Last night I had the great opportunity to present for Penn Foster’s Early Childhood Webinar series on a topic very close to me, How to Recruit, Hire, Train, and Retain the Right Person for the Job. For those of you who didn’t have a chance to see this presentation in the past, this presentation goes over what tactics you need to know as someone working in early childhood education when employing your staff. I am so grateful to the Penn Foster community and Nancy Moretti for allowing me to speak in such a great arena. Those of you who attended, I appreciated your questions and I hope you learned a lot of things you can apply back to your work.
Guest Post – Why Millennials Aren’t Awful
Starting with this article, I’m beginning a series highlighting each generation in the workforce. With this first one, highlighting Millennials, I have a guest writer that is very close to me and also a Millennial, DJ Bond. Having his Bachelors in English and his MBA concentrating in Marketing, DJ currently manages social media content and designs publications.
Why Millennials Aren’t Awful
By DJ Bond
So I’ve heard a lot about my generation over the course of a few years. Ever since the term “millennial” came out to describe people born between 1980-1997, I’ve heard it used more as a negative term than ever as a positive. People mistake Millennials strength for flightiness or a hipster trend, but the real strengths come from the lessons that Millennials learned from their parents and what life they want.
Millennials Multitask Like It’s Their Job
Everyone hates multitasking Millennials but you can blame computers and video games for that. Every Millennial that is texting, listening to music, and writing an email at the same time was taught this way. One of the most common misconceptions out there is that multitasking means you aren’t paying attention. I was at a seminar where the speaker called me out while I tried to schedule social media posts for my job saying, “ok Mr. Millennial, l know you can multitask but let’s not distract everyone else”. Not only did I automatically disconnect from the speaker, but I felt like they only saw me for my generation and didn’t try to know me. Many studies have shown that things like doodling actually help you to retain information better, so don’t assume multitasking means they don’t care. Multitasking isn’t for every situation, but for smaller tasks that can be tedious, this keeps people motivated to finish the task.
Millennials are not Workaholics
I think a common trend in the business world in the past was the idea of the workaholic. The people with their Blackberries who sent their work email at 9:00pm during their child’s soccer game, which prompts a phone call at 11:00pm with their boss about the 8:00am meeting tomorrow. Millennials are not about that life. Now don’t mistake that for laziness, Millennials are known to give more time and effort on the job if it’s not forced, but Millennials value social time with family and friends more than work.
Millennials Want It All
Does anyone remember those participation trophies that people started getting to make everyone feel like a winner? Well that’s how Millennials feel. We were told that we can do anything if we put our minds to it and the crazy thing is that we believed it. As a result, Millennials will not like jobs where they don’t feel appreciated. Millennials want to hit their goals, which means that they are going to find ways to work more efficiently, especially using technology, and take advantage of professional development opportunities.
Millennials are not Focused on Money
Millennials are not running to companies paying the highest rate. They are looking for jobs that are doing things that they believe in and have good work/life balances. Millennials will leave jobs, taking pay cuts for jobs at companies that offer these things. Many employers are shocked by this, but it means that their core values are more important to them and they don’t want to be miserable for money.
Overall, many of the generalizations about each generation are just that. Generalizations. Each individual person is unique, which means that not everyone is going to fit the profile of a Millennial or Baby Boomer or whatever generation you speak of. So make sure you don’t paste your judgements of one person onto another because you assumed that was a generational trait.
Multigenerational Teamwork Handout
Recently, I presented at the MiAEYC Professional Development Institute on a topic that is very relevant to the workplace currently. My presentation was called “Building a Stronger Workforce Through Multigenerational Teamwork”. I had an great time presenting and all of the participants were awesome! I appreciate how great of an audience I had and how creative their skits on good and bad examples of multigenerational teamwork were.
I have here my handout from the conference for anyone to take a look at. If you missed the conference or can’t find your handout, feel free and read through the tips on this.
Arrange Your Classroom to Eliminate Blind Spots
A blind spot is any area in the classroom where you are unable to see the children from every vantage point. You should be able to see the children from a standing or sitting position. When blind spots are removed you are able observe all of the children no matter if they are playing in an area, at the table, or sitting on the floor.
To check for blind spots: you should walk around the classroom and observed all areas from different vantage points. This will determine if you have any blind spots or potential area for blind spots. When reviewing the classroom for blind spots you have to remember that children will go into small spaces to hide. The classroom should be checked for blind spots when you originally set-up, when you rearrange the developmental area, and periodically to ensure that there are not any blind spots.
The Advantages
The advantage of eliminating blind spots within the classroom is that you can always observe the children. This will allow you to always know through observation what is going on in the classroom.
Never having to tell a parent that you did not know or observe what happened to their child when the receive an injury at the center.
You can see how the children are interacting with each other.
You have developmental areas that allow the children can flow through freely without any restrictions.
The Disadvantages
The disadvantage of blind spots within the classroom is that you cannot always observe the children. You will not always know what the children are doing in classroom.
Children have been injured at the center in blind spots and the staff will not know how the child was injured.
Children have engaged in inappropriate behavior unnoticed in the classroom.
Children have engaged in inappropriate touching.
Staff have been inappropriate with children in the classroom. Having cameras in the classroom may help but reducing blind spots to start is even better.
Staff tend to be inappropriate with the children in the area where they know others cannot observe their behavior.
Children can be left unattended in the classroom because the staff could not see them and they left the classroom thinking that it was empty. This is also true of the outdoor playground area.
Therefore, eliminating blind spots within your classroom will create a safer environment for all of the children and a higher level of comfort for the parents. I can assure you that the last thing that any parent wants to hear when their child has an injury is that the staff has no idea what happened. Overall, parents will maintain a higher level of comfort at a center when staff are able to communicate how their child was injured. Remember that as soon as a parent’s comfort level is broken as it relates to trust in the center, they will start looking for another child care facility for their child.
How Can We Keep Children Safe?
We watched in horror as a child was pulled around like a ragdoll by a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. The world was shocked. Some were shocked because the child was in the gorilla exhibit, some were shocked because they felt that the child was not being supervised by their parents, some were shocked because the zoo killed the gorilla, some were even shocked because the child did not sustain any life threatening injuries.
After the shock comes the blame. I will let others place blame. This is not to say that I don’t have an opinion. I would just rather examine ways to prevent this and other situations from occurring where children can be injured.
There was a situation last week were a school age child was left at the zoo by his school. These situations have occurred far too often and as a result, we need to better educate parents and teachers to protect the children that are in their care. How can and should we do things better to keep our children safe? If you can ask anyone, they would say that they want to keep children safe but what will they do to keep them safe? The saying is true that “it takes a whole village to raise a child.” We as a society have strayed away from the idea of watching out for our children.
Communication
Positive communication is needed rather than acts of judgement to keep our children safe. When you see a child in a potentially dangerous situation, say something. We all have a responsibility to help in situations when needed.
Unattended Children
Children should not be left alone in a car or public area for any reason because it leaves them in a vulnerable state. If you see a child wandering unattended, contact the police and stay with the child in one area until the police arrive. You want to stay in the same area to make it easier for the child to be located. Remember that it is harder to find a moving object. Stay in a safe place unless the police have you change locations. If the parents or caregiver show up to retrieve the child, release them and inform the police. The reason that you want to follow-up with the police is because this could be an isolated incident or it could be a pattern and the child could be in danger due to lack of supervision. Let to authorities make the final decision.
Watch Children
Parents and caregivers have to keep their eyes out for children at all times. If you have a child that you are responsible for, make sure that you watch them and communicate with them at all times. This sounds simple but it really does work. Younger children should be placed in strollers or wagons to contain them. Older children should never be in charge of younger children in crowded areas. An older child watching a younger child is not a good idea especially if the younger child has not developed their listening skills. Recognizing your child’s perpensity for certain behavior will be the best way to keep them safe.
Listening Skills
If you have a child that does not listen, do not take them to areas where there are large crowds, as they increase the probability that they could get lost. Children that have not developed proper listening skills should be taken to places with small crowds. This will reduce the chances of them becoming overstimulated and potentially wandering off. You will know that the child has developed their listening skills when you can ask them to follow directions without repeating yourself multiple times. There are certain situations where you will have to ask children more than once, like to pick up their toys or to stop running inside. There are other things that you should be able to say once and the child will listen. These things are: do not touch that, stay with me, and hold my hand. These and others are instructions that can be told to a child with developed listening skills once. Let’s all do our part to keep the jewels of the earth safe and happy.