Promoting Early Education Quality (PEEQ)
- Type
- Program
Overview
Contact
College Station, TX 77845-4645
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
The majority of children ages 5 and younger who have not started school spend time in the care of someone other than their parents, often while their parents are working. Since this is also the period during which children’s brains are most rapidly developing, the experiences children have in those care arrangements can have a lasting impact on their lives. The professional field that provides this valuable service has gone by many names – day care, child care, preschool, pre-k, early learning, child development, etc. No matter the name, these are the settings where over a million Texas children learn and grow every day. We use the inclusive term early education in recognition of the fact that for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers every experience is a learning experience.
Promoting Early Education Quality (PEEQ) is a statewide program of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension dedicated to encouraging the adoption of research- and evidence-based practices at all levels of the early education field. This program provides an extensive selection of professional development tools for early childhood professionals aligned with state-mandated training requirements and industry standards, including in-person training events hosted by County Extension Agents across the state, instructor-led virtual training opportunities, and a robust library of self-paced online courses.
In addition to training teachers, caregivers, and administrators, it also provides training for various groups who provide technical assistance for the early childhood workforce, such as Child Care Health Consultants, Texas Healthy Building Blocks Technical Assistance Consultants, and Child Care Regulation staff. PEEQ collaborates with other state agencies, institutions of higher education, and other stakeholders on a variety of initiatives to improve Texas’ early education systems.
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- Course
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After completing this 3-hour course, the learner will be able to describe the elements of creativity, explain how environments can encourage creativity, examine how the arts can support development across all domains in early childhood, and discuss the different categories of creative arts with connections to the four developmental domains. - Course
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After completing this 4-hour course, the learner will be able to describe what an intentional early childhood professional is, explain what reflective practices are and how to implement this information effectively to improve their teaching, explain why being intentional and reflective promotes the development and learning in the children they are teaching, and create a professional development plan based upon their strengthens. - Course
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This 4-hour course for early learning educators discusses how to use the cycle of curriculum learning to plan whole group, small group, and individual level to appropriately meet the needs of all learners. - Course
A major component of completing the process for the Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential is building your CDA Professional Portfolio. This portfolio contains all the documentation needed to meet the requirements of the CDA credential and will be part of your CDA Verification visit. This resource binder should be built to be used by you as you work with the children and families you serve.
In this four-hour course, the learner will be able to identify the essential components that must be included in the CDA Professional Portfolio, including the family questionnaires, the Reflective Dialogue Worksheet, the resource collection items, and the accompanying competency statement for each of the six areas required and the Professional Philosophy Statement. This binder will be part of the resources examined by the CDA Professional Development Specialist and used as a reflection tool during the CDA Verification Visit. - Course
Knowing what children can do and what they know is powerful information that can guide early learning teachers to create appropriate learning experiences for their children. The purposes and types of assessments are examined.
This 4-hour course for early learning educators is designed to review the purposes of assessment, how to evaluate and interpret the results, and create a plan to share results with families. - Course
Children are born curious about the world in which they live. In this course, we discuss how to use a variety of dresearch-based learning materials to promote and enhance their natural curiosity, reasoning, and problem-solving in the areas of social studies and nature.
After completing this 2-hour course, the learner will be able to describe how social studies and using nature support children’s cognitive development. Social studies experiences should reflect the range of the children’s cultural groups. The learner will be able to give activity examples from these two areas.