Teaching Journey : Connecting through Early Education

Episode 23 : Rachel Smith

Rachel Smith is a Family Day Care educator based in a small town of 25 houses in Konorgong, NSW. She has been awarded Educator of the Year in 2020 and 2023 by Family Day Care Australia and recently been nominated for Women Changing the World Award.
She is a perfect example of rising from adversity. Being through with personal and professional challenges she has an inspiring ability to self-reflect and motivate herself and others. She shared her recent blog post in Out of the Box blog page by 'baring it all' with the challenges she faced and that post have reached, inspired and connected educators nationwide who are in similar positions.
 
In this episode prologue, I've shared some reflections around finding your identity before finding your 'tribe': 
Who are you as a teacher/educator/leader?
What are your values and where does it sit in your practice?
What are your passion and interest or what gets you very excited?
 
 
Guest speaker : Rachel Smith @rachelshomechildcarefdc
(https://mailrhcc.wixsite.com/rachel-s-home-child) 
 
Host: Dee Suvanmani  @teachingjourneypodcast (https://www.instagram.com/teachingjourneypodcast/) 
 
 

Episode 22 : Leanne Kapetanovski

Leanne Kapetanovski has worked in the sector for 33 years. She has worn many hats and taken on many leadership role from being a centre Director and a Preschool Field Officer. 
We spoke in depth about change and how Leanne shares how she navigates when changes happens and was honest that she didn't like change and reflected on the discomfort. She shared some thought processes that she considers when is reflecting of the change and priority she place for the children and families as she considers on the impact of change that it can bring.
 
Guest speaker : Leanne Kapetanovski
 
Host: Dee Suvanmani  @teachingjourneypodcast (https://www.instagram.com/teachingjourneypodcast/) 

Episode 21 : Carrie Rose

Carrie Rose has been in the sector for 35 years and is a founder of The Rose Way consultancy. Carrie spoke about her challenges in her early days as a teacher and with working with people with different dispositions and pedagogical practices. She shared her reflection of her own traits and how it influences her relationship with people, her leadership style and the drive to the continual motivation after 35 years in the sector. And shared her latest passion and advocacy work on the access to quality of education for all children in Australia. 
 
Reflections to ponder for this episode: 
What does quality of early education look like to you? What are you seeing in practice at the moment? And do both (your vision and realities) are aligned?
What are you doing in your everyday practice that reflects on your vision of quality early education?
How can you as an early childhood professional close that gap to the quality ratings that we see at the moment? 
Where/ how can you access information and expand your knowledge or practices on early education?
 
 
Resources mentioned in this episode: 
Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority. (2023, November). National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshot Q3 2023 [PDF]. Retrieved from https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-11/NQF%20Snapshot%20Q3%202023_0.pdf
 
Oncken Jr., W., & Wass, D. L. (1999). Management time: Who's got the monkey? Harvard Business Review, 77(11), [PDF]. Retrieved fromhttps://evolutionpartners.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Management-Time_-Whos-Got-the-Monkey.pdf
 
 
Guest speaker : Carrie Rose (https://therosewayplanning.com/) 
 
Host: Dee Suvanmani  @teachingjourneypodcast (https://www.instagram.com/teachingjourneypodcast/) 
 
 

Episode 20 : Sarah Louise Gandolfo

Sarah Louise is an exceptional leader and advocator for the Early Years Sector and have many years of experiences within the sector with multiple roles and leadership hats. She is now a consultant and founder of Learning to Lead in Early Childhood. Sarah Louise talks about Kind Leadership vs Nice Leadership and discussed what burnout can look like. She spoke passionately about her Social Justice advocacy work and shared with us behind her 'why' on continuing the work that she does within the Early Childhood Sector. 
 
Resources: 
Rogers, M. (2023, April 18). Early educators around the world feel burned out and devalued: Here is how we can help. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/early-educators-around-the-world-feel-burnt-out-and-devalued-heres-how-we-can-help-202513
Ng, J., Rogers, M., & McNamara, C. (2023). Early childhood educator’s burnout: A systematic review of the determinants and effectiveness of interventions. Issues in Educational Research, 33(1), 173. https://www.iier.org.au/iier33/ng.pdf
 
Guest: Sarah Louise Gandolfo (https://slmconti.wixsite.com/learningtoleadinec)
 
Host: Dee Suvanmani  Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast
 

Episode 19 : Anson Li

Anson Li has been working within the Education sector for more than 10 years. He has a unique teaching background teaching in Secondary Education before transitioning into the early childhood sector.
In this episode, we spoke about his journey and how he is constantly evolving as a teacher and as an individual. Throughout the recording, Anson demonstrated how deeply comfortable he is in being honest, open and reflective on his own self. 
In the introduction, I spoke about Johari Window Model and looked at how Anson kept his window open for himself and to us as he reflected on his own experiences.
 
Resources: 
The Johari Window Model: https://www.mindtools.com/au7v71d/the-johari-window
 
Guest: Anson Li (https://www.linkedin.com/in/anson-li-52820142/) 
Host: Dee Suvanmani 
Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast
 
 

Episode 18 : Darren Halim

Darren Halim who have worked in the EC sector for 5 years. He has share with us his personal experiences as a male educator, shedding light on the profound influence that small gestures, nuances in tone, and word choices shapes our approach to inclusivity and equity within the sector. We reflected on how well we do as teachers in fostering an inclusive environment for children and engage in numerous conversations around gender inclusivity, there remains a missed or limited opportunity to extend this reflective thinking to our colleagues, families, and broader communities. 
 
Resources: 
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2019). Equity Definitions. NAEYC. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/equity/definitions
Henderson, B. (2016) Gender Identity and Expression in the Early Childhood Classroom: Influences on Development Within Sociocultural Contexts. Young Children, 71(3) https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/jul2016/gender-identity
 
Red Ruby Scarlet. (2023). The Anti-Bias Approach in Early Childhood. Multiverse Publishers. https://multiverse.com.au/product/the-anti-bias-approach-in-early-childhood/
 
Guest: Darren Halim
Host: Dee Suvanmani
Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Episode 17 : Shelli Giosis

Shelli Giosis has been working in the EC sector for 30 years and stills carries the light of passion, enthusiasm and love for EC. She talks about all things that inspires her and how even after 30 years she still lots of learn. She invites us to join on to the 'train' of excitement. Start talking about what you are doing to others. Listen to yourself and get excited about the things that you are doing. Because when you are excited, the children gets excited and the energy translates to the team, families and the whole community of learning.
 
Guest: Shelli Giosis
Host: Dee Suvanmani
Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Episode 16: Joanne Tan

Joanne Tan has been working in the EC sector for 3 years and is from Indonesia. She spoke about the concept of sense of belonging and the complexities as migrants to find a space of belonging in a new country and in a new work environment. Joanne talks about how she feels to ‘fit in’ and often feeling intimidated by her colleagues who were all white Anglo-saxon Australian. She spoke about her journey of keeping her values and cultural identity close to her as she navigates herself into her teaching journey.
 
Guest: Joanne Tan
Host: Dee Suvanmani
Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast

Episode 15 : Hakea Hustler

Hakea Hustler is an award winning author of co-written books of Black Cockatoo, My Deadly Boots, Tracks of the Missing. She is also the co-owner of The Remote Teacher website providing resources to support teachers in remote community. She has passion for supporting and bringing teachers working in remote communities together. Successful teachers = positive outcomes for children and young people. 
"Sometimes we don’t realise that we have a story in us and through the connection and collaboration that we do with others that we do have something worthwhile sharing" (Hakea Hustler). 
 
Guest: Hakea Hustler
The Remote Teacher website and resources: https://linktr.ee/theremoteteacheraus
Host: Dee Suvanmani
Instagram: @teachingjourneypodcast
 

Episode 14: Jessica Staines

Jessica Staines, founder of Koori Curriculum is an advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have brought a lot of culture awareness and education on respectfully embedding First Nation’s perspectives specifically in early childhood education sector. Jessica spoke about the comfort in the discomfort of questing our practices as well as the importance of knowing The Framework and legislative well when we are advocating for social justice and children’s rights to use them as a guide in our reflective practice. 
Link to Koori Curriculum website: https://kooricurriculum.com/