Late last year, Betty Witt moved from the classroom (after 25 years) and into a full-time administrative position as our Assistant Director. This change was long in coming. Although Betty served as the in charge person in Cindy’s absence for many years, Cindy was a solo administrator. The addition of our Constructivist Preschool classroom created the revenue needed to change the center’s infrastructure so that we could add more teacher support and administrative support.

Cindy and Betty continue to define the assistant director job description but some distribution of administrative/managerial tasks have been determined. Betty is managing staff scheduling, arranging substitute coverage, and arranging extra planning time for teachers. Additionally, she is tracking staff PTO and coordinating payroll with the church. Betty is also posting child care payments and handling deposits. Much of her work is the more technical “back of the house” work, whereas Cindy’s function includes planning and visioning, supervision and coaching, program development and training, enrollment, communication and budgeting.

The addition of this new position also allows Cindy to participate more fully as a leader outside of the center. She now sits on the board of the Tennessee Association for the Education of Young Children as the Development Chair, serves on the planning team for the TAEYC Conference, is a mentor for the Community Foundation’s emerging substitute service, ChildcareMatters, and is a frequent trainer and leader in the early childhood community.

The bottom-line is that McKendree’s program benefits from this new position and from this fresh distribution of labor and resources.

Many of our youngest children have just completed an exciting investigation of bubbles. Zoe Matthews and Chantel Thompson have supported the children’s rich and hands-on exploration for several weeks. Their “project” culminated with a Bubble Party on the roof (many thanks to Nashville Party Authority for the free use of a fancy bubble machine). Infants, toddlers and preschools had a chance to see thousands of bubbles cascade across the sky on Friday.

Expect to hear more about this amazing project because Zoe is teaming up with A Child’s Guide to the City — an outcropping of the TN Reggio Study Group that celebrates and makes learning visible with partners in the community. In mid-April, documentation of the Babies Bubble Study will be exhibited publicly as our community gathers to celebrate the joy and wonder of this work. Stay tuned for more information!

Parent meeting  up on the roof on Wednesday, March 16th Noon to 1:00

The Story of SECA’s 2016 Exemplary Outdoor Classroom Award Winner

Join us as Cindy shares the presentation she presented in Tulsa, OK about our wonderful roof play area.

The center is closed on Friday, March 11th because the entire child care center staff is attending a full day training on March 12th (we are swapping a Friday for a Saturday off). The training, Elements of Reflective Teaching, is sponsored by the TN Reggio Study Group. We are delighted that two McKendree teachers will be lending their voices to the training day. Four elements of reflective teaching: space, time, resources, and the teacher’s role will be explored as masterful teachers share their stories from infant, toddler and preschool classrooms. Zoe Matthews, from our Movers and Shakers Infant Class, and Heather Marshall, from our Discoverers Toddler Class, will each speak about the role of resources in offering children rich early learning experiences.

We are excited about furthering our understanding of child-directed and inquiry-based learning and proud that McKendree is represented so well by our outstanding teachers.