The Katharine Whiteside Taylor Bursary provides financial support for the continuing education of parents and teachers participating in a Canadian cooperative or parent participation preschool.

This year's bursary award of up to $500 is available to be used for professional development in the field of early childhood education or related leadership training.  Previous award winners have applied their award for tuition towards their ECE or other educational areas, to support attendance at conferences, and for specialized training for teachers or board members.

The application process is not complicated and we urge you to apply now by March 15 or contact Catherine Shaver by phone 519-621-1719 or email: [email protected]

When I was asked to write about our program for preparing teachers to work with parents in a classroom setting, I reflected on our process and realized that we do not spend a great deal of professional development time on this issue at our school.  We are a small co op in Fairfield County with once class each for children two, three and four.  In each classroom we have a head teacher, an assistant teacher and a parent each day on a rotating schedule.  Due to the nature of parents working in the classroom, we tend to attract a lot of current and former teachers who place high value on being a part of their child's education.  Currently, more than half of our staff started off as parents with children enrolled in the school.  Their children left the school and they loved it so much, they stayed.  Bringing the mindset of working closely with parents was innate for the people who began their career at our school in this role.  For those that have not, by watching the seasoned staff working with parents has worked well.  In the rare instances when a staff member needs more guidance working with parents we have discussions and provide more coaching as needed. 

What we do focus on more is educating our parents on the values and philosophy of our program and how this transfers to actually working with the students in the classroom.  We have several orientation meetings for parents before we start our school year.  Each class has a separate meeting to discuss the workings in the individual rooms during the first month of school and we continue with monthly group parent meetings as an entire school.  As Educational Director, I try to cover a topic each month relating to the classroom. For example, I recently spoke about the do's and don'ts of modeling during art experiences while working in the classroom.  Other topics have included how to say Yes! more in the classroom setting, rough and tumble play; its value and our role when it occurs, and conflict resolution.  We spend a great deal of time in the classrooms scaffolding conflict resolution with the children.  It is often handled very differently in the home setting, so this issue takes repeated discussions.  The topic for our next parent meeting will be on praise and the overuse of "Good Job!"  with young children.  We will be discussing alternatives when discussing a child's performance, accomplishments and products.  It is wonderful to watch the parents as the year evolves first deferring to the teacher when they are unsure of the best way to handle a situation gaining more and more confidence to handle situations over time.  Many parents tell us about how this "parent as assistant" education carries through to their parenting at home. 

Being asked to explain our process has given us good topics for discussion and reflection as a staff and with our board.  Are we doing enough in this area?  How could we improve this part of our program?  Being part of a group of other cooperative schools that share their ideas and processes is so helpful.  We are looking forward to hearing how other schools structure staff education regarding working with parents. 

by Dana Gorman

Educational Director

Community Cooperative Nursery School

Rowaton, CT

Ccnsct.com

www.playfullylearning.org

One of the last events she was able to attend was the 50^th anniversary celebration for PCPI in Indianapolis in 2011.  Her daughter reported that she was so proud that she helped to establish this national organization which then grew to become international. 

At her memorial service her family displayed the article about PCPI's 50th anniversary in Cooperatively Speaking that featured a photograph of Carolyn cutting the cake.  The picture captured her delight at being able to join in the celebration. You can see the photos and read more about PCPI's history here.

All of us join together to celebrate Carolyn's life and her innumerable contributions to the cooperative preschool community!