I am having trouble with my international contact. All of a sudden I am not hearing anymore from him. I am not sure if he is extremely busy or if he is no longer there. The email hasn't bounced back so I know the address is still good. I did however meet a person Monday night at a parent workshop that was held at my son's school, (Also the school where the Head Start class I work in is located). She isn't international but she is in another state. This person I talked to had a wealth of information for me. I had printed out this assignment for the blog, so I was asking her some of the questions. She is a parent trainer, and also trains teachers and teacher assistants in the Early Childhood professions. She said the issue regarding quality childcare that they are talking about is training. Of course she is in the training field so they are most concerned about the development of staff. She said they find the primary reason programs do not train staff is because of budget. However this is so important for maintaining a high quality center.
They have several different opportunities for professionals. One of them is the CDA-Credential. The program that she works with offers that for groups and will send out professionals to oversee staff working on the credential. They also offer private trainings on a variety of topics focused on specific needs of programs.
Her professional goals are to travel, meet and train as many Early Childhood Professionals as she possibly can. She feels this is the key to transforming our childcare standards to higher quality. Her dream is to see a set of Standards put into place for all child care centers that want to be licensed. She also wants to see a system of checks and balances so that we know the centers are abiding by the standards.
I really enjoyed the chat with her that happened by chance. I don't believe in coincidences, I feel God sent her my way because he knew I would need her. I also got her card so maybe our teaching staff can be trained by her.
That is wonderful, Susann! God truly works in mystery way(s). Budget sounds like a world-wide common problem, especially in today's economic standing. I've learned some about CDA-credential. It does sound worth the trouble, but I wonder why there are so many professionals who are not pushing or encouraging to obtain that kind of training/credental.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!
Good Job Susann, you did a marvelous job this week. I like when your started to talk about CDA-credential program, most of the teachers in the city I live in need to try to get in that program. I think it is important for all professionals to get involve with the CDA program. Would you recommand teachers at your school to attend?
ReplyDeleteI must say that as like yourself I really enjoyed making connections with my international contact. One thing you have enlightened me on was the CDA-Credential program and I was not aware of it until now unless they called it something else. Thank you for that information.
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteYou steps were being ordered. You did a great job making new contact this week and this is one of the reasons that parents need to attend programs in their children's school.You never can tell who you would meet. I am also having the same problem of getting feedback from my international contacts. It is so obvious that the quality of early childhood programs depend on funds.How can we generate extra funds without total dependent on the government?.
Olufemi.