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Seeing the Details - Ideas for Training and Staff

by Margie Carter
September/October 2003
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/seeing-the-details-ideas-for-training-and-staff/5015368/

As I consult with various child care programs around the country, I’ve been thinking about how directors orient new staff and focus their supervisory feedback. Typically there is a strong emphasis on concerns of safety and sanitation, and on policies and practices around child guidance, curriculum planning, and dealing with families. While a busy director barely has time to cover information a new teacher needs to know about the program, this initial emphasis on procedures may set a tone that doesn’t ultimately support the confidence, let alone growing mastery of responsive teaching. Nor does it suggest how to work collaboratively with families and other staff.

I find it useful to think of our focus and interactions with teachers as a model, if not subliminal message, for what we want them to do with children. Perhaps this seems obvious, but it deserves a closer look. If directors keep a focus on the rules of this work place, should they be surprised that the teachers continually remind the children of the rules? If most director-teacher exchanges focus on paper work, schedules, and daily announcements or reminders, what organizational climate does that shape in a program? How does this climate help teachers develop?
When I ...

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