The Complete Wellness Works Educational Leaders Conference Archives

18/11/201618/11/2016

A Practical Approach to a Positive and Stimulating Environment

In 2016 we launched Wellness Works! The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference – and what an inspiring response we have had for this practical professional development for early childhood educators.

Our Newcastle event was no exception, taking place on Monday 14 November. If you haven’t heard about Wellness Works yet, it’s a collaboration between Bonkers Beat creator and innovative early childhood expert Galina Zenin with international early childhood presenter and renowned Early Childhood Business Developer Alina Dan.

Galina and Alina (or the “Duolinas” as they were dubbed at one event!) have dedicated their careers to improving the quality of care in early childhood in Australia and overseas, taking their holistic approaches to the masses. The goal? Well there’s not just one.

Tackling the Challenges Faced in Centres Together

Earlier this year we revealed the top three challenges faced by early childhood educators: motivation, transitions and documentation.

This remains true. Here’s a few things we identified during the year:

-Management find their educators are struggling with motivation, and management are struggling to find ways to motivate them.

-Everyone feels overloaded with documentation.

-The lack of practical knowledge found in centres reflects the need for more hands-on training – both initially and through ongoing professional development.

-Educators find themselves focusing on managing behaviour – this needs to shift with new strategies in place.

We address all of these areas and more at Wellness Works, so if you haven’t signed up to be among the first to learn of new dates for this event, please do by heading to the registration section: bonkersbeat/wellnessworks

Creating a Positive and Stimulating Learning Environment

We need to create a shift in our approach to children’s behaviour and the way we manage it. This is a key area because managing behaviour is a major source of stress for educators. If we can use more effective strategies for this we can simultaneously tackle behavioural issues while improving educator wellbeing – and in turn, improve the wellbeing of children.

Empowering educators and managers to create of a learning environment that is positive and stimulating could be an important first step, incorporating a holistic approach that caters to every child’s needs.

We can’t wait to continue this early childhood revolution with you all in 2017!

Don’t miss out on our next Wellness Works event – sign up in the registration section of our website and you’ll be the first to know about our next Wellness Works! The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference: bonkersbeat/wellnessworks

P.S. A HUGE congratulations and thank you to our inspiring, passionate and AWESOME attendees! You all make us so proud to be working together and we can’t wait to create positive changes through practical professional development.

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.

21/07/201622/07/2016

Revealed: The Top 3 Challenges Faced by Early Childhood Educators

On July 12 the very first Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference took place in Melbourne… And what a fantastic success it was!

In the lead up to the Melbourne event, we did some research to find out exactly what challenges in early childhood education were coming up for educators, leaders, managers and owners working in the field. The reason for this was to ensure that the conference addresses what you really want and need from your early childhood professional development. We asked many centres to share their top three challenges, and it’s safe to say there was a theme in the responses!

Top 3 Challenges in Centres

Here are the top 3 challenges in early childhood education that we identified after reviewing responses from a range of centres. These are challenges that are faced on a daily or regular basis by educators, room leaders, management and owners.

Motivation

Many centres find they have difficulties with motivating their teams – from getting them motivated initially, to keeping them motivated. This is a priority at Wellness Works and is addressed thoroughly. Our approach is through empowering and motivating the leaders in the centre as the basis of improving motivation levels across the team. Our tactics and tips are foolproof…

Transitions

If you’re like the vast majority of the educators we heard from, transitions continue to cause stress and are a great source of frustration in centres. We’ve been careful to focus on this area and deliver practical ways for your centre to tackle transitions. You will even find them enjoyable…!

Documentation

How do we document a child’s learning, how do we maintain adequate – even excellent – standards for our centre’s documentation without it being a job too big to handle? Documentation is a hot topic for early childhood and we set out to improve your understanding of documentation and make sure it is no longer a huge challenge for you and your centre.

Do these challenges sound all too familiar? Not to worry –Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference comes to Sydney on July 26 and Brisbane on July 28. Both Galina and Alina (or the Duolinas as they’ve been dubbed!) are really excited. If you’re coming along to Wellness Works, you should be excited too! (And if you haven’t got your seats organised yet, you’re in luck as there are still a couple of places available for Sydney and Brisbane – be quick and get them here!)

What Early Childhood Professionals are Saying

Here’s what just a few of the Melbourne Wellness Works attendees had to say about the event:

“Thank you today was very enjoyable. I have RSI I took so many notes!”
– Mandy, Joseph Avenue ELC

“Great opportunity. I feel empowered to take back to a team. Loved the songs and games”
– Rebecca

“This PD was fantastic, all the info was great, very engaging and fun”
– Jessica, Aberdeen Street ELC

Join us at Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference and let’s break down your challenges in early childhood education and address them together.

Featuring the engaging and experienced early childhood experts, Galina and Alina, this just might be the best professional development session you attend this year!

06/07/201608/07/2016

The Journey of a Small Local Kinder

Choosing the right childcare centre, kindergarten or school is one of the most challenging decisions parents have to make. It’s clear that many parents have an idea of what sort of program or approach to early childhood education they prefer… So how can our philosophy, values and early childhood curriculum suit everyone?

As early childhood educators, we want to deliver what all families want, but how do we do this while staying true to what we believe will help a child to reach their full potential?

Have a Vision

After teaching music to children for more than 25 years, it was evident to me that music is powerful! I could see how music could change lives and characters of young people and could become a key for the development of the whole child. The vision for me was to use music as the foundation of a program to nurture each individual, develop their sense of identity and unlock the door to reach their potential.

The questions I asked myself were: “How can we create a curriculum where music will become a strong and valuable foundation for children’s learning? How can we include music in everyday routines? How can we achieve the best outcomes for EVERY CHILD, EVERY DAY?”

Fix your Focus

With so many expectations from parents, it’s hard to know what to focus on. “Will your programme help my child to read and write before he’ll start school?…” “Can you help my child become independent? He will be going to prep next year…”
“Don’t you teach children math in kinder? They need to know how to count…”

So where do we start? I believe we should start with VALUES. For example, the Bonkers Beat Philosophy is based on Five Principles:
• Respect for all people
• Respect for all animals & living creatures
• Respect for all plants & nature
• Respect for kinder & personal belongings
• Respect for yourself

While our program reflects these Five Principles, it’s clear that every curriculum should have only one Main Focus: THE CHILD!

Ask yourself these questions:

What is the main focus of our curriculum?

Is this working for the children (and educators)?

Are the children really interested and engaged?

Do I really know and understand every single child?

What new and exciting ideas can I offer?

What is my purpose and what is my vision?”

Remember every educator is a creator and every educator is an innovator. If our Main Focus is the CHILD, we are well on our way to delivering a world-class curriculum.

Wellness Works for Every Child

We mentioned in our previous blog, ‘Why Wellness REALLY Works’, that a holistic approach really is crucial to deliver high quality early childhood education. For me, the approach that made the most sense – and demonstrated amazing results – was through wellness. There’s really no denying that achieving wellness for children AND for educators improves every aspect of early childhood education – for families, staff, centres and the industry as a whole.

In our days of pressure and fast living, it’s so easy to fall into the habit of doing the same things over and over again. From time to time we might feel scared to make a change or try something different. Often, we get criticised for not doing things the ‘usual’ way. Believing in your dreams and working towards one goal with a team of supportive and dedicated people, will make a difference. It will help you to put your vision into practice.

For me, one single idea of a music program for EVERY CHILD EVERY DAY, was just the beginning of a comprehensive and innovative curriculum which is now successfully run in centres all over Australia!

There is always so much more for us to learn, that we can never say that all our work is done. There will always be many more opportunities to improve, make our curriculum better and reflect on the changes of our fast moving society.

I’ve joined forces with internationally renowned early childhood expert Alina Dan and invite you to join us at Wellness Works: The Complete Early Childhood Leaders Conference. Come along and see for yourself why a holistic approach is so unique and effective.

30/06/201630/06/2016

WHY Wellness REALLY Works

“Wellness is a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential. Wellness is multidimensional and holistic, encompassing lifestyle, mental and spiritual wellbeing, and the environment. Wellness is positive and affirming.” National Wellness Institute

We all want to be the best version of ourselves possible. And we want the children in our care to reach their full potential too. Working towards wellness is the key.

Wellness is made up of several connected parts, and can really only be approached holistically. By approaching early childhood education with wellness in mind, we can make an incredible positive impact for all involved.

The Australian Psychological Society’s 2015 survey on stress and wellbeing in Australia showed that the wellbeing of Australians is faring worse than the first survey in 2011 – we’re reporting lower levels of wellbeing and workplace wellbeing, as well as higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety symptoms. This is in line with BeyondBlue’s statistics that suggest there are 3 million Australians living with depression or anxiety.

It’s time that we in early childhood education put some serious effort into the wellness of both educators and children. The best way to change the future is with wellness and some inspired leadership action. This is the mentality behind The Complete Wellness Works Educational Leaders Conference.

This is a conference like no other, designed specifically for educational leaders, management, directors and owners. It’s time to lead your centre with an early childhood revolution. You can learn more and register today at www.bonkersbeat.com/wellnessworks/.

Early childhood education needs a holistic approach, and the multi-faceted nature of wellness is the ideal foundation to build the future on.

Wellness in early childhood really does work, and The Complete Wellness Works Educational Leaders Conference is going to show you how to make it work for you and your centre.

Alina Dan is an internationally renowned early childhood presenter and business developer – her presentation will empower you to reach your full potential in your role as a leader.

Galina Zenin is a multi-award winning educator and her Seven Stone Philosophy is a clear path to incorporating wellness in early childhood. Her presentation is not only informative but gives you practical tools and inspiring insights into incorporating wellness to make your centre the best it can be.

Why does wellness work?

Here’s the simple answer: the path to wellness in early childhood is also the path to reaching our full potential. Let’s get started on the journey to wellness and watch as your team and the children in your care flourish – not to mention your centre.

Spots are filling FAST! Secure yours now – register at www.bonkersbeat.com/wellnessworks/