建设专业图书馆

作为一名管理者，你的一个重要职责是确保员工能够获得做好工作所需的资源。工作人员往往需要专业发展资源。这些资源可以采取多种形式：书籍、杂志、视频、课程工具、教育材料、网站指南。

本课的应用部分提供了构建专业资源库的六个技巧。以下是这些提示的快速版本：

• Request a subscription to the journals published by professional organizations.
• Look for useful books. Throughout the Virtual Lab School you will find suggested readings. These books may be helpful additions to your resource library. You can also browse publishers’ tables at professional conferences for the latest titles.
• Help staff find appropriate websites. Again, professional organizations are a good place to start. Many have links to important resources.
• 它可以非常有助于建立一个儿童和青少年文学，玩具，游戏和其他材料的借阅图书馆。这些类型的材料可以帮助工作人员立即找到他们需要的资源，并将想法变为现实。这也有助于避免整个程序中的资源重复。
• 许多课程和专业发展resources. These may be videos, guides, or supplements. Keep any of these materials that staff are not using in a centralized location so they can be found when needed.
• There are many ways to include cutting-edge video in your professional library. The Virtual Lab School is a free source of such video. See the Apply section for more ideas.

It can be helpful to see examples of programs’ professional resource libraries. Look at these photos of well-stocked professional libraries and quality work spaces for staff members. Are there ideas you can use in your own program?

Just as your facility requires restrooms for adults, so too your facility needs professional work space where staff can comfortably work on items for their classrooms. The availability of this area in your program can send a powerful message about how you value your teachers and caregivers as professionals. It may sometimes be difficult for staff members to work on children’s portfolios or assessments or the weekly curriculum if there is no desk or adult-sized chairs in their classrooms. If your space will permit, offering some more adult-focused spaces with relevant resources, where staff can access not only the professional library items, but also computers, printers, copiers, and other relevant office supplies, is a great way to support your staff. If you have limited facility space in your program, consider making your break or training rooms multifunctional and allowing those to also be work-related spaces.

Building Learning Communities

As a manager in a center-based child and youth development program, you have the opportunity with trainers or coaches to encourage authentic, self-initiated professional development experiences for staff. One such experience is known as a professional learning community. Hord (1997) notes that, “three words explain the concept [of a professional learning community]: Professionals coming together in a group—a community—to learn.” In a childcare or educational setting, professional learning communities are groups of educators and administrators who meeting regularly to share expertise and work collaboratively with the goal of improving their teaching and best supporting children’s development and learning. There are five characteristics of an effective professional learning community, according to Shirley M. Hord (1997):

1. 支持ive and shared leadership:这意味着您和您的培训师和教练必须将自己与员工一起视为学习者。有一种感觉，每个人在该计划支持专业学习和投资于卓越的计划。狗万app怎么下载
2. Collective creativity:This means you and staff continually work together to spark new ideas, reflect, converse, and inquire. You focus on solving problems by applying new ideas.
3. 共同的价值观和愿景：这意味着你和员工已经同意为什么专业发展是你课程的重要组成部分。你们共同关注儿童的学习和发展。狗万app怎么下载
4. 支持ive conditions:This means you and staff have time and space to talk. It also means you have the kind of relationship with staff that encourages communication.
5. 分享个人实践：This means staff members are expected to help one another by observing and discussing their work.

当这些元素re in place, groups of child-development professionals can engage with one another to improve their professional practice. As a manager, you can facilitate this process and ensure that the structures are in place to continue its success.

You could help build learning-community experiences specifically about the environment. Perhaps each month you focus on a different central aspect of the environment (e.g., home-like features, incorporating natural materials, or making it culturally relevant). You could share relevant resources you found with staff members and ask them for their ideas and resources. Staff members could then share the ways they are working on that concept right now in their indoor and outdoor environments. You or your trainers or coaches could share how you focused on that aspect within shared program spaces (e.g., hallways, entrances, or staff break rooms).

Model

您可以通过将您希望员工在教室中实施的一些基本元素融入员工使用的其他空间（如员工培训室、员工休息室、厨房、走廊等）来模拟强大环境的创建和维护。请考虑：

• 如何组织员工的材料。他们的安排是否使您和员工能够方便地访问他们？它们的排列方式是否能唤起学习？也许在员工休息室里，你会提供一个新资源的小展示，或者一个分享某个教室最近完成的有趣项目的董事会。这些小动作可以唤起员工的参与。狗万app怎么下载
• The aesthetics of the staff spaces. Are there home-like elements such as plants or soft furniture in your office or the break room? Are there ways you can incorporate nature, items of beauty, or the personality of your program into the other spaces staff use? Even occasionally having a vase of fresh flowers in the break or staff resource room can send a power message that staff are valued.
• 如何在员工空间中体现多样性。正如我们希望为儿童和青年提供与文化相关的材料一样，请确保您在为员工发展和休养创造的空间中对此进行建模。

员工休息室应该是员工放松的地方。请记住，与年幼的儿童和青年一起工作，虽然非常有益，但也可能会在身体和情感上非常繁重。您的休息室应该允许员工采取一点缓刑，休养，然后再回到他们的工作与儿童。邀请员工提出他们对休息室设计的想法，并询问他们希望在休息室中使用哪些物品或材料。与你的家人或家长协会合作，看看他们是否愿意捐出或自愿抽出时间来改善这些空间。再一次，这是一个强有力的方式，向员工表明他们的福祉是重要的。

Also, consider the organization and appearance of your office and the messages it send. This is another space where you can model some of your vision for what the learning environments in your program should be like. A cluttered space can make staff feel that they cannot trust your organization, or it can be distracting during difficult conversations.

See

观看以下视频，可以看到支持专业学习社区创建和工作的高质量成人空间示例。想一想如何与培训师或教练合作，为员工创造这样的环境。狗万app怎么下载

职业发展：构建学习型社区狗万app怎么下载

Monitoring Ongoing Professional Development

Before working with children, staff should be oriented to the program’s philosophy, goals, expectations, procedures, curriculum, policies, and requirements. Then, staff should participate in an organized professional development program. The National Association for the Education of Young Children recommends staff members develop an annual individualized professional development plan. Developing individual professional development plans will be covered in more detail in the Professionalism and Program Management courses. As a manager, you may be responsible for designing, delivering, and documenting your trainers, coaches, or staff members’ progression through their individual professional development plan. It is important to be organized and proactive about this process. Here are strategies that can help:

• 为每个员工创建公文包或活页夹。
• Make checklists of completed training opportunities.
• 使用在线系统，比如虚拟实验学校。万博体育下载手机版

As you develop and update staff’s individual professional development plans, do not forget to include resources, training and documentation related to the preparation and maintenance of high-quality indoor and outdoor environments.