Professional Development- Parent teacher relationships

This afternoon we had a tutor from Massey came and work with us as part of ongoing training we as teachers do. Two interesting things I wanted to share came up for me.

1st was our tutor's comment on "children become what we notice and respond too in them." So if your child wants to be lifted up to look at what you're doing and you notice this and lift them up it teaches them one thing, if you only notice when they demand your attention through misbehaviour it teaches them another.
So we all need to ask ourselves as teachers and parents what do we notice, what do we respond to. Better to notice first and respond to something positive now than to wait till they need to drag a response out of us.

2nd was about the importance of parents and the relationship of parents and teachers in a child's learning. Adrianne hit the nail on the head when she said her child learnt best from the teachers she was friends with.
This is so true, when you know your child's teachers and they know you, all the learning at home and in the kindergarten become linked together, we all understand what's going on in children's lives and interests better and can all respond to them more fully.
So how do you develop these parent teacher relationships? Spend time in the kindergarten, read stories, come on trips, chat with the teachers. Relationships and communication come with time. The more time you spend here, the more we learn about you, the more you learn about us, the more we learn about each others interests, how you can help us, and we can help you.
If you feel shy remember we often do too.

Did you know you can take your child's profile home to read.
step one: pick it up
step two: let us know you've got it
step three: take it home, share and enjoy, add your own stories etc.
step four: Bring it back so we can add more to it as well.

Do you have a blog for your children?
If you do let us know, we'd love to read about their adventures too, in fact reading a parents blog was what got us going in the first place.