Professional Development for Directors

In this section you will find a variety of professional development resources available to early childhood program directors including information about the Children´s Program Administrator Credential (CPAC), professional development workshops being offered and more.

• Management and Leadership in Early Childhood Programs
• 20/20 Hindsight: Triumphs and Challenges of Staff Development
• FREE - ‘Out of the Box Training Kit’
• Graduate Course in Early Childhood Offered in Italy: 10 Pacini Scholarships are available
• How to Schedule your Staff
• Motivating Adults to Learn
• NYCAEYC Leadership Opportunity
• Program Standards- At the Heart of Education
• Show Me the Money!
• Ways to Lighten Your Load

Management and Leadership Courses in Early Childhood

CUNY’s School of Professional Studies is now offering 18 one-credit graduate courses in Management and Leadership in Early Childhood Programs that lead to the statewide NAEYC-approved Children’s Program Administrator Credential (CPAC ). The courses are designed to enhance the leadership and management skills of current directors and foster excellence in the next generation of early childhood leadership. Find out how you may take advantage of this opportunity to create high-quality programs for the children and families you serve. To learn more call us at 646.344.7293 or email us cpac@earlychildhoodnyc.org

20/20 Hindsight: Triumphs and Challenges of Staff Development

Presented by Mary Hayes,
Accreditation Facilitator
Quality New York
NYCAEYC Conference, October 22, 2005

Many early childhood directors are former teachers that may not have a lot of experience or educational preparation in administrative/business components of running a child care center- budgeting and preparing budgets, administrative paperwork, strategic planning, personnel management etc… Obtaining professional development in these areas is recommended.

• It is important to be reflective, to attend to your practices in ways that consider what you as a director or administrator are learning from your experiences

Staff Development is a Huge Part of Program Administration

Tools for Staff Development Assessment:

• A calendar is a helpful tool to assist with staff development: it can be used to schedule formal and informal observations and conferences with teachers afterwards. Conferences should include open-ended questions about teachers’ own self-assessment.
• Other tools that can be used to create assessments: CDA Observation, NAEYC self-study materials- classroom observation piece, and ECERS or ITERS, depending on age of children in classroom. These are not easy to administer, but can be repackaged to observe classroom practices by in smaller components, by individual indicators or subscales.
• Mary Hayes can be contacted for her assessment tools to use as a guide. Contact information: mhayes@fpwa.org or 212-801-1313

Useful Tips in the Assessment Process:

• Use same evaluation for all. Don’t just write up the bad, emphasize the good as well.
• Individualize staff development- ask teachers what they think they need.
• Always good to collect documentation: assessments, lesson plans etc. from all teachers.
• During staff development- ask teachers to share with other staff, topics that are of interest to them or that are considered to be an area of knowledge /expertise.
• Make sure you have solid job descriptions for all positions that open up. Ask job candidates to present their portfolios. During interviews give them real life scenarios or an actual task to do. When hiring, think about what your program needs or what you need to help you do your job supporting teacher development and helping teachers solve classroom problems. For example, if you have limited time for children’s assessment, consider asking a candidate to observe a child and develop a preliminary curriculum plan appropriate for that child’s needs, instead of the typical hiring practice of implementing a classroom activity.
• Directors should find mentors, supports, other directors etc…

Other resources:

• New York State Children’s Program Administrator Credential – The CPAC is designed to provide for and be recognized as a standard by which to measure program management, fiscal management, and leadership abilities of early childhood and school age program administrators. There are 6 credential topics and 18 competency areas within these topics that reflect a comprehensive professional development program for administrators of early childhood and school-age programs. The candidate should be able to demonstrate acquired competency within the following topics areas: Administering Children’s Programs, Financial Planning and Management of Children’s Programs, Operations Management in Children’s Programs, External Environment and Children’s Programs, Designing Programs that are Good for Children and Families, Seminar in Children’s Program Administration. Get More Information

•  National Association for the Education of Young Children Accreditation- Many directors with whom I have worked on NAEYC accreditation have said that the comprehensive self-study process that examines not only classroom practices, but also teaching staff conditions and relationships, interactions with families and administrative practices has provided clear indicators for where they needed to grow and a path to get the resources they needed to meet their goals. Get more information about NAEYC accreditation For information about accreditation facilitation and support in the accreditation process, contact to Quality New York by contacting Alison Pepper at apepper@fpwa.org 212-801-1319, Judy Ennes at jennes@childcareinc.org or 212-929-7604 x 3012, or Hilary Abel at habel@bnkst.edu or 212-961-3433.

• Child Care Info Exchange Magazine - Directors Magazine www.ChildCareExchange.com

• The National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC) - a source for up-to-date information and resources in early education. Bookmark http://nccic.org or call 800 616-2242 to sign up for their Child Care Bulletin. NCCIC has provided CDs, such as the one distributed at the workshop, at conferences for early care and education professionals.

• NAEYC standards - good to refer back to- they can be used to plan in-service staff meetings and open up a dialogue about best practices with staff members. Read more

• Guide to Self-Assessment- Pick up the Program Administration Scale (PAS) by Paula Jorde Bloom and Teri Talan-TC Press. Can be used as a self- assessment to examine 25 indicators of quality in program administration. The McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership trains early education practitioners as reliable evaluators in administering and interpreting the PAS.
  • For more information, contact:
    Mary C. Hayes, Accreditation Facilitator
    Quality New York
    Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies
    281 Park Avenue South New York , NY 10010
    Tel: 212 808-1313
    Fax: 212 533-8792
    Visit them

FREE - ‘Out of the Box Training Kit’

Download your FREE Child Care Exchange ‘Out of the Box Training Kit’. The free sample kit provides directions for setting up a training session for early childhood teachers around the Child Care Exchange article, "Not in Praise of Praise". Get your FREE kit to print out Get a FREE kit to print in SpanishOr check this out for more titles to purchase. Learn more about The Child Care Exchange

Graduate Course in Early Childhood Offered in Italy: 10 Pacini Scholarships Available

The School of Education at St. John´s University is again offering the three credit graduate program in Early Childhood Education in Italy this summer. 10 Pacini scholarships are being offered. The program gives graduate students the opportunity to explore the relationships between italian culture, history, art and their influence on early childhood education.

All early childhood teachers and administrators are eligible to apply. Applicants must have a bachelor´s degree in Education or related field. Get More Information

How to Schedule your Staff

The largest expenses on a program’s budget are staffing costs- wages, payroll taxes and benefits. Therefore, scheduling your staff is critical for financial success. It also helps you guarantee high quality care for children at all times and to give parents an adequate image of your center. Lori Harris, in a Child Care Exchange article offers important considerations to keep in mind when setting schedules including:

• A qualified person should open and close the center. It should be an experienced teacher, director or other administrator that will coordinate children’s arrival and departure.
• One qualified teacher should be present in each group of children always
• Two staff should be in the center at all times
• An appropriate staff to child ratio should be maintained: it is important to guarantee children’s safety by having enough adults in the groups but having too many adults in one classroom can affect costs.
• Staff schedules should overlap at some point: to assist in transitions and facilitate communication between educators.
• Split shifts should be used if necessary: Staff may be interested in leaving the center for part of the day. Consider this option if you have low enrollment during certain times.
• Continuity of care must be provided: try to minimize the number of times children have to establish relationships with the staff by keeping them together throughout time.
• Schedule breaks every four hours.
• Offer planning time for all staff members
• Keep staff needs in mind: Schedules affect the emotional state of staff members; consider their needs as you establish shifts.

Motivating Adults to Learn- Exchange Article by Karen Miller

Karen Miller's Exchange article (January, 2002), "Motivating Adults to Learn" was recently highlighted by Robert Frost's "In Three Words I can Sum up Everything I've learned About Life: It Goes On". In her article, Miller discusses the reasons why early childhood teachers may not be motivated to learn and improve their habilities. She gives tips on how to build motivation, such as:

• Visiting other centers: can help educators be aware of new or different methods being used in the classroom and can generate new and interesting ideas.
• When facing a particularly challenging issue it can be useful to approach the least resistant staff members and ask them to help research the issue so that they understand what you are trying to do.
• Build upon commonly used practices in the group and use experienced teachers as mentors. Ask everyone to share their ideas and questions and write things on group charts. This helps people feel valued.
• Hold a team-building workshop at your center.

Read Ms Miller's entire article

NYCAEYC Leadership Opportunity

NYCAEYC governing board is giving members the opportunity to get involved and help shape the future of the early childhood profession. They are seeking to recruit and elect qualified leaders that will further their mission, support the development of early childhood professionals and that advocate and promote quality care and education. To apply, candidates should meet the following criteria:

• Be a current NYCAEYC member in good standing
• Have participated in activities that meet the mission of NYCAEYC
• Demostrate a commitment to the organization
• Be able to make the necessary time and effort to serve actively and effectively.

Learn more

Program Standards- At the Heart of Education

During NAEYC’s 15th National Institute for Early Childhood Development held in June 2006, Barbara Bowman, in her keynote address, talked about standards and their relevance to early childhood education. She defined 4 important types:

• Program Standards: Define what needs to be present in the environment to facilitate children’s learning process. These standards refer to things like the number of children in a group, the activities the program offers and staff education and experience requirements.
• Content Standards: Refer to the type of concepts and abilities that will be taught at each age. These standards mainly refer to the curriculum.
• Learning Standards: Detail what children should know and be able to do. They help assess children in accordance with the content standards.
• Standards for Professional Development: specify the skills and knowledge that educators should possess to be effective. They include accreditation, continuing education, training, etc.

Ms Bowman also offered an interesting discussion on the topic- what happens when there is a lack of standards, why are standards important and which standards should essentially be present in all programs.

Read the article based on Ms Bowman’s keynote address

Show Me The Money!

The website Education World has published a great article by Linda Starr, "Show Me the Money: Tips and Resources for Successful Grant Writing." The article contains valuable information about the grant application process such as how to complete the forms, create the narrative, the budget and the kinds of supporting documents to include. The author also gives great tips on the three “P”s of successful grant writing: Project, Plan and Permission, and offers information on additional grant writing resources.

Get more information

Ways to Lighten Your Load

On the home page of www.ChildCareExchange.com there are always six free articles from past issues of Exchange Magazine. Currently one of these articles is "I was such a Fabulous Teacher, What Happened?" by Kate Duffy. In this article she offered some suggestions to new directors on how to make the job less stressful, including the following....

1. Get clear on your vision and mission and create a plan to carry it out. Knowing where you are going will give you a far better chance of getting there. Ask yourself what three things matter most. What do you believe in?
2. Identify the challenges you face and get the support you need to work through them. The greatest learning arises out of the greatest challenge. What can you learn today and who or what can support you?
3. Raise your standards and your staff will raise theirs, too. Raise the bar for yourself, commit to excellence, improve your self care- it will be contagious.
4. Develop clear, consistent and loving boundaries. Decide how you want to be treated by others and tell them. Do you say "yes" and mean "no" or vice versa?
5. Make the shift from "poor me" to "lucky me". To get yourself out of the mud, you must first shift your perspective. By telling yourself things are terrible, you will feel terrible. Tell yourself how you are lucky and you'll feel lucky.

Contributed by Andy Warhol from Exchange Magazine on February 20, 2006.