Observing and Interacting With Professionals, Children, and Families in an Early Childhood Setting Name: Shante Elliott Date: 5-11-2012 Name of Program/Setting: KinderCare Learning Center Who I spoke with: Christine What I learned about … During my 2 weeks I observe red, interacted, and me liked to the director of the program, Christine. Christine was very attentive to the parents and the children. She addresses them all by name and had brief conversation with each and every one of them. I asked Christine how she felt about assessments and how important was assessing children in her program. She told me that she believed assessments were a very important part of their program and she tries hard to make sure the teachers know how to assess children accurately. I then asked her how she made sure her teachers know how to accurately assess children. She said that she holds in-service meetings twice a year to go over how to accurately assess children. She went on to tell me that she wishes that there was an easier way to teach the teachers, especially the new ones. She told me that because the in-services, held only twice a year, were informative but not all the teachers are there or some teachers just don’t grasp the whole picture of assessments. Christine also shared with me that her staff and she try to get the community involved with her program. She said she has parent involvement activities once a month. These activities include open house, parents’ night out, shopping nights, and holiday activities. I went on to talk to Christine about ways I could possibly be of assistance in helping with training her teachers on assessing. She was happy to hear I wanted to help and welcomed me to share my ideas with her. I told her that I want to come up with a way to get together a computer program and package that goes through the process of assessments to them. The quote I want to share this week is from my talking to Christine. She said, “Building a repoire with families is the most important part of my job.”