With an attitude of growth, fun and connection, Inspired EC has evolved into an organisation that works closely with educators and services around Australia and internationally, providing training, resources, consultancy services and much more.
When I first became a nominated supervisor at twenty-one, I had absolutely no idea how to lead a team meeting. How could I? I’d been thrown in the deep end quite suddenly and could really only draw from the experience I’d had on the other side of the meeting.
I often think about what a privilege it is to be involved in the life of a child, particularly in the early years. We share milestones with them and see them grow and develop for a few years, if we are lucky.
While it might be tempting to seek out the short cut - especially at a time where staff shortages are a very real experience and we are all doing our best with the limited time we have - I feel like as a profession we need to hold strong, and remember that "we know stuff!"
This is turnover like we haven't seen before. This is a time where previously passionate, skilled, knowledgeable professionals are saying "I'm done" and leaving the education sector altogether.
Simple, and child led. It's what learning needs to be. Why do we have a tendency to overcomplicate the way in which children learn? When we head out into nature, when we slow down and let children explore and create and wonder, magical things happen. Learning happens.
We all want to start well, and often that means throwing everything we have at it. But what if that's not the start we really need? What if by going in strong, we run the risk of burning out fast?
When I was a director, I was very self critical. I constantly felt like I wasn't doing enough, or that our service wasn't good enough. I was always looking over our environment with a judgemental eye, or wondering how we could improve our program.
I remember reading a few years ago a funny post that said that the average four year old asks 437 questions in a day. Yes, it's an exaggeration. Or is it?
Why do children ask so many questions? And what about the biggest question of all?WHY?
Have you ever said "I work in the nought to two room" or "she's in the zero to three room"? You wouldn't be alone if you had. When I first did my training back in the early 2000's, this was a pretty common way to phrase it. And yet, what does that term say about our image of the child?