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The school year is coming to a close and for many teachers, that means completing those last few hours of professional development. Some states require a certain amount of professional development to be fulfilled in order for a teacher to renew their license. These professional development hours can be completed through in-house trainings provided by your school, educational conferences, seminars, workshops or retreats. There are also many opportunities for professional development for teachers online.
We recently had the pleasure of partnering with ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI) to complete our professional development hours for this school year. We had the opportunity to take two courses: 1) Music in Early Childhood and 2) Building Literacy through Nursery Rhymes and Children’s Poetry.
In this blog post we’ll be sharing our experience with professional development for teachers online through CCEI. We have a free activity download at the end of this post!
About ChildCare Education Institute
In their own words,
“ChildCare Education Institute® provides high-quality, online training courses and programs, applicable to those who work in an array of child care settings, including center-based care, Head Start, family childcare, prekindergarten classrooms, after school environments and more. Over 150 English and Spanish training courses are available to meet licensing, recognition program, and Head Start Requirements. CCEI also has online certification programs that provide the coursework requirement for national credentials including the CDA, Director and Early Childhood Credentials. CCEI, a Council for Professional Recognition CDA Gold Standard℠ training provider, is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC) and is accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).”
Some Facts:
- CCEI courses are all web-based and are accessible anytime on any device.
- With CCEI, you can earn IACET CEU credits from the comfort of your couch 24/7/365 (at no additional cost).
- 99 percent of students say they would recommend CCEI to others.
- Nearly 7,500,000 online course hours completed by CCEI students.
- Graduated 21,000 early childhood professionals from CDA and other certificate programs.
Course Format
The courses were well-presented, easy to follow and clearly built upon a solid foundation of excellent scholarship. It took each of us about 45 minutes to an hour to complete our respective courses.
Here’s a full breakdown of the courses:
- Introduction: A welcome page stating the goal of the course and the learning outcomes.
- Notes: On the welcome page there is a link to download a handout that provides an outline for notetaking.
- Objectives: The objectives are listed so those taking the course know what to expect.
- Polls: The courses incorporate polls for their own gathering of data and improvement.
- Self-Reflection: Throughout the course there are questions that will prompt you to reflect the information you have engaged.
- Assessments: Multiple choice questions are interspersed throughout the course to keep you on track with the learning.
- Videos: The course includes educational videos.
- Tasks: There were interactive tasks to complete based on the material covered.
- Activity Suggestions: There were thoughtful activity ideas to implement in the classroom.
- Resources: There were useful websites and additional videos for further research.
- End of Course Exam: At the end of the course there is an exam to assess learning.
- PD Course Survey: A survey is presented at the end of the course to obtain course feedback.
- Certificate: At the end of the course you will have access to your course certificate which you can print or save as a PDF.
Who Would Benefit from Online Professional Development?
These courses are geared towards those who are in the childcare industry. However these courses are great for parents as well. Whether you’re looking to complete professional development hours or acquire knowledge on a specific topic these courses are worth considering. We also appreciate the flexibility that these courses offer. They can be completed on various kinds of devices and in any setting. The time commitment is low as you can move at your own pace
What We Loved About The Courses
Max, who is a K-8 general music teacher, said he found the Musical Experiences in Early Childhood course very enriching and well-organized. He particularly liked the “developmental stages of musical experience” section, and said he wished he could get the info in chart form for him to hang up in his classroom!
Ijeoma is a kindergarten teacher and found the Building Literacy through Nursery Rhymes and Children’s Poetry course to be enlightening and very informative. She appreciated the videos that demonstrated some of the suggested activities.
We’ve created an activity based on information we learned from the Building Literacy through Nursery Rhymes and Children’s Poetry course. This is a literacy activity where the students will learn a nursery rhyme and then identify the elements of the story. To download this activity please click here.
Overall
We feel that these courses are beneficial for those looking to gain professional development hours or parents who want to learn more about a particular subject. We can confidently recommend this course due to the flexibility it offers, the vast variety of topics and how easily accessible they are. If you are interested in learning more about ChildCare Education Institute or signing up for professional development for teachers online please click here.
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