Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Leading and Managing Personnel

Chapter 5

Aloha Everyone!

You may have an awesome program vision and mission. But without staffing and I mean good staffing, your program vision and mission will be ineffective. I was surprise on the turnover rate 40% in early care and education personnel in the U.S. (Center for the Child Care Workforce, 2004). This is due to high job stress, lack of administrative support, low compensation, and inadequate training (Hale-Jinks et al., 2006).

We need administrative support, better pay, and more quality training with these there will be less stress for teachers. The director plays a big role in early childcare education. They are in charge with both primary program personnel (direct service with children) and support program personnel (provide services for primary personnel). These two groups need each other to support the children in the education system. The director in my eyes is like the glue that keeps everything together and makes sure that everything is running smoothly.

This chapter was very important, this reminded me how everyone from primary program personnel to support program personnel is important to the education system and the director is the one who keep everything together.

As a teacher, I feel that my director (Principal) plays a big role in my career life. You see my passion is to teach and this person(s) makes it happen by having administration supporting me with all my needs and having my classroom environment as safe as it could be for me and my students.

So my hat goes off to all the directors who make my job easy ;-D!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Praise When Praise is Due

ExchangeEveryDay

Aloha Everyone!

“Praise When Praise is Due” This topic was very interesting to me from ExchangeEveryDay messages that were sent on September 16, 2009. While reading this article I felt this was kind of true. Carol Dweck Ph.D. said:

"Children who are praised too much also feel continually judged. Research suggests that overly praised kids become more conscious of their image, more competitive, and more prone to cut others down. And too much praise can hook kids on it: they require higher and higher doses of compliments and feel like there's something wrong when they aren't being bombarded with kudos."

In my years working for the Department of Education as a PPT and ST. I did notice some students who were very competitive in everything they do, always looking for an adult (teachers and administrators) that would praise them. These students would actually intimidate other student in their classroom because of their behavior.

I do see what Carol Dweck Ph.D is talking about. Don’t get me wrong I do believe that giving praise is a lot better that giving criticism. In a year or so I will be a teacher in elementary education and I hope my praises would make a positive impact on my students

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Aloha Educators!

I really enjoyed reading chapter 2 in Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs. The words that suck with me through out the week was Vision, Purpose, Philosophy, Cultures, Values, and Community's needs. As an administrator and an educator we have a big responsibility to provide for our students and having a program plan is the first step.

3 years ago I asked myself "why do I want to become a Teacher?" and here are 8 reasons why:

1. I want to inspire children how to be the best that they can be.

2. I want to teach the children how to make their dreams come true.

3. I want to teach the children to respect one another as a human being.

4. I want to teach the children how to love than to hate.

5. I want to teach the children how to over come any types of problems that may occur in their life.

6. I want to teach the children how to communicate with each other through kindness and understanding.

7. I want to teach the children how to make the rights choices in their life.

8. I want to be a teacher to give back to my community.

With these 8 reasons and a program plan, this will help me become a succussful administrator/teacher.