ECE Professionals Slack Group

We have been talking to many people in the early education field in the last few weeks. First off, we hope you are safe and well as more and more of us find ourselves sheltering in place as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses. 

One of the things that motivates us to work harder is seeing the community come together in this challenging time. It gives us comfort to know that we are not alone in this and we want to help bring everyone in the profession together to support each other.  

If you would like to connect with other ECEs to exchange tips and strategies, share stories and resources, or meet like -minded people, we have created this ECE Professionals Slack Group for you. 

The intention of the group is to create a space for ECEs to meet each other online. In the group, you can share a good article you just read, ask for career advice, learn more about potential job openings in your area and meet like-minded people who are passionate about early education.

We are looking at this project as a living and breathing process, and so welcome any feedback to help make it as useful as possible for you. 

What is a Slack Group and how do I join? 

Slack is a messaging platform that is used by groups to communicate with each other. In each group, there are different channels that you can join which focus on a certain topic related to what the group has in common (we’ll get to that in a bit). 

Before joining the group, you will need to get the Slack app for desktop and mobile. Once you have the app, you can sign up for the group by clicking this link: https://join.slack.com/t/ece-professionals/

• Step 1: Download Slack Apps (Slack for Mac & Slack for Android) on your computer and/or phone.  
• Step 2: Make an account and log in.
• Step 3: Click on your name in Slack to edit your details! Add a picture if you’d like and you can spice your profile up as you like – go big or go minimal,  no judgment! 
• Step 4: Go to the #intro channel, say hi and let us know where you’re coming from and why you joined the group. 
• Step 5: Congrats! You’ve just posted your first Slack message. Now, join other channels that are relevant to you and connect with the awesome community.

Slack Tips 

Find an article that is relevant for a group but know someone in particular that would appreciate it? You can tag them in the message by using @mentions, that means addressing a specific person in Slack and you mention them in your post by using their username preceded by an “@” symbol. This is very similar to tagging people on LinkedIn or Facebook. 

Have some fun in your messaging! Use emoji to communicate. Slack has a variety of emojis and the option to create custom ones. Don’t be shy to use reactions instead of short messages. Her are some that you can start with: 

👋 – “Hello!”
👀 – “I’ve seen your message” 
👏 – “Well done!
➕ – “I agree” 

If you have any feedback, questions or comments, you can comment below or send them to carmen@himama.com.