Teacher Registration Criteria

Recently I attended a workshop about the new Registered Teacher Criteria which became mandatory this year. This was organised by the NZ Teachers Council for senior teachers in secondary, primary and early childhood. The same criteria apply for all teachers. It was satisfying to discover that at KIDSPACE we are already well ahead of many educational institutions in implementing these new criteria.

Over the past two years Tamara has trialled the new criteria while completing her provisional teacher registration. We have also updated our job descriptions and appraisal process in line with this criteria. As part of our centre professional development day and subsequent performance appraisals, we have used the new criteria to review our practice and set goals for the year ahead.
Irene

Whanau Evening Wednesday 21 July 7-8.30pm

Kia ora everybody! Next Wednesday (21st July) we are planning to have a KIDSPACE Whanau night. We will be having drinks and nibbles and hosting a beginners flax weaving workshop (as we are only beginners ourselves!). Everything will kick of at 7pm and we will wind up at about 8.30pm. Bring your friends and family. Everyone is welcome, the more the merrier!! If you can already weave, we would love your support to assist others. Look forward to seeing you all there. Jess

Noise conference

Two Fridays ago, Jessie and I attended a noise workshop in Havelock North called Protecting Tender Ears: Plug and Play Strategies for Reducing Noise with Tim Corbett from The National Foundation for the Deaf inc.

Who should worry about noise?

We all should- no matter how old or young you are, too much exposure to loud noise can permanently damage your hearing.

We discussed what sorts of noises occur in an early childhood centre,

-dishwasher

-phone

-carpentry

-crying

-squealing

-talking

-music

-traffic outside (sirens etc)

Tim said, early childhood centres are in actual fact at industrial level for sound.

He gave ideas on evaluating sound in the centre, such has videoing different areas and listening to how noisy these are. He suggested that within a centre we should have quiet zones, and around these quiet zones there shouldn't be noisy experiences.

As teachers and parents we can encourage children with

-having inside voices

-role modelling

-talking to squealing children (talk about it hurts our ears)

-stories sometimes (at lunch times, so it's not as noisy with lots of back ground talking)

-sing songs at a normal tone, then whisper (showing different levels of sound)

Jessie and I believed KIDSPACE has good acoustics, inside and also in the art room. Tim also discussed that if the teachers eat well then we have the energy to support children with the awareness of noise and trying to lower noise levels in our centre.

Tim introduced a noise meter machine "The National Foundation for the Deaf inc" had designed, based on an 11 year old girls model of a noise reading meter. This meter has three lights like a traffic light. The meter measures sounds ranging from 80 decibels to 90 decibels, when any given area is getting too noisy the lights will glow from green to amber to red- at maximum level. This noise meter would be a fantastic tool at KIDSPACE, so if anyone is happy to donate towards purchasing one of these this would be fantastic.

Lets protect the taringa (ears) of our tamariki ma (children).

For more information please go to www.nfd.org.nz

Tamara