Early Education Career Institute Childcare Apprenticeship and Career School

09/07/2026

🌟 BEYOND CIRCLE TIME | WEEK AT A GLANCE
Connecting the Intentional Dots: Circle Time → Centers → Big Room → Outdoors → Reflection

What happens after circle time?

The learning shouldn’t stop when children leave the carpet. Circle time should spark curiosity that travels throughout the entire day.

This week, we’re challenging educators to take one meaningful idea and intentionally connect it across developmental domains:

🎨 Creative Arts • ✋ Fine Motor • 🏃 Gross Motor • 🪞 Self-Concept • ❤️ Emotional Regulation • 🤝 Social Development • 🔬 Science • 🖐️ Sensory • 🗣️ Language • 📚 Literacy

Start the conversation during morning circle. Let children investigate it in learning centers. Move it into the big room through gross-motor experiences. Take the curiosity outdoors for real-world discovery. Then bring everyone back together to ask:

“What did we discover today?”

That’s how we connect the intentional dots.

The goal isn’t to create 10 unrelated activities just to check off developmental domains. It’s to help children experience the same meaningful concept in multiple ways—through conversation, movement, play, creativity, investigation and reflection.

And for our apprentices, these everyday experiences become opportunities to connect theory to intentional teaching and on-the-job learning.

💡 One big idea. Many ways to learn.
🌱 Children thrive. Educators grow. Communities succeed.

Beyond Circle Time — Edition #00005
Early Education Career Institute | EECI
Practice • Play • Purpose • Profession

09/07/2026

🚨 INDIANA CHILDCARE IS A WORKFORCE ISSUE — PLEASE SHARE!

The reported loss of 482 childcare centers in Indiana should concern every parent, childcare provider, employer, manufacturer, agricultural business, small business, Chamber of Commerce, and community leader.

When childcare disappears, the impact reaches far beyond the classroom.

Parents struggle to work. Employers struggle to recruit and retain employees. Childcare owners struggle to remain sustainable. Communities lose essential infrastructure.

Childcare is not a luxury. Childcare is workforce infrastructure.

EECI created this advocacy resource to help get information and ready-to-use letters into the hands of people who can quickly contact Indiana leaders and begin conversations about solutions.

This is also an example of responsible AI use for advancement and advocacy. Technology can help us develop resources faster, organize information, and circulate solutions through our social and professional networks. AI doesn’t replace the voices of families and communities—it can help those voices travel farther.

📣 We need your help circulating this.

Share it with childcare owners and directors. Send it to parents. Tag Indiana employers. Forward it to manufacturers and agricultural leaders. Get it in front of Chambers of Commerce, workforce boards, economic-development organizations, legislators, and community leaders.

If you have influence, use it.
If you have a network, share it.
If you have a seat at the table, bring childcare to the table.

Indiana’s childcare crisis requires families, businesses, providers, workforce leaders, and government to work collectively.

Be part of the circulation. Be part of the conversation. Be part of the change.

— Shawntel L. Green, SME
Early Education Career Institute (EECI)

09/06/2026

Please require anyone around your young children to get professional development courses.

UNCLE ARRESTED AFTER THREE-YEAR-OLD SHOOTS HIMSELF, ACCUSED OF FLEEING SCENE AND NOT RENDERING AID

21-year-old Tyrone Thompson Junior is being charged for possession of a weapon by a convicted felon in connection to the death investigation of his 3-year-old nephew.

Columbia Police says Thompson left 3-year-old Erin Myers unattended in a room with the weapon when Erin accidentally shot himself.

Investigators say Thompson did not render aid to his nephew, fled the scene and hid the gun.

The incident happened Thursday evening at the Colony Apartments around 5:30pm.

Prayers to the family. 🙏🏽

09/06/2026

🇺🇸 LABOR DAY | Beyond Circle Time — Edition #00004

This Labor Day, we’re celebrating a workforce that makes every other workforce possible: Early Childhood Educators. ❤️

ECE is more than childcare. It is skilled work requiring knowledge, competency, intentional practice, and continued professional development.

At EECI, we’ve been building that connection through Registered Apprenticeship since 2022—turning everyday classroom practice into meaningful on-the-job learning and career development.

📌 A milestone worth celebrating:
On May 9, 2024, U.S. Department of Labor Bulletin No. 2024-84 announced EECI’s National Guideline Standards for Apprenticeship as a model for developing local apprenticeship programs for the:

🎓 Early Childhood Educator
O*NET-SOC: 25-2011.00
RAPIDS: 3004CB
Training: Competency-Based

From morning circle to learning centers, outdoor exploration, family engagement, observation, and intentional teaching—the work educators perform every day develops real occupational competencies.

Practice → Play → Purpose → Profession

This Labor Day, recognize the people behind the profession.

ECE is labor.
ECE is skilled work.
ECE is a profession.

💙 Stronger Educators. Brighter Futures.

09/06/2026

09/04/2026

We believe every new educator deserves a safe place to grow - and we’re here to help you build momentum with confidence. Our supportive, apprenticeship-based training offers clear guidance, multilingual resources, and hands-on coaching so you can gain skills and stay engaged every step of the way. Ready to take the next step? Join us and feel your confidence grow. Learn more: https://wix.to/QyGC06d 🌱✨