The 2010 Church Weekday Education Workshop was held July 30 - 31 at White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro. Under the theme “Start Right with the Right Start,” more than 570 teachers and directors from SC Baptist church preschools and weekday child care centers received training and tools to build their programs.
“As weekday educators, we are in the unique position to start children out on the right track academically with a Christian foundation,” said Kelly Zytynski, child care ministry director at Ridgeland Church and 2009-10 president of the SC Association of Church Weekday Administrators (SCACWA).
According to Cindy Morris, Childhood Ministry Group director at the South Carolina Baptist Convention, a weekday education program can minister to the whole family. “It is a place where preschoolers and grade-schoolers are exposed to a Christian environment where the whole child is taught. It follows the Luke 2:52 verse of how Jesus increased in ‘wisdom, stature and favor with God and man.’ Children grow mentally, emotionally, physically, socially, and spiritually and a weekday program touches all avenues of growth.”
The SC Department of Social Services (SCDSS) requires all weekday educators to earn continuing education credits. Morris works with SCDSS to ensure that the training session curriculum qualifies for continuing education credits, and attendees earn one credit for each completed training session.
The variety of training session topics at the event touched on the practical, like the overview of blood borne pathogens and CPR recertification. Others offered new ideas for parent education and communication, basic sign language, and how to introduce science concepts into the classroom.
In her class “Start Exploring,” Dr. Mary DePass, of Decatur, Ga., invited a room full of adults to pair up to use string, a drinking straw, and tape to launch an inflated balloon. The experiment can teach preschoolers how objects can move through space. DePass said one of her goals was to share simple science activities that teach young children about their Creator.
Texas-based conference leader Mary Ann Bradberry taught about brain development and gender differences, and the value of that knowledge for preschool educators. “As teachers, you can use what you know about a preschooler’s brain and how it is developing to better teach concepts and engage them in the classroom.”
Susan White, a teacher from Coastal Shores Christian Preschool in North Charleston, attended the event for the first time and said she was encouraged to know that she was on the right track in her classroom. “I have received tools for the journey, and I’ve been encouraged and uplifted.”
“Teachers attend this annual workshop to hone their skills, to be renewed, and to pick up a few new ideas they can use in their classes when they return back to teach,” Morris said.
This was the eighth year that Dana McElmurray has been a part of the workshop, and her first as a member of the event faculty. She coached preschool directors on how to build and encourage their staff, and shared ideas she uses in her work as director of First Church North Augusta’s weekday program. “I thank God every day for my job. I have grown in spiritual maturity and have found myself in many situations in which God has given me the tools to minister to others. I could not imagine doing anything else and feel honored that I was asked to teach at the Weekday Workshop.”
In a business meeting held during the weekend event, SCACWA members from six regions statewide elected new officers. Susan Adams, of the Mon-Aetna Child Development Center in Union, SC, will serve as 2010-11 SCACWA president.
The 2011 event will be held August 5-6 at White Oak. For more information about Church Weekday Education, contact Cindy Morris at 803.227.6151, or online at www.scbaptist.org/weekdayeducation.
