As a director what will be the best component of using the 3 sides of triangle framework?

After reading this chapter and doing the triangle practice for 2 scenarios, I came to realize that it is really hard for most people, especially a first time director who lacks experience to be a balanced director right of the bat. Such a director would require talent coupled with tremendous patience and vision.

After reflecting on the triangle practice, I can say that it was the greatest challenge for many people, especially for a person with limited language such as myself. Personally, I feel that if you have never had prior experience being a director or any type of leadership position before, I can guarantee that it will be a huge challenge for anyone. As we all know that different people have different personality and it is really hard to learn how to recognize other people's temper and personality, especially when you are new to the environment.

Personally, I think some strategies in triangle framework will work with some people but some strategies won’t work well. How can we learn to recognize other people's ability and temper? This is a trait that I need to focus and improve on. I also found that some part of the triangle framework could be applied to teachers as well especially the coaching and mentoring and building and supporting community aspect of it. However, I feel that managing and overseeing is more difficult because I sometimes can’t see thing in different perspective and it might lead to conflict and I am too shy to take the lead as well.

How can a new director step the foot into their new workplace environment smoothly?

Scenario 1: New director dilemma

What issues are raised from each side of the triangle by this situation?

          Managing and Overseeing: Mary Beth and Katrina seem to be testing the new director by ignoring her suggestions and encourage other teachers to do the same. The worst part is talking behind the director’s back and not being cooperative and reactive to the director, which is not right. There is no respect for the director at all. They are also trying to make other teacher do the same thing just like them. Personally, I think this is a really big issue and can affect others. As we can see how disrespectful these 2 teachers are to you as director, and it begs the question. Do they do the same to parents, too?

          Coaching and Mentoring: The teachers are not using different strategies and activities in the classroom that the director is mentioning. When the director suggested new ideas, she was let down by these 2 teachers. This makes the teachers look very bad in my opinion, because they are not respectful of their director. Even though they have been at the program for eight years and have always worked together and feel comfortable where they are they forget one critical reality in early childhood education. And that is how things are always changing and evolving in childhood education. As a teacher, we still go to workshops as well as training classes to get more knowledge of new ways of working in classrooms in certain areas.

          Building and Supporting Community: The fact that the teachers have worked in the program for many years, they should know that different group of children requires different strategies, activities, and environment to match their interests. New suggestions by the director might ultimately help the children improve in many different areas. By focusing on just one curriculum, in this case, art related curriculum children maybe missing out on science, music, math, or other engaging activities that may improve children in other areas. Another downside to this scenario is it creates enmity between teachers and the director. In the end, the children will be most affected.

What strategies from each side might you use to address the issues?

          After reading the three ways to respond to this scenario, I think this would be a difficult situation for me to deal with because I don’t like telling people what to do, but its also really hard for me to ignore something that I think should be changed or improved.

          Managing and Overseeing: I think it may be hard to come into a program as a new director, especially if it's your first time in the position. If I were the director I would keep doing my part as what the director should do. I would hold meetings regularly to talk about the new curriculum and changes in the program. At the same time, I would also want to gain advice from the experienced staff as well and I think the staff will feel appreciated and important.

         Coaching and Mentoring: As the director, I would allow staff to voice their opinions and take in consideration what they say and how they feel about things, but I would also want them to do the same. Personally, I would let the staff know that I am there for them, if they need advice or want to talk about certain things. Showing respect for one another is something I would do as well.

         Building and Supporting Community: As the director, I would provide or ask staff to attend the workshops that will help them to gain new idea and knowledge of early childhood education. I would provide some community events for families to come in and learn more and get to know more about the program. At the same time the staff will have more opportunities to come out and get to know more about each other and learn about the community they work in.

Scenario 2: Messing with Michael

What issues are raised from each side of the triangle by this situation?

          Managing and Overseeing: Environments that neat and organized is a requirement when working with young children. As we all know that unorganized and messy classroom can become a safety hazard issue especially when you start to smell rotten food that is a sign that show your classroom really needs cleaning because rotting food can attract bugs or ants and will cause really bad smell when it has mold. This is a big issue because this is the first thing the parents see and smell when entering the center. Personally, messy and dirty classroom or environment can lead to negative aspect to the parents of the children and can interfere with clarifying professional standards as well.

          Coaching and Mentoring: Michael has very strong ideas about how he wants to run his classroom because he explains his reason about his cubbies strategy and his philosophy. However, This issue may cause some conflict for the director and the teacher because the cleanliness and organization may also interfere his personal philosophy. Personally, I think he seems like a very good teacher, but he just disorganized. But he also has to understand the impact this decision has made on the center especially in terms of cleanliness because these impacts has affect on children, parents and other staff who he is working with.

          Building and Supporting Community: A messy classroom is some the issue that affect everyone because it will be safety issue for children, unattractive for families and irritation to staff member. Personally, this messy entrance is not exactly welcoming to family members to come in at all. It could also make family transfer their child to different school.

What strategies from each side might you use to address the issues?

          Managing and Overseeing: As a director I would tell Michael that I understand his wonderful philosophy about giving children responsibility to make decisions on their own and that is the good learning for children. But at the same time you need to understand that as a teacher we need to keep the classroom and environment to be clean and safe for children. So you might need to adjust your way of teaching and organizing your classroom. By helping children learn how to be responsible with the stuff in their cubbies and how to keep them clean will help encouraged children about personal responsibility as well and that might appear to be a better look for your classroom.

          Coaching and Mentoring: I want everyone to feel important and tread them with the respect. So I will discuss with teacher about why keeping his classroom clean in private. I will also explain about the impacts of having disorganized classroom and environment that will affect the children, children’s families, staff member and himself.

          Building and Supporting Community: At the meetings, I would let all the teachers know why it is important to keep their classrooms clean by cleaning, sanitizing, and organizing the classroom. Especially, when families or accreditation come in a messy and disorganized classroom will turn them off.

What is the balance in the director role?

           Directors are typically responsible for a preschool or childcare center's administrative duties. This often includes managing staff, as well as handling and establishing the center's goals, curriculum and daily routine. They also meet with prospective children and their families, and make sure the center and its staff meets required licensing regulations and safety standards. Personally, I feel like directors have a lot on their hands. I don’t even know how my life would be if I become a director. I might experience lack of sleep or something of that sort. I believe that if we get into the point that we understand all the process of what we are doing and why we are doing it I think it would be easier to get through these duties. However, we have to maintain an understanding towards other people in our workplace such as staff, families and children. It is really hard to work with a lot of people at one time because as we know different people have different idea and would lead to conflict. So, it is up to the director to maintain control so things won’t get out of hand. How can a director balance all of these roles? Is it possible that a director focuses more on one responsibility than others? What is the best way a director can balance his/her duties? According to “The Visionary Director” the image of a triangle to represent the framework that they believe that each side of everyone management work is of equal importance. These are 3 side of the framework: 1. Managing and overseeing. 2. Coaching and mentoring. 3. Building and supporting community. A good director must possess all of these skills and implement them in real life work.

For the sake of young children: Are we as one of the foundation of early childhood education ready to dream big and dream aloud?

The statement that will describe me the best is “My vision for our program goes far beyond what is typically discussed in our professional literature. I have big dreams and am willing to work to achieve them” Personally, I would always see myself as a visionary who is willing to take a risk when I have a chance. I believe that the more I dream the more I will inspire myself to create new ideas. At the same time, the more I try the more chance for me to realize my dreams. I am not afraid of falling but I am afraid that I would miss a chance of learning how to fall and learning how to get myself together and bring myself up again. At the same time I always think that every single experience and things that pass by in my life are like steps on a ladder that will take me to higher opportunities.

In my real life, I don’t have my own program, yet but I wish I could have just one chance to try to run my own program. Even though I never see myself as a director, of course, I would always like to dream big and dream aloud. Personally, I already had a dream of being a director of my own program in my home country, Thailand. I know for sure that if I have an opportunity I will be able to do it because I don’t have any language barrier. I can just speak and express whatever is in my mind to those people there and I am quite sure that some people there would always have faith in me.

My purpose and vision for my own program will be creating a safe and fulfilling environment that is filled with fun, joy and warmth where children and family will earn trust and respect from us. I will use my knowledge that I have learned over here to create the program that will adapt to my native culture and beliefs. I really love to introduce all kinds of hands-on experience for young Thai generations to explore the world through nature and native materials in different perspective than the other Thai childcare programs normally offer.

However, I still wonder if my dream will ever be realized. How can I work toward reaching my goal? Will my dream collapse if and when I am confronted with obstacles? How can I maintain my dream and pursue it?

Why do many people still not taking early childhood education seriously?

            Is it because many of early childhood educators are females? Is it because some people still think that anyone can easily take over the role of an early childhood educator? What is the difference between an educator and a babysitter?

Today many people in our society seem to pay a little bit more attention to early childhood education, as we can see that there are more childcare programs and preschools. There are more families who enroll their children in childcare center or preschool. There are more people who pursue their dream as early childhood educators. Yet, why do they still struggle and still don’t get much support to be successful as other educational fields, or other jobs?

While I was studying in my general classes in college, several of my friends asked me what was my major. When I told them that I was majoring in Early Childhood Education, some of them asked me if I liked to play with children. Some of them complemented that it would be a best career match for me because I was a woman. But some of them told me that I should switch to higher education filed, such as kindergarten or elementary school teacher. Some of them even started to question if I cared about my future income, as they knew that I might end up in a low pay work. However, the worst question was that they asked me why did I have to study to become a “babysitter”. I was so surprised and confused about how some people were so ignorant about what Early Childhood Education entailed and how come some people didn’t care much about the early stage of human life.

Personally, I think that the early childhood stage of all human being is the most important part of development. It is the first start where children develop themselves physically and mentally based on the environment they are in and the people they interact with every single day. I now totally understand why many people still don’t take what we do seriously as they do other jobs but I just want people see and think more clearly about the difference we make in children’s lives everyday.

            How can we let others know the difference between an educator and a non-educator? How can we show the importance of what we do to the society? How can we make other people believe in our abilities and take our roles as educators more seriously?

Has early childhood program become too standardized?

Does anyone still remember their purpose in choosing to become an early childhood educator?

If you do, what was that purpose?

Are you striving to fulfill that purpose? or are you just winging it by by just following established rules and regulations just to look good on paper?

Does too much standards impede the growth of creativity and imagination?

We are often entangled in our daily routines and activities that we may forget our true intention as to why we wanted to be an early childhood educator in the first place. With due dates to be met, and guidelines to be followed it is easy to forget our vision and dream. We are constantly dictated by regulations and rules that we forget how to act according to our best interests for the children. We may or may not agree with the established rules but we know we must follow them. This does not mean that we cannot do more than what the rule has established. We must take that extra step to be different, put in extra effort to be unique and encourage change so that we maybe reminded that we are not doing this to meet standards but to meet each child's need.