Category Archives: John Hancock Child Care Center

When we added the “mentor teacher” rung to the career ladder in our early childhood program, we provided recognition to our experienced and skilled teachers. We offered learning opportunities to them, particularly in the areas of peer coaching, reflection, leadership, and adult development. In addition, we offered learning opportunities to our novice teachers (protégés) who were committed to furthering their professional development. And the end result was improvement in the overall quality of our entire program. We learned a lot along the way – to be passed on to you – who might be interested in doing the same thing in your program. Continue reading →

If you are the Director of an early childhood program, I’ll bet you have asked yourself the same question I asked myself years ago – how could we retain our fabulous teachers while keeping them in teaching positions? So often teachers had to become supervisors and directors in order to grow in our field. But, many wonderful teachers didn’t want to move into leadership and management. They were fabulous teachers!!!! So, how could we retain them – and yet, offer them growth and professional development doing what they loved, and were very good at?
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Sometimes, we come upon a piece of equipment or an unlikely object that works so well in our programs for young children that we just have to pass the idea on. Such is the intent of this post. Continue reading →

Who will live in this space?
If we can thoughtfully and in great detail answer this one question, and, in essence, become these children, we will be well on our way to designing environments that meet both the developmental needs and interests of their inhabitants. Continue reading →

Parents – the third leg of the three-legged stool. When all three are in balance, so is the stool. The stool can be a metaphor for the classroom, the school, the organization. To the director of the early childhood program, there is nothing more important than balancing this stool! The relationship between the child, the teacher, and the parent is the foundation for everything that happens in the program. How to do this effectively and build a true partnership is the challenge and the objective. Continue reading →

“The Hundred Languages of Children,” written by Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia approach, is beautiful and thought-provoking, and a way to reflect upon our work with young children as we begin the new school year. Continue reading →