RIAEYC E-News, September 2010

Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children

promoting excellence in early childhood education

RIAEYC Wins Bid to Develop RI Child Care Resource Center

Resource Center to offer high-quality, effective parent information and practitioner professional development co-located with BrightStars

Beginning this Fall, the RIAEYC and its partners, EDC and Ready to Learn Providence, will develop and implement the Rhode Island Child Care Resource Center to provide high-quality child care information and referral services for families and effective, research-based professional development for early care and education and school-age professionals. RIAEYC and its partners will design, develop, and implement a Resource Center that will meet the needs of families, child care professionals, and child care programs throughout Rhode Island.

The Rhode Island Department of Human Services announced at the Child Care Community Exchange Meeting, held September 28, that a contract with RIAEYC is pending and should be executed soon.

Soon, RIAEYC and its partners will begin offering research and standards-based professional development including courses, series-based trainings, workshops, and webinars. In addition, RIAEYC will enhance our current capacity to provide parents and families with information on selecting high-quality child care and early learning programs.

To build a truly effective and coordinated professional development system, during the first year of the contract, RIAEYC will conduct a time-framed, action-oriented, data-driven design and development process that will include research on best practices, input from state and community agencies, and meaningful engagement of the diverse end-users of the Resource Center's services. The result will be a well-developed systems plan for early care and school-age professional development for Rhode Island that will be implemented incrementally beginning in 2011.

Questions about the new Resource Center? Contact Tammy Camillo, RIAEYC Director, at (401) 398-7605 or tcamillo@BrightStars.org.

R2LP Releases Report on ECE Professional Development

In August 2010, Ready to Learn Providence published a report highlighting existing professional development opportunities for early-care educators in Rhode Island. Representatives from the early-care field, higher education and state agencies endorsed R2LP's leadership role in the development of this document, and members of R2LP's Professional Development Committee and the BrightStars Quality Network reviewed the list of organizations that were included.

The report titled An Overview of Existing Professional Development Opportunities for Early-Care Educators in Rhode Island includes information on community-based professional development programs as well as public colleges and universities.

Learn more about and download the report at R2LP's website.

Conference Offers Info & Resouces on Child Health

The RI Department of Health and the Immunization Program will host it's Annual School Nurse Teacher Conference on Monday, October 25, 3p.m. - 7 p.m. Presentation on public health concerns of interest to school nurse teachers and child care care providers will be discussed.

The conference and luncheon is one way in which the Immunization program can provide updated information in a forum where feedback can be given to the state program. It is also an opportunity to thank those dedicated providers for a wonderful partnership aimed at keeping Rhode Island children healthy and immunized.

Donna Weaver is this year's speaker. Donna Weaver has been a Nurse Educator for the Education, Information and Partnership Branch at CDC since 2000. Donna earned her Master's Degree in Nursing at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Before coming to CDC, Donna practiced nursing throughout the U.S. and also in Saudi Arabia. Donna was a publichealth and immunization nurse in Albuquerque, NM and also served as South Carolina's immunization nurse consultant for 4 years.

For more information and to register, access the registration form on the Health Department's website or contact Kathy Marceau at the Health Department.

ECERS-R, ITERS-R, FCCERS-R Training Scheduled for Fall

This Fall, BrightStars will be offering informational sessions to providers about preparing for a BrightStars Environment Rating Scale assessment. Participants will learn about the Environment Rating Scales, how the tools are used by BrightStars, and what to expect during a BrightStars assessment visit. Participants will be given ample time to ask specific questions about the tools and assessment process.

BrightStars has posted information and resources about the Environment Rating Scales on our website.

The sessions will be held on:

- ITERS-R: October 5, 6-8pm (session full-call to be added to wait list)
- ECERS-R: October 19, 6-8pm and repeated November 16, 6-8pm
- FCCERS-R: December 14, 6:30-8:30pm

Registration is currently available for the ITERS-R and ECERS-R sessions. Download the registration form here. We look forward to seeing you there!

Resources for Families: Reading Cues, Spanish Guides

Understanding Your Child's Behavior: Reading Your Child's Cues from Birth to Age Two
The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) has released a new resource to help parents better understand their children's behavior cues and respond in ways that support healthy social and communication development. Understanding Your Child's Behavior: Reading Your Child's Cues from Birth to Age Two is available online at http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/documents/reading_cues.pdf.

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Early Literacy Practice Guides for Parents Now Available in Spanish
The Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL) has translated 18 practice guides for parents into Spanish. These guides provide parents who prefer to read in Spanish with practices they can use to engage their children in everyday early literacy learning activities. They are written at a 5th to 6th grade level. Visit the CELL website to access the guides. CELL also recently published an Overview Video that provides an introduction and illustration of the four components of the CELL model. Access it at the CELL home page.

Research Roundup: Culture, Gender, & Language

Cultural Influences on Early Language and Literacy Teaching Practices
Children learn to communicate in the context of their home culture. Beginning at birth, children use their home language and culturally accepted communication styles to connect with others in a meaningful way, forming the secure relationships that are so intrinsic to healthy development. For the early childhood teacher, it is important to establish supportive, respectful relationships as well-with both families and children. These connections help teachers learn more about the strengths, needs, and culture of every child in their care. Collaborative relationships with families also provide teachers with the information they need to support children's individual language and literacy development. By creating a richly diverse and welcoming environment, by remaining aware of their own cultural beliefs (and biases), and by identifying a variety of teaching strategies to share the magic of print and language, early childhood teachers can spark a lifelong love of reading in the children they care for. Click here to read this free Zero to Three article in its entirety.

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New Study: Building Language Skills More Critical for Boys Than Girls
Researchers examining data from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation study say developing early language skills appears to be more important in helping boys develop self-control than it is for girls. Claire Vallotton, Michigan State University, and Catherine Ayoub, Harvard Medical School, examined data as kids aged from 1 to 3 and also data from their mothers. Boys with a strong vocabulary showed a dramatic increase in the ability to self-regulate whereas girls appeared to have a more natural ability to control themselves even if their vocabularies were not as strong. The study will appear in an upcoming issue of Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

... Community Postings ...

Jobs...

Assistant Director, Program & Professional Development
Direct RI/statewide child care professional development and quality improvement planning, operations, and evaluation. Master's Degree required. For info visit www.BrightStars.org/contact.

Communications Specialist
Manage agency-wide marketing, communications, and outreach to parents, child care professionals, and the community. For info visit www.BrightStars.org/contact.

Program Assistant
Educate consumers, offer excellent service, and provide administrative support. Bilingual English/Spanish required. For info visit www.BrightStars.org/contact.

Events...

Informational Evening About Early Childhood Programming

Save The Bay offers environmental education programming for your students ages 3-5 years old. Come see what it's all about while enjoying light snacks and beverages, plus an opportunity to win a FREE program! Choose between two dates and locations:

- Monday, October 4, 2010, 5- 7pm, Save The Bay Center, Providence

- Wednesday, October 6, 5-7pm, Exploration Center & Aquarium, Newport

Families Matter Conference

Sponsored by the United Way of RI & The School Success Coalition on Saturday, November 6, 2010, 8am-2:30pm, Woonsocket High School, 777 Cass Avenue, Woonsocket. For Information, contact Julie Wunderlich 401-235-6087 or jwunderlich@famresri.org. REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 22.

Discounts...

NAEYC Online Store

NAEYC members save 20% off all resources on the online store. Visit the online store to begin taking advantage of your member savings today!

Kaplan Early Learning Company

Offering a 17% Discount and Free UPS Shipping on orders over $200! Please use code 18631 when placing your order. The offer expires on 1/31/2011. Please contact Dave Kulick at 1-800-334-2014 ext. 5240/Cell: 860-460-2350 for more information about the wide variety of offerings that Kaplan provides.

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The mission of RIAEYC is to support professionals in their work by promoting quality education and the healthy development of children birth through eight.

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