About Us
Vision
Our organisation prides itself on our experience, passion, and strategies we offer teachers to provide them with teaching tools to reduce challenging behaviours in the classroom and other environments.
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We are committed to improving teacher's skills and teaching environments, which, in turn, helps the lives of children, families, and the broader community.
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We offer behaviour management strategies for teachers, Early Childhood Teachers and early Childhood educators to be able to empower young people with social-emotional capabilities to maximise their learning potential for lifelong learning.
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Our education community network, working collectively in mutual long-term relationships, continuously develops our knowledge and skills of Teachers. This evolving Education community network is what assists us in achieving the best results for our young children.
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Doing this helps us to provide teachers with practical tools to enrich children's social-emotional skills, to help teachers to develop a strong sense of belonging in their unique kindergarten community, and reduce challenging behaviours in their respective teaching environments.
Mission
Mission Aims
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To listen and strategise with teachers to continuously improve the teaching tools provided.
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To mentor and train teachers within their organisations in small groups of four to six teachers and, in turn, upskill the teachers in behaviour management skills.
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To teach the teachers how this can be taught in a relaxed, playful way to teach positive behaviour through a sustained intentional, shared thinking method.
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To encourage teachers and educators to develop valuable personal skills and strategies, particularly with each other and the children and families they work with.
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To encourage full collaboration in the training sessions and connecting after training to reap further benefits. To listen to teachers to continuously improve the teaching tools provided.
About The Little Minds Programs
We are committed to helping teachers reduce challenging behaviours inside and outside the classroom.
This results in the teachers being able to be more effective in delivering their curriculum to children and working towards creating calmer teaching environments.
Implementing and regularly using this The Colour of My Emotions (TCOME) teaching tool can help teachers guide the children to be at their best social and emotional capacities and learning potential.
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Purchase TCOME Teaching Tool
Professional Development Training
Our future and continuous development at The little Minds Programs professional development training for teachers and educators.
We are already developing five additional teaching tools for support and strategies to assist teachers, educators, or anyone who works with children. The following areas in current LMP development include and are not limited to healthy thoughts and well-being, emotions and choices, grief and loss, life challenges and creative self-expression.
About our Founder Melissa
I am a mother to my two young men and passionate about being a teacher and, running a business. I had a challenging upbringing, and I was inspired by raising my sons to contribute further to the growth of young children in my local community and surroundings.
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I have nine years of professional experience working in the Education Sector, mainly in Early Childhood, in an Educational Leader role, and mostly in the role of Early Childhood Teacher. In those roles, I was the head of a kindergarten program and leader for the 4- to 5-year-old age group. I developed the curriculum and led the kindergarten team in centres. I have also tutored individual and small groups in Literacy and Numeracy from Prep to Year 6.
Melissa Foran's Professional Biography
During my Master of Teaching and Graduate Diploma in Education, I researched pedagogy and developmental stages of children, the development of young children's brains, and best practices in teaching.
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From those experiences throughout my teaching career, I realised that teachers wanted greater knowledge and practical ways of to decrease challenging behaviours and strengthen social-emotional capabilities and learning in the classroom, playgrounds, peer friendship groups and the community. This teaching tool helps to provide solid social-emotional capabilities and positive experiences with teachers and educators to encourage lifelong learning for each child.
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As a result, I founded "The Little Minds Program" national company and put together a behaviour management program titled The Colour of My Emotions (TCOME) for teacher instruction that is inclusive of all children to understand. This program can help teachers develop their childrens social etiquette by including the children in conversations about kinder choices.
The research shows when children engage with adults in discussing behaviours and choices they can make more brain connections and better behaviours choices. Involvement of the children not only empowers them but also makes them feel connected to the process of making positive choices on how to treat themselves and others and encourages them to use their voices on what matters to them. Moreover, this will strengthen a sense of belonging in kindergarten or school. Children learn social and emotional skills through practice; change occurs over time, and the children's understanding gradually processes in the brain.
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My program's teacher's notes stress the importance of listening to children, recognising that children's voices are validated, and empowering the children to be involved, which will support the success of reducing challenging behaviours in kindergarten and schools. This fosters the development and growth of the children's healthy social-emotional capabilities, reducing challenging behaviours and maximising their learning potential through play.
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In the Early Years 3-5 age group, play is an essential conduit to learning. School readiness is highly debated regarding how early years teachers prepare their students for school emotionally, physically, and confidently with good communication skills and fundamental knowledge of social and emotional capabilities. The flashcards are pictorial, short 10-15 minute lessons meant to be a relaxed, playful way to teach positive behaviour through a sustained intentional, shared thinking method.
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By consistent use of the TCOME teacher instruction tool, flashcards, along with lesson plans and through teacher observation, teachers and educators will be able to produce complete early childhood learning stories, daily reflections, summative and kindergarten Transitional Statements with more profound knowledge of how and the extent their children have developed the social-emotional skills.
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Improving social-emotional skills, will help the children to engage positively inside and outside the classroom. This will maximise the children's learning and experience a positive relationship with their kindergarten teacher and educators, which is essential for lifelong learning for young children working towards school readiness. These reasons are a basis for young children's early success, as well as teachers and educators guiding and teaching the children and how they share their knowledge, experiences and emotions with others, adults, teachers, families and peers.
