Early Childhood Teaching and Ministry Overview
The MLC Continuing Education website contains resource materials for onboarding early childhood teachers and aides at the local level. Resources provide a basic introduction to developmentally appropriate practice and ministry.
Ministry
1. Connecting with Parents - Outreach
This module presents the topic of connecting with parents, guardians, and families, which includes regular formal communication methods and strategies as well as informal ways to connect with and engage parents, guardians, and families.
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2. Effective Christian Communication
This module presents the topic of effective Christian communication as used by early childhood teachers in a ministry setting. This is a two-part module, with the second part covering how to communicate in times of conflict. The first module includes how to follow God’s directives, which align with research-proven methods, for effective communication in an environment of diverse faiths, cultures, and family backgrounds.
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3. Mission Mindset - Representing Christ
In this module we will review the mission Jesus gave us and discuss how we can have a mission mindset in our early childhood schools and classrooms.
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4. Working as a Team - Forgiveness, Humility, and Responsibility
This module presents the topic of working as a team, including clear communication and clear expectations of roles and responsibilities.
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5. Ministry Balance
This module presents the topic of ministry balance in early childhood settings, which includes identifying our unique ministry contexts and examining the ministry balance Jesus our Good Shepherd gave us throughout his time in ministry.
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Health and Safety
1. Supervision of Children
This module presents the topic of a safe environment for children to learn and grow, which includes supervision during classroom times, transitions, outside, bathroom times, and naptime.
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2. Child Abuse and Neglect
This module presents the topic of child abuse and neglect. Definitions, research findings related to developmental outcomes, signs of concern, and ways to support children who have been victims will be discussed.
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3. Mandated Reporting
This module presents the topic of mandated reporting; specifically, what it is and what it is not as well as how to support a child and family once a report has been made to legal authorities.
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4. Food Safety and Allergies
This module presents the topic of food safety and allergies, which includes food guidelines, menus, food allergies, and guidelines for an overall healthy environment.
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5. Clean and Healthy Classrooms
This module presents the topic of the importance of maintaining a healthy environment and expectations for staff in regard to cleaning, classroom hygiene, and illness policies.
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Working with Children
1. Age-Appropriate Behaviors
This module presents the topic of age appropriateness when working with children birth through kindergarten. o understand best practices in an early learning environment, it is critical to have a firm foundation in the understanding of children’s physical, cognitive, language, and socio-emotional development. ithin each domain, key concepts will be identified as well as their implications for age-appropriate teaching strategies across the early years.
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2. Socially and Culturally Appropriate
This module presents the topic of social and cultural appropriateness, which includes understanding cultural awareness, promoting cultural diversity, and implementing strategies for culturally responsive teaching.
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3. Individually Appropriate
In this module, we will explore how to best serve each individual child in our care. This includes furthering our knowledge about the types of temperament and categories of sensory processing. By completing this module, you will learn how to create a differentiated classroom curriculum and multiple ways to develop children’s self-regulation skills.
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4. Behavior Expectations - Proactive & Intentional
This module presents the topic of behavioral expectations across early childhood, which includes the understanding of expectations related to children’s attention, play, self-regulation, and independence and the application to best classroom practices.
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5. Extreme Behavior
This module presents the topic of extreme behavior, which includes definitions and strategies for establishing a high-quality teacher-child relationship, addressing challenging behaviors, and utilizing skill building as an effective prevention and early intervention technique.
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Teaching
1. Planning a Lesson
This module presents the topic of planning a lesson in an early childhood classroom, which includes where ideas for learning experiences come from, components of an active and developmentally appropriate lesson, and parts of a lesson.
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2. Teaching a Bible Lesson
This module presents the topic of teaching a Bible Lesson in the early childhood classroom, which includes understanding the religious development of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in order to have developmentally appropriate experiences.
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3. Observation and Assessment
This module presents the topic of observation and developmental assessment in an early childhood classroom, which includes an understanding of the purposes and uses of observation and developmental assessment.
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4. Parent Conferencing
This module presents the topic of parent conferencing, which includes meeting with parents and discussing child progress and development.
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5. Confidentiality
This module presents the topic of confidentiality. The ethical guidelines of confidentiality and the role confidentiality plays in maintaining an environment of trust will be discussed.
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Childhood Exceptions
1. Developmental Delays
This module presents the topic of developmental delays, which includes understanding definitions of key concepts and the important role educators play in early detection and communication with families.
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2. The Spectrum - Autism / Asperger’s
This module presents the topic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in young children, which includes a brief overview of the characteristics of ASD and some “red flags” that may indicate symptoms of ASD at an early age.
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3. Trauma and Neglect
This module presents the topic of trauma and neglect. Adverse childhood experiences (ACES) will be defined, and their impact on development will be discussed. The supportive role of teachers in the growth and development of children faced with multiple ACES will also be discussed.
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4. Talking to Parents about Exceptions
This module presents the topic of communicating with parents about concerns regarding young children with potential developmental delays or other disabilities and exceptions.
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5. Referrals & Accommodations
This module presents the topic of referring young children (ages birth-3 years) for early intervention (EI) screening and what this process might look like for referring young children (ages 3-6 years) to the local school district for a comprehensive evaluation. Providing accommodations to young children is also discussed.
