McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Migdalia Young | April 3, 2015

This document may be printed, photocopied, and disseminated freely with attribution. All content is the property of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.

For many years I worked as a director of a NAEYC accredited and Reggio-inspired early childhood program located in the Pilsen area, a predominantly Mexican community in Chicago. The Chicago Commons Guadalupano Family Center where I worked strongly valued cultural differences. Making children and their families feel at home was important to our program, and providing our children with diverse, multicultural experiences was a key component. We strived to create an environment that was welcoming and represented the culture of the families we served. 


The following are some examples of ways we demonstrated our commitment to valuing the diversity of our children. These are ideas you too can do to help children and parents feel welcome in your program. You’ll see some photos of how we worked in these values into our space: 


  1. Add books, pictures, music, furniture, and other materials such as pots and pans, dishes, and pottery that represent families’ culture or are relevant to their culture to the dramatic play area. 
  2. Serve a variety of foods that are common in the families’ cultures. 
  3. Add furniture from their culture to common areas such as parents waiting areas. 
  4. Hire staff that speak the parents’ and child’s home language, live in their community, and/or understand their culture. 
  5. Translate materials, such as projects and artwork displays throughout the program, into families’ home language(s). 
  6. Create a mural or other display where families can tell stories about where they came from or stories from/about their communities. 
  7. Create displays where families can express their hopes and dreams for their children. 


Parents and children feel valued when there are visual representations of their culture/community throughout the program and when program staff speak their home language. In addition to making families feel valued, this will also help children develop a sense of belonging. 

Interested in exploring this topic more? I invite you to check out the following resources: 


Migdalia Young is an Assessor and Training Specialist at the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership. Prior to joining the McCormick Center, Migdalia worked for many years as a director of a NAEYC Accredited and Reggio-inspired early childhood program.

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The AI-Enabled Administrator: Reclaim Valuable Time

By Dr. Neal Green • February 8, 2026
Tools: Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, Perplexity Spaces Overview The evidence is clear that early childhood professionals' most significant challenge is a lack of time. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, when used strategically, can give administrators some of the time they desperately need, allowing them to focus more on their staff and the children and families in their care. This approach aligns with the foundational goal of strengthening leadership effectiveness and program impact (Abel, Talan, & Masterson, 2023). When I scan the AI landscape of available products and platforms, it becomes overwhelming. There are so many options that it is impossible to keep up with every new development. Focusing on a limited number of AI tools backed by organizations with strong infrastructure and fiscal stability is a wise place to start your AI journey. McCormick Institute for Early Childhood’s (MIEC’s) upcoming professional development sessions will focus on three AI tools. These include Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, and Perplexity Spaces. Think of Gemini Gems as your customized AI assistant that you "train" to follow your rules and meet your goals. Gemini Gems are the right tool to tackle Internal Operations . NotebookLM is perfect for creating Family Support resources that stick. NotebookLM is a powerful AI tool that uses only the documents or other resources you add to generate specific, focused output. Perplexity Spaces is a fantastic choice to address Marketing demands. Like many AI tools, you can toggle back and forth between open web searches and focused documents that are specific to your work. Gemini Gems: The “Specialist Teammate” Gemini Gems allow you to create templates you can use repeatedly for agendas, HR policies, and more. If you have used AI in the past, you know that writing an effective prompt takes time, and they can easily get "lost" if you use AI often. Gems removes that challenge and lets you save your most effective prompts without having to rewrite them every time you use Gemini. It is up to you to decide if you want to create several smaller Gems to tackle common challenges you face or create larger Gems that encompass large swaths of your work. For our purposes, we will focus our Gem work on Internal Operations, addressing Program Administration Scale (PAS) Item 9: Internal Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). Imagine using a Gem to turn messy staff meeting notes into professional minutes with clear action plans in minutes or less! NotebookLM: The "Walled Garden" NotebookLM is an excellent tool for Family Support for your center, addressing PAS Item 17: Family Support and Involvement (Talan & Bloom, 2011). After uploading documents and resources, such as your parent handbook or community referral lists, to your Notebook, you can create several resources that parents/guardians of your center students will love. Just a few of the impressive features available with NotebookLM include audio (podcast) summaries, video summaries, and reporting functions with templates or the option to create your own report with metrics that matter most to you. Perplexity Spaces: The "Research Librarian" Perplexity Spaces is a perfect AI partner for Marketing your early childhood education (ECE) program, addressing PAS Item 18: External Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). You can build your own centralized repository, with control over branding to ensure consistency and present a professional, current image. Adding specific instructions to your space eliminates the need to format documents constantly and saves valuable time. The consistency that a Perplexity Space offers in this regard allows you to upload messages that are the "voice” of your brand. Your marketing efforts are not only more aesthetically pleasing but also enable you to track trends at similar centers in your area, helping you assess the competition. Strategies for Success: Audit your Internal Communications: Identify one repetitive task, such as creating staff meeting agendas (PAS Item 9), and automate it with a Gemini Gem. Curate your Family Resources: Gather three to five existing documents to "feed" a NotebookLM project for more responsive family support (PAS Item 17). Standardize your Brand: Use a Perplexity Space to ensure all public relations tools project a consistent, professional image (PAS Item 18). Reflection Questions: Which administrative task takes the most time away from your interactions with staff and families? How might centralizing marketing materials (branding) impact the professional image to prospective families? Table 1: AI Tools for ECE Professionals
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