Day: December 6, 2019

ChildCare Education Institute Offers No-Cost Online Course on Elements of Program Management- Dec 2019 | CCEI

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ChildCare Education Institute® (CCEI), an online child care training provider dedicated exclusively to the early care and education workforce, offers ADM113: Elements of Program Management as a no-cost trial course to new CCEI users December 1-31, 2019.

Program directors bring a wealth of experience and professionalism to their positions. Some come to the job with a deep interest in early childhood development and a dream of giving every child a proper “head start.” Others may be more focused on the entrepreneurial aspects of the job, inspired above all by the goal of building a successful small business. And some directors may find their calling in the day-to-day managerial tasks, such as maintaining safety and health requirements, curriculum planning, and staff development.  While successful directors bring their own interests and specialties to the job, they must also be competent in multiple areas. This course is designed to provide an overview of all the facets of program management.

While the director may leave the “nuts and bolts” of curriculum and assessment to someone else, they must nevertheless possess enough knowledge and experience to evaluate the staff′s understanding of childhood development. Similarly, a director needs to be competent in the areas of finance and budgeting. However, there may also be a staff accountant. While the accountant keeps the records and does the “number crunching,” the director still needs to be able to supervise the accountant and understand how the budget works.

The basic competency areas for a typical director are as follows:

  • Early Childhood Education
  • Curriculum Development
  • Budgeting
  • Accounting
  • Marketing and Public Relations
  • Staff Development
  • Laws and Regulations (pertaining to child care and small business)
  • Family Involvement
  • Facility Management

Above all, the director must provide solid leadership and perform these duties in keeping with a clear vision and philosophy.  Everything the director does should serve a purpose, as defined in the program’s goals and mission statement.  If an educator is new to the profession, they may feel a little overwhelmed by all the director’s responsibilities. If they are an experienced early childhood education professional, then they are accustomed to having to “wear many hats,” but perhaps they may have realized that they have strengths and weaknesses in certain areas.

This course explains the components of managing a successful early childhood education program. Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to identify the components that are needed for quality programs and strategies for ensuring that these elements are in place and maintained at all times.  Participants will also learn about accreditation processes and quality reports, marketing tools, improving public relations, and promoting positive relationships with families as well as gain an understanding of the details involved in program planning, marketing, public relations, budgeting, and working with boards.

“A director completing this course will have a better understanding of what is involved in running the day to day operations of an early childhood program,” says Maria C. Taylor, President of CCEI.  “A director will also better understand how relationships with parents and the community can have an impact on the overall program.”

ADM113: Elements of Program Management is a two-hour, beginner-level course and grants 0.2 IACET CEU upon successful completion. Current CCEI users with active, unlimited annual subscriptions can register for professional development courses at no additional cost when logged in to their CCEI account. Users without subscriptions can purchase child care training courses as block hours through CCEI online enrollment.

For more information, visit www.cceionline.edu or call 1.800.499.9907, prompt 3, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST

ChildCare Education Institute, LLC

ChildCare Education Institute®, a division of Excelligence Learning Corporation, provides high-quality, distance education certificates and child care training programs in an array of child care settings, including preschool centers, family child care, prekindergarten classrooms, nanny care, online daycare training and more. Over 150 English and Spanish child care training courses are available online to meet licensing, recognition program, and Head Start Requirements. CCEI also has online certification programs that provide the coursework requirement for national credentials including the CDA, Director and Early Childhood Credentials.  CCEI, a Council for Professional Recognition CDA Gold Standard™ training provider, is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and is accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).

What are Leadership Skills?

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As we approach not only the end of the year, but also the end of this decade (wow!), it is a great time to reflect on the idea of leadership in education. It is important to think about both our own role as leaders, but also how we are instilling leadership skills in the children with whom we work.

Spend some time thinking about these questions:

  • How have I grown as a leader over the past year/10 years?
  • What can I do to improve my leadership skills over the next year/10 years?
  • Where do I see myself as a leader in the field of ECE in the next year/10 years?
  • How successful have I been in introducing leadership skills to children over the past year/10 years?
  • How can I enhance my teaching of leadership skills to children in the next year/10 years?

You could also pick a child that you currently teach and image that child 10 years from now. What leadership skills will the child need to be successful? What can you do today to facilitate that child’s success as a leader?

Keep in mind, leadership is not necessarily tied to your role or title. Three year olds can be leaders, classroom assistant can be leaders. It’s not about the job title, it’s about the skills you possess that help you collaborate successfully with your peers.  Here is a short list of a few of these important skills:

  • Communication skills –not only the ability to clearly express your thoughts and feedback, but also the ability to listen and comprehend the needs of others.
  • Collaboration – this includes the ability to work as a team, share responsibilities, and hold yourself and others accountable.
  • Adaptability – this refers to your ability to respond effectively to the ever-changing conditions of projects and the needs of teammates.
  • Empathy – a skills that allows you to build trusting relationships that can inspire and motivate others.
  • Growth mindset – the ability to recognize, celebrate, and build upon the efforts of others, not just their successes.
  • Creativity –outside-the-box thinking that generates solutions to problems and new ideas.
  • Self-reflection – the mindful practice of reviewing your thoughts and actions to identify opportunities for growth.

As you move into the new year and the next decade, make an intentional effort to incorporate more of these practices into your professional work and into your work with young children. By modeling these skills to children, you will provide them with valuable opportunities to build their own essential leadership skills.

December 2019 Newsletter – Collective Leadership: Collective Leadership with Staff

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Including employees in goal setting and quality improvement is vital for long term success and sustainability. You can work with the entire team during a staff meeting, small groups of teachers working in committees, or with teaching teams. Individual situations will determine who should be involved in the collective leadership process.

In some cases, such as a disciplinary action, collective leadership is not appropriate. However, there are a number of opportunities to bring employees into the fold through collective leadership. Involving employees can help them feel more invested in the program and it reduces stress on directors, who often feel they need to do it all.  Consider the following options:

  • The team develops the program’s vision and mission statements
  • Teaching teams create vision and mission statements for their classroom
  • The team engages in group problem-solving when issues arise – rather than being told how to solve the problem, employees generate their own solutions, create action plans, and are held responsible for the success or failure of those plans
  • The team organizes family involvement events and celebrations
  • The team identifies and executes a fundraiser
  • The team shares responsibility for lobby displays and decorations
  • The team determines how to meet quality improvement initiatives or accreditation standards
  • The team plans their own professional development event

In each of these cases, different members of the team take on different responsibilities depending on their interests and strengths. Accountability is spread across multiple people rather than falling on the shoulders of just one person. The director’s role becomes one of a guide to help people with tasks along the way, instead of the person responsible for all of the tasks. It is also important that directors recognize successes and support staff through challenges or mistakes – treating them as opportunities to learn and build new skills.

For the main article Collective Leadership, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Collective Leadership, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Children, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Families, CLICK HERE

December 2019 Newsletter – Collective Leadership: Collective Leadership with Families

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Many programs have some type of mechanism for collecting feedback from families, which is an excellent first step to . Some programs go as far as to have a family committee that meets periodically.  Programs that function as a co-op include families to an even greater degree.

Family members possess a wide variety of skills, knowledge, and cultural perspectives that can be very beneficial to collective leadership efforts. While you may not invite families to participate in all decision-making, there are many contributions that family members can make to your program.

Consider the following opportunities to incorporate collaborative leadership with families:

  • Compose a vision and mission statement for the family committee
  • Develop a family vision for the program
  • Plan teacher appreciation events
  • Design community projects
  • Organize fundraisers
  • Plan a carnival or cultural festival
  • Organize family education events
  • Welcome and orient new families
  • Involve families in efforts to advocate for investments in ECE to state and federal lawmakers

What are some other ideas you have for how you can include families in the collective leadership of your program?  Please share them on our Facebook page here.

For the main article Collective Leadership, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Collective Leadership, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Children, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Staff, CLICK HERE

December 2019 Newsletter – Collective Leadership: Collective Leadership with Children

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Children are able to participate in certain elements of collective leadership and they benefit from it in many of the same ways that adults do.

Here are a few ways that collective leadership can be used with children in the learning environment:

  • Develop a class vision – work together to create a vision statement that captures the overall goal or purpose of your daily activities
  • Co-create expectations – help children brainstorm the list of expectations for how children and adults will interact and treat one another
  • Plan curriculum projects – gather input from children about different projects they are interested in exploring
  • Plan field trips and class visitors – gather children’s ideas for places to visit in the community and visitors they can invite for a visit
  • Group problem solving – rather than determining the best way to solve a problem, engage children in coming up with possible solutions and choosing the best option for the situation
  • Room organization – sometimes room arrangement can be problematic, work with children to generate solutions to room arrangement issues
  • Class portfolios – while each child should have a learning portfolio that highlights individual accomplishments, children could create a class portfolio that details what they whole group is learning

For the main article Collective Leadership, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Collective Leadership, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Families, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Staff, CLICK HERE

December 2019 Newsletter – Collective Leadership: Benefits of Collective Leadership

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Including employees in goal setting and quality improvement is vital for long term success and sustainability. You can work with the entire team during a staff meeting, small groups of teachers working in committees, or with teaching teams. Individual situations will determine who should be involved in the collective leadership process.

In some cases, such as a disciplinary action, collective leadership is not appropriate. However, there are a number of opportunities to bring employees into the fold through collective leadership. Involving employees can help them feel more invested in the program and it reduces stress on directors, who often feel they need to do it all.  Consider the following options:

  • The team develops the program’s vision and mission statements
  • Teaching teams create vision and mission statements for their classroom
  • The team engages in group problem-solving when issues arise – rather than being told how to solve the problem, employees generate their own solutions, create action plans, and are held responsible for the success or failure of those plans
  • The team organizes family involvement events and celebrations
  • The team identifies and executes a fundraiser
  • The team shares responsibility for lobby displays and decorations
  • The team determines how to meet quality improvement initiatives or accreditation standards
  • The team plans their own professional development event

In each of these cases, different members of the team take on different responsibilities depending on their interests and strengths. Accountability is spread across multiple people rather than falling on the shoulders of just one person. The director’s role becomes one of a guide to help people with tasks along the way, instead of the person responsible for all of the tasks. It is also important that directors recognize successes and support staff through challenges or mistakes – treating them as opportunities to learn and build new skills.

For the main article Collective Leadership, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Children, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Families, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Staff, CLICK HERE

December 2019 Newsletter – Collective Leadership

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Collective leadership is an approach to management that utilizes the strengths and contributions of all members of the group to reach a goal.  Organizations that use collective leadership engage members to participate in all steps of the decision-making, planning, and implementation stages of a project. Members of leadership recognize that their role in guiding change within a group of people is that of facilitator, rather than authoritarian. At different points within the process, different people have the opportunity to take on leadership roles, depending on their individual strengths and interests.

Adopting elements of collective leadership can build buy-in from the group, distribute responsibility, build teamwork, and instill a culture of collaboration.  In this month’s newsletter, we will explore the benefits of collective leadership and ways that it can be used in early learning environments.

For the article Benefits of Collective Leadership, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Children, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Families, CLICK HERE

For the article Collective Leadership with Staff, CLICK HERE