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October 2021 Bits & Bytes
DCAEYC congratulates the first winners of the Early Educator of the Year Award! Please join us in congratulating these outstanding leaders! You can learn more about the Honorees during DC Action's Fall Reception and Awards Celebration on Tuesday, October 26 at 5:30 pm.
Bulletin Board:
October is Emotional Wellness Month
October is Emotional Wellness Month. Emotional wellness is the ability to handle life's stresses and adapt to chance in difficult times. While this is important to do year round, this month is a great opportunity to check in with yourself and see if there are ways you can improve areas of health that feed into emotional wellness. For strategies to improve your emotional health, check out this Emotional Wellness Toolkit from the National Institutes of Health.
Having a Safe and Inclusive Halloween
Halloween is just a few weeks away. When planning ahead, most people focus on getting the right costume together. When dealing with young children though, it's important to also consider how to make sure the holiday is safe and inclusive. This is true regardless of whether or not you’re preparing for trick or treaters in your program or neighborhood. For tips on Halloween safety, check out this article from the Mayo Clinic. For ways to make your Halloween more inclusive, check out these tips from Connecting for Kids.
 Congratulations DCAEYC Annual Meeting Raffle Winners!
DCAEYC congratulates members Mireille, Roxana, and AQuia for winning raffle prizes during our recent Annual Membership Meeting on September 29! Mireille and Roxana each won $50 gift certificates to Discount School Supply, and AQuia won a complimentary registration to the upcoming NAEYC Annual Conference in November. We hope you enjoy your prizes!
 2021 NAEYC Virtual Annual Conference
Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with NAEYC’s diverse community of professionals. Experience the dynamic, relevant, and fun professional development and networking that the Annual Conference is famous for.

Session Highlight: DCAEYC is especially excited for DAP Core Considerations and Teacher Decision Making: A Conversation featuring our very own Board member Rahshita Lowe-Watson!
Welcome New DCAEYC Members!
DCAEYC extends a warm welcome to the following new members who have joined throughout September and October:

Rebecca C.
Brittney E.
Amber F.
Daisy G.
Marneshia H.
Kim N.
Dawn P.
Sara R.
Janet S.
Principle of Practice:
Play is a Vehicle for Developing Self-Regulation and Promoting Language, Cognition, and Social Competence
Play is an opportunity for children to have fun. That alone is a great reason to give children time to play. But play, of course, is much more than that. According to the NAEYC Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement:

“Play (e.g., self-directed, guided, solitary, parallel, social, cooperative, onlooker, object, fantasy, physical, constructive, and games with rules) is the central teaching practice that facilitates young children’s development and learning. Play develops young children’s symbolic and imaginative thinking, peer relationships, language (English and/or additional languages), physical development, and problem-solving skills.”

Research backs up the importance of play for young children. As cited by Kyle Snow, former senior scholar and director, Center for Applied Research, at NAEYC, in the NAEYC article A Conversation About Play, “Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and her colleagues note that "playful learning or guided play actively engages children in pleasurable and seemingly spontaneous activities that encourage academic exploration and learning.…Teachers using guided play have a set of learning goals in mind.” Some researchers point to the role of play in learning across the domains, such as language development, mathematics, literacy, and social and emotional development.”

For more on play, check out the NAEYC articles Five Essentials to Meaningful Play and Talking with Parents About Play. While these articles are geared towards parents, they provide early educators insight and benefits to different types of play which can be brought into any setting.
Policy Beat:
Changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program
On Wednesday, October 6, the U.S. Department of Education announced that changes are coming to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program that will put over 550,000 public service workers closer to loan forgiveness. Some of these changes include:

  • Many disqualified payments now counting toward loan forgiveness
  • Different repayment plans temporarily counting toward forgiveness
  • Past FFEL loan payments now counting toward forgiveness

Federal Student Aid will make more information available to borrowers at StudentAid.gov/PSLFWaiver. In the coming weeks and months, the Department will communicate directly with borrowers about these changes to PSLF to help borrowers understand how they may benefit and any actions they may need to take. Borrowers should ensure that they have accounts on StudentAid.gov and that their contact information there is up to date. Additional information on this announcement can be found in the announcement press release.
Upcoming Events:
Hispanic Families’ Experiences of Child Care Closures During COVID-19
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
1:00pm to 2:00pm
This webinar will discuss Hispanic families’ experiences with COVID-19-related child care closures or disruptions. Emma Lee, Dr. Zach Parolin, and Dr. Kevin Ferreira van Leer will present their research on Hispanic families’ experiences of child care disruptions and closures before and during the pandemic, and the implications for parents’ employment. Presenters will be joined by Dr. Danielle Crosby who will serve as a discussant, providing reflections on the panelists’ research and facilitating audience questions and answers.
 
Click the above image to access the pdf with links. Click here for a version in Spanish.
Directors' Nook
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
1:00 pm-2:00pm
Join our virtual meeting for DCAEYC members who are early childhood directors or administrators. This meeting will be a safe place for all early childhood directors and administrators to meet, share, and discuss topics related to our work and any additional interests. This month we’ll discuss the Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Fund. Please join us to share thoughts and concerns about the implementation to early learning programs.
 
Be sure to visit DCAEYC's table at the festival! Everything is outdoors and open to the public. For covid protocols and issue interest PLEASE register in advance here to join!