
Does digital documentation replace face-to-face conversations between parents and educators?
Does digital documentation replace face-to-face conversations between parents and educators? The answer may surprise you! New research completed out of the University of Toronto on the use of a digital documentation technology (called Storypark) has dispelled the common misconception that the use of this technology will result in less face-to-face interactions between educators and parents. Dr. M.E. Picher, the author...
Want a Consistent Approach to Your Planning? Would a Template Help?
Want a consistent approach to your planning? Would a template help? Planning templates provide consistency and continuity, supporting all of your team to use the same format when collecting information and evidence. We have 12 pre-populated templates for you to use, which you can adapt to suit the way you work, using the language your community and educators are familiar...