Child Development Associate Studies/Training
Welcome and Ahnee! This is the first of 3 online courses that total 9 semester credits, that prepares students for Child Development Associate (CDA) assessment/visitation, after which students can gain a national CDA credential. The three courses ALSO teach best practices in early childhood education and are courses that are a part of the AA program in early childhood at Bay Mills Community College, a fully accredited community college.
EC107 - Competencies and Best
Practices in Children and Family Programs I
Course Creator and Instructor: Evelyn Petersen Evelyn's Bio
Course Duration: Fifteen weeks from start date
Email: I expect students to stay in touch with me by e-mail, let me know if they are having problems, answer me if I send a question or ask an opinion, and do me the courtesy of letting me know if they will miss a chat or be more than a day or so late on an assignment. My e-mail address is evelynpetersen@yahoo.com.
REMINDER! Before you complete registration, you must READ NEW, UPDATED INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CDA OPTIONS IN THE PREREQUISITES SECTION OF YOUR EC107 SYLLABUS. YOU MUST ALSO READ THE SYLLABUS BEFORE YOU ORDER YOUR BOOKS, AND ALSO CALL OR EMAIL AN INSTRUCTOR FOR GUIDANCE IN ORDERING YOUR CORRECT CDA PACKET.Before you begin there are some things you need to know and/or do. First be sure you have read and printed out the syllabus and the course calendar for the reference. Be sure you have called the instructor of the course for guidance in choosing one CDA packet of the four seen at the online book store.
Next put the start date of this course (when your course began) in the margin of your course calendar printout, right next to lesson one/week one. This way you can check your calendar and will always know what week and lesson you are on. Do at least one lesson each week. Our course lasts 15 weeks. It's best to choose a time and day each week to do your work and stick to the same schedule so that you do not get behind. Generally each lesson can be done in about two to three hours. Weeks begin on Mondays and end on Sunday nights.
Lessons and Assignments: Each lesson has a "Read," "Reflect" and "Do" section. After you do the reading and reflecting, the Do section may ask you to send me assignments. Do not send attachments. Just copy and paste each assignment into a regular email to me. I do not open attachments. Do not combine assignments; send only one at a time.
To help me keep your work in my e files so that you get credit and your work can easily be found, you must put into the subject line of the emails your name and the assignment. This is just like putting your name on a paper properly in the real world. Do it like this: Evelyn/autobiog. Or Jane/ChildObs1, Or Diaz/ChObserv2, or Bertram/GoalPaper1. If the assignment requires a word count, be sure to send one.
I will always try to reply to all emails within 2-3 days, even though out BMCC requirement is to contact you once a week. If I do not reply for 5 days, probably something is wrong with the email address and you should call me. 231.943.9257. If I am ill or out of town without access to the Net I will let you know. I expect you to treat me with the same sort of respect/courtesy.
Challenges:
If you are having any problems, or have any questions, email or call me asap. If you have a family crisis or reason your work may be late, contact me so that we can work things out. Note that is a person does not call me or answer my emails and does not send in assignments for weeks, the BMCC Student Affairs staff person may call. When the course ends, the student will only get credit and a grade for what has been turned in. The course points and rating scale and the BMCC grade scale are in the syllabus.Changes:
If you change your name, or your email or your advisor/mentor, you must call or email me AND BMCC right away to tell us.Quizzes:
In EC107 there are frequent quizzes, because we are covering many topics. You will do well on these if you study the study questions at the end of each lesson. Some students also read previous chats before their quizzes. Try to take the quiz on the day or in the lesson that asks you to take it. You should not skip ahead of lessons to take quizzes. All lessons should be done in order and completed before going on to the next lesson, although students can work at their own pace.Chats:
We arrange chats as needed. They are not prescheduled. Usually there are only one or two during a course, depending on need, number of students, and the time zones in which they live. I will give you ample notice before a chat of its date and time. If you cannot make it, I will let you do a make up assignment so you will not lose the 50 chat points. Points are based on participation and attitude as well as attendance. Chats are always posted on the link to Previous Chats on the syllabus to everyone can refer to them.Miscellaneous:
Some of the materials or information in these courses refer to Head Start or their publications. Most of the publications you are asked to read are posted online in the syllabus at the links for Reading References or Online Reading. Some of you are in Head Start programs and these publications are also available in your program. We would like to thank both Head Start and CDA for their cooperation and input in the development of these courses.Part of the reason you are asked to sometimes read Head Start and CDA publications in these courses is that both Head Start and CDA are icons for high standards and best practices in the field of early childhood education. Head Start requires the CDA or a degree and many of you want to work in a Head Start program someday.
90% of the students in these courses will get a national CDA credential and some will go on for the AA degree. 10% of our students opt to go for the AA degree and do not get a CDA credential. Be that as it may, the publications of both CDA and Head Start are good references for anyone in our field. If you are not in a Head Start program and you can NOT find a certain Head Start publication mentioned in a lesson, don’t worry about it. You can only do the best you can and I will understand.
Resource File/Professional Portfolio:
Every student, whether or not he/she is engaged in getting a CDA endorsement and credential, will do a Professional Resource File/Portfolio in these three courses. Developing the resource file/portfolio and reading the CDA guidebook that comes in your packet that was ordered at the online book store is a professional thing to do, whether you are CDA or AA bound.The CDA guidebook shows the reader what competencies are expected of a teacher of young children. It shows developmental aspects for each competency area as well as examples of what teachers do to achieve their goals for the child. This section of the guidebook will be VERY helpful when you compose your Competency Goal papers in these courses. In the front or first section of the CDA guidebook is a list of the things a CDA candidate must accomplish over the next nine months of these three courses.
This first section also shows students a list of 17 Required Collection Items for the Resource File/Portfolio notebook. In each course we will do 5 or 6 of these 17 items. We will sometimes skip around, in order to match the topics we are studying in the course. At the end of all three courses you will have completed all 17 items. The 3-ring notebook you were asked to purchase will be your resource file/portfolio.
CDA requires an orderly organization of this notebook. You will divide the notebook into at least three sections. (use tabs or colored paper, etc) The first section is all about you. In this section you will put your autobiography (done in lesson three) and copies of any diplomas, credentials or awards or transcripts etc that you wish.
In the second section you will be putting your Competency Goal Papers. We do two of these in each course. In the third section we will include all 17 of the Resource File Collection Items. We start those about lesson 6 or 7.
THAT IS IT Aren’t you glad! So go ahead and get started. See you online, EvelynSome of the material in these courses is based on Head Start material. We would like to thank Head Start for their cooperation and input in the development of this course.