Just for teachers

This is a special page for Creative Minds teachers only. Please bookmark it because it’s not accessible from our homepage. Here you will find:

  • Essential licensing forms to fill out and submit for joining the Creative Minds team
  • Great resources for understanding Reggio
  • Legally required trainings for all teachers
  • Child development courses/units everyone has to have on their transcripts
  • Permit information if you want to apply, renew, or upgrade your Child Development permit

 

Essential Licensing Forms To Fill Out And Submit Before Joining Creative Minds

 

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Reggio & RIE Resources

Understanding what Reggio is all about:

  • A good overview of the Reggio principles
  • Another good basic introduction to the ideas of Reggio
  • Wikipedia’s page is more wordy but includes some of the history of Reggio too
  • Inspired by Reggio Emilia, a fabulous description of an Arizona school’s emergent curriculum experience, helpful to learn how a project can evolve and what “provocations” look like instead of direct instruction
  • Thinking Big, a great video about one school’s emergent curriculum project, helpful to see how much they trust their kids’ capabilities
  • An outstanding video from a Reggio infant/toddler program in Georgia

Understanding what RIE is all about:

International Reggio organizations:

  • Reggio Children, the official website from Reggio Emilia in Italy
  • NAREA, the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance

Trainings & Resources

  • ITP, the Innovative Teacher Project, has weekend workshops and other great events. Their trainings tend to fill up quickly, so sign up as soon as you see something you like
  • Other good ECE articles & resources NAEYC has a resource page with lots of articles

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Legally Required Trainings for All Teachers

CPR/First Aid Certification

Everyone is required to maintain current CPR/AED/First Aid certification that includes adults, children, and infants. You have to renew it every 2 years. Most of our teachers go to Choices for Children because they tailor the class for early childhood education so it’s much more interesting. They’re usually all-day Saturday trainings held at their new location in Morgan Hill. See their event calendar and look for “CPR/FA for Child Care Providers.”

If you choose to go elsewhere, it has to be the Red Cross, the American Heart Association, or a provider that gives you EMSA stickers on your card at the end.

Mandated Reporter Training

http://childcare.mandatedreporterca.com

The State of California requires this certification for every adult working in child care. Read through the lessons, take the little quizzes, and print your certificate at the end or email it to Jennifer to print at school. This gets renewed every 2 years. (Even if you took a course on child abuse prevention or covered this in your other classes, they require that everyone complete this specific training and print the certificate for your file every 2 years.)

YouTube Videos

These are one-time trainings to watch as soon as you can. They take about an hour total. See Jennifer for the sign-off sheet after you’ve watched them all.

(1) EpiPens for allergies (direct link):

(2) Inhalers for asthma (direct link):

(3) Nebulizer for more serious asthma (direct link):

(4) OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens (direct link):

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Child Development Classes

State licensing requires child care teachers to have certain courses and a certain number of units on our transcripts.

For starters, you need 12 semester units (18 quarter units) including these specific classes:

  • Child Growth & Development
  • Child, Family, Community
  • A curriculum class (either Intro to Curriculum or a specific subject, such as “Art for Young Children” or “Music & Movement” or “Language & Literacy”)
  • Infant & Toddler Development (3 semester units or 4 quarter units)

We also highly recommend:

  • Child Health, Safety, and Nutrition (If you don’t take this class, you do need to take a 15-hour Preventative Health & Safety training certification somewhere else. This is different from the CPR/First Aid training.)
  • Supervision & Administration
  • Other courses depending on your interest and situation (see Jennifer or your college advisor for more detailed plans)

You can take these online or in person at any college. Here are some schools to try:

Any California community college that offers the course you need is fine. (If you want to pay more, any CSU, UC, or accredited private or out-of-state university is fine too.)

Here is a searchable list of the online child development courses offered by all the California community colleges. The list is based on the colleges’ catalogs, not their course schedules, so it won’t tell you which courses are actually offered this semester. It just helps you see which schools even offer the course you need so you can check their website to see if they have it right now.

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Child Development Permits

If you’re interested in getting a permit or renewing/upgrading your current permit, here are some helpful links:

  • The Child Development Training Consortium (CDTC) has answers to many of your questions, people who will help review your transcripts, and (if you’re lucky) funding to help pay for the permit.
  • This matrix shows all the levels of permits available and all the different ways you can qualify for each one. Each one requires a combination of child development classes and on-the-job experience.
  • Permits are issued by the State of California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The official website is here.
  • Information about the renewal process and professional growth hours is here.

You’re required to have a “professional growth advisor” who can help you plan out your ongoing professional development hours. You need a certain number of these hours every five years in order to renew your permit. There are lots of ways to get them. Jennifer is qualified to serve as your professional growth advisor, or you can ask one of your college professors. Many of them serve as well.

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