Portraits with Nina

Professional Development - Kiwi Style with Team Grant MacEwan Child Care

The team at Grant MacEwan Child Care asked to have a professional development session about some of the things we started to talk about on Friday. We have had a dialogue about learning stories, narrative assessment and planning - were keen to keep the conversation going especially now I have spent some time in the centre.

Link here for Grant MacEwan Child Care team presentation

These are our notes and thinking from the discussion about the VORTEX. This thinking maps so well on to the processes in the centre and I was so excited to share our VORTEX concept from NZ with the teachers. The team were getting tired and they hung in there for the discussion. I have introduced the teachers to Google Drive and shared some photos of our beautiful centres back home.
Please send me 3 photos from your centre that I can share with this centre to show them the diversity of ECE in Aotearoa NZ.

Where's New Zealand?

While in the centre, I was talking to children about where I was from. Luckily one of the educators (teachers) Connie at the centre is from Australia and there has recently been a project about Australia and Olympics with the flags in another room. The children know where Australia is and it is pretty easy to point out NZ from there. It was interesting to share with children that even though I live in NZ, when they were asking me where home is I said Napier and then shared I lived in Palmerston North. Some of the children could relate to this.
Connie and I were sharing the Aussie VS Kiwi humour...we shared YouTube clips and joked about our 'isms' that only the two of us understood - it was as if we had our own language. We shared YouTube clips that we love that 'make fun' of the other country -

Connie likes this one about Kiwi accent (there is the S#*@ word in this one if you are a bit sensitive) from Australia...

and I love this one from NZ.

PS - you are welcome Connie....I love the card and the message...yes lets keep in touch. It has been my pleasure and privilege to spend time with you all.

A culture of caring...

My friend and booking agent Mary Lynne had to 'love and leave' me on Thursday - pressing work to do. Thankfully we arranged earlier in the week for Bejuna Joshi (educator at the centre) to accompany me to the shopping mall (I know what you are all thinking) to meet Mary Lynne at 4pm on the train. I am getting quite savvy at using public transport with support. Bejuna made sure I met up with Mary Lynne after 'making' me look at the Banana Republic and Michael Kors stores....I really didn't want to do it!!
The culture of a place is experienced through the relationships and how people make you feel...thanks Bejuna and Joan for making sure I did not get lost in Edmonton!!

Teachers as researchers @ MacEwan University Lab School & Child Care

I spent some time at the centre today, reconnecting with some of the teachers while they were on their lunch breaks. I had been on a tour around the centre and was really impressed with the way the teachers document and display their research questions with pride alongside the children's learning and planning. 

 Above Jennifer is standing next to her display about dispositions. I could not share close up photos as there are many shots of children on display as part of the teachers learning. These research projects take months to work through.

 This service is a 'pilot' or 'research' centre for the development of the curriculum in Alberta and have been supported by Lee (Instructor in ELCC programme and Academic Coordinator for Curriculum Framework Development Project). The centre has been exploring the importance of dispositions as a focus of assessment and researching the impact of this on play.

 Meet Kayla - educator at the centre. The research project has involved a deeper look into culture and her own competence in this area. The discussions in the team have included the influence of celebrations on learning and teaching.

Making your learning as a teacher visible - inviting parents to engage in dialogue about the research.

This is what the curriculum planning looks like in one of the rooms - thinking about the research question and then considering possible actions to make progress towards the goals. The teachers are using learning stories confidently to observe children's learning and make it visible to the community. This is on display in the corridors of the centre and to family as they walk through.

A Place to Play - Presenter: Brittany Atkinson - 2.45 - 4.15pm

It is understood that children learn through their play. Through play, children build relationships, make meaning, and shape their identities. Educators create spaces for children to play. What does it mean for children’s play, children’s sense of citizenship, and their social learning when they create their own places for their play? Brittany will share her experiences of supporting and expanding children’s play as they shape their own play spaces – their own invented worlds where they imagine, create, solve problems, and invite and participate with ideas and others.

This workshop was an inspiring story about how a teacher grappled with her own bias related to rural vs urban living. Three scenarios were shared how with her 'partners' (aka colleagues/ teachers/ educators) she carefully observed children through play. The workshop started with Brittany reading this book to us about childhood memories - this is significant for the theme of the workshop.

A critical feature of her reflections included being involved in children's play rather than distancing from the activity. Some careful decisions were made with children as the environment was adapted to support their play priorities. One scenario tracked how the winter olympics was MEANINGFULLY included in the programme to inspire children's learning and parents engagement. Great examples were shared of children making a curling rink at the centre....one parent commented on how proud his grandfather would be to know he was learning to curl a stone (made from freezing ice in a milk bottle so the children could hold it and send it across the ice). The photos showed children using brooms to sweep the way clear for the 'stone'. I thought this was very cool!!!

 Meet some of the amazing teachers at the early childhood centre and faculty staff I am meeting. From left to right - Brittany (workshop presenter), Mary Lynne (the person looking after me and faculty member), Jennifer (educator - also worked at Puddleducks for 3 months in NZ), Lee (faculty and curriculum developer), Rebecca (teaching for 3 weeks) and Erica (teaching for 1 week).

MacEwan University Childcare Conference 3 May 2014

Keynote Speaker:

Robbin L Gibb, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience
University of Lethbridge

Dr. Robbin Gibb is based at the University of Lethbridge’s Department of Neuroscience. She is an associate professor and the first PhD graduate from the university’s Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience. The focus of Dr. Gibb’s research is to determine how early experience influences brain development and overall physical and behavioural outcomes, and what effects those changes have on subsequent experience. Dr. Gibb has made several presentations to parent education groups, judicial organizations, and international audiences.

You might be interested in this video she played for us....

This key note was really interesting and made some strong points about the developing brain and how there are many things that impact from both mother and father, preconception, gestation and postnatal. I will share some of the main points over the next day or two when I have listened to the recording and have some main points to share. I wish she would come to New Zealand....

And then there was me...workshop with 80 teachers and leaders in the sector. Alberta is developing a new curriculum and have made a decision to include Learning Stories as an assessment tool. I shared the success we are having in New Zealand as well as some of the things we have learnt along the way. I was really excited to share some our stories and our thinking at Massey University about learning stories as being more than about a moment that happened and the critical importance of interpretation. The teachers here are at the very beginning stages of thinking about learning stories and I hope I have contributed something to their ongoing thinking. I shared our tool for bringing elements of a narrative assessment together to support the writing - the participants really liked it