Program Director Reflection
This post is a reflection assignment for my Financial Management of Early Childhood Programs class at the University of Alaska.
After reading The National Association of Education for Young Children’s, Program Administrator Definition and Competencies, NAEYC, 2007 https://oldweb.naeyc.org/academy/criteria/core_competencies.html and the article, “Is Your Work a Calling? An interview with Kimberly Cothran” by Margie Carter, EXCHANGE, September/October 2016 Is Your Work a Calling_Kim Cothran.pdf I have summarized my own skills as follows.
Three personal qualities I possess that allow me to be a good director are first, organizational skills, second, interpersonal skills and third, analytical skills.
The first skill, organization, helps to ensure that all certifications and record keeping, and policy and procedure up to date and easily accessible. Organization allows me to prioritize daily duties and make sure that each classroom is staffed and functioning at a high level. Organizational skills help to ensure that the environment is beautiful and safe. At the end of the day, organizational skills assure that another person could fairly easily pick up where I left off. This is important to me to know that operations would continue smoothly if I were absent.
The second set of skills, interpersonal skills, allow me to listen and respond to children, teachers and families to meet their needs with competence and knowledge. These skills include an ability to suspend judgement and value each person individually. Compassion and empathy allow me to communicate with both families and the teachers I work with. Fairness in negotiation and evaluation of teachers is an important interpersonal skill. Meeting people “where they are” and looking for the good in any situation help me to be a good director.
Analytical skills are the third set of skills that allow me to perform as a director. These skills involve the ability to understand the fiscal aspects of the business to be able to respond to cash flow, profitability and budgeting. Remaining current in the field by attending workshops, conferences, enrolling in class and reading and understanding current research and trends in early childhood in important to my success as a director.
Three responsibilities of a director that these qualities allow me to excel in are leadership, mentoring and advocacy.
Leadership to me is the ability to walk away from my job knowing that I have left people empowered to continue where I have left off. It is providing direction and vision to the organization. Leadership includes the ability to motivate and inspire those around you to provide the best customer service in a positive environment. Leadership also means surrounding myself with people smarter than me and being humble to them.
The second responsibility of a director is to be a mentor as well as a mentee. It is important to be a continual learner, learning from each other in this role. Being a mentor involves elevating people in their own journey and allowing them to do the same for you. It is a way to identify for yourself and your teachers individual and collective goals and objectives.
Lastly, being a director means advocating for children, families and the child care provider on a daily basis both at the local, state and national level. Advocacy happens in the center every day, we need to see ourselves as advocates and help teachers take it to the next level whether it be community, state or national.
In conclusion the director must wear many hats all the while being cognoscente of his/her own well-being and taking care to replenish his/her energy.
A Learning Community
What is a learning community? How do you fit in? Community is defined as the experience of belonging to a group including a feeling of unity with those in the group and a commitment to the functioning of the group. How is an adult community the same as a children’s’ classroom community?
I belong to many different communities of adult learners. The community that best meets my emotional, social, intellectual, and physical needs are simultaneously the groups I am comfortable in and I learn and enjoy myself. Many of my communities overlap. There are some groups that I belong to that only partially meet my needs and my commitment to these groups is less strong.
I reflect about the need for community as follows as I compare the groups I belong to and the classrooms I see daily.
As an adult in a community, I want to feel a sense of belonging to meet my emotional needs. This unifying sense is what has me coming back again and again. This can be accomplished by the way I am greeted and addressed and if I am given a name tag and offered a place for my things. Being offered food and drink and a place to sit would go a long way in making me feel welcome in the community. A familiar face helps me feel secure. This translates to the children’s environment as well.
In a learning community the children and parents are pleasantly greeted by someone familiar and the children have a labeled space for their things in a defined classroom. Around the classrooms, posted in various locations are family photographs and photographs of the children. In several classrooms these photographs are in frames the children can carry around with them. Some play objects such as boxes and blocks are adorned with the children’s photographs. The children are ushered into a favorite spot or into a familiar ritual with their caregiver as the parent leaves. Each classroom is equipped with an appropriate sized place for an adult and child to sit. In the perfect learning community teacher turn over would be very minimal and many personalized objects would be in each classroom. Lowered ceilings and soft elements would add additional emotional security in the environment.
My social needs as an adult are met by having someone introduce me to a person with interests similar to mine within a community. I want to be heard and respected for my view even if it is in opposition to another’s point of view. In the children’s classroom, the teachers encourage children with similar interests to play together. Social interventions are modeled and practiced.
In an intellectual community I want to be challenged to learn something new. I want to believe I can fail and still be supported. Ideally, I commit to working collaboratively and cooperatively within the group. This requires a commitment to a common goal. In children’s learning communities the teachers support the children in actively exploring the environment indoors and outdoors. The teacher allows for risk and failure. The teacher scaffolds the children’s learning in the classroom.
I feel part of a community when my basic physical needs are met. The community meets my need for shelter, a comfortable temperature, rest and activity, a bathroom and food. In the classroom community teachers allow for meeting these basic physical needs as well as the need for physical activity. Children are dressed in appropriate clothing for indoor and outdoor temperatures. The teachers provide for active and quite activities. The children have their diapers changed and they are fed regularly and often fed on demand! Teachers allow children to take physical risks within the confines of comfort. I encourage teachers to trust that the children know their abilities and limitations.
In conclusion in comparing adult communities with early learning classrooms in the most successful communities our emotional, social, intellectual, and physical needs are the same throughout and met in a similar way!