And I'm.... H-I-R-E-D!!!

It is official! I was offered, and accepted, a job with CCLC at their Stanford Madera Grove Children's Center as a Head Teacher for their Mobil Infant Classroom!

I am sure you are all replying, "Yay!!!" which will then be followed by a long list of questions. Let me do my best to answer them for you.

First, CCLC stands for Children's Creative Learning Centers and they provide top-notch child care for large corporations and such (like Oracle, Pixar, and Yahoo!). In other words, they are a large company that partners with other companies, thus giving me essentially two employers. CCLC was founded by a Cal Poly graduate, and when I was in my senior year, the founder came and spoke to my class about it. I have been holding onto that business card since 2007.

My center is contracted through Stanford University and is on the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, CA. It provides care to the children (infants thru pre-K) of the Stanford faculty and staff. Working in Palo Alto does mean a bit of a commute from our apartment in Sunnyvale. Matt predicts about 20-30 min with traffic; however, my hours are from 9:30-6:30 so that may help.

A Mobile Infant Classroom means that the children in my care will typically be between 1-2 years old and able to sit on their own, crawl, and walk. They will be eating more solid foods and they are also able to manipulate more objects using their hands than younger infants can.

Being a Head Teacher means I am the one responsible for the classroom. I will be in charge of bulletin boards, photos of the children and their daily activities, marking their achievements, and meeting with parents. It also means doing some things like adding to the Center's newsletter, and plenty of other things I am currently clueless about.

I currently have a friend from my Cal Poly Child Development classes who works there and she helped me get the interview (Thanks Heather!!!). I am excited to be starting off in a new place with a familiar and sweet face so nearby.

As some of you know, I graduated from Cal Poly in 2008 with a B.S. in Child Development and double minor in Psychology and Communication Studies. While I can't say I haven't used that education in the last 2 years (because in customer service and sales I certainly have), I feel I can say I haven't used it nearly to its potential and I am most excited about that. I LOVE watching kids learn and grow and accomplish new things and this job will allow me to do that. But also, this job allows me to continue my education to be sure I am on track with the field and up to date on new research. I am so excited! Thanks everyone for being excited with me!

Here is a link if you would like to see more (including a few pictures): http://www.cclc.com/center/ca/stanford-madera-grove-childrens-center