WCCC EDUCATION/PRE-K TO GRADE 4 PROGRAM NEWSLETTER Volume 6, Edition 3
March 27, 2013
WESTMORELAND COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Beth Hoden is Finalist for 2013 Voice Award The award certificate reads, “ 2013 Voice for Children Nominee, Beth Hoden, for exemplary dedication in advocating for young children. Thank you for being the voice of young children in Pennsylvania.” Congratulations to Beth for receiving this honor from her peers across the state. The award is well deserved for her work with special needs children early in her career to teaching in the Education/Pre-K to Grade 4 Program. She is very passionate about early childhood education and the welfare young children. A surprise celebration with cake and punch was held to acknowledge Beth’s tremendous achievement in the 400 office with co-workers, students and others of WCCC.
April is the “Month of the Child” To celebrate the Month of the Child, the WCCC Education/Pre-K to Grade 4 majors will be presenting the PA One Book, The Bus for Us, to young children in the community. Plans are being made for students to visit classrooms in the community. Inside this issue: Beth Hoden, Voice Award Nominee
1
Upcoming April Events
2
Professional Development Opportunities, Join PAEYC
3
45 Hours = 3 College Credits
4
PAEYC Celebration Dinner Flyer
5
Eleven Tips for Advocacy in Troubled Times
6, 7
Education/Pre-K to Grade 4 Program
Beth Hoden Office Phone: 724-925-4013 Email: hodenb@wccc.edu
Nancy Rustic Office Phone: 924-925-4035 Email: rusticn@wccc.edu
Vicki Hricik Office Phone: 724-925-4013 Email: hricikv@my.wccc.edu
Page 2
WCCC EDUCATION/PRE-K TO GRADE 4
~ Upcoming Events in April~ Let’s Celebrate April as “Month of the Child” *
WCCC Education/Pre-K-Grade 4 Program Students will be going into the community to present the 2013 PA One Book to young children. (to be scheduled)
*
National Child Abuse Prevention Month This is a time to recognize that we each play a part in promoting the social and emotional well-being of children and families in communities.
April 11
PAEYC Student Affiliate Dinner at St. Vincent College
April 16 PAEYC Celebration Dinner at The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh April 23
Early Childhood Action Day at the State Capitol in Harrisburg
VOLUME 6, EDITION 3
Page 3
Professional Development Opportunities To earn Pennsylvania DPW training hours as required, check out the PA Keys website, www.pakeys.org, for professional development opportunities. Westmoreland county Community College sponsors affordable ECE workshops made possible through funding from the Southwest Regional Key. See the bulletin board outside room 870 for the detailed information. Only a few more ECE workshops left for the Spring session! Email Vicki at hricikv@my.wccc.edu for more information.
Become A Member of PAEYC The Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC) is the professional membership organization for those involved with the early care an education of young children. Doctors, lawyers, and other professionals have membership associations which provide a unified voice on behalf of their members. In the same way, PAEYC serves as a community resource, and advocate for quality, and a voice for those in the profession of early care and education. PAEYC currently serves over 1000 members and is governed by an elected board. Members and those interested are encouraged to serve on a committee and take an active role in PAEYC programs including Membership Services, Advocacy & Public Policy, and Professional Development.
Benefits of Membership
Membership in NAEYC (national) PennAEYC (state) and PAEYC (local) affiliates
5 print issues of Young Children or Teaching Young Children, NAEYC's award-winning journals
Exclusive access to PAEYC e-newsletters
Reduced rates to PAEYC and NAEYC conferences
Access to the “Members Only” section of the website, with special privileges
Membership to the SharedScoucePA.org website
Professional development opportunities
No-deposit borrowing privileges with PAEYC's early childhood resource library (books, videos, periodicals, reference materials)
Voting rights and eligibility to hold office in PAEYC, PennAEYC, and NAEYC
Opportunity to participate in insurance plans offered through NAEYC
NAEYC Accreditation resources
Meets Keystone STARS 3 and 4 requirements for professional growth and development
Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. ~ Fred Rogers
ly the Ear k c e h c am Please Club Te d E d o o Childh C Portal C C W e th Site on s! ate new d o t p for u Check out past newsletters on www.issuu.com. Enter key words: WCCC ece program newsletter.
Mission of the WCCC Education/Pre-K-Grade 4 Newsletter This newsletter is to provide stu
dents information on ECE
Club activities, volunteer opport
unities in the community,
ECE professional development
, and anything related to
the Education/Grade 4 major.
Do you want to receive college credits for your Professional Development? Westmoreland County Community College can help………………… Here is what you need to do: 1. Enroll in WCCC. This is simple. Complete an application online at www.wccc.edu with $15 fee 2. Obtain a copy of your Professional Development from PA Keys. 3. 45 Hours = 3 college credits in Early Childhood education 4. Professional Development will be aligned with specific ECE course competencies 5. Complete a WCCC transfer of credit form 6. Submit application, fee, transcript of Professional Development and transfer of credit form to the Early Childhood Education department at WCCC 7. Receive College Credit!!!! For additional information call 724-925-4013
2013 Annual PAEYC Celebration Dinner Please join us on Tuesday, April 16th, from 4:30pm-8pm, during the Month of the Young Child, to honor YOU and the important work you do each day for young children. PAEYC is thrilled to be partnering with the Carnegie Museum of Art as they serve as our host for this event. Help us welcome and thank, keynote speaker
Jerlean Daniel, Ph.D., Executive Director of NAEYC, for her leadership. You will have the opportunity to meet Lynn Zelevansky, Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, to learn about the new Carnegie International Exhibit, with a focus on 'play and playgrounds' as well as other museum opportunities for early childhood educators and young children. Hors d'oeuvres, dinner, drinks and dessert will be provided. 4:30pm-Registration 5:00pm-Hors d'oeuvres & Networking (cash bar available) 6:00pm- Dinner 6:30pm-Welcome & Formal Program Commences 8pm- Closing
Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children
Eleven Tips for Advocacy in Troubled Times The following is adapted from Harriet Dichter’s presentation at PAEYC’s 2012 Play Conference. Ms. Dichter currently serves as the Executive Director of the Office of Early Learning in Delaware. Previously, she served as the secretary for Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and was the founding deputy secretary for the Office of Child Development and Early Learning.
1. Use your voice: you are the expert You are an expert regarding how young children learn and develop as well as the most effective strategies to reach young children. You also know the best ways to engage and empower parents (our partners). You know the challenges of providing high quality, enriching programs for young children. You have a powerful voice that can express how public programs can help you do a better job of providing this important service. Use your voice. 2. Work to protect infrastructure Early learning programs are effective when they offer our children and parents high quality. This means that we have to make sure we are protecting the core infrastructure – for example, STARS. Consider the essential elements to support an effective early learning system: resources for quality programs; clear standards and supports for programs to reach them; community engagement; effective assessment and accountability measures to help improve quality and inform the public about outcomes. Each of these is part of the infrastructure. 3. Create partnerships – it’s all about the relationships Consider all of the people who make an impact in a young child’s life as well as those that have political and civic power to influence policy regarding early childhood education and develop relationships with them: Create partnerships and relationships with elected officials. Create partnerships and relationships with your parents. Create partnerships and relationships with civic and corporate leaders in your community. Create partnerships and relationships with leaders in public and higher education. Create partnerships and relationships with leaders in health care, human services, law enforcement, etc. Create partnerships and relationships with the press. These people are stakeholders and ultimately beneficiaries of a strong, solid approach to early learning. They need you to help them know the issues and to provide the information necessary that makes this work come alive. 4. Act in the present; think about the future Take steps to protect and grow services now, but always think about your vision for reform and systems development. Articulate that vision and use it to inform your advocacy perspective. Motivate others about why this work is so im-
5. Use data and evidence that shows that early childhood education improves outcomes & economic development Did you know that first grade children from higher socioeconomic statuses know about twice as many words as children from lower socioeconomic statuses?1 Vocabulary knowledge is strongly related to reading proficiency and ultimately school achievement.2 How is your center developing children’s’ vocabulary skills? How might your work affect your community or your children’s lives? Use data to demonstrate value. Illustrating the link between early childhood education and important social and economic outcomes like graduation rates and reduced criminal activity is vital in highlighting the value of our work for those audiences who may not see its immediate importance. 6. Use your heart People are persuaded by both data and stories, and you have lots of stories to tell. Has your work with an autistic child encouraged her to play with her peers? Have you empowered parents to incorporate family time into their daily schedule? Does one of your colleagues lead a phenomenal music center? Tell your stories! By detailing your work with children and their families, you can creation an emotional connection for stakeholders to early childhood. Our partner affiliates in Lancaster-AEYC are creating scrapbooks to show what goes on in their childcare centers. These scrapbooks, which will contain photos, artwork, and stories, will be shown to legislators upon their completion. Challenge yourself to think outside the box: how can you use your heart and tell your children’s stories? 7. Persist – do not give up Many of the best elements of the Pennsylvania system have required persistent, committed advocacy. For example, getting Pre-K Counts was an all-out community effort that required many people all around the state working to secure initial funding and support. Additionally, develop your voice. You cannot get what you want in early learning unless you ask for it and are constantly working on it. 8. Encourage leadership at all levels We are all leaders together for early childhood. While some of us have “systems” leadership roles, such as Michelle (Figlar) running the Pittsburgh-AEYC or Jodi (Askins) running the state-AEYC, each of us has a leadership role, be it in our childcare centers, religious communities, or recreational clubs. Let us not forget that, and let us always use our voices. As a matter of professional responsibility, we must all be leaders to call out the case for public investment in early learning, the impact of it, and the next steps we need to take in our society to advance responsible public investment in our children and their futures. 9. Play, celebrate Celebrate your successes, big and small! 10. Show and tell Provide tours to leaders in your community. There is nothing like helping our influential leaders understand early learning by providing them with tours of your programs. Use tours to help educate leaders so that they can see the value of early learning, what children are learning and how they are doing it, and how the public funds are used in your programs. Make sure that all elected officials who take tours have a clear message from you about what they can do to help! 11. Stay on message; stay unified Make sure you are clear about the public policy “ask” and put that ask out there. Keep in mind that fighting over positions is fine behind closed doors, but outside, in public, the messaging must be the same. Stay unified on the messaging, and if you need help, contact PAEYC for assistance. 1 Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: The Guilford Press. 2 Ibid.