Early Childhood Teacher

Max: Ready? You use one hand and I'll use the other hand.

Delicious.

You could see if you could take apart this oven. Just tell me if you need some help at any point.

Oh, Harriett’s going up to the secret garden. Should we go with her?

Child: Yeah.

Max: I’ll pop you down so you can walk.

Child: I want to wear my gumboots.

Max: You want your gumboots?

Kia ora, I’m Max Christie and I’m an early childhood kaiako at Northland Childspace.

So a kaiako’s role is as an educator but also as a learner. That just means basically taking a step back quite a lot and learning from children and what they’re doing, rather than dictating to them what they are to learn. We like to respond to what they are interested in.

The role is very varied. There are a lot of different skillful tasks you need to do but we feel like it’s almost all about relationships.

Max: Would you like to find another book with me, Celeste?

Celeste: I want a hammer.

Max: While we say ka kite.

The relationships you have with children and with families and your fellow kaiako, the stronger your relationships are, the more success you’ll have in early childhood.

Parent: Thank you Max.

Max: That’s awesome.

Parent: Have a great day.

Child: That is golden shells.

Max: Golden shells?

Planning for children’s learning is definitely a collaborative process. I have regular meetings with my team and that keep us aware of children’s needs, aware of families’ needs and aware of our team and how they’re feeling.

We feel like free play is an incredibly important part of education, and children developing their own sense of self and their own independence. So a lot of my job is about observation, and just looking for what children need and at what time they need it. A lot of it’s to do with mediating conversations between children. Making sure that they’re using words to communicate their ideas and their problems with each other, so that they don’t revert to using their bodies to solve problems.

Max: Do you want some help to ask him? I’ll walk with you but can you talk to him?

Child: No.

Max: Are you sure? I think you can because you’re talking to me.

It’s a very important time of their lives to influence and to make sure that we all grow up to be positively contributing members of our society. Basically that involves just teaching and learning alongside them. Skills and also values such as empathy and aroha and manaakitanga. Just to be a good human being, that’s really our focus. It’s not an academic learning or rote learning, or listening to me, the teacher, it’s really about them exploring their own selves, their own friendships and in that way we encourage children to be independent learners.

At my centre we all run on different shift times. There’s somebody who comes in at 7am, and they are the opening kaiako, and they greet the children in the morning. And there’s someone who comes in at 8am to support them. I arrive here at 6am. Really my job is just to get to know the children and to help them with anything they need during the day. During my day we have breakfast at nine o’clock and eleven o’clock around about we have lunch.

Maggie, a fork for you to eat your rice.

Laila, that spoon goes in there.

And then after that the younger children will tend to have a rest or a sleep. We have afternoon tea in the afternoon and then we’ll have a late snack at five. I am the closing person so I finish at 6pm, after all the children and teachers have gone home.

See you, Arlo.

See you, Tony, thanks man.

That’s the sort of main rituals of our day. Eating and sleeping and of course nappy changes, also to help the older children with their toileting, their toilet learning, and so that’s a big part of the job too.

Child: Got to wash your hands.

Max: Yes.

Anytime in between is for the children to decide what they want to do with that time. The options are endless and free play really does mean that every day is so different.

You go up in the net.

An important trait for a kaiako would be to see children as capable and confident members of society who need to be respected.

Good luck, my friend.

And also someone who is very caring but also a lot of fun and likes to play.

Ma honga, paka hewi, poku, hopi, wai wai. Poo bum.

Someone who is creative and flexible. Someone who is committed to children and families.

That is a crazy book.

Child: Again.

Max: Again?

You do need a lot of patience to be a great kaiako. My role involves reading books several times in a row sometimes. It takes all sorts of people to create a good team of early childhood teachers. Because of that it’s a really good job for anyone who appreciates children and wants to learn more.

So to become a qualified early childhood educator you have to study at a university or polytechnic for three years if you haven’t studied before. And if you have studied you can do a one-year course to become qualified. You can also work in an early childhood centre as an unqualified teacher. However if you want to make a career out of early childhood, the best way is to study at a tertiary level.

Child: There’s a pirate!

Max: Up in the sky?

Child: Yeah.

Max: Sky pirates?

Children have an incredibly rich sense of how the world works and I love to investigate those with them.

He’s opening his mouth and having a look inside.

It’s turned me into a much more playful person.

Yummy.

It also encourages me to adventure and also see things from a different point of view.

I love this job because I think that it makes an impact on children's lives and therefore society. It’s a lot of fun and it’s actually helped me to get to know myself a lot better.