A Must Resource for Preschool Teachers: NAEYC

ATTENTION ALL PRESCHOOL and CHILDCARE PROVIDERS,

If you don't know NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children), check it out. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental services for all children from birth through age 8.

What's in it for me?

That means in plain terms that they have a lot of resources for you. There are free professional development guides, online articles to read (there's currently a great article on real-life writing in the classroom -- did you know that there are developmental stages of writing?), information about accreditation of programs and support for continuing education for teachers, and much, much more. Most of all, it gives preschool educators a place to practice their professionalism and share their knowledge while continually learning themselves.

The Literacy Ambassador® is coming to NAEYC's Washington DC Conference 11/19-20

This year I am privileged to be traveling to Washington DC (next week) for their annual conference, representing my company, TLA, Inc, by presenting on Engaging Families in Their Child's Emergent Literacy with a Goal of School Readiness (2:00-3:30PM on Thursday, Nov 20).  My new books for preschool/K teachers and for parents of preschool children is being released soon and I'm hoping to be able to share them at this conference (if I find a vendor and we can get the books to them in time.  My publisher is working on that but if you are a bookseller exhibiting at NAEYC's conference, give me a shout out!)  Regardless, if you are attending NAEYC, join me!

Maybe you can't make the trip to Washington?

Here are a few great websites to help you on your way as an early childhood educator:

Educationworld.com's Early Childhood Web Resources

Early Childhood.com

PBS Raising Readers

Which resources do you have to grow your professional approach to teaching preschool children? I'd love to hear about them and I'm sure others would too!

Setting Up Your Centers

All of you are working hard getting ready for school(or a few of you may have already started). Think outside the box with a few ideas for incorporating literacy in every one of them.

1) Think incorporation/integration - not "lessons". Blackmasters and worksheets will come soon enough in elementary school. In the blocks center, for instance, enlarge copies of floor plans from real estate magazines, have copies of Architectural Digest or other construction/building magazines and model for your children how to search those for building and construction ideas. Include a hard hat and clip board so they can draw their own designs.

2) Don't forget writing. Instead of having a designated writing center, why not make a portable one that can move with the children. A shower caddy, metal paint bucket or peach basket (for those of us in the South) all work well. Stock it with writing utensils, letter stamps and patterns, plenty of paper (ask your families to contribute note cards they get as samples in the mail or those address labels from charities). Keep it in a prominent place and remind your children that it's available. Deliver it to centers at first to increase usage.

Be sure to join children from time to time in their writing attempts. Allow them to dictate captions for their art work, notes to Mom and Dad or a "I need to talk aloud to solve this problem" notes. All of these solidify in young children's minds the various authentic purposes for writing.

3) Think of the center where the least literacy is present. Ask yourself how you can infuse reading, writing, listening, communicating and viewing into that center. Feel free to share your ideas!

TLA, Inc. has a newly revised workshop on Literacy In Every Center. You can visit us at www.readingisforeveryone.org or email cathypmiller@comcast.net for details.