Professional development may seem like a daunting task to many in the field of Early Childhood Education. As an educator, the time you have to complete professional development (PD) is often found outside of your work hours, and it can be inconvenient with your schedule. It ends up being something you do because you have to instead of because you want to, which diminishes its effectiveness. This in turn creates a negative perception of professional development. In a society that so desperately needs to keep the people influencing young minds educated, professional development needs to be a priority.
Here are some tips for educators on how to find time for professional development!
As a director, not only do you have to manage the day-to-day tasks of your educators, but you also have to make sure that they are keeping on top of their professional development and staying in the loop with regards to new concepts, techniques, and information. With a growing team and many things on your plate, this can quickly be forgotten about. Further, there is more to it than just making sure that your staff complete professional development – you also have to ensure that they are doing it in a timely manner. Questions about how to best monitor progress and how to obtain proof of completion may arise, causing unnecessary stress in an already demanding director role.
Here are some strategies to help your staff learn most effectively.
A Solution: HiMama Academy
HiMama Academy provides an ideal solution for the woes of professional development. From video training, short assessments, and certificates of completion, it’s a one-stop-shop for professional development. It’s also self-paced, providing you as an educator with the flexibility to do it from any location, whenever you would like, and with the opportunity to take breaks if you choose. You can complete each course as quickly or slowly as you would like, eliminating the feeling that PD is a burden.
Take a virtual tour of HiMama Academy here!
See the progress of individual users
Through HiMama Academy, you can enroll your staff in a course, set deadlines for completion, and monitor each staff member’s progress. As seen below, you can see how many courses they’ve accessed, the last time they logged in, their performance on the assessments and so much more. This is a great way to have visibility over your staff’s PD as well as keep them accountable. You can also print or download specific course completion certificates for any of your staff members which saves you from having to chase them down when it comes to record-keeping.
Monitor each course
As a director, you can also monitor courses through HiMama Academy as seen below. This provides you with information on each individual course, showing statistics like the progress of each staff member within that specific course. This is a good way to ensure that your staff members are learning the same material at the same time.
Overall visibility
For a general overview, directors also have access to reports such as the below. This shows a breakdown of all the courses you and your staff are enrolled in, as well general progress for your staff members. This is a great page to visit for a quick snapshot of your center’s general progress.
As a one-stop-shop for professional development, HiMama Academy will enhance the learning of your staff members by ensuring they are staying up to date with new information and research in early childhood education. HiMama Academy brings ease, visibility, and convenience to you as a director so that you can support your staff members as needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is HiMama Academy?
HiMama Academy is an online certified professional development portal for early childhood educators. Courses are self-guided and upon completion, users are awarded CEUs.
How is the content certified?
HiMama Academy is IACET Certified! The IACET Standard for Continuing Education and Training is a universal model for learning process excellence. It defines a proven model for developing effective and valuable continuing education and training (CE/T) programs by measuring a CE/T provider’s training program from procedure to process to result.
What do I get for completing a course?
You will receive a certificate of completion as well as CEU credits for completing the courses. The IACET CEU assures employers, credentialing associations, licensing bodies, and others that a learner has completed a quality training program that meets the national standard for continuing education and training.
To learn more about early childhood education and the many influences that make the field what it is today, check out our post on the history of early childhood education.
