All the early childhood news you want to know!

Welcome to this edition of the award winning ECA WebWatch. In our feature item this fortnight, we encourage you to think about inspirational teachers and educators in your world – why not show them you appreciate their work by nominating them for a NEiTA teachers award?

Also in this issue:

• How do you use online health information?
• Seven levels of leadership consciousness
• Bullyproof your child

Plus:

• ECA calendar
• Quality-assured early childhood resources
• ECA Greenwatch

ECA WebWatch feature item

NEiTA award nominations now open!
Nominations have opened for the NEiTA 2010 ASG Inspirational Teaching Awards. The NEiTA Awards are the only national community-centred teaching awards that give you the opportunity to nominate an inspirational teacher, principal or early childhood director.

The awards promote public recognition of the teaching profession, specifically those teachers and leaders whose inspirational approach to education stimulates student learning.

Bullyproof your child

Help your child deal with bullies
KidsLife have recently published a useful article on their website about helping your child confront and deal with bullies. The article covers not only physical bullying (such as at school) but also cyber bullying, which is an increasing problem.

Also available from Early Childhood Australia

Dealing with bullying together: Prevention and resolution
Bullying can have a significant impact on children's lives, whether they are the instigator or the victim. However, early childhood educators can help children, and their parents, to deal with bullying.

Sustained shared thinking

Metacognition – How important is it for young children?
The interim findings from a research paper which looks at the independent learning of children in English child care centres and kindergartens.

'Metacognition' refers to a complex array of skills, understandings and dispositions which incorporate children's developing awareness of their own cognitive processing, their knowledge about thinking and learning, and of tasks and strategies, and their developing ability to devise and select appropriate strategies to manage effectively their thought processes in learning and problem solving.

How do you use online child health information?

Share your experiences
With the rapid increase in internet access throughout Australia and the number of unregulated child health websites it is timely to determine how Australian parents decide whether to search online, and/or use online child health information.

Do you have a child aged between 6 months and 10 years? If so, Dr. Anne Walsh from the School of Nursing at the Queensland University of Technology is interested in what you have to say about searching for information on child health issues, such as a rash, cut or the flu.

Welcome to and Acknowledgment of Country – your questions answered

Fact sheet to help clarify this important tradition
This Q & A factsheet is part of a Reconciliation Australia series aimed at informing the community and stimulating conversations about the issues that affect us all.

The practice of acknowledging Country or being welcomed to Country at official events has been a topic of debate recently. Here are some answers to questions you might have about this issue.

Learn about leadership processes

Seven levels of leadership consciousness
All human group structures grow and develop in seven well-defined stages. Each stage focuses on a particular need of the organisation or group structure for which the leader is responsible. Leaders develop and grow by learning to master the satisfaction of these needs.

ECA Greenwatch

dirtgirlworld – bringing the outdoors to kids!
dirtgirlworld is a contemporary, vibrant, eco-friendly series that was designed to introduce preschoolers to the joys of outdoor play and sustainable, green living. dirtgirl - Australia’s newest international television star – is a gumboot-wearing girl who grows awesome tomatoes, knows cloud names and drives a big orange tractor.

dirtgirworld has recently been nominated for a logie award, as well as an international Prix Jeunesse nominations. The Prix Jeunesse is one of the most prestigous children's televion awards in the world.

dirtgirlworld is currently screening on ABC1 and ABC2.

Quality-assured early childhood resources

All of ECA's publications are peer -reviewed by early childhood experts, so you can be assured that all our publications are of the highest quality, and relevant to you and your work.

Every Child Vol. 16 No. 1 – Belonging
Informative and easy-to-read articles in this issue focus especially on the notion of being and belonging, including articles on developing inclusive relationships among early childhood staff, belonging and children’s behaviour, encouraging families to belong, and much more.

Prep – A class act
This useful workbook will help you develop and enhance children's confidence and self-esteem through the performing arts.

ECA calendar

National Centre Against Bullying Conference 2010
9–10 April 2010
Hilton on the Park
Melbourne

The 2010 conference promises to give schools evidence-based information and strategies about cyber safety, how to use the new technologies to enhance learning, and ways to improve student wellbeing.

Healthy parks healthy people congress 2010
11–16 April 2010
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

The Inaugural International Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress will explore how nature significantly contributes to our wellbeing and broader societal benefits.

Visit Early Childhood Australia's online calendar – it's the easy way to keep track of important events, conferences and dates.

Help us expand the ECA WebWatch community
Please pass this e-newsletter service on to friends and colleagues with this link to subscribe: www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/mail

Early Childhood Australia's strength is determined by the strength of its members and supporters. It is only through your support that we can advocate for and on behalf of the sector. As a reader of ECA WebWatch you can make a big difference to the sector. By forwarding this newsletter to colleagues and inviting them to subscribe, you extend our advocacy chain – increasing our ability to communicate and work with the sector.

Let us know what you think ...
We welcome any suggestions or comments you have: webwatch@earlychildhood.org.au.

Past issues of ECA WebWatch are available on the Early Childhood Australia website.

Subscribing
If you have received this copy of ECA WebWatch from a friend and wish to subscribe yourself, simply send a blank email to subscribe@earlychildhood.org.au.

Unsubscribing
If you do not wish to receive ECA WebWatch, send a blank email with a subject of Unsubscribe ECA Webwatch to unsubscribe@ear lychildhood.org.au from the email address it was sent to.
Change of address
Please send an email to webwatch@earlychildhood.org.au, clearly stating your old email address as well as your new address.

(Please remember to add webwatch@earlychildhood.org.au to your safe senders list to ensure that you receive your copy of ECA WebWatch promptly.)

ECA WebWatch - Issue 90, April 2010. © Early Childhood Australia.