There is a lot of attention right now on education.
In the East Stroudsburg School District, there are a variety of options being offered for parents and students to select as options for their new educational format given the pandemic. As a result, there will likely be, in the future, options that continue to be offered creating new educational opportunities.
This is likely to be one of the extraordinary results of having experienced education during a pandemic. It has caused there to be an upheaval in the routine of education.
Teachers, administrators, and School Boards alike have had to become creative, think outside the box and adapt to new and changing methods of communicating with students and for that fact, with their parents and guardians as well.
Certainly, it has not been easy, but it certainly has created new and adventurous paths in education. We can all applaud the achievements that have resulted. Dedication and commitment to excellence in education has been the top priority along with communication. Thank you all around for more than rising to this challenge.
These changes have raised the question of what more could schools offer students? There is a definite focus on equity, inclusion, and diversity both in understanding and in education. There can be a more defined focus on some of the programs that will help students move into the new employment opportunities that are beginning to appear as technology becomes more integrated into society in everyday ways.
There are solid careers in fields that will grow because of our aging population, shortages in fields with retirements and of course the development of new careers.
There are always sought after careers that provide services will become more important as there is growth in industries such as construction or infrastructure expansion. Naturally, there are those areas that always have the “up and comings”, such as the arts. There are so many paths a student can follow today, that education must expand and create paths of learning to accommodate these new normals.
Early education and interventions will become more necessary to help children prepare to head off to school, in whatever form they attend. One resource that is exceptionally helpful is the Pennsylvania Early Learning Resource Center (ELRC) located on Main Street (411) in Stroudsburg. This is especially beneficial to parents/guardians of young children in our community as centers are located throughout the state, and one is right here. ELRC provides a single point-of-contact for families, early learning service providers, and communities gain information and access services that support high-quality child-care and early learning programs.
It offers links to services like: Child Care Works (Pennsylvania’s child-care subsidy program), Keystone STARS (Pennsylvania’s quality improvement program for child-care providers), Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts, Head Start and Early Intervention services. For more information or to ask questions, contact ELRC at (570) 994-1135 or contact them at: offices-elrcregion12@pa.gov.
Pocono Mountains United Way works in collaboration with many community partners, all recognizing the importance of the critical years, birth to the start of Kindergarten, to screen children to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
There is also an opportunity for parents/guardians to answer questions about their children’s development using the online developmental screening tool.
In all cases, Professional Standards of Practice are used to observe a child’s development in the following areas: speech and language, fine and gross motor skills, social emotional, cognition, self-help, vision and hearing and dental needs. These screenings help document normal aspects of a child’s health and development, while identifying potential factors that may interfere with a child’s learning and growth. An important fact to remember is that a child’s brain is 90% developed by age 5. This is an important time is an understatement.
For more information and to learn about the programs, contact Roxanne Powell at (570) 517-3958 or at Roxanne@poconounitedway.org.