Seeking Texas Rising Star Recertification
The Executive Director’s Update provides an overview of the Texas Rising Star certification as Becky Gates Children’s Center prepares for a recertification this year. The assessment process is broken into 4 categories and those include: director and staff qualifications and training, teacher-child interactions, program administration, and indoor and outdoor environments.
As you might expect, teacher-child interactions carry the heaviest weight. Measures in this category relate to the group size, teacher/ child ratio, and quality of interactions between teachers and children in the classroom. Assessors will visit each classroom, and teachers will be rated on measures that demonstrate a warm and responsive style, language facilitation and support, play-based interactions and guidance, support for children’s regulation, and instructional formats and approaches to learning.
Warm and responsive style includes creating a warm, safe, and nurturing environment, and using frequent, positive nonverbal behaviors such as smiling often, sitting at the child’s level, allowing the children to sit near or with the teacher, and using reassuring touch. Teachers should be patient and relaxed and respond promptly and sensitively to children’s cognitive and affective signals.
Language facilitation and support includes the use of positive verbal responses and encouragement to provide reinforcement of positive behavior, communicating with children throughout the day, and the use of descriptive language. Teachers should provide children with frequent opportunities to talk with teachers and to respond to questions. Engaging in back-and-forth conversations, expanding on children’s understanding or initiation by elaborating on what children say or draw, and modeling language for children.
Play-based interactions and guidance are evident when caregivers create opportunities for children to make-believe and make choices based on their own interests. It is supported when teachers participate and expand on play initiated by children to reinforce language, ideas, and social development. Providing opportunities for children’s social interaction with peers should be observed.
Child: “Look, I made downtown Austin. We went to downtown Austin to eat. I saw plane 222. We were in a big house and played.”
Support for children’s regulation can be seen when teachers model or encourage emotional expression by allowing children to express their feelings, labeling feelings, and making connections between actions and emotional reactions for children. Children should be given short explanations to help them understand their feelings. Teachers should explain logical consequences for behaviors. Consistently implementing rules and routines supports self-regulation. Caregivers assist children in their communications and interactions with peers including resolving conflicts, speaking respectfully, and expanding on each other’s play ideas. Opportunities are provided for children to assist with routines and procedures that build self-help skills.
Instructional formats and approaches to learning are evident when there is a balance of teacher- and child-initiated daily activities. Routines and transition times should be used as opportunities for incidental learning and should be planned to avoid frequent disruption of the children’s activities. New concepts should be used in different learning contexts throughout the day. Instructional planning results from both a formal and informal child progress monitoring tool.
A review of requirements for Congnia accreditation and training for accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children and occurring concurrently with preparations for Texas Rising Star recertification. Needless to say, our program is going through a thorough review. We are excited to share the results.
Staff Highlight
Please join us in introducing Tricia Salamanca, our temporary co-teacher in the Century Tree classroom! Tricia will be working alongside Ms. Yessenia while Mrs. Zuleika is on maternity leave. We’re excited to have her and know she’ll be a great fit!
Tricia joined the BGCC team as a teaching assistant in September 2023 and is excited for this new opportunity. She is focused on bringing positive energy to the classroom, caring for the children, and keeping their daily routines steady and familiar. Tricia is eager to learn new teaching techniques and experience being a co-teacher.
Tricia is currently studying early childhood education at Blinn College and plans to apply to Texas A&M University soon. After she graduates, she hopes to become a kindergarten teacher and, one day, move into a leadership role in education. Tricia has always known she wanted to be a teacher because she loves helping others. She chose early childhood education because it allows her to support children as they grow and become their best selves. Tricia believes that early childhood education is essential because it helps shape young minds and guides children as they develop into the people they will become.
We’re happy to have Tricia in the Century Tree classroom and look forward to the great things she’ll accomplish!
Staff Highlight
Please help us welcome Cameryn Talpas, our new temporary co-teacher who will be working alongside Mrs. Elaine in the Spirit of Aggieland classroom! Cameryn is joining BGCC for the first time this semester, and we are excited to have her with us.
Cameryn graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in Psychology. Before joining us, she worked as a preschool teacher in California for two years and then as a registered behavior technician. Cameryn is eager to continue working with children of all abilities and is looking forward to learning more along the way. Her long-term goal is to earn her PhD in clinical psychology.
Her passion for early education started at a young age when she began helping care for her godson, who was diagnosed with Autism. This experience sparked her love for working with children. Cameryn believes that early childhood education plays a vital role in a child’s development. She plans to continue the same quality care as Ms. Daisy did in the classroom and wants to support every child and family. Cameryn also values building strong relationships with parents and wants them to feel comfortable reaching out to her for anything.
We are so excited to have Cameryn as part of our team and can’t wait to see the positive impact she’ll make on our classroom this semester!
