Early Learning Update Week of November 23^rd

Each week I will send out an Early Learning Update email.  These are meant to be quick updates on any relevant items for the week including resources, Professional Development, new health department info and more.

Items Covered:

• All: Happy Thanksgiving!
• All: Remote Learning Template Schedules and ideas
• Licensed Only: Monitoring Visit Experiences
• Licensed Only: DCYF December Webinar on MERIT
• Licensed Only: Last days to apply for the DCYF Fall Covid-19 Grant

 

Please see this week’s professional development opportunities and news and bookmark the Early Learning Portal Page: https://mycatholicschool.org/for-catholic-schools/catholic-identity/early-learning/

 

Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families! It has been a wonderful opportunity to get to know you over the last three months and I want to thank you for your warm welcome as I have started this new position. As we pause next week and reflect on what we are thankful for during this challenging time I offer this Prayer of Thanksgiving meant for our early learners:

 

“Thank you God for all that grows, thank you for the sky’s rainbows. Thank you for the stars that shine, thank you for these friends of mine. Thank you for the moon and sun, thank you God for all you’ve done!”

 

Remote Learning Schedule Templates and Ideas
Over the course of the last week I have gathered some awesome resources from programs throughout the archdiocese on how they delivered remote learning either last spring or earlier this fall. If your school makes a decision to move to remote learning for any period of time please reach out to me and I can send you a variety of different ideas and resources that can be helpful to stay connected with your participants.

 

Licensed ONLY: Monitoring Visit Experiences

Approximatively five of our schools have had their annual DCYF monitoring visits so far this fall. Please see below for the top five things that licensors are consistently looking for in the visits we have experienced so far. As a reminder because each of them are different when the licensor calls to schedule the monitoring visit please ask them what you should have prepared for your individual visit.

Consistent items that have been asked for so far:

1. They want to see a random selection of both kids and staff files looking for training, signatures, health information and other required items – ranging anywhere between 2-5 files each
2. Date of Last Fire Marshall Visit
3. Most recent Water Test Report
4. Virtual Tours of classrooms showing locked hazardous materials and medications, program areas and exits (have a device you can easily carry around).
5. Virtual tours of Outdoor spaces showing fencing, exits and gates (test your wifi on your device to see if it will carry to your outdoor space, otherwise give your licensor a heads up you may have to switch to a phone or ipad that can use zoom on data for that part of the visit.

 

Licensed ONLY: DCYF December Webinar Focused on MERIT redesign

On Tuesday, December 15^th at 6pm DCYF will hold a Webinar that will focus on the new updates and features are coming to the workforce registry MERIT. MERIT is a great tool to track your professional development and staff qualifications. The new updates will include easier navigation and a better overall design to help you track your progress. Stay tuned for more details and don’t miss out! Register HERE

 

Licensed ONLY: DCYF Fall Covid-19 Grants Application is Open  

LAST REMINDER: Please see below for information on how to apply for the DCYF Fall Covid-19 Grant. The grant will close Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 11:59 p.m.

How to Apply:

Providers will log into the WA Compass Provider Portal [lnks.gd] and select the DCYF Fall COVID-19 Grant pop-up to apply for the grant.

Have a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving!