Vote YES for kids
Vote Yes for Kids, is one of Paso’s latest initiatives to support early education and care. This November you will have the opportunity to vote for using the Permanent School Fund for early education and care, as well as public school education. These much needed funds will be used to elevate the incomes and quality of education. “The amendment would recognize that education begins at birth and allocate about $125 million from the state’s Land Grant Permanent Education Fund every year to the Early Childhood Education and Care Department and about $75 million to the Public Education Department” (voteyesforkidsnm. com). The funds will support under resourced programming and educators in early education and care that are paid poverty wages and low wages, and create equity among all educators.
Taos Family Development Center
The Taos Family Development Center is an on-site day care at Taos High School that serves teen parents and Taos Municipal Schools employees. The GRADS program – along with the Taos Family Development Center – helps high school students overcome the cycle of poverty through achieving a high school education and employability skills, and develop positive parenting and healthy relationship skills. The center serves children from birth to 4 years old.
Becoming an Early Childhood Education Teacher
UNM-Taos ECED Teacher Residency Program
The Early Childhood Education & Development (ECED) associates degree program is an innovative and comprehensive program, in which theory and practice are woven into the learning experience. Students engage in traditional studies and participate in a teacher residency, giving students an opportunity to be mentored by an experienced teacher in an early learning environment (birth to third-grade classroom) either where they work or they are assigned to a community school. Additionally, ECED students are given several opportunities to reflect on their coursework and hands-on classroom understandings, such as working with a mentor teacher and contributing in Taos' Collaborative Teacher Institute (CTI). Each component of the ECED program builds skills, knowledge, critical thinking, and reflective teaching, preparing our students to be competent and capable educators. The ECED program supports students who are interested in obtaining a solid understanding of early childhood, as well as the knowledge and ability to be successful students prepared to transfer into a 4-year university to complete their bachelor's in early childhood education (licensure pre-kindergarten to third grade or non-licensure) or a related field in family child studies. Students have the option of receiving stackable certificates: Child Development Certificate (CDC) (11-12 credit hours), Early Childhood Education & Development Certificate (32 credit hours), and then work toward an associates degree (61 credit hours).
There are several opportunities to receive a scholarship or financial support if you are studying education. UNM-Taos holds two scholarships for those who are Pell eligible - Grow Your Own Teachers for those who have been an education assistant in the public schools for two or more years, and the Teacher Preparation Affordability is open to all with certain stipulations. Additionally, if you are working in a program under the new Early Childhood Education and Care Department, you are eligible for a full scholarship. And as of this summer, UNM-Taos has also been awarded a grant to give qualified ECED students stipends based on the number of courses they are taking with us. Lastly, some students may be eligible for funds through New Mexico's WIOA Help program. For more information about our teacher education programs contact Dr. Pam Remstein, remstein@unm.edu or 575-737-6266.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT By the age of 5, 90% of the brain’s capacity has already developed. A child’s brain is more receptive to learning during the first 5 years of their life – than at any other point in time – when the brain is most flexible. The more you exercise different areas of the brain in the early years of development, the more lasting an impact it will have on their learning ability.
BACK TO SCHOOL 2022-23
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