Practice Assessing Yourself
Building and Supporting Community felt the easiest for me to
generate response to because I felt like that was the side of the triangle that
pertains more to the children and their families. I feel that anything we do always needs to
pertain back to the support for the children and their families. Our profession is centered around the
children and their families because that is where our business lies, with the
children and their families. Without
children and their families there would be not childcare, there would be no
program.
Coaching and Mentoring felt like the more difficult side of
the triangle only because I am still learning as well, and I don’t have as much
knowledge to portray to my workers. I
felt like I always had to revert to outside help such as creating workshops,
refer to books, or site visits in order to teach and grow my staff. This side also seemed to learn about my staff
personally. I am great at talking with
my staff, but how do I take what they are saying and tell them what they
actually need to be doing?
Managing and Overseeing seemed to be hard yet easy. Easy because there are set rules, standards,
and regulations to abide by in order to have a functioning facility. Being able to revert to the rules, and know
what are actual standards and regulations was the difficult part. Knowing by heart what makes a center
“quality” was something that I knew yet I was unsure of myself. I also learned while doing the exercise that
I would need to come up with meaningful job description that would oversee my
vision, that would oversee developmentally appropriate practices, that would
oversee a quality teacher, and so on.
GOALS
- Take the time to memorize and understand by heart
standards, ethics, and regulations
- Expand and build upon my relationships so that I can
revert to them when I maybe having trouble with my staff.
- Explore different job descriptions so that I can begin to
create my own
- Investigate quality centers to build upon my own idea of
how I would want my program to look like
- Take the time to research coaching and mentoring methods.
Written: Monday, September 30, 2013
Hi Jadelynn,
ReplyDeleteThe struggle with mentoring and coaching often is rooted in this notion that a director must know everything. How can a deep understanding and willingness to not know everything help to mentor and coach? Are there preconceived conceptions surrounding early childhood education that position any person in power (director, teacher, professor) as all-knowing? How can this expectation limit how a director might be active at a site? Or how the director might build relationships? As you consider the scenarios, how did you know how to respond to these people? Was it because you knew everything about teaching, learning, and directing? How might a director's own reflection be more powerful than being all-knowing?
Jeanne
Hi Jadelynn,
ReplyDeleteI was drawn to your goals. Knowing who we are first will bring strength in most situations. Our experiences outside of work also contribute to who we are and help us in strengthening relationships at work. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are programs out there for us to glean from. As you self assess further, how will you find balance using all three sides of the triangle? Learning from other programs may provide a wider or specific view of your vision and direction. How will this work into the framework? You may be able to change the triangle all together. How will this look like? What happens when a program doesn't use the triangle framework? Or doesn't have the same vision you are looking for?