 This month's announcement that Rhode Island was one of nine states to win a Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant was certainly a great way to end the year. These funds will give early childhood educators throughout the state -- in centers, home-based settings, Head Start and Early Head Start programs, and Pre-kindergarten classrooms -- greater access to professional development and higher education, and will help ensure that all our children are ready for kindergarten. As we've seen firsthand at R2LP, there's just no investment that yields greater dividends.
My best wishes to our many friends, partners, families and fellow educators for a very happy and healthy new year.
Leslie Gell
R2LP Director
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| Learn from the experts |
 | | Click photo to learn how to draw a bracelet. |
Want to learn how to fall asleep, tie your sneakers, draw a bracelet, be a dog? Learn all this and much more from the experts on Friday, January 20, at the Providence Children's Museum. That night you'll see more than 150 how-to books dictated and illustrated by preschoolers on something they are experts at. Also on exhibit will be how-to books by city officials (Mayor Angel Taveras is reportedly working on one) and by members of the Early Learning Council. Admission to the museum is free the night of the 20th, but the books will be on display for several weeks.
The teachers in this project are taking a seminar on observing and documenting children's learning as part of a collaboration between Ready to Learn Providence and Making Learning Visible, a program out of Harvard University.
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Our Pre-K kids help the state celebrate the
$50 million Early Learning Challenge grant
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 | U.S. Rep. David Cicilline reads with two children in the
R2LP Pre-K Classroom at CCRI/Liston Campus. Click photo to see more pictures. |
On Dec. 19, as some of the state's most recognizable faces appeared in their classroom, the R2LP pre-kindergarten children were unfazed. The 4-year-olds read books with U.S. congressmen, chatted with the governor, and built structures on the floor with the commissioner of education. Reporters interviewed them, and videographers from the local media taped them.The visit to the R2LP classroom took place just before the well-attended press conference celebrating the federally-funded $50 million Race to the Top Early  | Children from the R2LP Pre-K Classroom steal the spotlight
at the celebration. Click photo to see a Providence Journal
video of their performance.
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Learning Challenge grant. The R.I. Department of Education will receive these federal dollars over the next four years to invest in the early care and education of children birth to 5.
Providing early-care educators with more opportunities for professional development and an affordable pathway to higher education is at the heart of this grant. Some of the dollars will help fund T.E.A.C.H. Early ChildhoodŽ RI, a program administered by R2LP that offers scholarships for providers pursuing degrees in early childhood education.
To view the application for the grant, visit the Early Learning Council website
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The stars were aligned on December 7
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Emma Villa, a home child-care provider, talks about her experience with BrightStars.
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The stars were indeed bright this year at Starry Starry Night, an annual BrightStars event that recognizes all center- and home-based early-care programs participating in the state's quality rating and improvement system. More than 350 community leaders and early-care educators -- many of them familiar faces at R2LP -- celebrated the achievements of the past year at the Providence Marriott.Among this year's "Special Friends of BrightStars" were R2LP Director Leslie Gell; Christine Chiacu-Forsythe, R2LP's director of educational partnerships; and Maura Pearce, coordinator of T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood RI, a scholarship program administered by R2LP.
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Zelma Malave (left) and Maritza Rosario from Progreso Latino hold their BrightStars star-rating certificate.
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Click here to see more pictures from the event.
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TEACH RI is accepting applications for scholarships
|  | | T.E.A.C.H. RI is accepting applications for scholarships for the spring semester. Click here for details. |
| Meet our AmeriCorps Members |
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