Welcome to my blog about my experiences working in early childhood. I have called it Nurturing Forests because I believe that raising children is not a isolated activity but takes a whole community.



As early childhood professionals, we are actively involved in this process but we also need to work closely with the children, parents, community as a whole and other allied professionals.



I hope you enjoy my site. I also have a facebook site of the same name where I provide links to useful sites for teachers, parents and others interested in the early childhood: www.facebook.com/nurturingforests



Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Adjusting to my new career

This morning as I was filling the outdoor toilet paper I thought to myself that the best training for my current position was the 7 years I spent as a casual at Hungry Jacks from when I was just under 15 to when i was 21.

This job taught me how to clean, follow through, lead small teams (drive thru), taking responsibility for tasks, the complex mix of independence and reliance that is created in a workplace.

Don't get me wrong my Arts(Psych) degree helps with understanding human behaviour but it was very theoretical. From memory only 1 or 2 of the subjects that I chose to complete were practical. However, I was, by the end, very good at highly complicated psychological statistics

My Commerce (human resources + industrial relations) was again spectacularly impractical for a so called 'business degree' - something that i quickly learnt when i commence work as a HR graduate.

Finally, my recent Masters of Teaching (Birth to 5) is one of the most hands on courses I have studied but it doesn't prepare you for nappy changing (often because of prac restrictions), cleaning toilets, serving food, balancing a large boisterous group of mix ages at the end of the day after a LOOOONNNGGG day, not to mention the Pandora's box of children's illnesses. I sometimes wish that a couple of my prac supervisors would return on a regular basis so I can debrief with them.

I also find the limited grown up interaction sometimes difficult esp. coming from human resources .... to resolve this I can see myself (and am already) following up professional memberships and returning to university either to complete my PhD or maybe a Masters of Educational Leadership ... but not right away I need a few years to enjoy no assignments and I want to go to Europe next year....

What have you found to be challenging?

2 comments:

  1. I agree - I also wish I could off load on my prac supervisors again!
    I wish there was some sort of just-graduated mentor system. I find that when I go within my organisation for feedback, because I am one of the few uni grads that people assume I know exactly what I'm doing.
    I have found blogging especially helpful as it has helped me make connections with other more experienced teachers who have similar philosophies.

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  2. I know some universities are starting do something similiar esp. with the roll out of the early years learning framework.... (the EYLF forum is also great - though must admit havent contributed myself yet).

    I also have found some of my old lecturers are really willing to help if you email them.

    I agree the online community is really reassuring when you are having doubts about yourself :)

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