Nargiz Mammadli and Emmanuel “Manny” Morando Neri each have a ardour for instructing, and particularly, instructing younger learners. Early Childhood Schooling Substitute Trainer Empowerment & Placement (ECE STEP) is trying to present connections and coaching to assist them pursue each.
With a watch towards careers in training, each Mammadli and Morando Neri stated they’ve gotten a lift from assets offered by the nonprofit generally generally known as ECE STEP.
“I was inspired to be a teacher when I was in third grade and I was 8 years old,” Mammadli stated. “She was so nice I decided right then I wanted to be a teacher.”
Morando Neri expressed an identical enthusiasm for instructing youthful youngsters.
“I’ve always liked the idea of being involved in early childhood education,” Morando Neri stated. “I can teach kids in early childhood education about social-emotional competencies. I can help children learn how to regulate and how to navigate through their emotions.”
ECE STEP launched a program in 2018 to assist individuals acquire abilities and discover posts as substitute academics — and pave the way in which for everlasting positions.
Manny Morando Neri a trainer with the Early Childhood Schooling Substitute Trainer Empowerment Program works with youngsters on the Kai Ming Kids’s Middle on Thursday, Oct. 30 2025, in San Francisco, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
“We want to train, manage, empower and place teachers in early childhood programs,” stated Sabrina Dong, an official with ECE STEP. “The whole concept is to address the shortage of teachers in the Bay Area. We bring in people with minimum experience as a teacher, and we support them all the way through the process. I am proud of the program. We are seeing a lot of success.”
No less than 300 academics have gone by means of this system, in response to Dong.
“We fill staffing gaps,” Dong stated. “It’s more than workforce development. The focus is also on teacher development and supplying the teacher pipeline. The goal is to transition our trainees so they can become permanent teachers.”
This form of coaching program is crucial at a time when certified academics are something however plentiful, Morando Neri stated.
“There’s an overall shortage of educators, but there’s also a shortage of educators who can address early childhood needs,” Morando Neri stated. “A lot of educators are older, and because they are older, they have a more traditional way of teaching that doesn’t address social-emotional learning.”
ECE STEP additionally seeks to create a welcoming environment that goes past the dry nuts and bolts of coaching periods, in response to Mammadli.
Lecturers Nargiz Mammadli, left, and Manny Morando Neri, proper, with the Early Childhood Schooling Substitute Trainer Empowerment Program work with youngsters on the Kai Ming Kids’s Middle on Thursday, Oct. 30 2025, in San Francisco, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
ECE STEP has been in a position to place academics in an array of early childhood packages, in response to Dong. These embrace Head Begin, Early Head Begin, and state-financed nonprofits that present early childhood training.
Each Mammadli and Morando Neri stated they’ve been in a position to educate at an Early Begin program website in Harmony after they went by means of the coaching program with ECE STEP.
The 2 academics additionally intention to grow to be entrepreneurs as soon as they get sufficient instructing expertise. Each need to transcend being employed academics and aspire to start out their very own daycare companies in some unspecified time in the future.
Officers at ECE STEP are involved that the present system of discovering substitute academics, a course of that’s normally finished underneath stress of last-minute trainer absences, is outmoded.
“Early childhood educators are often at the mercy of last-minute phone calls and Rolodexes when trying to resolve immediate teacher shortages,” states a pamphlet by ECE STEP.
Nargiz Mammadli, middle, a trainer with the Early Childhood Schooling Substitute Trainer Empowerment Program works with youngsters on the Kai Ming Kids’s Middle on Thursday, Oct. 30 2025, in San Francisco, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
ECE STEP believes a tech-powered method is a vital answer to the scramble to search out substitute academics.
“The STEP program replaces these clunky measures with an intuitive app that allows childhood educators to book a teacher with the push of a button,” ECE STEP states.
Morando Neri and Mammadli every stated they’ve been fast to type bonds with the younger youngsters they’re instructing.
“On my first day of shadowing at a program, the kids would run to me, try to hold my hand, and one wanted to play tag,” Morando Neri stated. “All the others were the same way.”
Mammadli additionally believes she is ready to present the youngsters with extra than simply early childhood instructing.
“I think I have a special bond with the kids,” Mammadli stated. “I can give them a comfort space. I love to be part of their lives, and to hear the stories they make up, and to experience the giggles and the hugs, and all of that.”
Nargiz Mammadli, second from left, a trainer with the Early Childhood Schooling Substitute Trainer Empowerment Program works with youngsters on the Kai Ming Kids’s Middle on Thursday, Oct. 30 2025, in San Francisco, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
HOW TO HELPDonations will assist Early Childhood Schooling Substitute Trainer Empowerment & Placement (ECE STEP) to broaden its East Bay operations, coaching and supporting 6 substitute academics to fill roughly 30 vacant school rooms and allow about 600 low-income youngsters to obtain high-quality care and studying. Purpose: $10,000
HOW TO GIVEDonate at sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate or by mail utilizing this kind. Donations are tax deductible.
ONLINE EXTRARead different Share the Spirit tales, view pictures and video at sharethespiriteastbay.org.
