Gifts, gifts and more gifts.....Here's what we gave to deserving teachers.....
Chocolate gift baskets
Farmers gift cards
Magazine subscriptions
Warehouse gift cards
Hand creams and face creams
Whitcoulls gift cards
Lipbalms and lipsticks
Peanut Butter
Sunhats
Marshmallows
Coffee and tea
Nail polishes
Eye creams and concealers
Movie tickets
Restaurant gift cards
Body lotions
Shower gels and soaps
Massage vouchers
Workplace massage sessions
Gourmet hampers
Perfumes
Facial products
Pak n Save vouchers
Body Shop gift cards
Other beauty products
Jewellery
Mitre 10 Vouchers
Candy Boxes - licorice, chocolate, candy and fudge
Birthday morning tea shouts
Workplace drinks shouts
Stress balls
Beautiful note pads
PRETTY COOL DON'T YOU THINK??!!!
We also provided plenty of emotional and practical support for teachers facing difficult times (such as working following bereavement and centre restructuring.)
YOUR FEEDBACK AND IDEAS
I asked you all to share what you enjoy most about teaching and what you find most stressful!
Here are just some of your responses....
Disclaimer: These are the opinions of individual teachers and may not necessarily reflect the views of Happy ECE Teachers.
We Love : *To see the children soaking up all of the info like sponges, to promote curiosity and wonder through free play. Playing is learning!!!
* Seeing that particular look of absorption and fascination a child has when they are completely in the moment, following their interest undisturbed.
*Being around children and watching them explore and learn.
*Working with like minded professionals, seeing the "oh I get what you mean" moment appear on their faces.
*Ability we have to make a positive impact on the lives of young children.
*Watching and learning from the children, the sunshine and making the most of our environment.
*Children just being themselves and letting their imagination shine.
* I love it when you can help a child to achieve a goal.
*I love my job with the Under 2's and I love the bond that I form with the babies and love to be part of their development as they learn and discover new things.
*Being able to watch the children master a milestone or achieve a challenge they have set themselves.
*The smiles and laughter the children give me and their imaginations.
*The daily rewards: cuddles, kisses and turning tears into laughter, when they say your name for the first time.
* I find the feeling that I am honoured to be a part in forming who these young children become incredibly rewarding.
*I love watching the babies explore. It brings magic back to the world when you see them inspect a leaf or blade of grass.
* I most enjoy when children achieve something, be it toileting, learning to write their name or creating something amazing.
*Early Childhood is a passion. Working alongside the children and whanau is a privilege.
* I think it's great that there are recent initiatives to celebrate and honour early childhood centres in the community who are operating with excellent standards across all areas. These centres deserve the public recognition and awards they are receiving.....
*Supporting parents in their role.
*I just love supporting this age group of children. It does provide challenging moments but these are well and truly over-ridden by seeing them develop confidently and capable in their world.
*Seeing the children persevere and achieve things by themselves, the look on their faces when they figure out how to do something is truly something special.
*I love when the most timid and soft spoken child gets up in front of the room and makes my hair stand on end. This one wee girl, for the first time said her mihi before sharing news. With so much mana and enthusiasm she said her whole mihi from start to finish. I had tears in my eyes and couldn't wait to tell her family. Just magical.
* I love children and how they explore.
*Being able to positively influence and support all our amazing children, families and teachers within our Centre. There is nothing like watching a child learn a new skill and celebrate with them and their family. I feel privileged to be able to provide care for the precious infants and toddlers I look after every day.
*Developing respectful, trusting relationships with tamariki and their whanau.
*I love working with children, especially watching the passion for life they hold.
* I love watching the children learn through their play and celebrating these discoveries with their families/whanau and the teaching team.
* The relationships I develop with the children, parents and other teachers.
*Children and their sense of humour!
*I enjoy being there to experience and support children's learning at such an exciting and incredibly important time in their lives.
We don't like: *Busy sessions where you feel out of control and need to regroup and bring everyone back together.
*Increase of paperwork and meetings for accountability.
*Wet weather days - loud four year olds stuck inside and being silly.
*Paper work as an owner/operator.
* The political correctness which accompanies this profession.
*Being a political football - under appreciated for what we do, thanks John.
*Keeping up to date with book work.
*ERO visits !! You have to prepare so much irrelevant paperwork which mostly focuses on minority groups which we often don't work with but still need to have a huge long plan in place if they all suddenly knock on our door and then we get visited by somebody who isn't even in the early childhood sector. Just being honest!!
*High number of children in my group and I feel I can't give them the individual attention they deserve.
*..........On the other hand I strongly disagree with the same initiatives operating public name and shame tactics for centres that have poor standards. There must be another way? Yes, there should definitely be accountability for management and for teachers who are individually responsible for any incidents but it is very hard for other good teachers who will be "tarred with the same brush" so to speak because they happen to work at the same place. Imagine the humiliation, not everybody has another job to go to when stuck in a bad centre.
* The supposed experts who tell experienced teachers what to do when they haven't spent a day on the floor themselves (or if they have it was twenty years ago!!).
* Parents bringing in sick children which then makes everyone else sick.
*When you want to be in about five different places at once but can only be in one.
* The Ministry of Education does not "get" what we do. Their obsession with compliance (often without taking individual contexts into account) makes lots of the teachers I know feel discouraged in their work.
*The work I put in out of hours is hard, especially to complete my teacher registration and expectations for profile books.
*I am so fed up with the mindless paperwork, in particular self review, which we have to continually churn out to keep the Ministry happy. It doesn't help the children, if anything it takes valuable time away from them and their whanau.
* Being a manager trying to maintain a work and social life balance and team dynamics.
*Lack of recognition from the Government about "what is quality in ECE"
* This job is so highly regulated, even primary school teachers don't seem to have as much PC rubbish to deal with.
*Health and safety gone mad !! How can our children ever learn to take risks if they aren't allowed to do anything without someone hovering over them with the cotton wool?
*Children who are difficult to transition into Centre and then out again. They take so much of your heart with them.
*Finding a balance between my work and family...I think the guilt of working full time and not spending as much time with my kiddies does overcome me.
* Paperwork that gets in the way of quality time with the children.
* Learning Te Reo (as I came here from England).
*Upset children.
* Lack of concern for individual teachers from those with influence in the sector.
*Lack of funding, having to keep to higher numbers whilst still meeting everyone's individual needs.
* I find conflict and gossipy women to be the most stressful aspect of teaching, especially as most teams are all women teams. At the moment though I am so lucky to have a beautiful and supportive team, they are out there !!
*Demand on your time and energy. There are so many amazing opportunities to support children and families but to do this well does require giving 110% every day. This can be tiring and stressful but totally worth it.
*Rainy days!!!
*Keeping sunhats on the children in the summer. You put it on their head and 2 seconds later it's on the ground or in the water trough!
*Government teacher to child ratios we are working under are hard on myself and the team emotionally and physically.
*Workplace politics