Philosophy, Mission, and Vision Role-Play

PART A: 300 WORDS MINIMUM

No need to give me a cover page.

Initial posts should address each part of the prompt. When a prompt has several parts, please restate each part in bold, and then answer each part with its own 5-7 sentence paragraph. 300 word-responses would be an appropriate guideline.
Initial posts should be mostly your ideas, with a citation or two from the weekly reading. It is not ok to copy/paste huge amounts of text from other sources and submit it as your ideas. Write using your own ideas and then support your ideas with cited research (Author, Year) to make them stronger. When you include a quote, always follow it with your own concluding thought. Clearly connect to the point you are trying to make with your research.
Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Chapter 1 in your textbook. Additionally, review the following websites and web pages that show examples of organizations’ philosophies:

· Queen Emma Preschool: Andrew’s School About Us
· The School District of Lee County: Early Childhood Learning Center
· ABC Preschool Mission and Philosophy
· Tender Care Learning Center: Why Tender Care
According to Gadikowski (2013), “The vision and mission statements of an early childhood program often reflect the organization’s philosophy, that is, its beliefs about how children best learn and develop” (Section 1.4).

Imagine you have just been hired as the leader of a new ECE program. Your first task is to develop the philosophy, vision, and mission for the program. To assist you with this task, first evaluate the philosophy, vision, and mission using Table 1.1 “Philosophy, Vision, and Mission as Administrative Tools” in your textbook for the provided schools above. Then, choose two of the schools and complete the following table:

Website 1

(choose from the list above)
Website 2

(choose from the list above)
Identify the strengths of this organization’s philosophy, vision and mission.

Discuss areas for improvement of this organization’s philosophy and mission in your opinion.

After completing the table, develop a draft of your philosophy, vision, and mission for your new childcare center. Be sure to include what you have learned from the text and from your evaluations to help shape your ideas. You will build on this later in the course, as well as throughout your degree program. Your discussion post should be at least 300 words in length. Please be sure to cite the two schools you choose within your post and provide corresponding reference entries.

Part B: This is a discussion response to each student. Please don’t summarize their thoughts but have a reply to what they have written. If you don’t understand the instructions, please contact me.

Guided Response: After reviewing several of your classmates’ posts, respond to at least three peers by respectfully evaluating the philosophy, vision, and mission statements they created. Offer them two strengths of their draft, as well as two suggestions for improvement.

Student 1 – Kim – 80 words response

Lee County, Early Childhood Learning Services
Tender Care Learning Center
Strengths of this organization’s philosophy, Vision, and Mission.
Strengths of this organizations Philosophy, Vision, and Mission
1. School readiness. 2. Helping children to grow to their potential, 3. Teaching Social-emotional skills, and physical skills
1. Offer a nationally recognized curriculum. 2. Preparing children for lifelong learning. 3. Highly quality Services.
Things that needed to be improved in my opinion. I think that this learning services center is very well written and I do not feel they need to improve anything.
Things that needed to be improved in my opinion. I think this center needs to be more specific on what curriculum they use. Describe how they are going to prepare them. What services they are using.
My philosophy: Offering activities to prepare the children to get prepared for entering Kindergarten. Focussing on Social-Emotional Skills and Problem Solving. Increasing their knowledge of letters and their sounds, numbers, and their quantities through educational activities in the classrooms with highly educated teachers. I feel that this is a good Philosophy, it is very similar to the Early Childhood Services of Lee Counties, it is direct and specific.Philosophy should be about the beliefs on how children learn best. (Gadzikowski, A. (20)13)

When making a mission statement you should think about what you would like to accomplish in your program and it should be written so all can understand. (Gadzikowski, A. (2013). I feel that both Lee County Early Learning Services and Tender Care states exactly what they wanted to accomplish. Both very similar. MY Vision Statment: At KimberKare it is to be the highly recommended and accredited pre-school/ CHildcare program that will prepare the children for KIndergarten and many more years of education.

A mission statement answers the three W’s. Why your program exists, What your program does, and Who it serves. Both Lee County Early Childhood Education Services and Tender Care both service the same aged children and achieving school readiness.

My Mission Statement: To prepare each child with a strong foundation for school readiness so they can reach their highest potential.

Resources:

Student 2 – Cec – 85 words response

ABC Preschool Mission and Philosophy
Tender Care Learning Center
Identify the strengths of this organization’s philosophy, vision and mission.
Children are given activities that are developmentally appropriate. School achieved accreditation by the NAEYC. Teachers are highly trained in early childhood development.
Certified teacher training beyond normal requirements

Quality child care for all children
Discuss areas for improvement of this organization’s philosophy and mission in your opinion.
The school could list more ideas about parental involvement.
The statement needs to discuss how the center will meet the developmental needs of the children. Parental involvement needs to be discussed.

Define the goals of the child’s learning.

Philosophy

When children are in a safe and loving environment, they will feel safe to learn and grow. The best way to learn and grow is to offer hands-on and interesting activities. Children learn by doing developmentally appropriate activities. Using centers and one-on-one activities will enable children to learn and grow.

Mission

My mission statement is to help each child learn and grow through play. When children learn through play, they will develop a desire to learn.

Vision

My vision would be for every child to develop a love of learning through developmentally appropriate practices. The teachers will ensure that a child feels safe while in the classroom. The teacher will treat each child as an individual to promote learning. The teacher and the families will also work together to help the children meet their learning goals

.Our Mission and Vision – Tender Care Learning Centers (earlyeducationpros.org) (Links to an external site.)
ABC preschool www.abidingbranches.org/school-life

Student 3 – Jess – 85 words response

St. Andrew’s Schools

https://www.standrewsschools.org/about-us (Links to an external site.)
ABC Preschool

https://www.abidingbranches.org/school-life (Links to an external site.)
Identify the strengths of this organization’s philosophy, vision and mission.
Their mission and vision clearly describe how they started and what they hope to continue to do.
Clearly describes their theory on how children learn best (through caring, safe, and flexible environment), who they serve, and what they do (mission and philosophy) (ABC Preschool, n.d.)
Discuss areas for improvement of this organization’s philosophy and mission in your opinion.
Their philosophy statement does not include their theory on how children learn best. It only includes how they believe all children can learn and how they learn through teachers (St. Andrew’s Schools, n.d.)
Does not have a clear vision statement. They should add what they see as their best possible outcome.

A draft of my personal philosophy, vision, and mission statements for my new center:
Philosophy

According to our text, a program’s philosophy describes their belief of how children learn and grow best (Gadzikowski, 2013). My program’s philosophy is that young children learn best in a caring and safe environment through hands-on activities that scaffold upon their knowledge.

Vision

A vision statement describes the best possible outcome for the program (Gadzikowski, 2013). My program’s vision statement is to foster a love for learning in all children. When we foster a love for learning we create life-long learners who can make a positive impact on our world.

Mission

A mission statement describes why the organization exists, who it serves, and what it does (Gadzikowski, 2013). My program exists to provide high quality education to young children ages 3-5 years old, by using developmentally appropriate and evidence based teaching strategies.

References

ABC Preschool. (n.d.). ABC Preschool Mission and Philosophy (Links to an external site.). Retrieved https://www.abidingbranches.org/school-life