Ashley Claire

ECE 410 – Professional Learning Plan

Fall, 2015

Part 1 – Selecting a Competency, Indicator(s) and Possible Goals:

My knowledge, skills, dispositions, and performances are not quite up to NAEYC Administrator Competencies as of yet. I would like to receive more knowledge by continuing to go my educational classes where I am learning tremendous amounts of knowledge. My skills and performances I feel are still low because I have a full time job that is not in the educational or childhood field at all so I would like to receive more experiences in the field to be able to say that I up to NAEYC standards.

The sources that are available to me would be my textbooks that I use when taking my educational classes along with the internet which is full of knowledge and interesting facts and stories to learn from. I also believe that if I keep observing in different classrooms and childcare centers I will gain knowledge and real world experience of how the different centers can be setup and operate successfully.

My supervising administrator at this point would be my educational teachers and professors because I am not currently working in a childcare field and they can assist me in the classroom by sharing the knowledge and experiences that they have had and passing on techniques and ideals that have been successful for them.

The specific management knowledge and skills that I would like to work on are Legal and Fiscal Management, Marketing and Public Relations and Program Operations and Facilities Management. The areas of Early Childhood Program Administration that interest me are learning about Children with Special Needs, Historical and Philosophical Foundations and definitely Professionalism. The job position that I would like to most have in the future is being director and teacher of my own development center. I am obtaining my Bachelor of Science degree which is one of the main qualifications needed to obtain a director position along with the educational courses and observations that I am obtaining for the experience qualifications.

In five years I see myself working on my business plan and obtaining resources to open my own Early Childcare Development Center. At that point in my life I will only have two years left to work at UAB then I can retire with 25 years of service. During this time prior to retirement I plan to get some real world experience by volunteering or working part time for a childcare center so by the time I retire, I can push my goals into action.

I try to visit the Early Learning Leaders and the NAEYC web pages on a more regular bases to see what new and interesting things that is being shared with educators. I don’t subscribe to any hard copy publications yet but I intentions to do so later in my career.

Part 2 – Specific Goals and Intended Outcomes:

1. Goal 1: Professionalism – Know and Understand Center Accreditation Criteria

2. Goal 2: Program Operations and Facilities Management – Know and Understand Nutritional and Health Requirements for Food Service

Part 3 – My Plan:

Goal 1 : Professionalism – Know and Understand Center Accreditation Criteria

A. Activities

a. Do research on the internet and pull the Alabama State and NAEYC Accreditation rules and requirements.

b. Interview a Director and/or Administrator of a childcare center, one with NAEYC accreditation and one with state accreditation to see and learn wat all they did to obtain each of the accreditations.

B. Documentation

a. Print the list of criterion for both state requirements and NAEYC requirements.

b. Record the interview with permission or document notes of the interview with the Director/Administrator.

C. Resources

a. NAEYC and Alabama State Website

b. Professional Personnel

Goal 2 : Program Operations and Facilities Management – Know and Understand Nutritional and Health Requirements for Food Service

A. Activities

a. Do research on the internet about nutritional requirements for a childcare facility.

b. Interview personnel that works in a childcare center or school that knows the requirements and usually makes the decisions on what to feed the students.

c. Find books in local libraries or bookstores to read and study.

B. Documentation

a. Print any documentation from the research found on the internet

b. Record the interview with permission or document notes of the interview with the Director/Administrator.

c. Purchase or have a copy of the books that was found on the subject and have it flagged or highlighted with the main points for quick references.

C. Resources

a. Any websites that was used to do the research on the internet.

b. Professional Personnel

c. Books

D. Long Term Planning – Write a short narrative about how to achieve of the four long-term goals to become a competent early childhood program administrator.

a. Children with Special Needs – Know special education resources and services. I would go the library and search for books and periodicals about special education or do an interview with a special education teacher to find out about more resources and to learn and comprehend what they have already achieved in that area.

b. Historical and Philosophical Foundations – Knowing different types of early childhood programs; roles, funding and regulatory structures. I would do research on the internet about Early Childhood programs in Alabama and their structures setup and roles. I would visit several Early Childhood programs to observe how it is operating and possibly interview with directors and administrators to get their view points on how they operate what works best and what possibly could be done differently.

c. Marketing and Public Relations – Learn how to promote linkages with local schools by doing research on the internet on how to market childcare centers. I would also visit local schools to interview principals, pre-k teachers and kindergarten teachers to ask their opinions on how best to reach the families and communities in order to have a partnership and market both the childcare center and the school.

d. Legal and Fiscal Management – Knowing and learning various federal, state and local revenue sources can all be done by researching the internet to find all the best practical resources and also by visiting local Head Start program administrators to inquire about their knowledge since they have already obtained the federal, state and local resources so just doing the interview with them will be a great resource in itself.

Part 2 – Professional Learning Plan Results and Reflections on Goal Attainment:

To summarize my experience in my Professional Learning Plan, I obtained a list of about six goals and ranked them in order of most obtainable or most important to pursue to least. The two that made the #1 and #2 slots became my short term goals to achieve. The remaining four goals get considered my long term goals. In order to pursue and reach my short term goals, I must do lots of research using the internet or read books and periodicals to learn and obtain more knowledge and also get out into the community and ask or interviews or observations with people in the positions to pass on their knowledge. I would print off as much documentation or resources that I could find and keep it in a binder so I would have it for future use. I would obtain books from local libraries or bookstores that I could add to my educational library to always have and refer back to when doing the interviews or observations with permission. I would record the conversations to go back and translate and keep good notes. I would basically do the same practices with my long term goals as well. I believe doing all of these things can and will help me to learn and achieve all of goals that are outlined in this Professional Learning Plan.