Blog
By TanyaSlehria, Communications Intern, and Jennifer Gioia, Communications Manager,Early Years
May 8, 2020, is National Child Care ProviderAppreciation Day, a day to recognize child care providers, teachers, and othereducators of young children everywhere. Join Early Years in giving thanks to those whodedicate themselves every day to educating and caring for our youngestchildren. Especially now during COVID-19, they deserve more than just ourthanks.
Child care providers are essential workers. COVID-19 has left them to operate in extreme circumstances while providing safe and loving care to the children of other essential workers. Please consider giving to the Early Years COVID-19 Relief Fund launched in partnership with Smart Start to help child care programs in North Carolina either continue operating during this pandemic or be able to reopen once it’s safe again.
With your help, child care providers like MaryLewis can continue to do what they love—teaching.
Mary[1] says “just watching children learn” is what she loves most about teaching. “Being able to adapt lesson plans on their level and teach them the way they need to learn, not the way I want to teach. Finding what works best for them on the individual level.”
Mary has been the director of the Children’sCenter of First Baptist in Cary, N.C. for four years and just recentlycompleted her Bachelor’s degree in December. “I have applied to UNC-G for themaster’s program. I’m hoping to go all the way. I’m hoping to get a doctorate,”Mary said.
For Mary, her background sparked her career inearly childhood education. “I grew up as a foster child and I’ve always lookedfor a way to advocate for children,” she said. As a director, Mary says she can“connect with [students] on all levels instead of just a few in the classroom.”
Her transition to teaching future teachersbegan with her desire to “see some changes in the early childhood collegecurriculum so [teachers] can be more prepared when we step in and be ready togo.” She says a change in curriculum can help teach future teachers “how tohandle behavior issues [and] different things I feel like maybe we’re missingout on now in the current college curriculum.”
Mary’s favorite part of being a director is inher connections. “I love that I can connect with all the children, and all thefamilies and the staff. My determination is to treat them the way I would wantto be treated. I’ve worked for some directors that didn’t really care, youknow. I really want to make a difference in [the staff’s] lives as much as thelives of the children, and TEACH allows me to do that,” Mary said.
As a participant in the TEACH Early Childhood® Scholarship program since 2014, Mary said, “I would never have completed three degrees without TEACH”
Her advice to those beginning a journey in early childhood education is, “to not settle. Not to just go get the paper [degree], but to go and get every piece of information offered by the colleges so you can really build yourself up and know you can help change the lives of children.”
The most rewarding part of Mary’s experienceis how she “can look back at the end of the day and say that I’ve accomplishedthis, or together we’ve accomplished this. Together, we’ve made a change.”
Early Years is grateful for child care providers likeMary for not just caring for and educating our youngest children, but for trulybeing the backbone of our economy. COVID-19 has shown the rest of America this,and we hope that the Early Years COVID-19 Relief Fund will help child careprograms continue to care and educate our youngest after the pandemic. Saythanks to your child care provider and donate to the Early Years COVID-19 Relief Fundtoday!
[1] This interview took place in January 2020.
