As early childhood professionals, we must constantly set new goals for our child care programs and try to stay ahead of new trends within our field. We need to strive to mentally absorb the all best knowledge and resources available to positively influence the children throughout their care with us and in their long-term development. For instance, the field of education research, which continues to provide new insight on the growth and development of young children, provides us with findings that at times can impact how we adjust our personal approach as providers when caring for and teaching children. We may consider these research findings in the early education field as inspiration to update our goals as child care providers so the daily, monotonous routine doesn’t get the best of us.
Being a child care provider is no easy task, as we can at times create a plateau in our practice, enthusiasm, and willingness to try new things. Providers can become comfortable with the usual daily routines and the predictability of what happens day-to-day, which then leads to an almost inevitable, yet mechanical approach in our work.
As a result, planning daily activities, including special occasions and holidays, can unintentionally get pushed aside side in favor of doing what has now become automatic. Just stop to think, what is this “autopilot” mindset doing to the child care program, the children, and even the teachers?
Think of your daily actions, for example, if a specific activity or approach was a good idea once, it doesn’t mean it will necessarily be a good idea for every group of children year after year. Consider this when you get an entire new group or new individual children and how this change brings forth a new dynamic, a new set of individual differences, temperaments, energy levels, and interests.
Observant and child-directed teaching demands that we take the aforementioned factors into consideration when planning learning experiences and providing materials for children. Otherwise, the long-term educational plan will not meet the children’s needs and teachers will begin to see troublesome consequences as inattention, misbehavior, and stagnating skill development.
The most important question is, how do we prevent our routine-like actions as educators from negatively affecting children in our programs?
A good place to start is by reading the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and the CDA’s Essentials for Working with Young Children, both of which serve as reminders on the responsibilities we have as educators towards young children, to our co-workers, employers, families, and to the community.
Next, it can be beneficial to set some short and long-term goals. After these have been planned, appropriate and meaningful activities can be scheduled and carried out.
Here are some ideas:
On the other hand, long-term goals can help assess and improve the overall quality of our programs with time, so it’s important to think of ideas to fulfill those goals. It may take you out of your comfort zone, but as the saying goes, “If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.”
Here are some ideas:
Finally, share your goals with someone else. Choose someone who will cheer you on, motivate you, and hold you accountable to make things happen for your child care program. Maybe you and a co-worker can help each other in this regard, so you’ll both reach goals you can be proud of! Remember that being a child care provider has an essential role in shaping the lives and minds of our nation’s youngest children, and putting the right time and effort to update our approach as early educators can have a long lasting, yet positive impact in their lives.
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Vice President of Strategic Alliances
Elisa Shepherd is the Vice President of Strategic Alliances at the Council, where she leads initiatives to advance the Council’s mission and strategic plan through designing, managing, and executing a comprehensive stakeholder relationship strategy.
With over 25 years of experience in early childhood education (ECE), Elisa has dedicated her career to developing impactful programs, professional development opportunities, and public policies that support working families, young children, and ECE staff. Before joining the Council, Elisa held numerous roles within the childcare industry. Most recently, she served as Associate Vice President at The Learning Experience and as Senior Manager at KinderCare Education, where she influenced government affairs and public policies across 40 states.
Elisa’s commitment to leadership is reflected in her external roles on the Early Care and Education Consortium Board of Directors, the Florida Chamber Foundation Board of Trustees, and as the DEI Caucus Leader for KinderCare Education. She has been recognized as an Emerging Leader in Early Childhood by Childcare Exchange’s Leadership Initiative.
Elisa earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a focus on child development from Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA.
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Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the early care and education field. Most recently, Andrew served as Senior Vice President of Partnership and Engagement with Acelero Learning and Shine Early Learning, where he led the expansion of state and community-based partnerships to produce more equitable systems of service delivery, improved programmatic quality, and greater outcomes for communities, children and families. Prior to that, he served as Director of Early Learning at Follett School Solutions.
Andrew earned his MBA from the University of Baltimore and Towson University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland – University College.
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Jan Bigelow serves as Chief Financial Officer at the Council and has been with the organization since February of 2022.
Jan has more than 30 years in accounting and finance experience, including public accounting, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. She has held management-level positions with BDO Seidman, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Communities In Schools, B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and American Humane. Since 2003, Jan has worked exclusively in the non-profit sector where she has been a passionate advocate in improving business operations in order to further the mission of her employers.
Jan holds a CPA from the State of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lycoming College. She resides in Alexandria VA with her husband and dog.
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Janie Payne is the Vice President of People and Culture for the Council for Professional Recognition. Janie is responsible for envisioning, developing, and executing initiatives that strategically manage talent and culture to align people strategies with the overarching business vision of the Council. Janie is responsible for driving organizational excellence through strategic talent practices, orchestrating workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management as well as a myriad of other Human Resources Programs. She is accountable for driving effectiveness by shaping organizational structure for optimal efficiency. Janie oversees strategies that foster a healthy culture to include embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization.
In Janie’s prior role, she was the Vice President of Administration at Equal Justice Works, where she was responsible for leading human resources, financial operations, facilities management, and information technology. She was also accountable for developing and implementing Equal Justice Works Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy focused on attracting diverse, mission-oriented talent and creating an inclusive and equitable workplace environment. With more than fifteen years of private, federal, and not-for-profit experience, Janie is known for her intuitive skill in administration management, human resources management, designing and leading complex system change, diversity and inclusion, and social justice reform efforts.
Before joining Equal Justice Works, Janie was the Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer for Global Communities, where she was responsible for the design, implementation, and management of integrated HR and diversity strategies. Her work impacted employees in over twenty-two countries. She was responsible for the effective management of different cultural, legal, regulatory, and economic systems for both domestic and international employees. Prior to Global Communities, Janie enjoyed a ten-year career with the federal government. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she held key strategic human resources positions with multiple cabinet-level agencies and served as an advisor and senior coach to leaders across the federal sector. In these roles, she received recognition from management, industry publications, peers, and staff for driving the creation and execution of programs that created an engaged and productive workforce.
Janie began her career with Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic), where she held numerous roles of increasing responsibility, where she directed a diversity program that resulted in significant improvement in diversity profile measures. Janie was also a faculty member for the company’s Black Managers Workshop, a training program designed to provide managers of color with the skills needed to overcome barriers to their success that were encountered because of race. She initiated a company-wide effort to establish team-based systems and structures to impact corporate bottom line results which was recognized by the Department of Labor. Janie was one of the first African American women to be featured on the cover of Human Resources Executive magazine.
Janie received her M.A. in Organization Development from American University. She holds numerous professional development certificates in Human Capital Management and Change Management, including a Diversity and Inclusion in Human Resources certificate from Cornell University. She completed the year-long Maryland Equity and Inclusion Leadership Program sponsored by The Schaefer Center for Public Policy and The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. She is a trained mediator and Certified Professional Coach. She is a graduate of Leadership America, former board chair of the NTL Institute and currently co-steward of the organization’s social justice community of practice, and a member of The Society for Human Resource Management. Additionally, Janie is the Board Chairperson for the Special Education Citizens Advisory Council for Prince Georges County where she is active in developing partnerships that facilitate discussion between parents, families, educators, community leaders, and the PG County school administration to enhance services for students with disabilities which is her passion. She and her husband Randolph reside in Fort Washington Maryland.
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