Join Camp Fire instructors in-person or virtually for incredible learning opportunities and to grow professional connections.
CPE Credits & Clock Hours for all Camp Fire First Texas courses
CHILD DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE CREDENTIAL (CDA) CLASS
Camp Fire First Texas is THE community leader when it comes to assisting early childhood professionals in receiving the BEST first step in their credentialing process and is an approved course through several workforce commissions for Texas Rising Star programs. Camp Fire repositioned the course curriculum to ensure our students receive the most up-to-date and comprehensive instruction!
DIRECTOR’S CREDENTIAL
This course is designed for new or experienced child care directors interested in acquiring or enhancing management skills. Classes are offered each week on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
ALL AGES TOPICS
DIRECTOR TOPICS
You can learn the skills to be a leader in the early childhood space. Learn the different leadership styles and the competencies required for effective leadership, practice decision making, and how high-quality child care is defined. This session provides both future and current center directors with the knowledge required to lead a high-quality child care program and grow a robust set of skills to put the knowledge into action.
No business degree or training? No problem! This session provides future and current center directors with a foundational understanding of center operation management. From policy review, record keeping, and disaster preparedness, attendees will learn how to evaluate and implement cost-effective, strategic, and important management systems to reduce risk within the early childhood program setting.
Steps to creating and maintaining the health and safety of the learning environment are fundamental to any quality program. This session will offer a firm understanding of minimum standards, how to manage health issues, creating a healthy nutrition program, and the director’s role in preventing child abuse and neglect.
When you are a director, you wear many hats. This class introduces program leaders to the decisions regarding the program’s organizational structure, its finances, and the way of caring for existing and prospective customers. It will also cover how to build enrollment and how to handle basic public relations outreach work.
Recruiting and hiring your staff is key as a director. If you are new to this practice or find the candidates you are hiring are not “working out,” this class covers the continuum from writing an effective job description through interviewing to pre-service and orientation. Together we will examine top strategies for recruiting, screening, interviewing, and selecting candidates. It will also cover writing effective job descriptions and how to implement effective, ethical, and lawful employment practices.
A strong leader knows how to bring out the best in their team. This is not something that happens organically. It is built with thoughtful actions. Join this class to understand the central role a director has in not just supervising staff but building a learning community and guiding a teaching team to become reflective practitioners who are committed to continually improving the way they work and the quality of care they give. This session will also address how to create professional development and coaching plans, how evaluations can improve performance, and provide strategies for managing conflict and difficult people.
High-quality programming is not subjective. It is the role of the director to build program capacity to advance children’s development and learning by providing leadership to establish and strengthen staff competencies for teaching and caregiving. This class will identify elements of high-quality teaching, how to integrate child development with learning, and demonstrate effective observation, documentation, and assessment practices needed by directors.
Strengthen your program and leadership capacity by designing quality learning environments both inside and out! This class will inspire and showcase how to plan, evaluate, and improve indoor and outdoor environments for infants, toddlers, pre-K, and school-age children to create the highest quality setting for children, families, and staff to thrive.
This module will increase your leadership influence, activate strategies to promote family engagement, strengthen connections between family, program, and community resources.
Families want, and need, to be involved in their child’s development, but creating a Family-Centered program can be challenging if you don’t have a road map. Become familiar with Family-Centered Child Care and learn strategies to map your process for building effective family partnerships.
Families have a role in your program, and you play a key role in leading a child care center team in strengthening family relationships. This session will examine and apply effective communication and collaboration skills, share knowledge of respecting differences, showcase families’ role in care and teaching, and how to handle conflict.
Those who work with young children cope with frequent decisions that have moral and ethical implications. The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct provides guidelines for responsible behavior and creates a basis for resolving ethical dilemmas faced in early childhood care and education.
Learn how to reference the Code, engage in discussions and activities that help guide the decisions that impact the quality of child care. You will leave with a strategy you can apply to your program.
You can learn the skills to be a leader in the early childhood space. Learn the different leadership styles and the competencies required for effective leadership, practice decision making, and how high-quality child care is defined. This session provides both future and current center directors with the knowledge required to lead a high-quality child care program and grow a robust set of skills to put the knowledge into action.
Learn about Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP), explore the Texas Early Learning Guidelines and learn how these connect with developmentally appropriate practices and lesson plans.
Steps to creating and maintaining the health and safety of the learning environment are fundamental to any quality program. This session will offer a firm understanding of minimum standards, how to manage health issues, creating a healthy nutrition program, and the director’s role in preventing child abuse and neglect.
When you are a director, you wear many hats. This class introduces program leaders to the decisions regarding the program’s organizational structure, its finances, and the way of caring for existing and prospective customers. It will also cover how to build enrollment and how to handle basic public relations outreach work.
A strong leader knows how to bring out the best in their team. This is not something that happens organically. It is built with thoughtful actions. Join this class to understand the central role a director has in not just supervising staff but building a learning community and guiding a teaching team to become reflective practitioners who are committed to continually improving the way they work and the quality of care they give. This session will also address how to create professional development and coaching plans, how evaluations can improve performance, and provide strategies for managing conflict and difficult people.
March 22
Supporting Children’s Development and Learning
March 24
Designing Indoor and Outdoor Environments
Early Learning Guidelines are designed to assist caregivers in understanding early childhood development and in making the most of each day during the early years of growth. Although no two children are expected to follow the exact same pattern of growth, the ITELG are meant to provide an outline of the developmental skills young children are working on at a given stage. Join this class to understand high-quality early experiences needed for optimal brain development.
March 29
Building Family Partnerships
March 31
Strengthening Family Relationships
Use the links in this page to access class details and to register.
Have questions? Email [email protected] or call 817.831.2111, ext. 145.
Camp Fire First Texas has been providing quality, early education workforce development for more than 20 years and has guided generations of Early Education Professionals along their unique career pathway. All of our instructors are members of the Texas Trainer Registry (TECPDS), courses are recognized by Texas Child Care Licensing for clock hour training and Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Credit requirements. Most classes and courses Camp Fire offers are approved through several Workforce Commissions.
Most of these are interactive ZOOM classes. Participation is required. Please be prepared to join the Zoom with a desktop, tablet or iPad with working microphone/sound and camera that will remain on for the duration of the class. For your safety, you should not be driving while attending this class. Please ensure you are in a location to focus and minimize external distractions (ie, television, music, meals).
Cancellation policy
No refunds will be given, but substitutions are allowed. To make a substitution you must contact us before the class you registered for takes place. You may apply this payment to another class within 6 months. If the payment is not applied, you forfeit your payment.