Dear Teachers,
I have read the minutes from the Parent/Staff meeting and appreciate that Santa Fe has made an effort to increase the educational level of its staff. I feel you are more engaged with my child as a result and I appreciate that you see yourself as educators interested in continually growing – just as public school teachers are required to do. Please clarify the staff’s education and its impact on my child.
Pleased with a Growing Staff
Dear Pleased,
We feel that through knowledge we have the opportunity to make a long term difference in the lives of our children, whether through suggesting food items to prevent constipation or noticing developmental delays, addressing them with parents and helping to find appropriate services. We are forward-thinking child care specialists who must meet the needs of our well-educated families and their children with an eye to rapidly developing research, state requirements and long-term impact of our developmentally appropriate practices, known as DAP.
Starting at the top, we are fortunate to have a pediatric nurse as our director. Whenever there is a question of child health, we have Jane on call to triage each situation proactively. We have reassured many families and saved many hours of our parent’s productive work time by determining the severity of an illness or injury on site before calling families in non-emergency situations.
Within our classroom staff we have college students in Early Childhood Education, staff holding CDAs, AAs in Early Childhood Education, BAs in Early Childhood Education, BAs in P-3 (Preschool – 3rd) and K-5 (Kindergarten – 5th), BSs in Psychology and a certified CDA Professional Development Specialist. At the end of the first year of employment, we ask those planning a career with us, not holding a BA as above, to begin the CDA course, the nationally recognized entry level credential for child care staff. Two staff have chosen to begin the CDA self- paced coursework. We are well on our way to meeting the 2015 minimum educational requirement for all staff.
Staff is required by the state to have 10 – 20 hours of continuing education yearly, depending on the position held. The center provides 8 hours of on site training in March and staff is expected to find center-paid workshops or materials to make up the remainder of their required hours. Completing a CDA in a given year more than supports this requirement. For those attending workshops, it is exciting to see staff return to their center, apply what they have learned, and share it with those unable to attend or exchange information with those who attended different workshops.
In addition, some teachers actively look for new information based on the issues they face with their age groups. Current hot button issues in early childhood are brain development in the zero to three years through all 7 senses to assure optimal development of the core (for sitting in classroom settings later), reduction in the use of restrictive equipment for infants (bouncy seats, car seats, etc.) for motor development, nutritional foods, play, and the important developmental rewards of exposure to nature and regular outdoor exercise/play.
We appreciate the support of our families who see the correlation between teachers who are self-motivated in further developing their own level of skill and care to motivate and inspire your children to be lifelong learners in turn.
