Early childhood educators often ask: What can I do to stay involved?
It is critical that early childhood educators are engaged, informed advocates for early childhood education. See Standard 6A, p. 27, in NAEYC’s Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators.
Here are key ways to engage with and enrich our collective work to advance early childhood education as a profession in Vermont:
Learn and reflect:
- Read the Unifying Framework.
- Read Discussion Drafts and Consensus Documents.
- Participate in professional development.
- Take each survey and offer honest feedback.
- Subscribe to the VTAEYC newsletter to receive timely updates and offerings.
Commit to consensus:
Vermont’s Task Force incorporates statewide workforce feedback and publishes a Consensus Document for each section of the framework. As Consensus Documents roll out, practice changing your own language and behaviors to reflect these agreements. We need to model our expectations in order to change the language, assumptions and behaviors of others.
- Professional Identity: Practice using the language “early childhood educator” and “early childhood education.”
Share and amplify:
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.- Share posts with your programs, networks, groups, families, and communities.
- Use the hashtag #VTECEProfession, and tag @vtaeyc.
- In an ongoing project, we are building a materials kit: you may download and share items in here to help spread the word.
- Occasionally, we’ll ask you to contact legislators or community leaders, or to attend rallies and events.
- Finally, our partners in advocacy and systems building, including Let’s Grow Kids and the LGK Action Network, Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance (VECAA), and Building Bright Futures, also have lots of opportunities to learn, engage and advocate as we work together to advance. We frequently share these opportunities in our newsletters.
