ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

World Teachers’ Day is a UNESCO initiative held annually on October 5 to celebrate all teachers around the globe.

Early care and education professionals use many descriptions for themselves: educator, family child care provider, early care and education teacher…and the list goes on. But whether or not the word “teacher” appears in our title, at the heart of the work, and what binds together each person who in any way works with or for children aged birth through eight, is an inspiring intersection of education and care. Carol Garboden Murray addresses the wonderful combination of these key aspects of our work in her beloved book, Illuminating Care. Celebration of that work is very much in order, on October 5, and also on every other day throughout the year.

World Teachers’ Day calls us forward to a strong focus on solidarity and teamwork with others in our field, both people we work with on a regular basis, and colleagues we may see only occasionally.

Margie Carter, in the book Developing People in Early Childhood Organizations, describes her work with directors and teachers who ask for help in strengthening staff teamwork. She explains that when she is “working with programs to build strong teams and the ability to collaborate, I focus on recognizing key indicators that can be found in a program.”??

These are the indicators of teamwork Carter looks for:
• Clear Communications
• Respectful Interactions and Demonstrations of Trust
• Using Conflicts to Discover and Negotiate Perspectives
• Building on Each Other’s Ideas and Strengths
• Reliability and Responsibility

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