Our programs
Iowa AEYC offers a variety of programs to help early childhood professionals build their skills and provide high quality education for young children.
The latest from Iowa AEYC
TRIVIA TIME!
We’re continuing on with the celebration of the 10-year anniversary of WAGE$!
✨This week’s question: how many total people do you think have received a WAGE$ check over the last 10 years?
A) 1,798 (react 👍)
B) 2,092 (react ❤️)
C) 2,510 (react 😲)
D) 2,893 (react 🤗)
We’ll post the real number in the comments in the days to come!
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GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement, unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. Iowa AEYC is proud to take part in this day of generosity, which is coming up in just over two weeks!
As we prepare for this big day of giving, we wanted to highlight one of the big ways we carry out our mission: our professional development opportunities. Opportunities like the Spring and Fall Institutes not only help early care and education professionals learn about important practices that can improve the quality of their programs, but they also provide the chance to develop and honor leaders in the field.
Iowa AEYC is committed to offering scholarships to attend these events, but we can’t do it without generous donors like you! Please join us in making a difference in the lives of educators and young children this GivingTuesday.
Image: photo of participants at the 2024 Fall Institute.
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Our fourth Fall Institute award winner is Rachel Miller! Rachel received the Emerging Leader award for her work at Bill Reagan Children’s Center in Iowa City. Here’s what her nominators said about her:
“Rachel was new to teaching as a whole, and had only been in child care 9 months before taking on her position as a Lead Teacher. Part of what has made her an excellent teacher has been her ability to maintain the humility that she started with. She is always asking questions to get a better grasp on teaching, early childhood education, and caring for children as a whole. She has and continues to utilize all work relationships to make sure she is serving her students to the best of her ability. She is always seeking out ways to implement more leadership and advocacy in her role, and has been an active collaborator in fundraising and staff retention efforts. She takes Lead staff meetings as an opportunity to advocate for her staff and students, rather than herself, and makes all decisions with the wellbeing of the children at the center of her mind. She is loved so deeply by all for her commitment to being any and everything her students could need from her.”
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Very much deserved; hopeful inspiration to many others.
Congratulations, Rachel!
As GivingTuesday quickly approaches, we want you to be well-informed when it comes to the work that we do here at Iowa AEYC. Beyond the work that our amazing programs and events do, Iowa AEYC is greatly involved in advocacy efforts for the early care and education profession.
Between our involvement with the Iowa Child Care Coalition, our Advocacy Professional Engagement Group, and various advocacy events throughout the year, we prioritize advocating for long-term, sustainable solutions for the child care crisis.
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Not only did we have multiple staff and Governing Board members attend the NAEYC Annual Conference last week, there were also almost 30 attendees from Iowa! Our team had a great time – here were some highlights from our Executive Specialist, Wendy Mosdal:
"I really enjoyed my first NAEYC Conference. The sessions were informative, as well as interactive. It was also nice meeting so many of the NAEYC staff in person after working with them the past 2 years. The bonus was building connections with others outside of the conference time."
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TRIVIA TIME!
As many of you know, we are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of WAGE$! So, for the next few weeks, we have a few trivia questions to test your knowledge of the WAGE$ program and the results we’ve had over the last 10 years.
✨This week’s question: how many children do you think have been positively impacted by WAGE$ participants?
A) 28,045 (react 👍)
B) 32,674 (react ❤️)
C) 35,579 (react 😲)
D) 36,834 (react 🤗)
We’ll post the real number in the comments in the days to come!
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Iowa AEYC is proud to serve early care and education professionals from all sectors, from centers to schools and homes to Head Starts. Check out our mission and vision, which guide all the work that we do!
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The wait is over… announcing the 2025 Day at the Capitol!
Join the Iowa Child Care Coalition on February 12, 2025 from 7-9 a.m. to discuss important child care issues with lawmakers. We want YOU to join us – the more voices, the better!
Bring your ECE story along with you – whether that is about compensation, benefits, retention, CCA, or other struggles and successes you’ve had as an ECE professional, we want to hear it all!
More information will be sent out in the coming months – until then, get ready to make your voice heard!
Iowa AEYC is proud to be a member of the Iowa Child Care Coalition, which was formed to more strategically address Iowa’s child care crisis. The Coalition, through nonpartisan legislative recommendations, seeks to increase access, affordability, and quality of child care while increasing the stability of the child care workforce across Iowa.
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Wanting to go back to school for early childhood but aren’t sure how to afford it? We have the program for you!
T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Iowa is a scholarship program for the early care and education workforce that pays for a significant portion of your tuition and books, in addition to many other benefits. For eligibility requirements, just check out our website!
The deadline to apply for a T.E.A.C.H. scholarship for the spring semester is coming up quickly – November 15th! Be sure to go to our website and fill out an application soon to get in on this amazing opportunity.
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Tania Robinson
In just under a month, Iowa AEYC is proud to participate in one of the biggest generosity movements of the year: GivingTuesday!
GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Over the past 11 years, this idea has grown into a year-round global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity. Generosity gives everyone the power to make a positive change in the lives of others and is a fundamental human value anyone can act on.
Mark your calendars for December 3rd – and get ready to get generous!
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If you haven’t done it yet, make sure you get out and VOTE today! Making your voice heard, especially in regards to early childhood education, is extremely important.
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Just as we encourage professional development in the early childhood field, so too we engage in professional development as staff at Iowa AEYC!
Nearly half of our staff have attended a professional development conference in the last few weeks – here’s who went to what conference (in photo order):
• One of our WAGE$ Counselors and our Events Coordinator attended the local Women Lead Change conference, where they were empowered as women in the workforce.
• The CDA® team attended the Early Educators Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. Lisa Hajek, one of our CDA Navigators and conference attendees, said this about her experience: “This was my first year attending the annual conference and I was not disappointed, with the amount of preparation, information, and networking that I was able to obtain. Knowing how others are helping center and home provider staff obtain their CDA is a great way to help grow our organization.”
• The ECQuIP team, along with three ECQuIP center directors, attended the Elevate Conscious Discipline Conference in Las Vegas to learn more about Conscious Discipline and its many use cases and benefits.
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I so would love to attend one of the Consious Discipline conferences someday! So glad to see so many attended!
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