Teaching Journey : Connecting through Early Education

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
 

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/
 
 

Lynette Tah is an amazing, passionate and well articulated leader. Her journey is so inspiring as she has moved countries to find happiness. She spoke about the importance of reflective questions and how she unpacks her own vulnerabilities by questioning herself. Lynette is the perfect example to find the space where you belongs- somewhere that aligns with your values and beliefs – which in return is a space for you to grow and thrive.

Eliza Lee has been working in the sector for more than 30 years, starting off as a Mothercraft nurse and now is working in a rural community kindergarten. With all the years of experiences and knowledge under her belt, Eliza still radiates passion and open to new learnings in early childhood. 

Anna Zhang is currently teaching in a non for profit early learning centre in Sydney. She spoke about her passion in early childhood which stems from her mentor who she had an amazing connection with during placement. Anna has a deep appreciation to the honest and constrictive feedback she had received and more importantly this has been a drive to achieve a high quality of education and leadership in her current practice. See below on the many advocacy projects which she mentioned in the episode: 
EduObs: www.EduObs.com ( empower early childhood teachers with technology).
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@earlyyearswithanna
Blog: https://earlyyearswithanna.blogspot.com
Instagram: earlyyearswithanna

Laura Kerr and Jessica Branca have both worked together 4 years ago in an early learning centre. They are both pocket rocket filled with passion for early childhood education and their energy is infectious. They spoke about their drive for advocacy for children and how it translates into their curriculum and pedagogies by pushing boundaries and thinking outside the box but yet still delivering it within the policies and regulations. 

Rachael McBrien is a centre director, educational leader and kindergarten teacher in a centre in Merribek. Racheal has a wonderful perspectives of positive outlook and highlighted that even she has been in the sector for more than 10 years, she still have the ability to reflect within herself, her team and her community and the openness to unpacking the practices and implementations within the centre and practices.

Rajy Xavier has a Degree in Electrical engineering and a Masters in education. Her passion for science and children has shaped her pedagogical teaching practices. She has given us some great ideas on embedding STEM education in early childhood context and highlights the importance of embedding it in our everyday practices with children.

In this episode, I sat down with Fiona Ye who is a kindergarten teacher in a small non for profit centre in Fairfield. Fiona spoke about her own experiences navigating the big ocean of early childhood and how she tackled the sharks swimming around her as a new beginning teacher. She also spoke very openly about the failures in her professional journey- and very inspiringly, she embraced them and used them as tools to improve her practices.

Dorianne Prinzi has been working in the sector for 20 years now and she is currently a Preschool Field Officer at Merri-Bek Council (previously known as Moreland). She spoke about her journey in the different roles she has been in and how privileged she is in the connections she had with families and children. She also unpacked the evolution of growth she has undertaken (and is still going) and how she is always looking at the positives when faced with adversity.