 |
| Jacque Sell |
Professional Development
CAEYC hosted the Western States Leadership Network (WSLN) at UC Berkeley August 10-14, 2015.
By Jacque Sell
We had 45 leaders from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Nevada as well as California. WSLN is a unique networking and leader development opportunity to engage in discussions relevant to early care and education in the Western United States, as well as information NAEYC needs to know about affiliates in the West. The week included a day with Futurist Garry Golden, a day on Angel Island and a morning with Marcy Whitebook and Lea Austin. We had a nice evening reception at the Habitot Children’s Museum in Berkeley on Monday, and on Tuesday evening, many traveled into San Francisco to watch a San Francisco Giants game or explore Pier 39. WSLN is a great experience, steeped in tradition and rituals, lots of networking, professional growth and laughter!
The session with Garry Golden provided thought-provoking insight into the use of data in the future and the benefits of data-driven decisions. He did admit that there is a creepy line that can be crossed with too much data gathering, monitoring and use and that we need to weigh that against the potential benefits of having that data to make a decision. Discussions went so far as to consider a world where children are “chipped” at birth and all their biological data can be tracked. Garry also shared that there is an effort afoot now to devise a system for assigning data to experiences, experience api, to identify the learning, changes in thought, enjoyment, etc. of certain experiences.
We could not have had better weather for our day trip to Angel Island (many actually got slightly sunburned). We spent the morning with Rhian Evans Allvin learning about the National Dialogue process, current status and future possibilities. NAEYC has invested more than five years in dialogue with members and leaders nationally to redesign the organization to expand and meet the needs of our diverse members. There was time in the afternoon for hiking, relaxing, exploring and chatting on the island before heading back to Berkeley where conversations from the morning continued.
Hearing from Marcy Whitebook and Lea Austin from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment was interesting and daunting at the same time. They have been working on behalf of a “Worthy Wage” for early care and education professionals for more than 25 years. They have made some great strides, yet the needle has not moved very far on the “Worthy Wage” scale. Their research continues and they offered new ideas for us to utilize in our efforts to gain a “Worthy Wage.”
WSLN will be in Denver, Colorado next year...put it on your calendars!