Educare Learning Network Celebrates Teachers During Teacher Appreciation Week
May 08, 2019
In recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week (Monday, May 6 – Friday, May 10), the Educare Learning Network will be celebrating its more than 1,000 teachers across the country who make an unmatched impact in the lives of young children and their families every day.
During the week, the Network will be highlighting its teachers and their accomplishments in social media and online, using the hashtag #EducareThanks. To commemorate the occasion, the Network will leverage its Twitter handle to post tweets paying tribute to its teachers. Individual schools will also have the ability to share stories highlighting a specific teacher’s work across their own social channels.
As a national network of 23 schools, the Educare Learning Network provides high-quality early education to 3,800 children from birth to age 5 born in under-resourced communities. By supporting families and working with teachers to identify effective teaching practices, the Network has become one of the nation’s most diverse and impactful early education programs.
This week the Network is highlighting its teachers, who empower and inspire their students and parents to have the best chance for success in life through a wide variety of ways. For example:
- At Educare Miami-Dade, teacher Martha Silva is an advocate for expanding science initiatives that enhance STEM skill development for young children. Through reflective and collaborative dialogue, Martha and her colleagues created an “Infant / Toddler Science Fair,” where students participated in interactive activities at various stations set up throughout the classrooms. Children were encouraged to articulate their observations and engage in problem solving as they used their senses to draw conclusions. As a result, children gained a greater understanding of scientific concepts, and teachers enhanced their knowledge with increased confidence in their abilities.
- At Educare Milwaukee, teacher Sha-Laya first connected with Educare as a parent when seeking a more enriching learning environment for her daughter. Just two months after enrolling her daughter, Sha-Laya joined the school’s staff in an effort to provide a better life for her family through education and a higher salary. In 2016, she met that goal by earning her bachelor’s degree, a teaching requirement unique to high-quality early learning programs like Educare. Sha-Laya says she’s found her calling in early childhood education and looks forward to impacting more children and their families down the road.
- At Educare West DuPage, teaching staff are offering new parents enhanced training and education opportunities. For example, 16-year old mother Dulce can pursue her high school diploma while daughter Althea receives high-quality care and education in an infant classroom at Educare West DuPage. The school is specifically offering a series of infant massage classes to teach parents how to create physical bonds with their infants, how to calm them with touch, and how to identify and respond to their children’s emotions and communication. Dulce and boyfriend Jesus say that these programs have helped them to bond with and comfort Althea and have given them the opportunity to spend meaningful time with their baby. The classes have also improved Dulce’s confidence as a parent, and her sense that she can help her baby with whatever she needs.
“Our educators are impacting the lives of young children and they deserve recognition and support for all of the great work they do. During this week, we are pleased and honored to celebrate their tremendous impact in the classroom,” Cynthia Jackson, executive director of the Educare Learning Network, said.
