31 October, 2009
Dr Meade outlined the pathway for leadership in ECE through the Centres Of Innovation (COI) programme that has now been dissolved, and all the work that had been completed. What was remarkable about the COI work was that these women (no men that I know of), were allowing visitors into their programmes as they we engaged in research, they were disseminating their findings as they were happening, being invited to present their findings at National and International conferences, something that is unheard of under normal research situations.
I have purchased 2 NZCER books on the COI programmes and will use these for my own professional development.
Dr Meade urged us to continue with the work around leadership, even if we have to fund it ourselves.
Workshop Two - ePortfolios - Pukekohes Educare - Thames
Miffy Welsh presented their journey on creating ePortfolios using Powerpoint and downloading to DVD's for families to review and add too. This was a wonderful presentation, and too their credit, they admit to be ICT-illiterate, and they realise that this type of portfolio would be great on the web either as a wiki or blog, but they don't know how to do this just yet. Interestingly, they only to 1 comprehensive learning story for each child each year. There are lots of snippets and anecdotal stories, but only one really depthie story. We all received a DVD with their presentation which I will look at some time soon.
Keynote Speech - Kate Thornton - Models of Leadership
Kate continued from her workshop that I attended. Kate talked about her own research "blended action research" where she worked with 4 Centres using online reflective journals. Part of this programme was providing support for each other, but only through questions, no advice was allowed to be given - apparently this was very cathartic for the participants - we all want to make suggestions!
Keynote Speech - Pennie Brownlee - From Your Head to Your Heart
Pennie is a very dynamic speaker and in the middle of her presentation we were all up dancing to "I love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett. Actually this was an experiment on how we ignore our heart desires (to get up and dance the minute we hear this song), and let our head rule (is it appropriate to dance at a Keynote?). Pennie has written lovely books over the years and her current one "From Your Head to Your Heart" is perfect for new parents. Pennie believes that we are both human and divine and when we screw up, that's our human side - don't let that hold you back. Between the ages of birth and 6 years, children are literal sponges and with this comes cultural downloading, e.g. beliefs, values, attitudes, intellect, answers, opinions, ego, etc. - we had better be very careful about what we feed young minds.
Below is the first part of this report, next time I will get more organised.
This is our circle of friends at the Conference Dinner - Halloween.
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