Shows
Childcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareEmpowering Family Child Care Providers: The Path to Training & AccreditationIn this episode of Childcare Challenges, host Tashieanna O'Connor sits down with Nilda Aponte, a leader in supporting family child care providers, to discuss the critical role of training and accreditation in early childhood education.Many family caregivers face barriers to accessing professional development—whether due to cost, time, or a lack of awareness about its importance. Nilda sheds light on how All Our Kin helps providers navigate these challenges, offering guidance on finding quality training, the benefits of accreditation, and how further education elevates both caregivers and the children they serve.They also explore wh...2025-05-1933 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareBuilding Bridges: The Value of Immigrant Families in Childcare and BeyondIn this heartfelt episode of Childcare Challenges: Dilemmas in Daycare, host Tashieanna O’Connor explores the intersection of immigration and childcare. Why do families leave their home countries to come to America? What challenges do they face in navigating society while building a new life? And why are immigrant families such a vital part of the fabric of our communities?This episode also includes a call to action: How can we better support immigrant families in accessing affordable, quality childcare? Tashieanna discusses practical steps communities can take, from policy changes to grassroots initiatives, to ensure no family is...2025-02-0625 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareSchool, Passion and PoliticsIn this episode Tashieanna O’Connor is joined by Brigette Brantley, an educator from The Bronx and an activist from Da People’s Academy.Listen in on this inspiring conversation as Bri talks about her activism at the George Floyd protests and her experiences going viral from an interview with the local news.Bri used the visibility from going viral to help her fund raise and use it as a springboard for fundraising for the community and activism.But she’s also a beloved history teacher who uses modern ideas to give context to his...2025-01-2343 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareFalling in Love with EducationIn this week’s episode Tashieanna is joined by Kamero, a dynamic young educator working in the Bronx, but with his roots in Kentucky.Kamero initially intended to pursue a career in diplomacy, but a temporary job to give back to the community lead to him falling in love with education. He spend 7 years as a teacher and is now an administrator with a passion for his work.Join Tashieanna and Kamero as they talk about the passion of parents, the hard work it takes to make sure parents can be included and how some st...2025-01-1626 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareSpecial Needs Care and CommunityIn this week’s episode of Childcare Challenges your host Tashieanna O’Connor is joined by Jessica Rodriguez Santanna, a childcare provider from the Bronx in New York City.Jessica was a successful dentistry practitioner for several years with experience with adults, children and special needs patients, but her life changed when she had a special needs child of her own.Jessica realised she would need to spend a lot of time at home with her daughter so decided to leave her work and start a childcare so that she could be at home with her...2025-01-0925 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareWe're Back!!After an unexpected hiatus we are back! Your host Tashianna O’Connor has some exciting developments from her own daycare.She also attended a public meeting for a prospective charter school in her area and the whole community turned out to have their say about the education their children receive and be heard about their needs.It is inspiring to see the level of engagement and she has shared some video of the meeting.Reach out:If you would like to share your experiences or join Tasheianna for an...2025-01-0305 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Post Election Future of ChildcareIn this episode Tashieanna O’Connor is joined by Merrill Gay of the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance.In this sobering but hopeful discussion Merril talks about the consequences of the recent elections, and how the outcomes may have negative results for Head Start and childcare programmes in Connecticut and around the country, as well as implications for providers, many of whom are not from the USA.He will also share some peculiar challenges specific to Connecticut as there are spending limitation programmes that mean government has funds it won’t spend, and drops some hints abou...2024-11-1136 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareInvolving Parents in Their Children’s EducationIn this week’s thought provoking episode your host Tashieanna O’Connor is joined by Alex, a paraprofessional from The Bronx.They dig in to Alex’s experiences in inner city schools and the challenges that face the children, many of who have struggles outside of the classroom.Alex believes that many challenges faced by children in their schooling can be countered by involved parenting, but reaching those parents can be difficult, while most care they can be single parents, or have multiple jobs to make ends meet which means they struggle to be available.A...2024-10-2852 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Importance of Your Vote on Your Child’s EducationThis week Tashieanna is joined by Paulette Atkinson, a teacher working in Miami Florida working with high school students with special needs, particularly with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities.Paulette shares stories of joy working with kids with needs and importance of the curriculum focusing on life skills and taking children out in public, and challenges like paperwork and admin requirements meaning less time to spend with the kids.But while many public school systems have proper programs and curricula, with elections coming it’s important to ensure that you are not voting for politician who wi...2024-10-2143 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareElections, Child Care and EducationWith the US elections coming it’s important for childcare providers, educators and parents to take a close look at the policies of candidates to see where they should put their vote.And this episode Tashieanna O’Connor is going to highlight how important it is to look at more than just the presidential election. After all laws come from congress, and your congressional representatives and senators are arguably more important than who is president.Polls have shown that policies to help educators and providers are universally popular, across party lines, so politicians should be back...2024-10-1426 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Challenges and Benefits of Quality AftercareIn this week’s episode Tashienna O’Connor sat down with Deon, a program assistant at an after school program in east Harlem.After school programs face some unique challenges, one of the main ones being that students who struggle with reading and maths often need to spend a lot of extra time catching up on academic work and doing homework, and not being able to do the other activities which include DIY, catering and even martial arts. Skills that can help them to develop more diverse sets of skills and unwind from academic stresses.Espe...2024-10-0718 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Importance of Youth and Community DevelopmentThis episode Tashieanna was joined by Ramon Spencer, who has worked in Youth and Community Development for over 16 years.They discuss the differences between youth programs available in New York and other states, New York's relatively decent funding not being appropriately allocated, and problems caused by after school care being an extension of the school environment and curriculum.Kids and youths are not developing rounded skill sets due to focus on schooling and testing and this has repercussions on their later life.Tune in for this and a lot more.Reach...2024-09-3059 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareHow to Allocate resources to Prevent the School to Prison PipelineIn this week’s episode host Tashieanna O’Connor sat down with Ishmael Jackson, a former Teacher’s Assistant from the Bronx in New York who now works in a correctional facility for juvenile offenders in Michigan.Ishmael’s experience in under resourced special needs classes in the Bronx contrast quite a lot with his experiences since getting to Michigan where even schools have more resources, and young offenders can get their education while in prison.He also has fascinating perspectives on how children fall into the correctional system, and how to keep them out so tune...2024-09-2345 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Challenges Facing Support Staff and Aid Workers in educationOn this week’s episode of “Childcare Challenges: Dilemmas in Daycare” your host Tashieanna was joined by 3 dynamic guests.Tina Butz, Denise Cressman and Ethel Bergen are long time carers from Pennsylvania who have seen massive changes in the field.Starting out in the 90s and going through funding cuts, economic downturns, covid and increased administrative burdens and the consequences of these on the children in their care they have valuable perspectives on insights on how the child care business needs to be changed and treated to get new people and keep quality carers who leave...2024-09-161h 20Childcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Challenges Facing Support Staff and Aid Workers in educationOn this week’s episode of “Childcare Challenges: Dilemmas in Daycare” your host Tashieanna sat down on a call with Alan Troy, a former education worker who left the field in 2020.Alan was a school aid worker who started out in the lunch room and moved on to other roles, many not strictly part of his job, and Alan’s perspective of the education field, and what drove him out are very valuable.His experiences being overworked due to lack of budget and training for new staff, what it takes to keep kids fed and working...2024-09-0932 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Burdens of Admin and Paperwork on Teachers, and so much more – Jennifer HeywoodIn this episode of Childcare Challenges: Dilemmas in daycare your host Tashieanna O’Connor got on a call with Jennifer Heywood, a recently retired teacher with 30 years of experience in New York’s educational system.In this fascinating and free ranging conversation they discuss pay-parity for teachers, what it was like during lockdowns and how the burdens of paperwork and admin prevent teachers from spending time focusing on the children in their classes.They also talk about difficulties parents have helping their kids with their homework because how the work is done has changed and how...2024-08-2639 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Importance of Parental engagement in Children’s Schooling, with Mr XIn this episode your host Tashieanna O’Connor is talking to Mr X, a teacher’s assistant from the Bronx in New York City.Mr X has been in the field for a decade and his passion and commitment is inspiring, so listen in and learn what he believes are critical challenges for childcare and education and how they can be overcome.He has a strong focus on parental engagement and believes that spending just a few minutes a day talking to your children and learning about their day and their schoolwork will have massive bene...2024-08-1931 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareEngaging Parents and Families with Their Child’s Education, with Romario FalconerThis episode your host Tashieanna O’Connor sat down with Romario Falconer, who has recently started as a teacher at a childcare center in New York.Romario has fascinating perspectives on the industry and the conversation covers a ton of topics, including his methods for engaging with families to include them in their child’s curriculum, including fun family events and the challenges involved in getting them involved.He also goes into the difficulties teaching kids whose first language isn’t English, the lack of pay and funding and the importance of early education for succes...2024-08-1230 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareSocial Workers and The Challenges of caring for the Community - Tone DorseyIn this episode your host Tashieanna O’Connor sat down for a conversation with Tone Dorsey, an inspiring young social worker specializing in getting foster kids into, and through, a college education.He shares about challenges from lack of funding for the various programs and difficulties getting students with difficult backgrounds and issues like food insecurity to focus on their educations, despite distractions and challenges in their lives.He also talks about the importance of looking for opportunities for networking and learning in the community and in the field that students and children want to wo...2024-08-0525 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareChildcare Policies And Hope For The Future - Eva Bermúdez ZimmermanIn this episode Tasheianna O’Conner sat down for a fascinating chat with Eva Bermúdez Zimmerman of Childcare for Connecticut’s Future.In the frank, sometimes sad, but also positive discussion they covered the importance of early education and childcare on children, families and even the economy, as money spent on early education has huge financial benefit later in life as children grow into adults more prepared for life.Eva also talked about some of the fantastic organisation helping families nationally and in Connecticut and strategies at community and policy level to improve the lives...2024-07-2942 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareA Parent’s Struggles with Life and Childcare - JessicaIn this episode, your host and Childcare Professional Tashieanna sat down with Jessica. Jessica has had children in Tashieanna’s care and has been open about her struggles as a working mom. And the struggles are real despite the fact they are a two-parent home with two incomes.Tune in and learn about the struggles that people face even when they may seem fortunate as financial and social challenges get in their way, and get Jessica’s perspective on how government can make changes that will free people from the struggle and benefilt society. Rea...2024-07-2234 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareThe Childcare Industry from the InsideHave you ever wondered about what it’s like to run an in-home daycare? In this episode Tashieanna tells her story.Starting from her experiences as a mom looking for care for her own children, to the challenges of moving from New York to Connecticut. From starting a daycare in the early 2000s and the many positive steps taken in the years since to make child care a more sustainable career thanks to government support programs and the work of unions, get a cold hard look at what it takes to look after your kids when you go...2024-07-1527 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareA Parent’s Perspective on the Childcare IndustryIn this episode Tashieanna sat down for a glass of wine and a session of truth telling with one of her clients, Aaliyah.Aaliyah is a parent of twins, a single mom and has experience with Childcare Centers and At Home Childcare services so has a depth of knowledge and insight into the impact of childcare costs on families, and the strain that financial struggles place on childcare services.Sit down and join the discussion about the benefits and limits of Connecticut childcare funding, how it compares to New York and get some insights into h...2024-07-0831 minChildcare Challenges: Dilemmas in DaycareWelcome to 'Childcare Challenges: Dilemmas in Daycare'Join us as we delve into the pressing issues facing early educators and daycare services today. "Childcare Challenges: Dilemmas in Daycare" explores the myriad struggles that educators encounter, from low pay and inadequate health care to uncertain retirement and collecting payment. Rising costs, limited openings, and an overtaxed industry are pushing families to seek alternative childcare solutions, and these challenges not only affect children's development but also have significant implications for the economy. Through interviews with early educators, parents, policymakers, and experts, we aim to shed light on these critical issues and explore potential solutions. 2024-06-1601 min