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 PennAEYC Newsletter
December 2010
Our vision is that every child in Pennsylvania has the equal opportunity to be a successful, responsible, and productive member of society as a result of early childhood experiences. |
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Greetings!
I like to think that December marks the time to reflect, give thanks and show gratitude for all those who have helped make the year memorable.
Each of you, with your interest and involvement in our early learning community, has contributed significantly to my memories of 2010. Our state has countless directors, teachers, supporting staff, family providers and advocates in and out of the classroom that made a commitment to helping young children reach their potential this year.
We partnered with each other, with parents and with our local community leaders to make certain that the importance of quality early learning experiences was not something we only discussed amongst ourselves. Instead we found anyone and everyone that would listen (some more willingly than others) and spoke on behalf of Pennsylvania's children.
Each time you reach out you make a difference in the life of a child. You make a difference for the family that depends on their child care. You make a difference for your community's financial well being and you make a difference for the future of our state.
I am so proud to be a part of this amazing community. Thank you for making 2010 a year to remember and I look forward to our work together in the new year!
--Jodi Askins, Executive Director
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 PennAEYC News
Please consider a gift of AEYC membership. Show respect and enthusiasm for a teacher's professional efforts with a gift that lasts all year! Membership in NAEYC, which includes membership in PennAEYC and a local chapter, at $70, opens the door for early childhood educators to local networking and leadership opportunities, discounts on great resources and professional conferences, and a year's worth of NAEYC's award-winning journal Young Children journal or Teaching Young Children magazine for preschool teachers. For just $35 more, the member will receive 5 or 6 newly-published NAEYC resource books throughout the year.
Here are some members' thoughts about the value of AEYC membership:
"For me AEYC has been the guide and the catalyst throughout my career. I have been enriched tremendously by the organization, the member services, and the many professional relationships I have built and maintained throughout the years. I am continually amazed at the volunteer spirit and the giving nature of our Pennsylvania network, my fellow members in Pittsburgh, as well as everyone across the US."
"My favorite part of being a PennAEYC member is the opportunity to network with other committed professionals in my region, across the state, and even across the nation! It is very beneficial to be part of an internationally respected organization with ties to my local community."
"It is through active membership and partnership with other professionals dedicated to children that I believe we can make a difference for every child one day at a time because together we are better!"
"I believe in NAEYC for the tremendous contribution it makes toward the education of young children."
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 PennAEYC On-Line
Check out the AEYC chapter currently featured on our website - Lebanon Valley AEYC Look for our next featured center and member in the January e-news! |
 Upcoming Activities
January 13: Want to learn more about what happened with child care and Head Start funding this year and what's in store for early care and education funding and policies next year in Washington?Join us for a conference call What's Next for Early Childhood in the 112th Congress, on Thursday, January 13 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, and get your questions answered.
Register today for this important conference call! Speakers will include: Helen Blank, National Women's Law Center Danielle Ewen, CLASP Adele Robinson, National Association for the Education of Young Children Harriet Dichter, First Five Years Fund We hope you can join us - we have a tough road ahead, but it's important that we face this challenging climate head-on. Register today! February 26: LVAEYC Early Years Are Learning Years Conference, www.lvaeyc.org
Special Events for 2011 Set: SAVE THESE DATES!
As 2010 draws to a close, the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children would like you to thank you for your ongoing support and invite you to participate in some special events scheduled for the New Year!
March 13 & 14, 2011
PennAEYC will be hosting the Public Policy Forum in Harrisburg
at the Sheraton Harrisburg/Hershey
Dinner and Guest speaker Sunday, March 13th
Breakfast, lunch and advocacy and leadership sessions March 14th
PLUS - special sessions for Early Childhood Action Day Regional Coordindators!
April 12, 2011
Early Childhood Action Day.
Mark your calendars now for those special events. Additional information and specific details regarding registration and participation will be coming in the New Year!
April 9: Central Susquehanna AEYC Conference May 5-7, 2011 Delaware Valley AEYC Annual Conference
"Picture Every Child Confident & Secure," Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, www.dvaeyc.org |
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 Advocacy
PennAEYC thanks you for your commitment to reaching out to your elected officials at both the state and federal level and remind you that the holidays are a great time to connect with both new and returning members of our General Assembly and Congress.
We will have much to do in 2011 to encourage our federal legislators to do the right thing for our children and families. Their recent vote to pass a Continuing Resolution until March 2011 with no increase for child care or Head Start and without launching the Early Learning Challenge Fund puts hundreds of thousands of children at risk of losing child care, Head Start and Early Head Start. |
 BEST InitiativeBEST Initiative Completes First Phase of Work
Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children has nearly completed the first phase of the three-year Building Early Childhood Support Through School Board (BEST) Initiative. "We are truly excited to be hitting our goals and making meaningful district connections," said PennAEYC Executive Director Jodi Askins. "We have attended and/or participated in meetings with 89% of our identified school districts statewide in only 6 months and have begun the process of coordinating our educational outreach efforts." Those educational outreach efforts are being delivered in the form of special professional development workshops to the community. The workshops include information on the BEST Initiative, school district and board communication, community engagement, and specific messages about the importance of quality early care and education. Larry Roberts and Tracy Weaver, PennAEYC Outreach coordinators presented at the October Early Childhood Summit held at the Penn Stater; at the annual PennAEYC Board Retreat, and in several local communities including a final event in Harrisburg Dec. 28 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The second phase of the initiative will be strategically focused on outreach. BEST staff and consultants have identified 15 geographic regions across the state in which outreach teams are being built. These outreach teams are comprised of hand-picked individuals and organizations to help build leadership support and begin to bridge the gap between school boards and early care and education. This strategy also will provide a role for school board members, district administrators and community leaders who have demonstrated support for early childhood education programming - thus giving the initiative a peer-mentoring component. "We will be working with several community engagement groups and AEYC affiliate partners as we enter into the second phase of this initiative," Askins said. "We know that not only are both groups very knowledgeable about their communities but also very willing to support quality initiatives. We know that utilizing that knowledge base will help move all our ECE work forward even further." Look for information coming soon about PennAEYC sponsored leadership opportunities through the BEST Initiative in early 2011! |
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 Federal News
Does Your Nonprofit Qualify for the Small Business Health Insurance Tax Credit?
Thanks to the new health care law, tax-exempt organizations may benefit from the small business health insurance tax credit. The National Women's Law Center's new fact sheet can help your organization learn if it is eligible for a refundable credit against payroll taxes or income taxes when filing for your tax return in 2011. Check out the fact sheet at http://www.nwlc.org/resource/does-your-nonprofit-qualify-small-business-health-insurance-tax-credit
For questions, please contact Thao Nguyen at tnguyen@nwlc.org or 202-588-7610.
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 First Steps
The results are in......AEYC voter registration and Get Out the Vote efforts make an impact!!!
Through the First Steps Campaign our AEYC affiliates recruited over 100 child care providers to engage staff and parents in the election.
We sent over 100,000 e-mail messages through the 4 month campaign and distributed over 5,500 Get Out the Vote goodie bags that child care programs used to create awareness with their staff and the parents of the children they serve.
Through the use of print materials and display boards parents, staff and children were reminded daily of the upcoming election. Many of our partnering sites reported that 100% of parents and staff stated they were very aware the election was happening based on the presence of the voting materials at the sites.
In addition to working with programs to distribute materials, AEYC leaders conducted 39 professional development sessions, educating over 620 participants!
Our partnering child care programs went above and beyond to create awareness and also accommodate parents who wanted to vote. Sixty sites had First Steps displays including voter registration and Get out the Vote information. Twenty-five sites engaged parents and children in activities such as open houses, pizza parties and mock elections and 20 sites opened early or stayed open late.
Several programs were able to collect information on voting history and voter registration outcomes. There were many significant successes including these three examples: One site with 3 staff serving 13 families reported that none of the staff had previously voted and only 2 of the parents. Following the campaign all staff and all parents voted in this election. A second site reported that 4 out of 17 staff and 22 out of 50 parents voted in this election that had not previously voted. A third site had 4 out of 20 staff and 27 out of 125 parents vote that had not previously voted. In these three sites alone our efforts encouraged 71 people to vote in this election that had not voted previously!
Congratulations to our AEYC Leaders and partnering programs! Our efforts reached thousands of people and directly impacted hundreds - not only helping them understanding the importance of exercising their right to vote but supporting them in their efforts to do so. |
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 NAEYC News
BE A PART OF THE PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC POLICY TEAM!!!
The 2011 NAEYC Public Policy Forum will be held in Washington, DC from Tuesday, March 29 through Wednesday March 30, 2011. For those of you who have not attended before, the Public Policy Forum is a yearly event for NAEYC members to hear from national experts and federal officials, participate in breakout sessions on key state policy topics, and spend a day visiting your members of Congress.
· All sessions will take place at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street NW (at Connecticut Ave.), Washington, DC 20008.
· Participants must attend the Tuesday sessions to be fully prepared on the key messages for the meetings with Congressional offices.
· Tuesday, March 29: Sessions at the hotel. Continental breakfast begins at 7:45 am and the first session starts at 8:30 a.m. The day ends with an early evening reception. Dinner on your own.
· Wednesday, March 30: Congressional visits and debrief. The buses will leave the hotel promptly at 8:45 am after continental breakfast. Hill visits will end at 3:30 followed by a voluntary debrief session at the Washington Plaza Hotel which will conclude by 4:30 pm.
Individuals cannot attend the event without registering with the state team. PennAEYC is asking any member interested in attending the Forum with the Pennsylvania Team to contact Jodi Askins at jaskins@pennaeyc.org by January 5th. Space and funding is limited. |
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 Chapter News
To submit your chapter news, please send information to kjohnson@pennaeyc.org.
Central Susquehanna AEYC: Conference April 9th, Williamsport, PA
Delaware Valley AEYC: May 5-7, 2011 SAVE THE DATE for The Delaware Valley AEYC (DVAEYC) Annual Conference at the new expansion at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia. New workshops and sessions will focus on this year's theme, "Picture Every Child Confident & Secure." Featured presenters include Steve Gross, Chief Playmaker from Life is Good Kids Foundation, Lisa Murphy, the Ooey Gooey Lady ®, and Dr. Stephen Bagnato who will deliver the research results of a study on Pre-K Counts in the Philadelphia School District. For more information on this year's event, please visit www.dvaeyc.org.
Lebanon Valley AEYC has a new website at www.lvaeyc.org. LVAEYC's 2011 Early Years Are Learning Years Conference is scheduled for February 26. |
 Professional Development PennAEYC Session Highlights
PennAEYC staff and consultants have provided many hours of professional development under numerous topics over the past few months, including outreach, leadership, advocacy and developmentally appropriate practice.
We have two professional development opportunities remaining in 2010 on December 28th and will be finalizing our 2011 professional development calendar to include in the January e-news.
Considering participating in one of our sessions? Check out the information below!
Engaging Schools Boards - Taking Away the Fear! The most recent session in Mercer County included participants from 4 counties representing 9 school districts within the BEST Initiative. A robust and open discussion took place throughout the two hour training and participants learned not only about the responsibilities of school board members but how to convey the importance of quality early learning experiences and how they relate to school districts' bottom line.
All members in attendance made an individualized 30 day, 90 day and six month plan to engage their local school board. Although only 1 of the attendees had attended a school board meeting in the past 5 years, all plans created included speaking with a school board member or attending a school board meeting within the next 90 days.
Play and Developmentally Appropriate Practice = Learning
Our December 14th session in Lebanon County gave participants much to think about in terms of a child's learning. Many attendees expressed that they gained new knowledge in how to incorporate play, be more creative and that flexibility can make all the difference! Participants not only expressed excitement in learning about developmentally appropriate practice but 100% also indicated that they will be able to use the information when they return to their classroom!
Professional Development topics for 2011 will include:
· Developmentally Appropriate Practice
· Advocacy
· Communication
Look for more details coming soon!
The Child Care Health Advocate course is a 15 session, 3 credit hour online college credit activity for directors and lead teachers offered by Northampton Community College. Since 2007, this NCC has taught this course with ongoing collaboration between Northampton Community College and the PA Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. This course continues to receive accolades from all the enrolled students because it not only offers a unique opportunity for directors and lead
teachers to acquire academic credit applicable toward undergraduate and graduate degrees, but also to immediately improve the performance of their programs. The mentored course assignments involve implementation of nationally recommended best practice in the student's work setting and access to national resources. For more information, see the flyer on the Northampton Community College website. |
 Leadership Opportunities
2011-2012 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
PRESCHOOL-12TH GRADE
TEACHING AMBASSADOR FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION NOW AVAILABLE
Applications for the US Department of Education's Teaching Ambassador Fellowship are now available online. Teaching Ambassadors are outstanding teachers who have a record of leadership, strong communication skills, and policy insight who work for one year for the US Department of Education, either full-time in Washington, DC or part-time in their home states. The Teaching Ambassador Fellowship supports the Department's mission by enabling a cadre of outstanding teachers to contribute their classroom expertise to the national dialogue and in turn facilitate discussions with educators across the country. More information about the program, eligibility, application information, application instructions, and other details are available at www.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship Application deadline is January 17, 2011.
Please visit us at http://www.ed.gov/early-learning |
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Disclaimer: PennAEYC provides a forum for discussion of major issues and ideas in our field. We hope to provoke thought and promote professional growth.
The views expressed or implied are not necessarily those of the Association. Acceptance of advertising, announcements, and postings does not represent PennAEYC's endorsement of any product or service, nor is PennAEYC responsible for representations made by advertisers. |
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 Your Membership Status
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If you are a PennAEYC member, your membership information is as follows:
Member ID #:
Member category:
Expiration Date:
Local Chapter/s:
To become a member or renew your membership, go to www.naeyc.org/membership or call NAEYC at 1-800-424-2460.
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