Gonzalez-Mena, J: Foundations Early Childhood Educ Tchg Chil

Part 1 Foundations of the Teaching-Learning Process: The Role of the Early Childhood Educator
1Early Childhood Education as a Career
2First Things First: Health and Safety Through Observation and Supervision
3Communicating with Young Children
4Facilitating Young Children's Work and Play
5Guiding Young Children's Behavior
6The Teacher as Model
7Modeling Adult Relationships in Early Childhood Settings

Part 2Foundations in Supporting Development and Learning
8Setting Up the Physical Environment
9Creating a Social-Emotional Environment
10Routines
11Developmental Tasks as the Curriculum: How to Support Children at Each Stage
12Observing, Recording, and Assessing

Part 3 Planning for Learning and Development by Enhancing Children's Curiosity, Joy, and Sense of Wonder
13Enhancing Children's Learning and Development Through Language and Emergent Literacy
14Fostering Joy in Developmentally Appropriate Experiences in Math and Science
15Integrating Art, Music, and Social Studies into a Holistic Curriculum

Janet Gonzalez-Mena started her early childhood career in a cooperative preschool as a parent volunteer back in 1966. She then became a Head Start volunteer and ended up as a teacher in a preschool for Spanish-speaking children and their families in 1970s. She has also helped open several pilot programs including a therapeutic child care program and a home-based bilingual preschool program. When Magda Gerber came into her life in the mid-1970s, Janet signed up for an internship with her at the Childrens Health Council in Menlo Park, California. As a result of that experience, later, when she became a child care director, she was able to incorporate much of what she learned into her work and was influential in expanding that program to include an infant center. Training and teaching adults has always been sideline, even when she was working with children and families. She worked as a Head Start trainer and as adjunct faculty in 4 community colleges plus the University of California Santa Cruz credential extension program. She taught for 15 years as full time faculty at Napa Valley College in the Child and Family Studies Program. Since 1991, she has been part of the faculty for WestEds Program for Infant-Toddler Caregivers (PITC) Training of Trainer Institutes. Janet has been writing along with teaching for all these years and is author of numerous articles and 13 books related to early childhood, including Foundations of Early Childhood Education; Infants, Toddlers, and Caregivers (with co-author Dianne Eyer); and Diversity in Early Care and Education: Honoring Differences (Formerly Multicultural Issues in Child Care). She wrote Dragon Mom about herself as parent to help early childhood professionals alleviate guilt when their parenting doesn't live up to their high standards. Her latest passion is understanding more about the Pikler Institute in Budapest, Hungary, where Magda Gerber came from. It took her 30 years to get there after she first heard of it, but her