There was a need in our community for preschool teacher training. Preschool teachers needed CEUs and In-Service Hours, but there were not many choices for to get them. So, we created an online professional development to provide needed training they could access anywhere and any time online for a reasonable price. KidVision PreK offers preschool teachers featuring virtual field trips with accompanying lesson plans, student assessments, take home pages and vocabulary words.
The program is free unless teachers need in-service hours or CEUs, which many do. Then they can registered to be in our KidVision Teachers Association and earn CEUs and in-service hours through our partnership with an accredited agency, the Florida Association for Child Care Management. We change $40.00 per Teacher Association Membership per school year. Members can earn 8 CEUs or 80 in-service hours. We have 67,311 free member registered users and 11,540 paying members.
The goal of the training is for preschool teachers to be able to learn and teach education standards for young children, as stated by the Florida Department of Education, setting our teachers and children up for school success.
The virtual field trip has a dual purpose – teachers use it for training and again in the classroom for teaching. The 80 virtual field trips are each 8 minutes long. In the exercise, Miss Penny takes 3 to 5 children on a field trip to a local establishment where they learn about the location and standards that are naturally presented in the environment. For example, we learned math at the miniature golf course. These field trips around our community and working with local establishments increases our community outreach and involves local business in the education of their children, which are all from the community. We hold open auditions twice a year where children come to the station, families get a tour of the studios, and can watch their children audition in the green room. These field trips are also on You-Tube and Kids You-Tube so they are easily assessable for everyone to see.
The content of the training also includes:
- A pre and post test about the standards taught during the field trip.
- 4 standards-based lesson plans for each field trip, each with a student assessment for different age groups.
- 2 Take Home Pages for every field trip in both English and Spanish to engage families in the education of their children.