Teacher training, management training for day care centers and small to mid-size service agencies of all types, parenting, child development (infant toddler preschool prekindergarten kindergarten), presentations and keynote addresses
When planning curriculum for a week, teachers tend to have a few-word theme, such as summer fun or beach, and plan activities associated with that theme. Then they think of related learning that might be tied to the activities they've planned.
(This tip space contains the opinion of our founder - sometimes strong, sometimes controversial. We welcome your response at feedback@earlychildinfo.com ).
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We can help you by presenting workshops, presentations, staff development training, coaching on any of these or related topics:
We can help you by presenting parent workshops, presentations, staff development training, coaching for individual staff members and for individual
family members on any of these or related topics:
We can help you solve many problems relating to managing people by conducting workshops, presentations, staff training, and coaching on these and related topics:
We can help you solve many types of management problems, providing workshops and presentations, staff training and coaching on these and related topics:
Ms. Hofstetter Jaffe welcomes invitations to speak to groups, and to be your next keynote speaker
Some Past Presentations
Presenter and Leader
HILLTOP Early Childhood SERVICES, and our founder, Ellen Hofstetter Jaffe, in print! Prior Years
Do you have a question about a problem you are having? If so, send an email to feedback@earlychildinfo.com and we may make a tip from it!
We hear parents say, "He ALWAYS gets up early. Winter and summer, he's up at 6 AM." The same parents who say this in despair have successfully changed their child's internal clock twice in the previous year. How do I know? Because twice a year, OUR clocks change - to and from standard time.
When large scale disasters strike, everyone wants to turn on the tv to see what's going on. When there's a young child in the room, as soon as you can, TURN OFF THE TV.
Often the images and sounds of disaster are repeated every few minutes.
Applied to coloring activities, it's nearly the same. If the child can color within lines, and we give her a picture drawn by someone else, the activity tells her she doesn't have the skills to draw a picture good enough to please the adults in her life. If she cannot color within the lines, the activity reinforces the idea that she can neither draw nor color. This is inconsistent with all of the concepts inherent in early childhood education.
I gave my own children blank spiral notebooks as coloring books. It was easy to take along with us, and they enjoyed keeping a record of their work. Sometimes, they would say, I made this on the way to Grandma's house, or in the doctor's office waiting for my checkup.
When children are ready to fill in spaces, they draw spaces and fill them in. It's a predictable stage of drawing development.
The idea that you have to spend years getting a young child ready for this stage is as silly as giving a newborn a steak to practice eating with because by next year she will have teeth.
Some news needs to be shared IMMEDIATELY. How can you share center really important information fairly and speedily, so EVERY STAFF MEMBER is informed, and no one feels left out of the information "loop"? Some things happen when one shift has left or has not yet arrived at the center. If you are at the center, physically go to each room and write down the name of anyone who isn't present, even if they just left to use the ladies' room, and make sure you personally tell everyone on your list. Make sure that everyone who is not present gets a personal phone call. If you leave a message with a person, ask the name, and write it down. If you leave a machine message, write down the time you called and follow up the next day. If there is no answer and no machine, take the number home and keep calling until you get through, or at least 5 times. If you cannot get through that day, make sure to call first thing in the morning and say, "I tried you 5 times yesterday between 3 and 8. This is really important and I want you to know I tried hard to reach you. Is there another number for me to call the next time something important happens?"
In considering if our services are right for you or your organization, please take a moment to review some of our recent projects. Because some of our clients would rather not be publicly identified on the Internet, we have described them, rather than naming them.
We welcome your inquiries. For more information, please click here:
feedback@earlychildinfo.com
You can call us (Eastern time) at 718-997-6867
CLIENT DESCRIPTIONS AND PROJECTS:
PROJECTS DEVELOPED FOR CLIENTS:
Please return soon - See our new tips - submit some of your own. If we use one of your tips, of course, we will give you full credit for it. To submit a tip please click on this link: feedback@earlychildinfo.com
Prices for our services are quoted on request. Because we individualize our services, there is no chart of fees. But you will see that our fees are reasonable, and we give much value for them.
We welcome your feedback on any and all related topics. Please just click on the email link below.
Ellen Hofstetter Jaffe has been active in Early Childhood Education since the 60's.
She earned the Bachelor of Arts and the Master of Science in Education degrees from the Early Childhood Education department of Queens College of the City University of New York.
The only Early Childhood Ed major to minor in Home Economics, she melded education of young children to home and family from the start. Ellen raised four gifted children and has 6 grandchildren.
Her work history has included teaching in public and private elementary and preschools, directing positions in Head Start and private and publicly funded preschools, consulting to small and large programs, teaching education on the college level in the City University of New York, advocacy for high quality early childhood programs and for the children, families, and staff of these programs, grant writing, and speaking at conferences and forums.
If you are planning a conference and need a keynote speaker, look no further.
As a member of this group of highly experienced and respected Early Childhood professionals, she provided Creative Curriculum training to many programs (large and small, publicly supported, Head Start, and private) throughout the United States.
Ms. Jaffe has been a strong supporter of The Creative Curriculum for many years, and she continues to support concepts of The Creative Curriculum as she moves on with other consulting venues.
New York, NY
Several three day training series on understanding and implementing child-focused curriculum models
including Creative Curriculum and models in use by the New York City Department of Education in their Pre-K programs and the New York City’s Agency for Children’s Services in their Head Start and funded Day Care programs.
Series have been targeted to: Administrators of Child Care Preschool Level Programs, Teachers and Administrators of Infant/Toddler/Twos Child Care Programs, and Teachers in Preschool Programs
Queens, NY - Staff of four Homeless Shelters joined together for a full day seminar.
Topics included working with parents, individual differences, effective planning
Queens Village, NY – Workshops designed for Assistant Teachers to conform with the new Licensing Code requirements of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the licensing agency for child care programs in the City of New York.
Topics have included Child Growth and Development, Conducting a Physical Activity Program, and others.
Lake Tahoe, NV - August, 2007
6 Topics: Led Workshops on Management, Language, Center Relationships, and more
Chicago, IL - November, 2007
Topic: Towards a Climate of Change - A workshop for Directors and administrators
Clients' sites, New York City, NY
Topic: Intentional Use of Vocabulary Helps English Language Learners and Learning Disabled students.See corresponding "Tip" for more information.
Forest Hills, NY - Winter, 2006
Topic: Children, Homework, and Your Sanity
Detroit, MI - May, 2006
Topic: Survival Guide for the New Director
Washington, DC - December, 2005
Topic: Being "Too Nice" Can be Harmful to Your Center - A workshop for Directors and administrators
Providence, RI - September, 2005
Topic: Values and Early Childhood Education
Orlando, FL - Spring, 2005
Topic: Team Building/Overcoming Resistance to Change
New York, NY - Spring, 2005
Topic: Conflict Resolution Techniques
3 Full Days - one each month, March, April, and May, 2005 Seminar for Center Directors
Topic: Supervisory Strategies and Enhancing Communication with Staff
New York, NY - November, 2002
Topic: Teaching Values by Modeling the Behaviors We Want Children to Learn
Dallas, TX - December, 2002
Topic: Teaching Values to Young Chidlren
Nashville, TN - March, 2003
Topic: Survival Kit for New Directors
Saratoga Springs, NY - March, 2003
Topic: Working With "Difficult" Adults and/or Children Towards Positive Behavior Change
Anaheim, CA - November, 2001
Topic: Do Our Curriculum Activities Support or Undermine the Values We Want Young Chidlren to Learn?
"Strengthening Partnerships to Promote Quality and Accountablilty in Early Childhood Education"
New York State Education Department and the Office of New York City School and Community Services
New York City, January, 2002
Topic: Teaching Values By Daily Modeling and Responsible Curriculum Choices
St. Louis, MO, May, 2002
Topic: Successful Grant Writing
Buffalo, NY, May, 2002
Topic: Values and Early Childhood Education
Northwest Conference, East Hanover, NJ, May, 2002
Topic: Teaching Values by Daily Modeling and Responsible Curriculum Choices
Topic: Solving Classroom Management Problems by Re-Arranging the Classroom
Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York, Early Childhood Education Department
October and November, 2000 - two presentations each day
Topic: Teaching Values in the Early Childhood Curriculum
New York State Education Department Office of New York City School and Community Services
"Partnership for Early Childhood Education: Promoting Standards of Excellence"
New York City, January, 2001
Topic: Good Business Practices for Non-Profit Child Care Centers
New York State Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference
Syracuse, New York, May, 2001
To request more information about these and/or any other events in which our organization or our founder are present, please contact us at: feedback@earlychildinfo.com
January, 2005 - Lead Article
Topic: Time Management for Directors
Would you like to submit a tip of your own? If we use your tip, of course, we'll give you full credit for it. Send it to feedback@earlychildinfo.com and keep watching this space!
As you read any or all of these tips and think about it/them, please share your feedback about it with us at: feedback@earlychildinfo.com
How does it feel to be a child in your classroom? How many times can you hear someone (not you, of course, "someone else") yelling at a child, scolding a child, barking orders? Come here, sit down, put that away, etc. Try this: select an active child, and in 3 minutes' time, count how many times staff speaks kindlly to this child as part of a conversation and how many times the staff orders the child around. You may be very surprised. If you were that child, would you want to be in that room each day? If the answer is no, try a little kindness - in word, tone, volume, and mostly, attitude. I predict major positive change. If you try it, please email us to let us know how it worked out.
If you are the director, next time you visit a classroom, you can try the same exercise. If there are many orders, corrections, etc, you can just time the interval between encouraging comments. I once visited a program and counted 17 minutes between one staff member's positive comment and the next one - she was not silent for much of that time - the rest of her comments were commands. It was so very hard for me to sit there and not intervene! After I shared my findings, the director was able to work with the staff to create positive change.
If there are 16 children in the group and it's time to do a circle song or say, "Good Morning" or whatever is done or said by every child, at any one time, 15 children are NOT doing it or saying it. How can you still give the limelight to each child and minimize the boredom of the other children? By having 2 or 3 children do their thing at once! Shy children often find it easier to get up with a friend, or sing with a friend than to face the full group alone. If you have 2 children in the limelight at once, it halves the waiting time of the others; 3 children cut it by two thirds!
In a music class observed recently, the music teacher had half of the group be the performers and the other half be the audience (also called "clappers" - who clapped for the dancers to help them keep time). You can cut the circle time down, and get children into doing things so much more quickly this way. If you try it, please email us to let us know how it worked out.
As a consultant to many programs undergoing remodeling, renovations, or building new space for young children's learning spaces, I have seen many architectural drawings.
I have also seen beautiful spaces which are difficult to "live" in and work in on a daily basis. The center where all of the rooms opened to the outdoors and that had one adult coat closet
at the building's entrance. The center that had custom built windows without the screens mandated by the licensing code. The center with the diaper changing area with wall cabinets above
so the children and staff could bump their heads. The list goes on and on.
Yes, I've seen some well-designed spaces, and they are in the minority. The earlier my clients get me involved in the
design phase, the more money they save. The time to hire a consultant is when the ideas for use of space are being considered, not after the building is finished, or even after the plumbing is installed.
If you are thinking of a new space or changing your existing space, get some expert advice - NOW!
Particularly if you have any children for whom English is not their first language, please decide on the vocabulary you will use - for example, where do the children put the napkins they've used? In the garbage can, the can, the pail, the garbage pail, the garbage, the trash,
the trash can?
Can you see how this can be confusing for a child? After the children master the chosen term, they can learn other words for the same thing. But to start, please use one term at a time. The fewer words to learn for one piece of the day, the
easier it is to learn more words for other things.
Teachers can improve the behavior of most of the children in the class by focusing on the twins of space and time. When children have a hard time getting materials, or when they have to wait for someone to get the materials, they can
get into trouble. When they are not engaged in interesting activity, they engage themselves in other ways, most often not appropriate. So, when the room is arranged for easy use and time is arranged for easy flow of one planned activity
after another, there are many fewer opportunities for misbehavior, and there is more learning and more fun. This means careful planning of transitions - when children are finished with one activity, where will they go? Who will be the staff person
helping start the children in the next activity. Can they just go from one thing to another? Is the space arranged? Are the materials out? Can the cleaning of the tables from lunch wait until the children are down for their nap so the staff who usually cleans
can be helping the children get ready for nap? Pre-planning can solve so many daily problems!
Challenge: Make 1 change this week!
Visiting preschool classrooms lately, children have been observed sitting and waiting for things to happen. Waiting to be called, one by one, to pick which center they want to play in, waiting after meals to go to the bathroom down the hallway, waiting for everyone to come to circle so the story can start, waiting for everyone else to jump or clap or sing the good morning song or - well, you get the picture by now.
During this waiting time, I've heard teachers say "please sit down", "we don't hit our friends", "we will go soon - when everyone's ready", "come on it's time to go", etc.
Not only is most of the wait time a waste of the children's time, it's a waste of the teacher's time and energy as well. The less time the children spend waiting, the less time the teachers have to play police person. If you want to start an activity, don't wait for every child to be ready. Just start. If it's interesting, the others will come over and be part of it in a very short time. The children will be DOING and the teaching staff will be interacting with the children in meaningful conversation, and the stress level will be GREATLY reduced all around.
Try it!
When children ask us questions about serious issues or play out serious issues, please take it seriously. Please also don't pry. They may fear the consequences of telling an adult. If the play happens once, it may be a result of something they heard on television. If you hear it again, please speak to a professional for guidance in helping the child without making the problem worse.
Teaching values should be part of every activity, every day. The choice of curriculum activities should be a careful process, and only those activities which promote positive values should be selected.
If you visit a program where the literature and the director speak of the value of each individual child and you walk into the building and see displays of "art" that look the same, you know they value the project over the child's learning process and self respect.
If the curriculum doesn't support the stated mission of the program, either change the curriculum or change your involvement with the program.
If we can change a child's internal clock in October and April, we can do it any time of the year. It takes about a week or so to get the change to work. A one day try NEVER works. The keys are:
1) Don't expect more than an hour's change at a time.
2) Wake the child at the same time each morning for about a week.
Soon the child will automatically wake up at or near the target time every day. Of course, if the child is sick, she will need extra rest. If you keep the child out late, she may wake up at the same time anyway, but be VERY cranky. Or, she may wake up fine and get cranky later.
PLEASE also remember to slightly adjust meal times for the first week of a clock change.
The Center Director tries to help the teacher handle a problem. After much staff input and discussion, she calls in the parent to dicsuss it, and respectfully points out specifics and suggests further evaluation.
The parent goes to the pediatrician, who has seen the child for a few minutes at check up time and when the child is sick. Most of the time, the parent is told, "She (or he) will grow out of it."
When I helped to train pediatricians in child development, residents spent a few hours weekly for a month in a child care center, with real children who were neither severely disabled nor horribly sick.
Each of them reacted in the same words, "It was unbelievable." They were at the end of their residency, already treating patients, and had never been with typically developing children.
They didn't know the children could walk, talk, interact, throw, jump, like that - and these children ranged from mainstream children who were getting special early intervention services and therapies to the gifted.
Lately, several conversations have pointed to the same problem. All pediatricians have access to growth and development charts. Why do so few of them read them???
The Center Director is like a professional juggler. Picture the center director - she (and most of them are women) is at the center of it all, is expected to know and do everything about and for everyone, smile all the time, and be helpful, but not too helpful, because that would be controlling.
She is supposed to please board members, staff, parents, and children, do it NOW! and be a positive voice in the community, and most of the time, she pulls it all off! If you know a center director who deserves some praise - PLEASE - TELL HER TODAY! I'm sure she doesn't ever get enough positive feedback.
You can send us her name and email address, and we will send her a special email to let her know she is appreciated. You can tell us a little bit about her and the center she runs and if we get enough of them, we can list them in a special place on this website. Just click the feedback link and write to us! Of course, if your director is male, please tell us about him!
Even when the problems you are facing are not at the magnitude of tv coverage, please try not to talk about what is happening when young chidren are present.
CHILDREN HAVE EARS! Even when you think they are just talking to each other, their little antennae are up and working overtime. This is not only true now, but every time something major is happening in your family, your school, and in your immediate world.
In the days and weeks to come, we can be certain that rumors will spread. PLEASE, PLEASE watch what you say when you are in the same room as a young child!
When I was young, my mother tried hard not to talk about various family and world events in front of me. If someone should start the conversation, she would say, LITTLE PITCHERS HAVE BIG EARS.
Since my father and uncles were baseball fans, I never knew why my mother was suddenly talking about baseball players, but as soon as she said that, the conversation would change.
I was older when I found out she wasn't talking about baseball at all, but about the kind of pitchers you pour from. Then, I didn't understand why she was talking about ears on pitchers, since everyone knows you pour from a handle.
Well, how much difference is there between the shape of a pitcher handle and an ear after all????
The important part of the story is that the adults had a code for not talking about certain topics in the presence of children - and for the most part, it worked.
Why is speech the first step towards literacy? Because words come first! The best way you can help the baby go from random sounds to speech is to make the sounds back to the baby. The slowly learns that these sounds are a kind of communication. Then the baby begins to learn that certain sounds make the adults happier - like ma or da, and learns to repeat these sounds. Hooray! We are on the way to speech! The next time you feel foolish going ga-ga at a baby, remember, you are teaching a valuable lesson.
I do a lot of grant writing and I offer workshops on this topic. Recently, I was asked to review and revise a completed grant application that was at least 3 times larger than the maximum in the Request For Proposals (RFP).
The applicant had worked hard. Making the necessary compromises to keep their ideas and delete most of their words would have been much more time consuming and more emotionally difficult for the client than if they had met with me, given me information, and hired me to do the application.
My number one suggestion in workshops and to clients is simple: READ the RFP carefully, and follow the rules set by the grantor. Stated simply, "Whoever has the money gets to make the rules. To get the money, play by the rules." This means that if they want 3 pages and you send them 23 pages, don't expect to get your funding. Similarly, if they want financial statements and you send them a letter from the bank saying you do great things for the community, you are also unlikely to get your funding. The number 1 reason for turning away grant applications is failure to follow the guidelines.
Using any sort of tracing, ditto sheets to color in, or coloring books with young children is NOT developmentally appropriate.
When I was in college, a professor told me the children should never use dittos and never trace someone else's 'art'. After I saw a project where the children traced things and seemed quite happy about it, I asked her about it. I have quoted Dr. Lucille Perryman for nearly 35 years:
If the child can make it, there's no purpose for tracing it. If the child can't make it, having to trace it reinforces the idea that she can't do it. Either way, there's no reason to give this activity to a child.
Suggestion: Emphasize the sharing and multicultural nature of Thanksgiving, and the shared meal. Please think before you have the children make arts and crafts projects depicting live turkeys.
The only food we personify and then eat is the turkey. Would you ever think of saying, "We are eating hamburgers for lunch today. Hamburgers are made from beef. Let's moo, and sing songs about cows and steers and about how they want to run away before the farmer gets them, and we can make pictures of them, and then eat."
I suggest that to a young child, who is used to animals talking in stories, showing the turkey as the focus of thanksgiving sends the wrong message.
To a young child, the scariest part of getting into a costume is putting something on or over the face. Masks, head coverings, and the like are responsible for most of the crying at costume time. Try painting the face with washable face paint - and please, don't take a long time making a masterpiece that will be quickly rubbed off.
All of the projects we have done for our clients are tailored directly to the client's needs. Just as no two children are exactly alike, neither are our clients copies of each other. While we have created outlines for workshops to several groups,
each presentation is tailored specifically to the client.
Here is a list of some of the types of problems we have helped our clients solve:
We hope you enjoyed your visit to our site.
96-11 65 Road, Suite 114
Rego Park, NY 11374
Here it is! HILLTOP Early Childhood SERVICES has never sold anything except services!
Now - for the first time - Our popular Weekly Reporting Form To Families is available for license!
For a limited time, you can purchase the rights to use this form.
Fill in your own class information, make as many copies as you need for the families of your class, and use it again next week, and next week, and next week.......
Why do you need this form? Because parents always want to know what's going on in their child's school and reporting often is really lots of work.
This form, developed over time, allows you to spend less than 15 minutes a week reporting the major details of the week to families in a convenient and timely manner. Fill in most of the form on Thursday, spend a few minutes adding Friday to the form during nap time, make copies and send the form to the families
on Friday afternoon with all the art or other projects that go home at the end of the week.
Payment is easy and convenient through PayPal's secure connection.
Centers report that when recruiting new families, use of this form has made the difference towards enrollment for many families.
This small investment pays for itself many times over in good will. Payment is easy via PayPal. Order today!
Take advantage of our special three-tiered pricing .
For an individual class, pay only $10
For two to five classrooms, pay only $25
For more than 5 classrooms, pay only $75.
Modified 2008 by HILLTOP Early Childhood SERVICES
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