Kaylee Bell

Name: Kaylee Bell

Program: Graduate Diploma in Teaching (ECE)

Emerging star: Kaylee Bell is an internationally celebrated country music artist whose success shows no signs of stopping. Her greatest achievement to date? Being the first Kiwi since Keith Urban to win the prestigious Toyota Star Maker talent search, and then performing with Keith on his tour!

Kaylee has an exciting few months ahead as she is preparing to perform on a country music cruise in Fiji, at the Tamworth Country Music Festival (Australia’s largest international country music festival) and record her new album.

Alongside all of this, Kaylee is completing her Graduate Diploma in Teaching (ECE) through NZTC’s Blended Learning study mode, which combines online study (via NZTC Online) with face-to-face learning and practice, while based in her hometown of Waimate, Canterbury.

Why did you decide to study early childhood education?

I’ve always loved kids, and I love the idea that I can give back and incorporate my music into teaching.

How do you plan to incorporate music into your teaching career?

I want to make music an important part of my curriculum and what I bring to mat time. I remember when I was a kid, I had a teacher who would play a lot of music and always had a guitar, which was really cool. That’s what I want to be able to do – incorporate music into my teaching practice, whether it’s by learning songs, writing songs with the kids, or planning concerts. And, I think my music and an ECE career can go quite well together. Music gigs are generally on weekends so it would be nice to have something that I am also passionate about (ECE) to do during the week.

Why did you decide to study with NZTC?

Anytime I emailed an NZTC staff member, they’d email or call back straight away, and the support NZTC offers is awesome. The College does a really, really good job of showing an interest and caring for their students.

I also loved the idea of Blended Learning, where you gain practical experience while studying online.

The flexibility of being able to start whenever I wanted was a real draw card too. I had a bit of downtime from music and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to fit in some study. The flexible start dates meant that I didn’t have to wait to study my courses from January to November like some other tertiary providers.

How has your experience been with Blended Learning?

I think Blended Learning is great. I spend two days a week in a centre, which is awesome because it’s hands-on, and because it makes my assignments so much more relevant. On days when I’m studying, I really understand what I’m reading or writing about because I’m actually getting to do it in the centre. The centre my placement is at, Rural Scholars Early Learning Centre, is very cool and different in what they offer. They have a little farmlet and a culture of nature-oriented learning that I love being a part of.

How do you manage your studies alongside the time commitment of your music career?

It’s been a real juggling act, because there’s a lot to fit in. Luckily I have an excellent manager and team in Australia who help me out a lot, and everyone from NZTC that I’ve been in touch with has been super efficient in getting back to me, having answers and making everything as easy as possible. I definitely need to be organised, use my time wisely, and plan ahead, but the end result of having a career as a qualified early childhood teacher, while still being able to fit music into my career, will be awesome!