Child care professionals need a variety of hard and soft skills to succeed. After all, these essential workers are responsible for the care and education of young children and infants. To succeed, they need to have technical knowledge as well as the ability to communicate, organize and plan. In a recent webinar, Realityworks Product Manager Denise DuBois shared a variety of engaging resources. Keep reading to see her recommendations for using scenarios, videos, lesson plans and activities to prepare your future child care professionals for success.
Using scenarios to teach soft skills
Educators have used the power of scenarios for years to help teach key soft skills and technical skills. Sometimes your scenario will include the use of a simulator or hands-on resource, like RealCare Baby®, or a workbook or paper-based card like the ones included in our CDA Scenarios Kit.
Other resources for using scenario-based learning to teach soft skills include our Child Care Career Scenario Cards, which feature real-world situations from child care careers.
Learn more by downloading 3 free samples of our career scenario cards for FCS programs.
Need ideas for scenarios? Consider your…
… local child care professionals. There are many ways to create short scenarios like these, but you don’t have to do it all. As Denise suggests in her webinar, consider getting industry involved, especially in your local community. Many of you may have advisory boards that you tap into for your various CTE programs. Talk to local employers in the area you teach. Tell them that you are creating a class project and need help coming up with some real-world scenarios that involve different soft skills. Ask them about recent scenarios that they have experienced on the job.
… students. You can also ask students to create scenarios based on some of their own life and work experiences. Many students are now employed in some of their first jobs. Have them share positive or negative scenarios that they have personally seen or been a part of.
… colleagues. More than ever, schools are tapping into people with business/industry experience to teach. Maybe you know fellow teachers in your school or district that have worked in business and industry in the area you teach. Ask them for a few ideas for scenarios.
… family members who may work in career fields relating to your course area. What types of scenarios or situations have they seen or been a part of in a work environment?
… Google. Do keyword searches on terms like “work role-playing,” “workforce scenarios,” “workforce conflict scenarios,” etc.
… YouTube. Videos are a great way to get your students actively engaged in problem-solving and critical thinking. You could show the scenario, discuss as a class or even turn it into a writing exercise. YouTube links can also be uploaded to LMS systems.
Using scenarios to teach technical child care skills
Scenarios can be equally effective for teaching hard skills, or those important, transferable child care career skills.
- You can save time creating scenarios with our CDA Scenarios Kit, which features scenarios for the 13 standards students must master as part of the Child Development Associate certification. It includes a teacher guide, student workbooks and scenario cards that address infant/toddler and preschool situations.
- We’ve made the lesson plans and activities that accompany all of our learning aids available for free to educators to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. You’ll find slides, instructions, handouts and assessment tools, all of which you can use for remote, hybrid or in-person learning environments.
- Our Child Care Center Design Kit is a great way to offer students hands-on experience designing child care center rooms. Use the kit to address best practices for laying out the space in an infant room, toddler room and preschool room for optimal learning and student interaction. It includes curriculum written by an experienced FCS instructor with a strong child care program.
- RealCare Baby includes four sets of curriculum and activities to help instructors create relevant and career-driven learning experiences. This curriculum is especially beneficial to CTE programs with a certification in early childhood education. Whether your program will lead to an industry-recognized child care certification, or you are teaching parenting skills, the Basic Infant Care curriculum used Baby in the lessons to provide hands-on practice learning infant care skills such as soothing a crying baby, holding, feeding, bathing and diapering.
- Our Infant CPR Manikin and Choking Baby provide hands-on practice of infant CPR and how to dislodge objects from choking infants, two important skills child care workers must master.
Other free resources for engaging future child care professionals
Looking for more free resources? Consider these:
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- Free FCS career exploration curriculum, which includes 5 lessons on careers related to infants in education and human services
- Our free guide, Using Scenario-Based Learning to Explore Careers
- Webinars on teaching a variety of key topics, viewable on-demand for free anytime
- Watch Denise’s complete webinar, “Resources for Engaging Future Child Care Workers: In-Person and Remote Learning:”