Recommendation

17th April 2012

Statement of Recommendation

To whom it may concern
Rebecca Goh undertook an induction and mentoring programme under my guidance as of the 31 May 2010 working in her capacity as a Provisionally Registered Teacher.
Through this period of support, Rebecca has gathered evidence of the progress being made towards meeting the standard for full registration. This is by way of anecdotal observations, examples of work in practice, and reflections. As Rebecca’s mentor, I have conducted formal observations, had both formal and informal discussions in regards to practice and provided feedback on the practice I have observed. Rebecca has during this time been assessed against the criteria specified by the Teachers Council.
During this time Rebecca has been able to develop and adapt professional and effective teaching practices, knowledge and relationships for meeting the needs of the Centre, children and whanau.
I hereby endorse Rebecca for the period of time detailed above.

Regards
Joann Radford
Reg number: 260036

Centre Manager
Natural Steps Ellerslie
75 Ballarat St, Ellerslie
Auckland 1051

Childspace conference, Wellington

On the 23rd of March I was fortunate enough to be able to fly to Wellington to attend the 'Yeah Baby' conference, run by Childspace. I was asked to write an insert for our newsletter to share some of my experiences with our parents.

As well as with the parents, I have the responsibility to share my new knowledge with my team. I was able to participate in three workshops - Rosters and rhythms don't mix

- Aspiring to co-create an authentic Aotearoa-centric bicultural curriculum in infant and toddler educare

- Respectful care is only fair

The first thing I did was to just give a brief run-down of the main ideas I got that would compliment our nursery room - 'care clusters', and 'bubbles of care'. Care clusters is about doing a group of care tasks during the same moment. Eg: checking a nappy, then a meal time, or nappy and then bedtime. By associating more than one routine together, we spend less moments interrupting what the children are busy doing. Bubbles of care is a term that I really connected with. When a carer is with their child during a special moment, such as feeding, they should only be with that child - in their bubble. This means an uninterrupted moment dedicated to the child or group of children with the other adults within the room taking account of everything else that is happening around them . This is a technique that requires real teamwork. It is also something that other staff need to respect when they come into our room. It shows a real respect for the children, that we value our special moments together, and involves them in their care routines - with not to. I felt that one of the easiest ways to incorporate the different ideas from the conference was to add them to our planning - basically planning for the adults rather than the children.

This was a great opportunity for me to encourage others and to participate in professional development (dimension 28), and for me to lead and support other teachers (dimension 25).

*scan copy of planning (note for me)

Documenting planning part 2

Since January 2012, I have taken over the role as room leader in Nursery One. One new aspect I have introduced has been the new format of documenting our planning. Because I have two co-workers who, in the scheme of things, are relatively new to the profession (both are still in training, hopefully beginning their third year soon) and I know this format has worked well with me and others, I thought it could help us as a team to be consistent. I explained how I felt it was really important that children, especially the under twos, need to be provided with lots of opportunities to practise new skills that they are developing, and I always feel really stink when we have a cool activity for them, but the next day it's gone and some will miss out on rehearsing what they have experienced. Allie and Ksenia both agreed, saying that with our part-time children, they sometimes don't even the chance to experience things for the first time. So we were all in agreement that we would allow an activity/ set of resources to be available over a whole week, if not longer.

Now that the form has been in action for a few months, we're all getting the hang of making any notes, observations, ideas, children who participated in, etc directly onto the form. They are very easy to use, and very time efficient as we don't need to wait for some time to type things up formally. Plus, when we have release time, there is a whole stock of notes for us to use for individual and group stories. Our displays on the walls have been able to change as well. Instead of overstocking the wall with learning stories, we are displaying large photos of the children in action. A lot more parents are stopping to just look and comment on what they are seeing. Even the children are approaching the walls, looking at the photos and pointing. I wonder if they are recognising themselves, familiar people, or if they are recognising things that they can recall doing themselves. Either way, it is really reassuring to see the children acknowledging our displays in such a positive way.

By repeating experiences with the children, I am demonstrating knowledge of appropriate teaching objectives (dimension 04), and by being able to easily link the planning documentation to our daily journals and learning stories, I am establishing high expectations which value and promote learning (dimension 08). I am also helping to manage student learning processes through providing opportunities for children to build on their experiences (dimension 09).