One of the best parts of my job is sharing success stories of our students, faculty and staff. During convocation last week ECE Faculty member Dr. Darius Kalvaitis told me about a recent wonderful professional development activity our ECE and CDC staff and faculty participated in that I want to share with the college community.  Below is the summary of the activity that Dr. Kalvaitis wrote. I am sure you'll find it inspirational and motivating.

On Wednesday August 24 the Child Development Center (CDC) in conjunction with the Early Childhood Education (ECE) program and the California Early Childhood Mentor Program participated in a local training at the CDC on Developing Mentoring and Coaching Relationships in Early Education and Care. Author and Professor Marilyn Chu from Western Washington University provided the daylong training to 18 participants. CDC Director Wendy Jones said, “The mentoring workshop was organized to bring more vision to the CDC and on campus; even though we may not be participating in the faculty flex days, we are still doing training here at the Child Development Center and preparing for a semester. This training also supports the ongoing collaboration between the Child of Development Center and the Early Childhood Education Program as well as the Mentor Program.” ECE Faculty Member Dr. Darius Kalvaitis reflected, “The social science and research based mentoring practices that Dr. Chu brought to this training will support and improve the way we communicate, collaborate and should transfer into the CR Early Childhood Education students that we serve.” Teachers like Patti Nyberg appreciated a great day of learning and shared “I really like the model that Dr. Chu used where you have the focused observation, the reflection and then the feedback. It's a cycle and it's a continuum and just remembering to trust that process and remembering to take time to reflect and share and use the feedback”. We are grateful to Dr. Marilyn Chu that as the Fall 2016 semester begins we are ready to model relationship-based professional development while facilitating learning and results using a cycle of inquiry for the ECE Community and students at the College of the Redwoods.