State of the School

BJ
by Brittany Johns4 views·Updated Apr 19, 2021
Re-use contentCreate your own

Chapters

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated

  1. Hi, my name is Britney Johns and I'm a lead
  2. infant teacher at the Acorn school and I'm here to
  3. tell you a little bit about what we have to
  4. offer. Before we get started, I'd like to tell you
  5. a little bit about how the Acorn school originated.
  6. The Acorn school is part of the vulnerable child and
  7. family center.
  8. The mission of the Vanderbilt Child and Family Center is
  9. to provide support and resources to the community of Vanderbilt
  10. families across the spectrum of life as reflected in our
  11. provision of new parents support, early childhood education, family life
  12. resources and elder care support V.
  13. C. F.
  14. C. Values and university's commitment to the education of the
  15. whole person and cultivation of life.
  16. Long learning a brief history at the Vanderbilt Child and
  17. Family Center.
  18. The Vanderbilt Child and Family Center was founded over 35
  19. years ago by parent advocates that utilize the Women's Center
  20. as a platform to organize a childcare task force as
  21. documented in the Women's view.
  22. The newsletter produced by the Women's Center from 1978 to
  23. 2000 and nine.
  24. A brief timeline of the history of early childhood care
  25. and the education of at Vanderbilt includes In March 1981,
  26. Nancy Ransom, the first director of the women's center, writes
  27. about the need for a childcare center.
  28. In April 1982, the Vandal community is invited to meet
  29. with the Board of Trust to talk about child care.
  30. November 1982, the Child Childcare Task Force gives their recommendations.
  31. In June 1983, University staff council discussed plans for childcare,
  32. including mentioned for a fee based on family income.
  33. September 1983.
  34. Childcare Center opens off Edgehill Avenue.
  35. Yeah, yeah.
  36. Vanderbilt Child and Family Center grew from one child care
  37. center location to five serving over 500 Children with license
  38. program for Children ages six weeks through six years.
  39. From 2010 to 2014 v.
  40. CFC expanded its scope of services to include providing resources,
  41. referrals and events that support topics related to family life,
  42. new parents and elder care, June 2018 V.
  43. CFC transition two of the five childcare centers to the
  44. Vanderbilt University Medical Center Management for the sole use of
  45. its employees to aid in this transition and minimize disruption
  46. to enroll V.
  47. Um See families.
  48. A service level agreement was established to provide 100 and
  49. 32 enrollment spots for Children of the um see families
  50. at B.
  51. C. F.
  52. C. Three remaining centers for a two year period in
  53. july of 2020 V.
  54. CFCs three childcare centers prioritize enrollment for university families with
  55. release of 132 slots, thereby greatly reducing the V.
  56. You wait list.
  57. It is my pleasure to tell you that for the
  58. year 2021 to 2022 there are no Children currently on
  59. the wait list.
  60. V CFC recognizes the critical need for quality early child
  61. care and education in the national area and is researching
  62. facility opportunities to further expand on capacity as a way
  63. to meet families current and anticipated needs.
  64. The activities are detailed in the v.
  65. c. f.
  66. c. Advisory Task Force April 2019 report.
  67. Now some of you may be wondering what is the
  68. advisory task force?
  69. The Vanderbilt?
  70. Child and Family Centres Advisory task force was established to
  71. assess the current programs, resources and services provided by the
  72. Child and Family Center and to research the changing and
  73. complex needs of working families at Vanderbilt to understand and
  74. recommend how the department can respond appropriately.
  75. The advisory task force composition of faculty and staff and
  76. staff exemplifies successful interdepartmental collaboration stakeholder representation included, be CFC
  77. staff, the office of the provost and Administration.
  78. Mm Now I'd like to tell you a little bit
  79. more about the Acorn School.
  80. The Acorn School's mission is a commitment to innovative teaching
  81. in early childhood education and is founded upon a vision
  82. of Children as capable and competent citizens of the world,
  83. possessing an infinite capacity for wonder and discovery.
  84. Mhm Yeah.
  85. The Acorn School philosophy provides a whole child mind, body
  86. and spirit approach to early childhood care and education inspired
  87. by social constructivist systems, the systems thinking theories including the
  88. works of john Dewey, john P.
  89. J. Levendosky, Howard Gardner and Loris Malagasy educators know that
  90. Children's conceptual understandings emerged through their engagement through the world.
  91. Yeah, yeah.
  92. The Acorn School's curriculum, Teaching practice reflects the research based
  93. understanding that play is essential to Children's health and well
  94. being and foundational to Children's learning emergent curriculum is framed
  95. by teachers and reflects their observation of the play schemas
  96. of Children, demonstrating that activities responsive to Children's interests provide
  97. meaningful learning opportunities.
  98. The Acorn School emergent curriculum is featured in the Early
  99. childhood Success video series produced by the heirs Institute for
  100. for Teacher Learning and Innovation at Lipscomb University.
  101. There are four separate programs involved in the Acorn School,
  102. the infant program where adults have influence over and responsibility
  103. for Children's developing self concept by the way they engage
  104. with speak to and respond to Children.
  105. The toddler program is where young learners, newly mobile are
  106. excited to explore the world with all five senses.
  107. With gentle coaching from nurturing teachers, Children learn to manage
  108. big feelings and engage successfully with peers.
  109. The twos program, all humans want to feel respect and
  110. self worth and a sense of belonging, which occurs in
  111. coordination with primary routines, classroom activities and the design of
  112. the learning environment.
  113. Preschool by perceiving Children as curious, competent and capable of
  114. self control and honoring their interests and needs.
  115. Adults will enable Children to solve problems responding to others
  116. with kindness and empathy.
  117. No, the teachers, the teachers are some of the most
  118. important people that you will interact with at the Acorn
  119. school. They are your first and last meetings of the
  120. day. Yeah.
  121. Teachers implement developmentally appropriate curriculum and activities according to Nace
  122. e guidelines, dont licensing standards and sent her policy.
  123. They maintain a clean, safe, orderly classroom environment which contributes
  124. to the physical, emotional, social and cognitive growth of Children.
  125. The assess, prepare plans and curriculum based on Children's individual
  126. needs and levels of development.
  127. They participate in and contribute to staff meetings, parent meetings,
  128. conferences, and opportunities for professional development.
  129. Speaking of professional development teachers participate in 20 hours of
  130. professional developmental training each year.
  131. Sure parent partnership.
  132. The Acorn School recognizes the pivotal role parents play in
  133. their child's education, honoring the parent as the child's first
  134. teacher. Through consistent and respectful, verbal and written communication, parents
  135. and early childhood educators strengthen their relationship united to support
  136. a shared understanding of the unique child.
  137. Different parent partnership opportunities are the teacher meet and greets
  138. at the beginning of each school year, family potlucks after
  139. the school year has begun parent teacher conferences which happened
  140. twice a year in the fall and in the spring
  141. week of the young child, which happens in april of
  142. each year.
  143. The V.
  144. C. F.
  145. C. Family newsletter, which I believe is a quarterly newsletter
  146. presented by our director, Kathleen Seybolt parenting programs and parent
  147. lunch and learns which has been a new series each
  148. year each quarter.
  149. Yeah. Right.
  150. Yeah, Yeah.
  151. Different outside partnerships that the Vanderbilt Child and Family Center
  152. has utilized sustained Bu the Margaret Cunningham Women's Center, the
  153. Blair School at Vanderbilt University, nash Diaper Bank than the
  154. national breastfeed coalition.
  155. The Vanderbilt Child and Family Center is constantly maintaining outside
  156. partnerships to utilize different resources.
  157. Two to support the Acorn school.
  158. If you are interested in following along and engaging with
  159. the acorn school, you can connect with them on instagram
  160. twitter and facebook.
  161. Thank you so much for following along.
  162. I hope you enjoyed my presentation and what the Acorn
  163. school has to offer and I hope that it is
  164. a resource for you in the future.