professional development Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Early Learning Childhood Education

28/09/201702/10/2017

Wellbeing and Engagement – A Valuable Relationship

Engaged educators are inspired, motivated, productive and happy in the workplace. These are qualities that are vital to creating a learning and care environment for children to flourish.

These qualities of an engaged educator enable them to do the best job possible at enhancing children’s wellbeing too. So how do you engage educators? Start with educators wellbeing.

The Essential Links Between Engagement and Wellbeing

Working on wellbeing requires a holistic approach. To really reap the rewards over time, your approach to enhancing wellbeing needs to be sustainable, not a quick fix.

It’s incredible what can be achieved for centres, educators, families and most importantly children when we shift our focus to wellbeing. Engagement is a crucial area that benefits from wellbeing practices, but it doesn’t end there!

Engaged educators lead to better outcomes for children, engaged children and educators lead to better mental health and wellness. In turn, wellbeing practices for children can help them to become better learners and all round happier children.

See engaged educators and children in action

It’s one thing to read about what you can achieve with a focus on wellbeing and subsequently high levels of educator and child engagement – it’s another thing to see it!

That’s why we are inviting owners and directors of centres to visit our flagship Bonkers Beat centre in Aspendale, Victoria. Join us at Music Kinder in Action!

We are ready to give away strategies and knowledge to centre owners and directors – with absolutely no expectations on getting anything back in return.

Our goal is simply to show owners and directors across Australia what is possible for your educators, children and centres. See how you can engage educators and the benefits of doing so.

There are only 6 spots remaining PLUS everyone who attends will receive a complimentary gift and a guide ‘How to Implement a World Class Music Program in Your Centre’.

Hope to see you there! Click here to secure your free ticket!

24/08/201725/08/2017

Top 3 Benefits of Whole Team Training

Last week’s 2017 ACAV Conference was fantastic. The event saw 960 participants attend, with participants from all over Australia.

There were really interesting sessions with lots of ideas and the expo was just amazing. Seeing so many passionate educators is always a beautiful sight to behold – early childhood is such an important sector and it deserves this dedication.

Professional development is so vital to to give children the best start in life. One thing in particular to note from ACAV Conference was that some centres brought a few educators to attend and learn. While it’s not always easy organising staff at one place at one time, but if you can, there is no doubt that the whole team will experience the benefits.

So what benefits are there to be drawn from approaching professional development and training as a team?

1. Collective knowledge

When your team’s knowledge increases as a group, they can encourage one another and share perspectives. Teams who have done training together often reflect on what they learned and have a better understanding of the training.

2. Ideas and improvements

With everyone on the same page, your educators’ ability to apply what they learned is increased too. From the collective knowledge developed through group PD training, educators will have a solid shared foundation on which to brainstorm fresh ideas and improvements to the way you operate in your centre.

3. Bonding time

A team whose members know and understand one another have a better chance of working together more effectively. Giving your team of educators the opportunity to have experiences outside of the workplace and their usual set tasks can help develop both their professional and personal relationships. The results can be lower staff turnover, higher educator engagement and an overall happier team.

The Bonkers Beat programs were built with whole team professional development and training in mind. That’s why all centres who implement Bonkers Beat Programs, attend two Wellness Summits each year in order to learn and grow together.

Speaking of Bonkers Beat, our ‘Match & Win’ raffle resulted in two lucky winners out of almost 200 entries! The winning centres will now have access to our Bonkers Beat Starter Program online course (valued at $595). They can use this program for their entire team to build confidence in implementing music into daily routines.

In the interests of developing strong teams within your centre, we want to give you some practical tools.
Click here to access the special offer. Your whole team will reap the rewards – and so will your centre, your families and children.

27/10/201628/10/2016

Four Reasons Why Professional Development is a Must

When it comes to professional development, we are huge advocates of ongoing professional development training that involves the whole team.

Of course, it’s not always possible to send the whole team along to conferences. However, we still believe that by sending along one or a couple of members of your staff you can reap the benefits and continue the professional development for educators and your centre.

So why do we think professional development conferences are so valuable? Here’s just four of the many reasons why it just might be worthwhile sending some members of your staff along to an upcoming Educational Leaders and Early Childhood Managers conference:

LEARN

It’s an obvious one, but there is absolutely no doubt that any member of your team who attends a conference is going to learn something. And what they learn will only be maximised by making sure you offer the right conference opportunities to the right people. There has to be a willingness to learn, and as we discuss later, the ability to share what you learn.

NETWORK

Who knows when a fantastic opportunity will pop up? What we can say with a degree of confidence is that fantastic opportunities are likely to pop up at places like conferences – large gatherings of like-minded professionals coming together to learn and share. What better place for your team to network and find new opportunities for your centre to explore.

GET INSPIRED

No matter how much anyone loves his or her job, there are times when we all need a boost to motivate us. Conferences can offer a huge amount of inspiration, especially if the right people attend the right conference at the right time. Empowering the leaders in your centre by sending them along is a really effective approach. Speakers often come from all corners of the globe with insights to share about approaches to early childhood education.

SHARE AND MOTIVATE

We’ve mentioned it a couple of times already – send the right people who are willing to learn and willing to share. This is crucial to maximise the return on investment. Through effective note-taking and resource gathering, hopefully, the team member/s who do attend will be able to convey what they learn to your team, making it all the more worthwhile.

So there you have it. Four reasons why you should consider professional development for your team, even if you don’t send the entire team along every time.

The results speak for themselves:

“It was fantastic & a pleasure to have attended! Thank you, Galina & also Alina for sharing your
knowledge & passion. You are both extremely inspirational people.” – Victoria Petka

“What an informative conference. Certainly, each single attendee walked out with many strategies to improve not only children’s wellness but also their own. Looking forward to more and more of these conferences by the Duolinas. “ – Bama Ganesan

“Thank you to Galina and Alina, your names together are a mouthful but you are
an inspiration team to listen too.” – Georgie Kincaid

“Wonderful day Alina Dan and Galina thank you! Plenty of
energy in the room from fellow leaders!” – Tracey Yeomans

If you’re in the vicinity of Newcastle, you’re in luck. Internationally renowned early childhood presenter and business developer Alina Dan has teamed up with multi-award winning educator Galina Zenin again for Wellness Works! The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference.

Because we know it’s a big commitment to send a whole team to a conference, this event is specifically designed for leaders and managers from centres to attend. Wellness Works is a professional development opportunity that has delivered real results for educators, children and for centres.

Details:

Date: Monday 14 November, 2016

Time: 9.30am – 3.30pm

Price: From $167.45

Tickets: Wellness-Works-Newcastle-Tickets

Hopefully we will see your leaders and managers at this upcoming event and you too can enjoy the excellent outcomes delivered by Wellness Works.

21/04/201527/04/2015

Supporting Early Years Learning Through Professional Development

For many if not most centres, the Long Day Care Professional Development Programme funding has been allocated and while it’s clear that this presents incredible opportunities for centres it can be overwhelming working out what to target to maximise the benefits for your centre, your educators and of course your children and families.

Your centre may have been required to report on the use of your funding at this stage too, which can certainly make you reflect on the worth of your investments whether you have made any yet or not.

In the interest of providing you with some answers to frequently asked questions pertaining to the LDCPDP funding, we advise that you take a look at this FAQ document from the Australian Government education website: http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/ldcpdp_faqs_0.pdf

It’s so crucial to know what to look for when considering how to allocate your funding, and this is a key point mentioned in the official FAQ: What type of training/ courses/ qualifications can I claim for? The answer:
Providers must ensure that the training undertaken by an educator is relevant to the requirements under the National Quality Framework (NQF) and the National Quality Standard (NQS). For information on the NQF and the NQS, go to: http://www.acecqa.gov.au/au/national-qualityframework. The Department may request this evidence as part of a random audit or may request the additional information as part of the acquittal process.

Comprehensive in-house professional development is the key to providing world-class early childhood education and the LDCPDP funding plays a pivotal role in allowing us as early childhood educators to support our industry, our fellow educators and our families.

This Thursday 23 April, Galina Zenin will be presenting to a group of dedicated Melbourne early childhood centre owners and directors to discuss the opportunities that LDCPDP funding presents, the NQF and NQS areas and how every centre can improve their NQS Rating. Only two places are left, so don’t miss out – click here to register.

Galina will also be taking her presentation on this subject to Sydney on May 4, 2015. You can register to join us at the Sydney event (subject to availability) or attend this week’s Melbourne event by clicking here or visit: http://nqsrating.com.au/#register

Brisbane, watch this space as Galina will be headed your way soon too.

With the LDCPDP funding presenting so many incredible opportunities not only for children and our individual centres, but for us as early childhood education professionals and an industry as a whole, it makes sense to put some serious effort into considering your professional development options and your overall goals to achieve with this funding. Comment here or on Facebook and share your goals, concerns and queries in regards to using your LDCPDP funding.