OPERATIONS: COVID-19

Update: April 6 2020

With Childreach being our backbone and relying on their excellent leadership, we are following suit and remaining closed to the public until May 4th. Meaghan, Michelle, and I will continue to work from home.

In terms of Spring planning, I wanted to inform you of our plan which is supported by CR Leadership and has been endorsed by our Advisory Committee. Even if our world returns to “normal” on May 4, we want to be sensitive to folks anxiety and priorities when they return to work. After much deliberation, we think it would be best to suspend all in-person professional learning until the Fall. Our plan is to refund and cancel all current in-person Strive offerings and reschedule for the Fall calendar. There are a few previously scheduled sessions that will run via Zoom instead – emails will be sent accordingly.

We have compiled a list of no cost Professional Learning opportunities (external from Strive) for the community and continue to add to it. https://striveswo.ca/our-news/professional-learning-while-social-distancing/ Strive also has many excellent offerings on our member platform (https://striveswo.ca/member-login/) including the keynote speech from the Literacy Conference by Karyn Callaghan. We are continuing to add to the platform and have recently included new material from All Kids Belong.

On top of the PL opportunities mentioned, we are exploring facilitators that will able to deliver live online webinars for our community over the next few months. We are also considering tapping into emerging leaders from local organizations to facilitate community debriefs of external online PL. We are looking forward to hosting our first community of practice in an online format later this month and continue to grow that practice.

This is a very unique approach for Strive and the community – together we are navigating these uncharted waters.

We thank you for your continued support.

-Ally

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Update: April 2 2020

We are continuing to closely monitor the situation affecting our world. In order to keep the Strive team and community partners healthy, safety and well, we will remain closed until May 4 2020. This is after careful consideration and support of our leadership team at Childreach (for their full update, visit: https://www.childreach.on.ca/blog/all-childreach-programs-cancelled-until-april-5)

We understand the impact this has on your professional learning plan. We assure you we are continuing to work on offering unique and innovative approaches to support you. If you are currently registered for any of our remaining events, original or rescheduled dates, a Strive Team member will be in touch in the coming week with the latest information. In the meantime, we have currated a list of online professional learning, check it out here: Professional Learning while Social Distancing

Thank you for your understanding and commitment to keeping our communities healthy and safe!

-Ally

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March 16 2020

In light of all the most recent information regarding COVID-19, we wanted to assure you that Strive is monitoring the situation closely and, along with our Leadership Team here at Childreach Centre, will continue to make decisions in the best interest of our team as well as the community.

Strive will close to the public from March 14 – April 5, 2020 inclusively.

The Strive team will continue to work on rescheduling professional learning opportunities planned within that time frame.

If you are currently registered for Let’s De-Mystify Succession Planning (March 24), The Pedagogy of Loose Parts (March 25), Resilience Informed Caregiving (March 25), or the Infant Community of Practice (March 31), we will be in touch next week with new dates.

We will also be working on providing additional online learning experiences for Educators over the next three weeks.

The Strive Team can still be reached via email Michelle – michelle@striveswo.ca, Meaghan – meaghan@striveswo.ca, and Ally – ally@striveswo.ca.

We thank you for your continued support and understanding during this time. We know that the risk still remains low in London, Middlesex and Elgin, however, we are committed to ensuring the safest and healthiest possible environments for facilitators, team members, and the early learning community.

Thank you,
Ally Scott, Project Manager

BLOCKS BUILD BODIES AND MINDS – COHORT TWO!

Facilitated by: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE

We are offering a second opportunity to participate in this online course.

This unique opportunity invites a new way of engaging in professional learning, online!

Diane Kashin and Cindy Green have created an introductory 5-part online series exploring block play. In your child care environment, it is likely that you already engage in block play daily; these modules will explore the theory and the practice of this ubiquitous play experience. Revisiting this staple learning material in a reflective way will help you engage differently with both the blocks and the children participating with them.

Once you are registered, you will have 6 months to complete this 5-part learning opportunity at your own pace.

Strive members will receive a discounted rate. Log in to your Member Login for your unique link.

There is no geographical boundary – all are welcome but spaces sold out quickly in the first release.

** THIS COURSE IS NOW CLOSED **

Course made possible with the generous support of:

BLOCKS BUILD BODIES AND MINDS

Facilitated by: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE

****This opportunity is SOLD OUT! Stay tuned to Strive for the next release****

This unique opportunity invites a new way of engaging in professional learning, online! Diane Kashin and Cindy Green have created an introductory 5-part online series exploring block play. In your child care environment, it is likely that you already engage in block play daily; these modules will explore the theory and the practice of this ubiquitous play experience. Revisiting this staple learning material in a reflective way will help you engage differently with both the blocks and the children participating with them.

Once you are registered, you will have 6 months to complete this 5-part learning opportunity at your own pace.

Strive members will receive a discounted rate.

There is no geographical boundary – all are welcome but spaces are limited for this first module release!

Fee: $50 (discounted rate for Strive members)

Course made possible with the generous support of:

STRATEGIC PLAN 2020 – 2023

We are pleased to share with you Leading Inspired Learning, our strategic plan for 2020 – 2023. This is a transformative time in the Child Care and Early Years sector. This plan outlines the change we want to inspire and the strategies we will implement in the next four years.

In 2016, we created our first-ever strategic plan. Since then, we have doubled our annual professional learning offerings, now providing up to 80 professional learning opportunities to over 1,500 Child Care and Early Years professionals annually. We are proud of what we have accomplished in a short time. But, we are only getting started. Our new strategic plan defines the bold vision we have for our future.

Our plan has been developed in consultation with 117 professionals, members, staff, partners, funders, advisory committee members, and professional learning committee members. Their insights and ideas guided us as we created this Plan. We are grateful for their contribution.

The City of London and Middlesex County are engaging in critical work in the Child Care and Early Years sector, through the London-Middlesex Child Care & Early Years Service System Plan: 2019-2023.
We have aligned our strategic plan to support this important work. We will also continue to work in partnership with Elgin County.

Over the next four years, we will leverage our knowledge and expertise to be leaders in the sector. We will build strong partnerships and create opportunities for connection. We will focus on serving as a catalyst to help Child Care and Early Years professionals achieve their goals and build their professional capacity.
Together, we will reach our goal of providing the best care to children in our community.

This strategic plan, along with a detailed operational plan, will guide our work over the next four years. The next step, and the most important step, is to move to action. Through planned, strategic, and consistent action, we will move closer to our vision.
We invite you to be part of our journey. If you are interested in contributing your expertise, attending a learning session, or sharing your stories and experiences, we encourage you to reach out to our team.

We hope you will join us in leading inspired learning!

Sincerely,
Ally Scott
Strive Project Manager

Strive Strategic Plan 2020

COMMUNITY & CONNECTION

What is a Community of Practice?

A Community of Practice (CoP) is defined as a group of people joined by a common passion, concern, interest or enterprise. The term was originally coined in the early 1990’s by cognitive anthropologist, Jean Lave and educational theorist, Etienne Wenger, during their assessment of contextual learning amongst various professional and non-professional groups.

A Community of Practice emphasizes social participation as being central to effective learning. 

A Community of Practice is identified by three distinct characteristics: the domain, the community, and the practice.

The ‘domain’ refers to the common interest and the ‘community’ reflects the relationships, engagement, and co-learning between members.

The product of both of these is the practice, which are the shared resources that contribute to knowledge. A CoP model is used in many different sectors but has gained particular popularity in education, where relationships are well known to be central to the learning process. 

Strive has relied on the expertise and insights of Deb Curtis, Debbie Lebo, Wendy Cividanes, and Margie Carter in their book, Reflecting in Communities of Practice, to consider, question, and model our approaches for engaging in community with other early years professionals. The reflective questions, impact stories, and multiplicity of perspectives housed within this incredible resource have profoundly shaped the way we think of ourselves as reflective practitioners and the way we engage in our work.

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So what does it mean to participate in a Community of Practice?

Strive is proud of the community of learners we have cultivated across London, Middlesex and Elgin, moving beyond working in silos to really embracing a Community of Practice model. Despite the excellent progress that has been made, recent conversations had us reflecting and questioning what participation in a CoP truly means. 

• Who are the members of our community?

• What does it mean to be a member? 

• How far does our membership reach? 

We know the recruitment of qualified Early Childhood Educators has become an all too familiar narrative in our municipalities, resulting in the current hiring crisis faced by childcare organizations and school boards across the province. We also know that membership in a CoP can contribute immensely to ones sense of belonging. 

This got us thinking…

By engaging emerging members of the early learning community, specifically those at the secondary and post-secondary levels, what possibilities may exist for recruitment and thusly, sustainability in our field? In what ways may our Community of Practice grow and flourish by rethinking our membership?

“EFFECTIVE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE BALANCE MEMBERS’ DIVERSITY WITH A SENSE OF SHARED PURPOSE”

(CURTIS ET AL., 2013).

We therefore decided to intentionally navigate and interrogate our focus on student engagement. 

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Growing our Community

The first piece of this was hosting Early Childhood Education students from Fanshawe College for a day of professional learning.  This was done in collaboration with Childreach. The day was structured as a “mini-conference” and was designed to showcase our collective services, resources, and professional networks. The day was an undeniable success and incredibly well-received by those who participated.

We have had the pleasure of seeing some of the students who participated in that conference return to visit, utilize the ECE Professional Resource Centre to which they were gifted memberships for their participation, and take part in some of our professional learning offerings as well. This is a notable level of student engagement that did not previously exist. 

We have surmised that intentionally reaching out and inviting students into our Community of Practice resulted in them feeling supported, valued, and included as contributing members of our learning community, prior to even officially entering the field. Their sense of belonging was reinforced and this encouraged further community engagement.

The second part of our student focus involved secondary school students.  Much like post-secondary students, it was determined that high school students, particularly those enrolled in childcare related coursework, were a pool of potential, would-be educator candidates. To bring those students with an expressed interest in the early years into the folds of our community early on, would encourage ongoing field participation later.  Working with one secondary school as a “pilot project”, we have been assisting with resourcing, community networking, and mentoring. 

We are fulfilled, inspired, and energized by the idea of expanding on the way we define our current CoP membership. We hope to continue to develop these relationships, recognizing the unique perspectives, insights, and experiences that emerging educators bring to our tables.

Written by Meaghan MacDonell, Strive Project Coordinator

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Ally Scott, BA, RECE, Project Coordinator of Strive

In light of reaching the end of our 2016-2018 Strategic Plan (don’t worry – another one is on its way!) I wanted to highlight some of the key deliverables we have achieved and ensure everyone is aware of the various ways to engage with us and learn more.

*links are embeded in the pictures throughout the article

We know how essential effective communication is in our profession. With an ever-changing, progressive field such as ours, it is of the upmost importance that we stay in the know. In 2016, Strive outlined communication as one of the six strategic directions in our plan. There have been many contributing factors that have enhanced our communication over the last three years. The first major change sparked from our re-branding. With the help of AdHome Creative, we have truly embodied our new identity as Strive. AdHome helped us develop our website, online learning platform, and brand identity. This ensures we have clear visuals on our social media outlets as well as in our Community of Professional Learning Calendar.

As we have done since we were Quality Child Care Coordinating Committee (QCCCC), we continue to coordinate and develop our Community of Professional Learning Calendar three times a year – January to April, May to August, and September to December. These calendars have essential information about Strive, the importance of professional learning, and, of course, all of our great opportunities. If you haven’t been able to get your hands on one of the stunning print copies, be sure to pop into Childreach in January, May and/or September to grab one. We have them available at all of our meetings, while supplies last, and we also try to disperse copies to Family Centres when we can.

Social media has been another strong avenue for communication for Strive. We have handles running on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, and Youtube. We love to post pictures from all of our incredible professional learning opportunities, promote upcoming events, and share information from all of our wonderful community partners.

Our website has been another major area that we have grown in leaps and bounds. We are able to host all of the registration directly on our Events pages thanks to Universe. Our hope for a one-stop-shop for all your professional learning needs has come to life. We have recently activated our Strive Online learning platform. Professionals working in the early years in London, Middlesex, and Elgin now have access to a free membership which houses forums, videos, and professional learning documents. We are continuing to grow our library so be sure to check in often.

It is also important to note that we have a monthly e-blast that goes out at the beginning of each month. This e-blast highlights all of the great opportunities that will take place that month. It has links to other additional resources, meeting information as well as upcoming networking sessions.

Last but definitely not least, communication is a key element of our monthly Strive Meetings. These are community meetings held on the second Friday of every month at Childreach. Here, we provide updates on what’s happening at Strive, within the community, as well as provincially.

The best parts of these meetings are the Action Conversations. This is when we pose a question or thought to the group and allow professionals to dissect it together in a Community of Practice. You can feel and hear the energy in the room when these conversations begin. This allows us to capture the voice of the community to make sure we are being responsive and progressive.

I think it is safe to say we have worked hard to achieve our communication strategic direction. “One of the desires of Strive is to strengthen the level of communication so that all Child Care and Early Years Professionals can be reached and have an awareness for future learning opportunities throughout London-Middlesex and surrounding counties.” (Strategic Plan). However, we know there are professionals that still don’t know about us. This is where we rely on word of mouth and organizations to ensure their teams are well aware of all that Strive can offer.

So, this holiday season, in the essence of giving, give a colleague the gift of Strive. Share us on whatever social media you partake in. Forward the December e-blast. Print this article and hand it out. Do whatever you can to get the word out there. We are here for you and we can’t do it without you. Ultimately, we know that we can support educators to provide the best possible care for children and families but it all starts with you.

SHOWCASING INSPIRING SPACES

Child Care and Early Years Professionals:

Site Tour Information

Strive and the Early Years Professional Network are currently looking for potential centres that would like to host a Site tour. Below is more information regarding Site Tours, what hosting entails and how to apply. Thank you in advance for applying!

Thank you for your interest in participating in Strive’s Site Tour initiative. Please read the following information in preparation for applying to host. These tours are not meant to create work for our community rather provide a means in which to bring visibility to the work of our community’s children and its Early Years professionals. The purpose of this document is to encourage sites to reflect on their settings and to ensure the Guiding Principles outlined below are in alignment with quality initiatives in our community.

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Objectives: 

1. To promote a vision of intentional continuous professional learning.

2. To be responsive to our early years’ communities vision of professional learning.

3. To support ongoing growth and development of Registered Early Childhood Educators and all Early Learning Practitioners.

The Professional Learning Committee (PLC) recommends that the content and delivery methods of learning opportunities are assessed and that each site supports learning that is:

• Evidence Informed: Supported by best practice and current research

• Multi-faceted: Dynamic and creative initiatives

• Responsive: Continuously responds to the needs of our growing profession

• Accountable : As early years professionals and as a community

• Inclusive: Opportunities and services that can be accessed by all

• Collaborative: Working together to achieve shared goals

• Reflective : The process of focussed thinking to deepen our understanding of our practice

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Site Tour Intention

The Early Years community is diverse and offers a variety of settings.   We hope for participants to step outside of their centre and organization for a tour and meaningful dialog with early year’s colleagues.  These site tours will take place in diverse early childhood settings across the city and will demonstrate various ways in which this sector observes, studies, reflects plans, collaborates and documents our lives with children.

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Criteria

1) Be able to show that provincial documents are embedded into your program. (EarlyON mandates, HDLH, etc)

2) Have established pedagogical practices that support observation, documentation, collaboration and reflection.

3) Be evidence informed and able to demonstrate current best practice.

4) Demonstrate a variety of documentation in order to ensure the thinking processes of the children and Educators are visible.

5)  Must be able to accommodate a group of 25-30 people, including parking and be accessible for people who may have physical limitations.

6) Dynamic and creative initiatives are a plus!

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Host Responsibilities

1) Ensure you have on site Educators available for a brief introduction and for questions during the tour.

2) Be “company ready”, set the environments with invitations etc. to demonstrate the kinds of materials and experiences your site offers.

3) Provide light refreshments.

4) Return an “Experience Form” to provide insight on how this experience impacted your centre and its work, what you would offer future hosts etc.

5) Send a picture of your centre/building to Strive for marketing and promotional purposes.

6) Notify cleaning staff of the event to ensure there are no interruptions.

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How to Apply

Email info@striveswo.ca highlighting the key elements of your centre – photos are welcome. Please explain why you believe your centre is a good fit for the purposes outlined in this document.

Current available dates: Jan 15 2019, March 19 2019.

Indicate if you have a preferred available date. We cannot guarantee that we can offer you your preferred date, however, we will strive to meet all needs.

We will notify all successful hosts via email after the Mentor Working Group Committee has made selections.

Prior to your tour you will be contacted by a member of the Committee where a visit will be arranged to confirm that your site is a good fit for this professional learning experience.

Thank you for your interest in this community initiative.

‘WEE’ WONDER: BIG IMPACT

Strive had the extraordinary honour of sharing Erika Murray’s impact story at our last Strive Committee meeting on Friday June 8, 2018. Erika had recently attended two of Strive’s professional learning opportunities – ‘Wee’ Wonder: Exploration of Everyday Materials for Infants and Continuous Professional Learning: Coffee and Conversations. It was evident that Erika has a passion for the early years and growing her practice to best support the children and families in her care. At the second event, Erika shared the story below and we immediately asked her if she would be willing to share with the larger community.

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My name is Erika Murray and I am a Registered Early Childhood Educator in the Infant Room at Little Lambs Daycare in Strathroy. I would like to share with you how Strive has impacted my professional growth and development and helped to enrich the relationships with our families and involve our families with our program.

I’ve been fascinated with the concept of loose parts and open-ended materials for a few years now and decided that researching loose parts would be an achievable goal for my CPL portfolio. The concept of loose parts and how they would integrate into meaningful play with infants, while being developmentally appropriate, was what I set out to research.

After attending the “Wee Wonders” workshop, it triggered my memory about the concept of heuristic play that is mentioned in the book Loose Parts 2: Inspiring Play with Infants and

Toddlers and it shifted my focus to that concept of conceptual learning and heuristic play. I had purchased the book as a means of research and development shortly after beginning to work with infants but had put it on the back burner. After some reflective thinking Tuesday night and through conversations with my colleagues, I decided to shift my research goal for my CPL portfolio to the idea of heuristic play for all age groups.

The “Wee Wonders” workshop sparked the fire for both myself and my teammate Alysha. We arrived to work the next day eager to put our learning into practice. Alysha had taken her starter kit from Jenn & Ally and filled it with items to begin our own treasure box! As we started collaborating ideas, we drafted up a newsletter for our families. We asked if they could help us develop a strong loose part supply by donating items to the centre. In the newsletter, we gave a list of example items we were looking for. We also decided to ask our Director Cristina if we could make a Loose Parts Drop Box in a central location in our facility that parents could leave their donations. So Cristina emailed our families the newsletter and within a few hours we received emails back inquiring about the items we were looking for. It was great to hear that our families were excited to help enrich our environment.

I personally and professionally would like to thank Strive for making opportunities for professional development in our community. I’m really excited to continue my professional growth as I move forward and can’t wait to see what the fall calendar will bring! Thank you so much for being such inspiring leaders in our community!

 Sincerest Regards,

Erika Murray, RECE

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We want to thank Erika for sharing her wonderful story and look forward to hearing how her professional growth continues to impact the children in her care.

QCCCC IS NOW STRIVE!

Strive is proud and honored to announce our rebranding. Formerly the Quality Child Care Coordinating Committee, or QCCCC, we launched our new name, logo, and tagline in October 2017. With this comes not only an exciting change, but also marks this transformative time in the Early Years sector. While our strategic plan has been in place since 2016, we have made gigantic strides towards our outcomes. Undergoing this rebranding is a major step not only for us, but for all Early Years and Child Care Professionals in the community.

Our new name, Strive, perfectly embodies what we aim to do. Early Years and Child Care Professionals in our community strive to provide quality care for all the children in their programs. We strive to embody and deliver a sense of belonging, well-being, engagement and expression – the four foundations of The Ministry of Educations’ How Does Learning Happen? Pedagogy – in all programs. We strive to do this through meaningful professional learning opportunities, networking meetings, mentoring, professional resources and community engagement that ultimately develop strong pedagogical leaders. This, in turn, contributes to our end goal of the best quality care for the children in our community.

With the help of the award winning design company adHOME, Strive’s new logo encompasses our past, present and future. It acknowledges our strong history with the five founding counties shown through the five main colours. It represents two people coming together collaboratively as well as a nod to the education element with an apple symbolized. The brush-like strokes are fluid and signify movement while also adding a whimsical childish element.

The rebranding of our new image, formally establishes our mission, vision and purpose. We are excited and energized by the transformation in our community and the sector as whole.

We want to take a moment to thank:  Our funder; City of London and Middlesex County Children’s Services, the members of the Advisory Committee, our backbone organization; Childreach, St Thomas – Elgin Social Services- Children’s Services, for your continued support, adHOME; for our brand and website development, as well as all of our partner organizations and community members.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As 2017 comes to an end, we want to thank all of our community partners for their ongoing support and dedication to the field of Early Childhood Education and to Strive.

2017 has been a monumental year for the growth of our profession and we look forward to what 2018 has in store. As always, we strive for nothing but the highest quality care for all children, the best professional learning for all educators, and continued collaboration with all community partners and friends.

Happy New Year!
From, Sheri, Darren and Ally