Staff
Polly Smith: Director
Betty Brown: Parent Coordinator
Elizabeth Nunes: School Coordinator
The Director has primary responsibility for establishing, monitoring, evaluating and communicating all educational, administrative and fiscal policies of the Center. She works directly with children as a means of creating, modeling, evaluating and disseminating curriculum within and outside of the Tufts community. The Director evaluates all proposals for research to be conducted at the Center submitted by academic constituencies throughout the University, and monitors the supervision of all University students doing field placements or student teaching at the Center. The Director writes, negotiates, and monitors the budget with both the Massachusetts Department of Social Services and the University. She serves on the faculty of the Department of Child Development where she teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, supervises student teachers, attends all departmental faculty meetings, advises undergraduates and graduate students and generally serves as a liaison between the Department of Child Development and the Center (which serves as a laboratory facility for the Department of Child Development and other departments within the College of Arts and Sciences).
The Parent Coordinator maintains wait lists, plans enrollment, does initial intake and provides orientation for all new families to the program. She is responsible for the monitoring of monthly billing to state and federal agencies with which the Center maintains contracts. She serves as a resource person and makes referrals to community services available to families such as educational opportunities, counseling services, health and nutritional information, etc. She is the liaison between the Center and the Department of Social Services. The Parent Coordinator coordinates committees and fundraising activities.
The School Coordinator is responsible for the monitoring of all office systems and procedures. She is responsible for all phases of tuition collection, monitors the budget, schedules observations, maintains the web site and generally keeps the Center running smoothly.
Mentor teachers spend the vast majority of their time and energies directly relating to children. All teaching responsibilities ascribed to Teachers also fall on Mentor Teachers, but Mentor Teachers fill some additional roles in the Center. There are four major areas of classroom responsibility that the mentor teacher implements: curriculum, supervision, communication, and classroom management and organization. Mentor teachers at TEDCC are all certified early childhood educators who hold either Masters or Bachelors degrees. They have had years of experience working in classrooms with young children. The mentor teachers have exhibited a strong commitment to day care environments and child development. They are excited about coordinating and orchestrating the various aspects of the other teachers to take on responsibility and expand their own professional roles. Their especially strong commitment to maintaining a sense of community among children and adults serves as a potent role model for the other teachers and Tufts students on their teams.
Teachers at TEDCC are a vital part of the educational team in each of our preschool and kindergarten classrooms. All Teachers hold either Bachelors or Masters degrees and have Massachusetts certification as Early Childhood Educators. Teachers work to support team functioning and to facilitate team goals as guided by their Mentor Teacher. Each Teacher plays an active and essential role in the areas of curriculum planning, relationships with children, relationships with families, relationships with therapists, classroom organization and communication/supervision. The teacher is responsible for contributing to all team decisions, and each teacher's individual strengths and interests become a part of the life of the classroom. Teachers are working to grow and expand professionally, and the unique innovative and creative spirit of each individual teacher translates into a positive and stimulating classroom environment. The teaching team, consisting of a Mentor Teacher, two Teachers, a Graduate Teaching Assistant, and several Tufts interns, field workers and student teachers, adds diversity and excitement to the educational community at Tufts Educational Day Care Center.
GTAs are a graduate students in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development who wishes to enhance their graduate work by combining a hands-on experience with their theoretical course work. They develop their skills while working directly with the children. GTAs are students who do not necessarily have teaching experience, but some practical experience working with children. One thing all of the GTAs have in common is the determination, drive, and potential to develop into confident, capable, and skilled teachers. Although the role of a GTA is different from that of a full-time teacher, the children understand that a GTA is one of their teachers. Together with the closing teacher, a GTA helps to shape the afternoon time in the classroom. GTAs are in the classroom three hours a day from September through May, and become full-time teachers in the summer.
Special Education GTAs are students at Tufts or another local university who are augmenting their graduate studies by working one-on-one with a child with special needs. The Special Education GTA provides additional and consistent help to the child so that she may benefit fully from all that TEDCC has to offer. With this aid, these young learners can become fully integrated, powerful members of the classroom community. Our GTAs are wonderful at offering unobtrusive help, at facilitating meaningful peer interaction, and at enabling their charge to weave him or herself into the rich and textured social fabric of school. Under the supervision of a Mentor Teacher, GTAs adapt classroom materials and routines, allowing the child full access to all of our curriculum and ample opportunity for successful mastery. While each special education GTA focuses primarily on a single, assigned child, all become beloved resources for every child in the classroom.
Our therapists work in a number of fields: speech/language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and play therapy. Many of the children at TEDCC require services from therapeutic professionals in addition to early childhood teachers. And, all children benefit from the knowledge gained through our close ties with clinicians from a variety of disciplines. Therapists are an integral part of each of our classroom teaching teams. These wonderful practitioners have allowed us to better meet the needs of all of our youngsters, especially those who would not otherwise be able to attend our school. And, the cross-fertilization derived from this mix means that each member of the classroom team owns the knowledge from all of the represented disciplines.
Student teachers are Child Study majors at Tufts who are working towards Teacher Certification. A Student Teacher usually is in the classroom every day for at least four hours a day. The goals of a student teacher are to eventually be able to take over for the teacher. Student Teachers learn about the understanding of children's behaviors, curriculum planning and implementation, management and group control, interpersonal relationships with other adults in the room, and other parts of the education of young children that are of interest to the student. Student teachers attend a weekly seminar in the Child Study Department led by a faculty member and are individually supervised by another person from the Department of Child Study. Student Teachers meet regularly with a cooperating teacher from the classroom and are continually supervised.
Field workers are students who are participating in a first formal hands-on practical classroom experience. Field Workers are in the classroom seven hours a week, divided between two days. Field Workers become exposed to the various areas of working with young children and are expected to reach goals in the following areas: forming relationships with children, forming helpful relationships with adults and other colleagues, management issues and group control, and curriculum participation. Field Workers attend a weekly seminar led by a faculty member of the Child study Department, who also supervises the students throughout the semester. Each Field Worker is assigned a cooperating teacher in the classroom and meets weekly with the teacher.
Work Study students are students from the University who are working their way through college. They choose to work at the Day Care Center for a variety of individual reasons. Their roles and responsibilities in the classroom include helping maintain a safe and clean environment. They set their own work schedules and are expected to attend to a variety of tasks each day. Their primary role is to help clean the classroom regularly. This includes daily tasks such as wiping down the tables, weekly tasks of cleaning mats, and other tasks such as cleaning materials. These students help make materials, charts and other items needed in the classroom. As the students are working in the room, they engage with the children, form relationships, and encourage continued growth and development. Work study students are a wonderful addition to our room and we very much appreciate their hard work.
The Center's Nutrition Aide plans weekly menus, and orders all food, supplies and daily lunches for the entire Center. She is responsible for serving the lunch and two snacks to the classrooms and maintaining the health standards of the kitchen.