Supporting new early childhood educators about the importance of the development of the whole child, including Developmentally Appropriate Practices.

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Description

This Community of Practice is for teachers who are new to the profession (5 years or less) who can commit to attending one meeting per month. Meetings will generally be on the second Saturday of the month in South Pima. Teachers can work or live in South Pima, but the CoP is also open to those from North Pima.

We hope to help you find or maintain your passion for teaching, share ideas which may make your classroom life better, and more fun, and give you a strong foundation of early childhood theory and practice. Coaching sessions in your classroom will also be part of what we do together.

Topics and Dates

 Various topics will be covered which should give teachers the practical skills and knowledge to make their daily classroom situation more enjoyable for themselves and the children, and extend their learning. The main reference material throughout will be: Powerful interactions. How to connect with children to extend their learning, by Dombro,  Jablon, and Stetson;  and  Developmentally Appropriate Practice. by Copple, and Bredekamp.  AZELS and ITDG will be in use throughout. Discussion questions will be formulated using the Arizona Early Childhood Workforce Knowledge and Competencies Manual (2016). To view the full course syllabus, please click here.

CoP Coordinator

Maggie McKiernan is an educational consultant, coach, and teacher who is a strong proponent of developmentally appropriate practice, and play-based emergent curricula. She has owned her own education business for the past 29 years. In addition to a children’s movement, music, and drama program, she has provided teacher coaching in schools in Arizona for 9 years, has facilitated numerous professional development sessions, and has taught early childhood education classes for Pima Community College for 12 years. She has an elementary through high school teaching credential from the University of London (UK) in Education and Drama, and a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from NAU (2014).

For more information, please contact Maggie McKiernan   520-771-6040 mggqt.2010@gmail.com