Early Childhood Digest
The Latest Early Childhood Developments by Wayne RESA
April 5, 2024
Early Childhood Services Department at Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency (Wayne RESA)
Email: EarlyChildhood@resa.net
Website: https://www.resa.net/teaching-learning/early-childhood
Location: 33500 Van Born Road, Wayne, MI, USA
Phone: 734-334-1312
Notes From the Executive Director
Greetings Early Childhood Educators,
Thank you all for the work you do to support children, families, teaching teams, programs and the field of early childhood education.
During the Week of the Young Child, please know that we value and appreciate your hard work in Early Childhood. Together, we are strong!
Please see below for some fabulous ideas from our Family Engagement Team as you make your plan to celebrate Week of the Young Child together as a community next week!
Many of our colleagues, staff and families participate in Ramadan. EID starts next Tuesday evening (sun down). Wishing you warm spirit and good health this Ramadan!
Reminder
To access the Roadmap, click here: A Roadmap for Implementing PreK for All
To stay current with the latest information about PreK for All, visit: www.Michigan.gov/PreKforall
Week of the Young Child
We're excited to invite Wayne County GSRP & Strong Beginning Families to participate in the upcoming Week of the Young Child celebration. This special week is all about honoring young children, their families, and the importance of early learning.
Each day of the week features a different theme and corresponding activities for you and your little ones to enjoy together:
• Music Monday
• Tasty Tuesday
• Work Together Wednesday
• Artsy Thursday
• Family Friday
We believe these activities will not only bring joy and laughter to your family but also create lasting memories and strengthen bonds. We encourage you to participate in as many activities as you'd like throughout the week.
We have attached a flyer to help you get started on each day's activities. Let's make this week one to remember!
~Family Engagement Team!
Program Self Evaluation Rubric
WCRESA will be releasing a Program Self-Evaluation Rubric for partner programs to complete. The rubric will contain specific yes/no or multiple-choice questions to gather information on the program’s strengths and areas for growth.
We hope that this process will help programs identify areas where their program can benefit from additional WCRESA support as well as areas where the program can utilize the strengths of their program to enhance program quality overall.
WCRESA staff will utilize the data collected from the Program Self-Evaluation Survey to assist us in working with our partner programs to create a Program Support Plan to help guide our work together in the upcoming year.
To ensure that the Self-Evaluation Rubric is helpful in guiding program growth and quality improvement, it is critical that the rubric is completed honestly and thoroughly. The Self-Evaluation Rubric will be released by email to your program’s HUB contact with specific instructions on how to complete the form.
Programs should receive the Program Self-Evaluation Rubric on or before Monday, April 15, 2024.
When you receive the Program Self-Evaluation Rubric, please REPLY TO the email to confirm that your program has received the rubric. Please ALSO identify who at your agency will be completing the rubric.
Please complete and return the rubric by email to the Early Childhood Department email (earlychildhood@resa.net) Subject Line: Program Self Evaluation Rubric no later than 4:00 PM on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
For questions, please contact your assigned Program ECC.
Enrollment
Fiscal Reminders
Mid-Year Review
Please complete the Mid-Year Review in your 23-24 Budget Workbook. This is due by April 19, 2024.
The purpose of this exercise is to take the time to reflect on how your expenses are tracking with your funding and reflecting on where your program will stand:
- At the end of this school year – June 30th
- What will be remaining through the end of the grant period September 30th
- If there will be Carryover - funds remaining after September 30th and why there are remining funds.
*Please keep in mind that there is no payment in September so budget accordingly. (Allocation is divided by 11 payments which are sent October through August).
* Also, the first payment for the new grant year will be sent at the end of October. It may be advisable to have carryover to pay salary for the first 2 weeks in October.
Update – WCRESA will pay GSRP Assessment Costs
Please note that WCRESA has decided not to seek reimbursement for the assessment costs for children’s licenses in TS GOLD/COR this school year, so you will not be billed this month for assessment costs for GSRP. This only applies to licenses for GSRP students.
Program Budget Amendments
Programs who did not meet their count and will have funding reductions will need to update their program budgets to account for the new funding award amount. If your program needs to make updates to your budget due to a reduction in funding, please reach out to your Program Early Childhood Consultant to discuss the situation further. Please note that we have not made allocation changes to the budget documents yet as we are still finalizing our count data.
Count Review
Programs received an update regarding their student count as submitted to CEPI in the Count Letters provided in March. Programs with significant enrollment shortfalls have been reviewed and received an immediate reduction in their payment amounts starting with the March program payment. For programs where there is uncertainty or the program has reported being close to full, we will wait to adjust until we have had an opportunity to finalize all the data. Please note that if you have questions or concerns about the number of students or funding, please contact us.
Transportation Verification - We are still working on the verification process. Programs transporting children need to supply sign-in/sign-out sheets, the bus route, and complete a survey.
Topic: 6208 Office Hours : GSRP Fiscal Reporting
This is a series being held on the following dates:
4/10/2024, 5/8/2024, 6/12/2024, 7/10/2024
Join Zoom Meeting
https://resa-net.zoom.us/j/83173019577
Meeting ID: 831 7301 9577
Social Emotional Support
March Is Reading Month
March was designated National Reading Month in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday on March 2 and encourages readers of all ages to read daily and engage in reading and other literacy activities outside for fun. Thanks so much for sharing your celebrations!
Attention: Community Based Organizations (CBOs)
Strong Beginnings
The Strong Beginnings Pilot, Michigan's free 3-Year-Old program, won't be expanding in the upcoming school year (24-25). In the meantime, until the grant reopens, ensure to maintain a high-quality program. By consistently meeting the criteria in the Strong Beginnings implementation manual, you'll be well-positioned for consideration when the grant becomes available again.
Teaching Strategies Update
GOLD Documentation App
Teaching Strategies will be officially retiring the GOLD Documentation App on June 28, 2024. If teachers in your program haven’t made the switch yet to the Teaching Strategies Teacher app, there are three things they need to know.
- They are missing out on good things! The Teaching Strategies Teacher app does much more than the GOLD Documentation app in addition to greatly improving the capture and rating of documentation.
- If teachers want to continue using the GOLD Documentation App for the remainder of the school year, they must update to the latest version before May 1, 2024. Any documentation recorded after May 1 in an older version of the GOLD Documentation app will NOT be saved.
- Teaching Strategies will keep the old GOLD Documentation app available through the end of this school year but will be officially retiring it on June 28, 2024.
What are your next steps?
- Strongly encourage teachers to download the Teaching Strategies Teacher app from the Google Play Store and Apple App store.
- Watch this video to learn more about the Teaching Strategies Teacher app.
- Have teachers register for a webinar to learn more about the Teaching Strategies Teacher app.
Have more questions? Read these FAQs to learn more about updates regarding the GOLD Documentation App availability.
For Strong Beginnings and GSRP
Elaine Koons presented Talking in Teaching at the Wayne RESA Advisory Meeting, and many have expressed interest in hosting a Talking is Teaching session at their site. Click here to complete the Talking is Teaching Interest Survey
The program will be contacted by Ms. Koons regarding offering Talking is Teaching following the completion of the survey. The survey will be accessible in the Digest.
Talking is Teaching questions may be sent to EarlyChildhood@resa.net (Subject line: Talking is Teaching) for monthly answers/updates from Elaine Koons and Elizabeth Grace.
1. Once released please complete and return the Program Self Evaluation Rubric no later than 4:00 PM on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Email to earlychildhood@resa.net
2. Complete the Mid-Year Review in your 23-24 Budget Workbook. This is due by April 19, 2024.
3. Honor young children, their families, and the importance of early learning by planning Week of the Young Child activities and events. Share the Week of the Young Child: Family Activities with the families in your program.
Spreading the News
Are you sharing the Early Childhood Digest with your teaching teams? If so, great! If not, please know that sharing the Digest with your Teaching Teams supports you in communicating GSRP and Strong Beginnings information and supports your teachers in their roles. Anyone can access the Wayne RESA Early Childhood Digest.
Just go to the Wayne RESA Early Childhood GSRP page: Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) - Wayne RESA.
Halfway down the page you will see a tab that reads Programs, select that. You're there, it's that easy!
Interested staff can always contact earlychildhood@resa.net to be added to our EC Digest distribution list, as well.
Let's Talk About: Preschool Inclusion
Wayne RESA's Early Childhood Preschool Inclusion Professional Learning Group has been working to identify best practices, key resources, and challenges related to inclusive classrooms. Wayne RESA is providing Preschool Inclusion Office Hours to support questions and or ideas related to preschool inclusion. All GSRP and Strong Beginnings administrators and or teaching teams are welcome to bring questions to the open office hours.
Professional Learning
Valuing Math in the Early Childhood Classroom (Wayne County GSRP staff)
5664 X - April 12, 2024 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Wayne RESA ANNEX Room 1, 2 & 3 - 33500 Van Born Rd, Wayne MI 48184
What do you value as a teacher of young children? Our values fundamentally shape our interactions with young children, as well as our expectations of their learning. Five core values, grounded in evidence from research, supported the development of the Essential Instructional Practices in Early Mathematics: Prekindergarten to Grade 3. These Essentials seek to promote high-quality, equitable teaching and learning for young children in the discipline of mathematics. In this professional learning, we will dive deeper into aligning our practices with the five core values to ensure all children are receiving high-quality math instruction throughout the day. Click on the date above to register for your preferred session.
Food Program Training and Information Link
The MDE Office of Nutrition Services offers a number of free online trainings. In particular, the Preschool Meal Pattern training provides valuable information about preschool meals, whether meals are part of school breakfast/lunch programs, or CACFP.
This brief training provides an excellent overview of what foods are required, allowed, not allowed, and more. The training would be helpful to ECS and teaching teams working to promote nutritious breakfasts and lunches.
Michigan’s Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) State Plan
You are invited to participate in the development of Michigan’s Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) State Plan.
ASQ Support
Ages & Stages Questionnaires® (ASQ®) provides reliable, accurate developmental and social-emotional screening for children.
ASQ Technical Assistance is available! If your program needs ASQ Online training, login or password info, or access to the Help Me Grow partner Google Drive please don’t hesitate to reach out to Amber Anderson at Help Me Grow. All GSRP programs should be a Help Me Grow partner to receive their ASQ Online Account.
Amber Anderson
Care Coordinator/Technical Assistance
Help Me Grow Michigan
Great Start Collaborative Detroit-Wayne
313-410-5235
Open office hours are available on Thursdays at 2:00 P.M.
Zoom link for our GSRP working hours: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/5969353317
Google form link: GSRP Partner Intake Form
Booking link: Everybody Ready (zohobookings.com)
Looking for updates on what is going on in your child care licensing region?
Please join the CCLB Regional Office Hours hosted by the CCLB area managers! This is an opportunity to stay informed, connected, and engaged within your child care licensing region. These sessions are a great opportunity for conversation and connection.
LARA Office Hours (see link below):
Wayne County with LaTanya Ellington
Great Start to Quality Job Board
Do you have openings in your program? Great Start to Quality can help you find qualified candidates!
Early Childhood Job Board - Great Start to Quality
Job postings are good for 60 days and can be renewed, if needed.
Send the jobs description(s), program location and submission contact information to jobs@ecic4kids.org
Once a candidate submits a resume or cover letter, Great Start to Quality sends them directly to the program.