Program Management course

Hello Everyone!
Well, I see no one has been here since my last post but I have been working on my syllabus and materials for the new class for spring. I am still compiling my bibliography and other sources but wanted to share what I have done thus far. It is by no means set in stone but it does address the essential questions from the course description. That part of the assignment is pretty much done. So, without further ado - here it is!

Week 1 January 26- February 1. Read Chapter 1: Overview of Early Childhood Programs and Chapter 2 Developing a Vision, Mission and Program Evaluation(pages 1 – 35). Our topic for this week is an overview of an Early Childhood Program and Constructing The Early Childhood Program’s Framework.

Discussion Forum:
1. Write and post a personal bio which states why you are interested in early childhood education, what inspires you about children, what you hope to learn from this class, and what are your personal interests and or hobbies.

2. What did you learn about early childhood administration, what are the greatest challenges for a director and what would you find exciting as a director?

3. What are the major factors influencing early childhood programs?

4. What part of the reading interested you the most? What did you learn about program management? Why?

Peer Review:
Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

This forum addresses Essential Objective 2: Explain the roles and responsibilities of an early childhood or after school program leader.

Week 2 February 2- 8. Read Chapter 3 in text. Also read the NAEYC Code of Ethics located in documents. Our topic is Establishing Policies and Procedures.

Discussion Forum:
1. What part of the reading interested you the most and why?

2. Review the process to become an NAEYC Accredited Center. How would you lead a program through the process? What skills do you now have and which would you need to develop to pursue NAEYC Program Accreditation?

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion threads and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

Assignment:

Go to the NARA website at http://www.nara.affiniscape.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=104
Click on Vermont and read about licensing programs and policies, center regulations, and staff qualifications. How does this differ from NAEYC or does it? Develop a list of questions and or documents you will request from the director to meet specific leadership criteria that specifically relate to Vermont regulations. . Please submit this assignment to the “Homework Assignment” folder. Please use Microsoft office word format. As always, remember to check spelling and grammar.


Review NAEYC Accreditation Criteria for Leadership at: http://www.naeyc.org/academy/standards/standard10/

Using the criteria from 10 A-10F Develop a list of questions you will ask each administrator during your interviews. Also, develop a list of documents you will request from the director to meet specific leadership criteria. For example a family handbook, personal handbook, vision statement. Please submit this assignment to the “Homework Assignment” folder. Please use Microsoft office word format. As always, remember to check spelling and grammar.

This forum addresses Essential Objective 1: Discuss the history of early childhood education in the State of Vermont and describe Vermont licensing requirements and procedures governing early childhood programs.


Week 3 February 9-15 Chapter 4 Establishing Policies and Procedures
Interviews: By week three you should have set up or completed one interview with a program administrator. By week nine all three interviews need to be completed. Submit a one page outline of notes from your visit. Please submit your assignment to the “Homework Assignment” folder. Please use Microsoft office word format. As always, remember to check spelling and grammar.

Discussion Forum:
1. The difference between creating the staff manual and family handbook for a new center and working to formalize operations at an existing one is that when launching a new program, instead of describing “business as usual,” you will be developing policies and procedures to set the course of the program for the foreseeable future. Provide examples of items you consider critical to your handbook or manual. Analyze why they are important and justify your response.
2. Develop policy and procedure statements as they relate to the operation of early childhood or after school programs including procedures such as health and safety concerns, abuse and neglect, and playground hazards.

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation
This forum addresses Essential Objective 4: Develop policy and procedure statements as they relate to the operation of early childhood or after school programs including procedures such as health and safety concerns, abuse and neglect, and playground hazards.


Week 4 Feb 16-22 Chapter 5 Leading and Managing Personal
Interviews: By week four you should be in the process of conducting your interviews with a program administrator. By week nine all three interviews need to be completed. Use the same questions you developed for each interview. Submit a one page outline of notes from your visit. Please submit your assignment to the “Homework Assignment” folder. Please use Microsoft office word format. As always, remember to check spelling and grammar.

Discussion Forum:
1. Director X has four candidates for a teaching position with preschool children. From her interviews, she notes the following: Candidate 1 sees herself in a mothering role. Candidate 2 sees herself aiding children’s development, especially their academic development. Candidate 3 wants to build a “little democratic community” in which children’s decision-making is most important. Candidate 4, who has read some of Montessori’s writings, believes in order and organization. What would the classroom be like under each of these four candidates? What criteria should the director use in selecting one of the four candidates?
2. Describe the management of an effective system for confidential record keeping
(e.g. enrollment, attendance, administering medication).
3. Write a job description for an teacher of your program. Would training be
involved? How would you evaluate a candidate based on your job description?

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

This forum addresses Essential Question 5: Describe the management of an effective system for confidential record keeping (e.g. enrollment, attendance, administering medication).
This forum also addresses Essential Question 7: Participate in various aspects of personnel management including developing job descriptions; hiring, training, and terminating staff; supervision; and evaluation techniques.


Week 5 Feb 23-Mar 1 Chapter 6 Creating Quality Learning Environments
Interviews: By week five you should have completed a minimum of two interviews with a program administrator. By week nine all three interviews need to be completed. Use the same questions you developed for each interview. Submit a one page outline of notes from your visit. Please submit your assignment to the “Homework Assignment” folder. Please use Microsoft office word format. As always, remember to check spelling and grammar.

Reflection Paper:
Write a one page statement of your philosophy of Early Childhood Education. Please submit your assignment to the “Homework Assignment” folder. Please use Microsoft office word format. As always, remember to check spelling and grammar. (10 pts.)

Discussion Forum:
1. A carefully planned physical environment can help a program achieve its goals. Identify three goals you have for a child in your care. How could each goal be promoted through a carefully created environment: For example, if your goal is to help children become good decision makers, a classroom with learning centers would give children opportunities to make meaningful decisions about what they will do each day.
2. From the reading – what are some of the factors that influence the effectiveness of early childhood programs?
3. Throughout your interview process you should have observed an early childhood or after school environment for health and safety, learning design, and staff performance. Discuss briefly what you observed and your evaluation of this observation.

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

This forum addresses Essential Question 3: Evaluate an early childhood or after school environment for health and safety, learning design, and staff performance.

Week 6 Mar 2-8 Chapter 7 Financing and Budgeting
This week will consist of your midterm exam. After reading this chapter, develop an operating budget and business plan for an early childhood or after school program. You have the week to work on this project and email the completed assignment to me at lynl1108@yahoo.com or email it to me through my Blackboard email address. As always please use Microsoft office word format and check your spelling and grammar.

There will be no discussion forum this week. However, you may use the forum to ask questions and help each other with this process.

This exam addresses Essential Question 6: Develop an operating budget and business plan for an early childhood or after school program and interpret financial statements.

Week 7 Mar 9-15 Chapter 8 Marketing Your Child Care and Education Program
Interviews: You should be finishing up your interviews and evaluating your materials. Your paper is due at the end of Week 9 and your paper will conclude with recommendations to one of the three centers used for the interviews. Strengths and areas for improvement will be highlighted based on the analysis with a justification for each recommendation. Justifications must be supported by citing professional readings.

Discussion Forum:
1. In your community what type of marketing strategies do early childhood care and education programs typically use? Peruse the Internet and try to locate child care programs in your area. What content is presented on the Web? How easy is it to find information that you might be interested in?
2. What are the needs and desires of the parents and families in your community? Are there needs that are presently not being addressed by programs in your area? How would you capitalize on some of these needs? How would parent involvement fit in your program?

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

This forum addresses Essential Question 8: Discuss the role of parental involvement and develop successful strategies to encourage participation in early childhood education or after school programs.

Week 8 Mar 16-22 Chapter 9 Planning the Children’s Program
Interviews: You should be completing your papers on the interviews and observations of three programs which are due by the end of week 9. Your paper will conclude with recommendations to one of the three centers used for the interviews. Strengths and areas for improvement will be highlighted based on the analysis with a justification for each recommendation. Justifications must be supported by citing professional readings.

Discussion Forum:
1. Week 5 you wrote a one page statement of your philosophy of Early Childhood Education. How does the Program Director’s philosophy of early childhood education impact the programs vision, mission, philosophy and curriculum? Would you make changes knowing what you know now? Why and how?
2. Curriculum is a way of helping teachers think about children and organize children’s experiences in the program setting. What are important factors that need to be considered and included in this curriculum based on your readings of this week?

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

This forum addresses Essential Question 9: Identify and collect resources from the community that support early childhood or after school programs, teachers, and directors.
This forum and previous forums also address Essential Question 10: Demonstrate effective oral and written communication skills needed by early childhood or after school program leaders.

Week 9 Mar 23-29
Major project is due by the end of this week. Analysis of an early childhood setting (35 pts) Students will complete an in depth analysis of three early childhood settings using criteria of the NAEYC Accreditation Standards as a guide. Information to complete the analysis will be gathered by visiting each center, interviewing a panel of directors, supervisors and principals, and interviewing classroom staff. Staff and family handbooks will also be reviewed. The paper will conclude with recommendations to one of the three centers used for the interviews. Strengths and areas for improvement will be highlighted based on the analysis with a justification for each recommendation. Justifications must be supported by citing professional readings.

You may have this week to complete finishing touches of your project, write your paper, and include cited professional readings.

There will be no forum this week.

Week 10 Mar 30- April 5 Chapter 10 Providing Nutrition, Health, and Safety Services.
Ensuring the well being of a child includes providing for good nutrition and maintaining proper health. This topic provides information on childhood nutrition and timely topics such as obesity. In today’s world, providing for the well being of a child is also so much more than simply nutrition. Keeping children safe from small injuries as well as larger acts of violence is very necessary. This topic also provides information on violence and young children and how to spot and respond to child abuse.

Discussion Forum:
1. Visit Vermont Department of Education at http://education.vermont.gov/ and do a word search on nutrition. How does Vermont Education address nutrition in education? Much of the information you will find is broken down by grade – focus on the early years specifically as you research this information. As a future administrator of an early education program or facility, how would you incorporate nutritional facts and health into your program based on your research?
2. As a director of a preschool program, you are writing a policy describing when children must be excluded because of illness, and when they can return. What criteria should you use to achieve the balance between a child’s need to be cared for by a family member and the family member’s need to meet the demands of a job?

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

This forum addresses Essential Question 3: Evaluate an early childhood or after school environment for health and safety, learning design, and staff performance.
This forum also partially addresses Essential Question 4: Develop policy and procedure statements as they relate to the operation of early childhood or after school programs including procedures such as health and safety concerns, abuse and neglect, and playground hazards.

Week 11 April 6-12 Chapter 11 Assessment: An Essential Component of Effective Early Childhood Programming
Assessing, recording, and reporting are integral parts of an early childhood program. Thus, these components must be thoughtfully and carefully planned in keeping with program goals. Providing quality assessment and recording and reporting assessments are not a simple matters but require a highly trained staff and leadership by directors. (Decker, p 305)

Discussion Forum:
1. Professional associations have called for many changes in assessment recording, and reporting practices. Discuss some of the recommended changes. Which one(s) seem to be the most effective and why? How would you evaluate your program and what would be some of the components you would assess? Why? Provide justification for your response.
2. A primary school principal changed the program policy of giving letter grades (A, B, C, etc.) to authenticate assessment and portfolio documentation. Several of the children’s family members were upset at the change. What could have been done to prevent some of the conflict from arising? Specifically, what rationale could the principal have used to support the change in policy?

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

The forum addresses part of Essential Question 7: Evaluation techniques

Week 12 April 13-19 Chapter 12 Working With Families and Communities
The issues involved in working with parents, families, and communities begin with an understanding of family life today. Diverse family situations impact parent involvement as well as student learning and behavior. The many benefits of involvement for program directors, administrators, teachers, families, and children need to be clearly understood.

The key to working with families is to build strong two-way relationships through mutual support and communication. Communication strategies such as telephone calls, written communications, communicating through technology, visual communication tools, home visits, parent meetings, and parent–teacher conferences are essential to the relationship-building process.

Several factors influence the quality of parental involvement, and teachers should be prepared to understand and effectively deal with parent–teacher conflicts. Special issues must be addressed in working with families having children with special needs. Program directors and administrators also need planned strategies for involving the community in the school and the school in the community.
Discussion Forum:
1. Read the article entitled, “Family friendly policies” in documents. How does Ms. Way’s recommendations for working with families compare to your chapter of this week? Are these realistic strategies for getting parents involved with their children’s learning? What are some ways you could also include community in this process?
2. Once of the most difficult situations for directors working with families is dealing with families who do not believe they have the time, abilities, and skills, or interests to help their children. When families lack confidence in their child-rearing roles, how does the program build on their strengths? Can all families be empowered? Can cooperation be defined in different ways to accommodate different family-life pressures?

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation

This forum addresses Essential Question 8: Discuss the role of parental involvement and develop successful strategies to encourage participation in early childhood education or after school programs.

Week 13 April 20-26 Chapter 13 Contributing to the Profession
Recent years have seen many calls for increased professionalism in early childhood education. Professionalism involves the use of professional knowledge and skills in maintaining, extending, and improving services to children and their families. Professionalism is enhanced when practitioners develop their professional skills and knowledge and commit to abiding by their code of ethics. Early Childhood educators also affirm their commitment to professionalism by helping novices identify with, and become involved in, the profession.

Discussion Forum:
1. In what ways do you plan to make a contribution to the profession of early childhood education?
2. A class in administration is discussing collaboration. One student commented, “We always talk about all we can accomplish through collaboration, but doesn’t collaboration come with a price tag?” What are the price tags attached to collaboration?

Peer Review: Each week you need to respond to at least one of your classmates discussion thread and one of your classmates reflection responses. This counts as class participation.

This forum addresses Essential Question 10: Demonstrate effective oral and written communication skills needed by early childhood or after school program leaders.

Week 14 April 27-May 3 Final Exam: Synthesize your learning’s for the semester by writing a one to two page letter to your future employer explaining your philosophy of leadership and program management. Be sure to include reference to the theories, writers, observations, events, knowledge, and values that influence your thinking from the class readings and interviews. Upon completion, email your letter to me through Blackboard email or my personal email, lynl1108@yahoo.com. Please use Microsoft office word format. As always, remember to check spelling and grammar.

There is no discussion forum this week – you have the week to complete your final exam. There is one more week of class so be in class Week 15.

Week 15 May 4-9
Write a letter to next semester’s students. In this letter you will welcome them to this class, and tell them what they need to know to be successful in this course. Among the elements you might address in this letter are ideas about building a good learning community, how to overcome writer’s block, how to effectively participate in groups, for generating ideas, how to provide constructive criticism to peers, etc.. Your letter will be at least 500 words in length, carefully proofread and spell checked, and shared with at least one other person before submitting. This letter is a chance to inform others about this class, provide ideas for future use of materials, get great links for wonderful lessons and activities, etc. I appreciate your efforts to inform future students about this class.

Upon completion of your letter, email it to me at the address below.
Lynn Silvestro
lynl1108@yahoo.com or my Blackboard email

EXTRA CREDIT: Complete the Satisfaction Survey located in documents.