A Little About Our Teachers

Teaching with Care

Quality care during the early years of any child’s life are critical in building the foundation for learning, health, and wellness needed in school and in life. During the years between birth and age 5, the brain is developing rapidly. This development is influenced by the experiences shared with family, teachers, and peers. During the early years, the stage is set for the successes they will experience in life. Making it crucial that early experiences truly foster social/emotional and behavioral health. Every staff member at Mother Goose Children’s Academy is passionate about your child's happiness, growth, and development. They are dedicated to our families and to providing a safe, nurturing environment that cultivates self-esteem and independence. Our Staff is adequately trained, supported, and prepared to help all children excel. This is a key strategy in our guiding principles and continuous improvement policy ensure that qualified professionals are using best practices to cultivate an atmosphere of fairness, acceptance, and diversity in understanding experiential differences.

We work together to build greater capacity in teachers and staff to deliver the highest quality early learning experiences in a setting that offers rich interactions. Interactions of trial and error. Interactions that allow failure because we believe that failure is necessary on the road to success. For those who are not failing…are not attempting to do something new. Here are some examples of how we create an environment for each child to experience success in all areas of growth and development - Literacy, Mathematics, Engineering, Science, and the Arts - and at every age:

• Engaging and Fluid Conversations
• Encourage Exploration through Hands-On Experiences
• Create Learning Opportunities of Discovery – In Learning, More is Caught than Taught
• Support Students in Play-Acting Real Life
• Provide Print-Rich Environments that Support Reading Readiness
• Incorporate Picture Books with relevant themes into the Block Center to Encourage Connecting Stories to Buildings/Sculptures
• Utilize Manipulatives to Expand Possibilities
• Ask Open-Ended Questions to Stretch Active Thought
• Use board games like Chutes and Ladders and card games like Uno to Practice Discrete Skills like One-to-One Correspondence, Patterning, Patience, and the Cooperative Skill of Taking Turns
• Partner and Work with families to provide support with helpful at-home resources, and in gathering materials that represent home cultures that can be incorporated into classrooms and lessons

Small Class Size

Our Teacher-to-Student ratios allow teachers to focus on the individual learning style and needs of each child in our center. On a daily basis we incorporate whole group, small group, and individualized instruction. Ratios are an important influence on the quality and educational effectiveness of preschool programs. Smaller classes and appropriate ratios are better for young children, allowing more individual attention, reducing the time and effort devoted to classroom management, and reducing the number of stressful interactions. Let’s consider what research has discovered about the relationship of class size to preschool children’s experiences and outcomes:

“Teaching young children requires immense energy and relentless attention. When there are fewer children in the room, the teacher has more time to devote to each child, and managing the group requires less teacher time. As a result, teachers have opportunities to have longer conversations with each child. Teachers also have more time to observe each child’s interests and activities so they can develop lesson plans that respond to individual children’s learning styles, strengths and weaknesses.” From Preschool Policy Matters - Issue 9 / December 2004 article “Class Size: What’s the Best Fit?”

• Infants 1:4
• Toddlers 1:5
• Twos 1:8

• Preschoolers 1:10

Partnering with Families

The Mother Goose family of educators want to form a strong partnership with you to ensure the best possible experience for your child. Our teachers provide daily communication with families and seek to understand your unique needs. Some of our forms of communication includes monthly newsletters, daily face-to-face interactions, telephone calls, home visits, quarterly parent teacher conferences, and a text service. We also offer family focused opportunities for You to Get Involved in Center Decision Making:

• Parent Committees
• Policy Council
• Parent workshops

Highly Trained Early Childhood Teachers

Mother Goose Children’s Academy devotes time and resources to teacher training. Twice a year we host a School-Wide early childhood teacher training programs. During these trainings, the Center is closed for teachers to attend. These trainings focus on health and safety mandates, new curriculum trainings, refreshers on how to enhance the environment to cultivate optimal learning, and so much more. Our Early Childhood Partners make these trainings beneficial and supportive. We also have an Instruction Coach on staff who works with our teachers on continuous growth in the field of Early Childhood Education. Our teachers are dedicated to developing your child's potential and are sensitive to your child's individual needs!

Silver Circle of Quality

Mother Goose Children’s Academy holds the ExceleRate Illinois Silver Circle of Quality! The Silver Circle of Quality Award recognizes completion of a rigorous self-assessment and implementation of a continuous quality improvement process, as verified by a state-approved assessor. Silver Circle programs meet or exceed specific quality benchmarks on learning environment and instructional quality, along with selected program administrative standards; staff qualifications; and professional development.