ompetency Goal 1:
Maintaining a Safe, Healthy Learning Environment

When running a child care center, one of the most important things is to provide a quality learning environment for the children. It is necessary to keep in mind the steps and precautions needed to establish and maintain a safe and healthy learning environment. As a teacher of a young preschool class, I put all my effort into making sure I meet all these requirements. Every classroom is run different and it is important for parents to know what kind of environment they are putting their child in. Keep reading to get a further understanding of how I personally run my class and the steps I take to make sure my class meets the competency goal.
One of my goals in the functional area of safe is to maintain a current and updated list of phone numbers for contacting parents and emergency services, such as poison control, fire department, and medical help. I also ask parents/guardians to inform me of any phone number changes. I also maintain first aid supplies and know the basic first aid procedures for young children, such as choking and treating cuts and wounds. I ensure that all safety equipment, such as fire extinguishers, are in place and operable. I also use a weekly safety list to ensure that I have checked all parts of my classroom to make sure it’s all safe. Also, I personally am always around to supervise the children in all indoor and outdoor activities. Lastly, I require written parental authorization before allowing people other than parents to pick up children from the class.
One of my goals in the functional area of healthy is to prevent the spread of germs in my child care. This is an important goal for the age group children in my care because young children still aren’t used to common sense about health and sanitation and germs can be easily spread when children are in such close contact with each other.