Wow! It really has been a while since I have written something to the blog! Here's hoping that I can get a few more posts out in the next week for you all!
Its Friday morning and I don't teach until this afternoon, so I usually have a lazy type of morning on a Friday taking my time to get things done before I leave to go to work. Today however, I was up earlier than usual and decided to give my programming format a slight make-over as I don't think I am using it as effectively as I could be.
I then remembered that I was emailed the new VEYLDF document this week to read over and use to inform my practice. I printed it out and set to reading the new learning outcome information. Parts of me like and dislike the way they have set out the document. I like the inclusion of Indigenous culture and their language throughout, reminds me of the Te Whariki document from New Zealand. One of the things that I am not so much of a fan of in this layout is the table that we grew to know and love in the first document is no longer. There is a page for each outcome and the information is written in paragraph form. For me this meant reading over each of the outcomes and highlighting key words and phrases that I feel are what the outcome is working towards. This meant extra time to decipher the outcomes that we are already familiar with to ensure that our understanding is still the same.
Don't get me wrong! I agree that these things need to be working documents that are forever being added to and changed to reflect our changing and growing society, however as an Early Childhood Teacher I have limited time to spend cracking the code, so to speak, of the new document. I am fortunate that I have some time throughout my week that is my own and I can do this, but for those out there that are teaching 5 days and their planning is jam packed with other important things I thought I would add my short descriptions of each outcome that I will be using with my planning. I will also upload a sample of my planning document for you to see it in action.
Its Friday morning and I don't teach until this afternoon, so I usually have a lazy type of morning on a Friday taking my time to get things done before I leave to go to work. Today however, I was up earlier than usual and decided to give my programming format a slight make-over as I don't think I am using it as effectively as I could be.
I then remembered that I was emailed the new VEYLDF document this week to read over and use to inform my practice. I printed it out and set to reading the new learning outcome information. Parts of me like and dislike the way they have set out the document. I like the inclusion of Indigenous culture and their language throughout, reminds me of the Te Whariki document from New Zealand. One of the things that I am not so much of a fan of in this layout is the table that we grew to know and love in the first document is no longer. There is a page for each outcome and the information is written in paragraph form. For me this meant reading over each of the outcomes and highlighting key words and phrases that I feel are what the outcome is working towards. This meant extra time to decipher the outcomes that we are already familiar with to ensure that our understanding is still the same.
Don't get me wrong! I agree that these things need to be working documents that are forever being added to and changed to reflect our changing and growing society, however as an Early Childhood Teacher I have limited time to spend cracking the code, so to speak, of the new document. I am fortunate that I have some time throughout my week that is my own and I can do this, but for those out there that are teaching 5 days and their planning is jam packed with other important things I thought I would add my short descriptions of each outcome that I will be using with my planning. I will also upload a sample of my planning document for you to see it in action.
Outcome 1 - Identity:
- Children are encouraged to maintain their home language at Kindergarten.
- Children are building secure relationships with Educators & peers.
- Children are exposed to learning on country in the natural world.
- Children begin to learn about other cultural identities through celebrations & dramatic play experiences.
- Children are encouraged to be self-confident & become autonomous.
- Children seek & accept new challenges.
- Children are interacting with others with care, empathy & respect.
- Children connect with people, country, place & communities to extend learning.
- Children participate in routines, events & experiences & use these opportunities to contribute to the decision making process.
- Children establish friendships with others.
- Children begin to understand their environmental impact & sustainability.
- Children begin to make choices to promote environmental sustainability.
- Children are developing the ability to manage their emotions, build resilience & persistence.
- Children are beginning to be able to label their emotions.
- Children are exposed to outdoor play to promote physical & cognitive development.
- Children are beginning to recognise and assess risk.
- Children are developing self-help and hygiene skills and routines.
- Children are exposed to a range of music and movement experiences.
- Children are developing the skills to become confident and involved life-long learners.
- Children are encouraged to be curious and enthusiastic about their learning.
- Children engage in active learning using sight, touch, taste, smell and movement.
- Children are given extended periods of uninterrupted play to invent, investigate and discover using open ended materials and resources.
- Children are challenged to hypothesise, experiment, research and investigate during an activity.
- Children are valuing mistakes and learning from them.
- Children develop a learning partnership with their peers and Educators and begin to resource their learning through these people too.
- Children are involved in generating and discussing ideas, making plans, exercising skills, brainstorming solutions,reflecting and are able to give reasons for their choices.
- Children communicate in a variety of ways such as verbal, gestures, movement, sounds, visual cues and assisted communication.
- Children are learning how symbols and pattern systems work.
- Children are developing turn taking skills for communication through exploring sounds and movement patterns, singing songs, reading stories, playing games and recording thoughts and ideas.
- Children are becoming effective communicators through sharing stories and symbols, creative arts, drama, dance and movement.
- Children explore new worlds through dramatic play.
- Children are developing a wider vocabulary to express themselves.
- Children are maintaining their home languages.
I hope this helps some of you out there to get a head start on the new VEYLDF document! Let me know in the comments below anything else you have found interesting or helpful.