Looking Back on 2015
The end of the year is always a good time for reflection – and we at the Council look back on 2015 as another banner year in our service to you – the early care...
Whether you’re embarking on professional development (PD) to meet state requirements, or you want to invest in your own growth, PD has a number of benefits.
First, it helps ensure you’re keeping up with the latest trends, techniques and skills. It also makes you more marketable as an employee, helps you become a better colleague and opens the door to career advancement. Finally, and most importantly, it helps you become a better educator for your students.
At ChildCare Education Institute, we’ve spent the past 20+ years providing early childhood educators like you with the professional development courses you need to grow and succeed. As a result, we know a thing or two about how to make the most of your PD endeavors.
Here are our top tips for getting the most out of your professional development:
When you set clear objectives, it gives you something to work toward. With everything else on your plate, a well-defined plan can give you a roadmap to follow and help keep you on track along the way.
As you set your goals, make sure to physically write them down so you can easily refer them as needed. This will help you visually see what you want to achieve — and will improve your chances of succeeding.
Finally, it’s important to ensure the goals you set for yourself are realistic and achievable. To do that, we recommend following the SMART goal-setting system.
A lot of times, people don’t know where to begin with their professional development. The easiest way to get started is by choosing courses that interest you. Perhaps you read an article about mindfulness and it intrigued you (in the case of CCEI, we offer The Value of Mindfulness in Early Childhood Settings). By selecting a topic that interests you, you’ll likely be more interested in the content and motivated to complete the course.
While courses that appeal to you will likely be more enjoyable, don’t forget to also pick topics that might seem more challenging. It’s important for you to stretch yourself – it will also make you a more well-rounded educator. This can mean selecting a course that is completely new to you (for example, engineering in early childhood) or something that has always been a challenging area for you.
Finding a study buddy is helpful because the two of you can tackle tough concepts together, quiz each other and most importantly, hold each other accountable. Once you’ve found a partner, we recommend either setting aside time to work through your courses together or creating regular check-ins to see how the other is doing on the goal path.
With everything going on in your world – work, family obligations, errands, etc. – it’s easy to get sidetracked. Don’t let distractions interfere with the time you set aside for studying. If possible, find a quiet space in your home that you can turn into a study nook. If that’s not possible, try to find a public place to work, like a library or a quiet coffee shop. Using the Pomodoro Technique (focusing for 45 minutes and then taking a break for 15) can also help you stay focused on and plugged into your coursework.
The knowledge you gain from professional development and the ways it can advance your career should be reward enough, but no one said you can’t provide a little extra incentive for yourself. Whenever you complete a course or achieve a goal, treat yourself. This might be taking yourself out to breakfast, watching a movie or a couple of episodes of your favorite television show guilt-free or enjoying an at-home spa day.
Once you’ve knocked out your state-required professional development hours (or you’ve met the goals you’ve set for yourself), keep the learning going by working toward your college degree from home. Thanks to our partnership with StraighterLine, you can now access five ECE-focused courses from anywhere — and then transfer the credits you earn from them to over 1,500 partner colleges and universities.
The end of the year is always a good time for reflection – and we at the Council look back on 2015 as another banner year in our service to you – the early care...
As the population of young children keeps getting more diverse in this country, many schools and programs are seeking teachers and assistants that speak the languages needed in their classrooms. However, it is not enough...
Across the globe, in places like Uganda and Dublin, mothers are being made aware that the 1,000 day period from the beginning of pregnancy to a child’s second birthday will, as midwife Susan Ejang says....
We know how important it is for you to renew your CDA Credential. That’s why the Council for Professional Recognition has been working hard to make the online application process easier for you. It has...
By Dr. Robert Gundling, Deputy Operating Officer, Sunshine Early Learning Center Imagine a world where the voice of early care and education leaders, advocates, administrators and teachers, mainly in community-based programs is represented in articles...
Early childhood education is finally getting its time in the spotlight. It’s great to see more and more funding going into programs that will make a difference for thousands of young children and their families....
Early childhood education (ECE) is in the spotlight as never before. Being in the limelight, however, has highlighted the field’s fragmentation and the variability in the quality of children’s formal early learning experiences. This reality...
How would you like to find out about the life of an exceptional educator and the leader of the Council for Professional Recognition? This post recognizes our CEO, Dr. Valora Washington, who has been in...
Welcome to the Council and thank you for checking out our new blog. It is with great excitement that the Council takes the first step in the world of blogging to communicate with all of...
Vice President of People and Culture
Janie Payne is the Vice President of People and Culture for the Council for Professional Recognition. Janie is responsible for envisioning, developing, and executing initiatives that strategically manage talent and culture to align people strategies with the overarching business vision of the Council. Janie is responsible for driving organizational excellence through strategic talent practices, orchestrating workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management as well as a myriad of other Human Resources Programs. She is accountable for driving effectiveness by shaping organizational structure for optimal efficiency. Janie oversees strategies that foster a healthy culture to include embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization.
In Janie’s prior role, she was the Vice President of Administration at Equal Justice Works, where she was responsible for leading human resources, financial operations, facilities management, and information technology. She was also accountable for developing and implementing Equal Justice Works Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy focused on attracting diverse, mission-oriented talent and creating an inclusive and equitable workplace environment. With more than fifteen years of private, federal, and not-for-profit experience, Janie is known for her intuitive skill in administration management, human resources management, designing and leading complex system change, diversity and inclusion, and social justice reform efforts.
Before joining Equal Justice Works, Janie was the Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer for Global Communities, where she was responsible for the design, implementation, and management of integrated HR and diversity strategies. Her work impacted employees in over twenty-two countries. She was responsible for the effective management of different cultural, legal, regulatory, and economic systems for both domestic and international employees. Prior to Global Communities, Janie enjoyed a ten-year career with the federal government. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she held key strategic human resources positions with multiple cabinet-level agencies and served as an advisor and senior coach to leaders across the federal sector. In these roles, she received recognition from management, industry publications, peers, and staff for driving the creation and execution of programs that created an engaged and productive workforce.
Janie began her career with Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic), where she held numerous roles of increasing responsibility, where she directed a diversity program that resulted in significant improvement in diversity profile measures. Janie was also a faculty member for the company’s Black Managers Workshop, a training program designed to provide managers of color with the skills needed to overcome barriers to their success that were encountered because of race. She initiated a company-wide effort to establish team-based systems and structures to impact corporate bottom line results which was recognized by the Department of Labor. Janie was one of the first African American women to be featured on the cover of Human Resources Executive magazine.
Janie received her M.A. in Organization Development from American University. She holds numerous professional development certificates in Human Capital Management and Change Management, including a Diversity and Inclusion in Human Resources certificate from Cornell University. She completed the year-long Maryland Equity and Inclusion Leadership Program sponsored by The Schaefer Center for Public Policy and The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. She is a trained mediator and Certified Professional Coach. She is a graduate of Leadership America, former board chair of the NTL Institute and currently co-steward of the organization’s social justice community of practice, and a member of The Society for Human Resource Management. Additionally, Janie is the Board Chairperson for the Special Education Citizens Advisory Council for Prince Georges County where she is active in developing partnerships that facilitate discussion between parents, families, educators, community leaders, and the PG County school administration to enhance services for students with disabilities which is her passion. She and her husband Randolph reside in Fort Washington Maryland.
Chief Operations Officer
Andrew Davis serves as Chief Operating Officer at the Council. In this role, Andrew oversees the Programs Division, which includes the following operational functions: credentialing, growth and business development, marketing and communications, public policy and advocacy, research, innovation, and customer relations.
Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the early care and education field. Most recently, Andrew served as Senior Vice President of Partnership and Engagement with Acelero Learning and Shine Early Learning, where he led the expansion of state and community-based partnerships to produce more equitable systems of service delivery, improved programmatic quality, and greater outcomes for communities, children and families. Prior to that, he served as Director of Early Learning at Follett School Solutions.
Andrew earned his MBA from the University of Baltimore and Towson University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland – University College.
Chief Financial Officer
Jan Bigelow serves as Chief Financial Officer at the Council and has been with the organization since February of 2022.
Jan has more than 30 years in accounting and finance experience, including public accounting, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. She has held management-level positions with BDO Seidman, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Communities In Schools, B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and American Humane. Since 2003, Jan has worked exclusively in the non-profit sector where she has been a passionate advocate in improving business operations in order to further the mission of her employers.
Jan holds a CPA from the State of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lycoming College. She resides in Alexandria VA with her husband and dog.
Read our monthly e-newsletter and keep up to date on all Council programs and services, as well as the latest news in the world of early care and education. Subscribe today to stay connected with us. You’ll receive timely information on events, webinars, special promotions, and more.