Teaching Journey : Connecting through Early Education

Jenna Close has been in the sector for more than 20 years. She has started her teaching journey teaching in Primary and Secondary sector and very quickly realised her passion for Early Education.  

She speaks so thoughtfully about her joy in her current role as a coach and mentor, and how much she values the growth journey that comes with it. We also touched on leadership, reciprocal learning, and the significance of building stron...

Barbi Clendining has been in the education sector for more than 20 years as a teacher and a leader in Outside of School Hours Care (OSHC). Now, she is a co-founder of Firefly HR, a recruitment agency in NSW and a podcast co-host OSHC After the Bell.

Barbi shared authentically of her journey of leadership and finding the right leadership that resonates with her. She said "I felt that I was doing it all wrong”- as her understanding o...

Vicky Heng has been teaching for 10 years and has a Bachelor in Early Childhood Education from University of Queensland where she undertook the course in Malaysia and is now currently teaching in an international school as an Early Years Bilingual Teacher and Learning Innovation Coach in Kuala Lumpur. 

She spoke about the challenges navigating the knowledge and understanding of the Australian lens of Early Childhood Education and a...

Nicola Hoad was a primary teacher for 10 years and is now an owner of Play in the Past which centers around providing playful explorations with historical resources into classrooms for a hands on rich exposure to children’s learning.

Nicola has shared with us deliberate and intentional languages that she uses when she’s teaching and how this exposure would extend children’s contextual and understandings of the learnings they are ex...

Belle Spillman has been in the early childhood sector for more than 20 years. She had a great career as a HR manager and her journey began when she struggled to find quality early learning services for her own children. This experience inspired her to study early childhood education and to provide high-quality early education for young people. Now she is a leader, mentor and has a consultancy business called Our Business Mentors.

B...

Donna Sheppard has been in the education sector for 30 years. She began her career as a high school music teacher, studied for her bachelor’s degree while raising children, and is now the co-owner of a consultancy business called Back on Track Early Childhood Professionals.

Donna shared her journey, including the challenges she faced as a new teacher in the early childhood sector and her battle with breast cancer. She continued tea...

Mariela Silvera has been in the early years sector for over 25 years and is now a certified mindfulness instructor and a certified Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) practitioner. In our conversation, she shared her honest experience of burnout and her struggles with mental health and well-being. She began her journey by self-learning meditation from YouTube videos and incorporating it into her daily routine.

Mariela spoke passionat...

Samantha Barrish has been in the sector for 30 years and is currently an early childhood teacher in NSW. Her focus this year is to say ‘yes’ to all opportunities of new challenges. We spoke about many things- her passion for the importance of relationships with families and risky play and her experience with sitting in the discomfort. She said it has been years and is still in the space of discomfort and spoke about how this honest...

Anne Gordan has been in the education sector for more than 30 years. She started as a high school science teacher and is now a lecturer and consultant in the early childhood space.

Anne has shared with us her love and passion for STEM and how she has integrated it into her practices even as a mum and grandma to a relational, contextualised play based inquiry. Her fascination on children’s theory really shapes her pedagogy and the q...

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. S...

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 ...

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...

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 beh...

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 ...

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 incl...

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,...

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 cultu...

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 w...

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 advocati...