1.1 The people I frequently interact with would include, my students, my parents, my co-workers, my director, and other peers such as my professors, classmates, friends, and family. I also interact with different employees of different agencies such as doctors, dentist, speech therapist, councilors, DHS, and several vendors. Communication is an important key in order to make all these different branches come together to better serve our children and their families.
1.2 I feel that the information provided in the conversation covered everything in the communication plan. The issue was addressed, a solution was provided, and acceptance was requested. I think that this is a great plan, it shows your concern for the problem as well as the need to correct it . Also if it is followed through, it builds respect and trust.
1.3a I visualize the business I work for as a great program to the communities in which they are located in. I work for Head Start, in which many of them offer daycare services as well. I think its great for the community because it offers many advantages for the children and their families that the parents may not be able to provide at all times.
1.3b Head Start is a free service offered to the children who's families meet the income guidelines, however those centers that offer childcare the rates are very low. The whole purpose is to be beneficial to the low income families, so are rates are normally close to half of what you would pay any where else. Although Head Start is free it still offers advantages to the families. Head Start students receive free dental, vision, and hearing screenings, speech therapy when needed, and all school supplies and field trip fees are provided by the center. The children and families also receive food donations when needed and at holidays.
1.3c Yes, the center is academically oriented. For Head Start there are folders kept on each child, this folder is started at the beginning of the year or the day the child enrolled. To start the folder the child is given a LAP-D assessment to determine where the child is developmentally, then the test is repeated every 3 months and recorded and compared to show progress or areas where help is needed. There is also a weekly lesson plan and some things are pulled from the LAP-D test and put on the lesson plan to help children improve in areas.
1.3d At my center we follow the policies and procedures that are set for the entire Community Action Agency, there is one for teachers and there is also a different one for are parents. And of course we follow the DHS regulations as well. There are also a few rules that are set in place by each director so some centers may have rules that others don't.
There are many programs that we use throughout are agency. We are currently on the Food program, OKC Lending Library program, Foster/Grandparent program and the AARP program. We are also in conjunction with the Oklahoma Housing Authority, Oklahoma City and Edmond Public Schools because some of are centers are in there buildings.
The equipment used at our centers would be the kits that are to implement our curriculum. We are currently using Saxton Math and LAP-D, and for our younger children in the childcare rooms they use The Creative Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers. These curriculums have been in use for a long time there and they seem to be a good fit.
1.3e I would say the strengths of are center would all have to do with what we offer to the low income families of the community. We offer many resources to our families as well as services. I also feel that each center is based upon the needs of the community, like the locations and the hours.
1.3f There are a number of things my center could improve on, one being smaller class sizes and less clutter because are classrooms are so small its not enough space. I think the agency as a whole could improve on making longevity of staff a priority. I say this because they transfer you around from center to center, but its not the people that are working directly with the families that make these senseless decisions. I wish they would put more thought into the importance of stability with children. I also feel that being such a large agency at some point the feelings of your workers should be considered, like doing a survey maybe. And last but not least, there is a serious lack of professionalism in upper management, some training wouldn't be a bad idea.
