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|  | | | THIS WEEK AT ACCC from the Director
For the week of April 12, 2010 from the Director
CAELQIS!
What???? Looks like alphabet soup. This acronym stands for California Early Learning Quality Improvement System. Still confused? Throughout the nation states are working hard to improve the quality of care and education of our youngest children. One of the most important ways to make these improvements is to evaluate programs on the components of quality care that we know from research make for the best growing and learning environments for children. These include staff qualifications, teacher-child interaction, appropriate classroom materials and supplies to support learning in art, music, science, literacy, etc.
In the county of Los Angeles, an evaluation system was created to determine whether or not child care programs are meeting the highest standards of quality. This system is called STEP - Steps to Excellence Project. This project is being tested out in several communities in the county. It is likely that a version of this system will be adopted by the state of California as the system that California will use to evaluate all of our child care programs.
When this is adopted, each child care program will be evaluated and awarded either a star or a step from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest quality of care and 5 being the highest. These ratings will be used much like restaurant ratings to inform parents, the consumers of child care, about the quality of any particular program.
At ACCC we have volunteered to be one of the child care programs testing out this system. We have completed our our own self assessment and submitted a grant request for funds to purchase materials and training that we will need to make improvements in the areas that we identified as needs. Once we receive the funds, we will make the improvements and continue to work on meeting the standards. In October, we will expect a visit from UCLA, the organization doing the program evaluation. We will keep you informed about our progress. We are excited about the opportunity to help develop a system to ensure that all children are receiving high quality care and education.
MORE ON HEART SMARTS
What a great turn out for our parent education meeting about Emotional Intelligence led by Ruth Beaglehole, founder of the Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting. Ruth provided a provocative look at different styles of guiding our children's behavior and offered a new way of thinking about our relationship with our children. She helped us to keep in mind as we are parenting, what characteristics would we like to see in our children as adults. After we named compassion, kindness, etc., etc., she said if we want to see those in our children, we have to be that way!
Many of you who attended asked if we could bring Ruth back for further conversation about other topics, including identifying children's needs or anger. We can definitely do that. In the meantime, we have handouts that I am including with this newsletter that will support what you learned from Ruth at this session or if you weren't able to attend, it will give you some info about the discussion that we had. Stay tuned for more!
UPDATES
SEE'S CANDY SALE - HOORAY! We made over $700 on our candy sales. Thanks so much for your participation. This money goes directly to the PAL account which funds community gathering events for ACCC families, professional development for teachers and classroom materials. Many thanks to Ann Anderson, Ian's mommy who coordinated the sale!
UPCOMING DATES
Saturday, April 17 - ACCC's 2010 Healthy Living and Wellness Fair AND
Trike A Thon - 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Thursday, April 29 - ACCC OPEN HOUSE - Start the evening with us for dinner provided by Boston Market - $10 per meal.
Coming soon. . .It Takes A Community! ACCC's Spring Gala Fundraiser - Friday, May 14
PAL NEWS
ACCC'S ANNUAL HEALTHY LIVING and WELLNESS FAIR & TRIKE A THON
Beautiful weather, happy children and relaxed families, what could be better! We had about 35 children, including a few visitors, participating in our annual Trike A Thon. While most pledges are still outstanding as families count up the laps their children rode and bill their sponsors, we have collected $595. In addition to these funds, the Resale Boutique brought in $113. So far so good, for a fun Saturday morning. If you have not turned in your pledge money, please do so by this Friday so we can fully count our great fundraising success.
In addition to the fundraiser, at our Healthy Living and Wellness Fair, we also learned about many ways to keep our bodies and teeth healthy and safe. Thanks to the many vendors who participated - Red Cross, Young and Healthy, Center for Community and Family Services, Early Head Start, Ralph's, Starbucks, Naked Juice.
MANY people to thank, especially thanks to Kim, Benny and Vincent's mommy for the many hours she spent organizing this whole event! Thanks to Nicole, Chaz' mom for running the boutique and for Christine, Zariah and Mikayla's mom for helping her. Thanks to all the supporting cast who made this event possible - Shawn - Hollis and Renee Ann's dad, Andrea - Arynn and Alexus' grandma, Nicholle - Kylie and Sydney's mom, Deb - Quinn's mom, Dorena - Alina's mom, Suzy and Brian - Tyler's mom and dad. Also, thanks to all those who solicited donations from your friends and families to support ACCC. We are grateful! Let me know if I forgot anyone! THANKS!
MORE NEWS LATER. . .
Page updated April 19, 2010 |
