Center-Approved PD

Character-Building: 10 Crucial Concepts Regarding Character Education for the Early Childhood Classroom

The early childhood years provide a solid foundation for what a child needs to learn regarding social, moral, and intellectual development. By attending this workshop, participants will learn how to develop the type of environment and daily learning opportunities that teach children character values such as respect, responsibility, and courtesy. Participants will share their own ideas for promoting character building, and will learn new strategies along the way to take back to their classrooms.

Following the Leader

This workshop will explore various characteristics of leadership and how every early childhood professional (regardless of role or title) has a unique opportunity to be a leader in his/her own way. While there are certain universal qualities that all leaders embody, the early childhood field includes some unique traits that will be discussed and shared, including communication with families, advocacy work, and community involvement.

S.O.S. — Smiling on Stress

Who couldn’t benefit from lowering their stress level on the job, or in their personal life? This workshop will assist you in identifying some of your stress triggers and help you develop strategies to help you de-stress, both in the moment and as long-term goals. We will also discuss strategies that help not only adults de-stress, but children too, such as deep breathing, spending time outdoors on mindfulness walks, and yoga movements. One additional feature of these strategies is the art of aromatherapy, which will conclude the workshop.

Literacy Throughout the Day: Creating Literacy and Math-Rich Environments

Most early childhood classrooms already include Library and Writing Centers in their environments. This training will help teachers consider how every learning center can incorporate both literacy and math elements. Once a teacher begins to expand these components throughout the classroom, the teacher will also see how easy and fun it is to integrate these components into any lesson.

Loving Literacy with Little Ones: 10 Engaging Ways to Promote Language Acquisition with Infants and Toddlers

Language development happens at lightning speed during the first two years of life. This workshop will introduce many ways to create an infant and/or toddler classroom filled with language, based on activities that can be easily woven into the daily routine.

What’s All the Fuss about EF? (Executive Function)

Have you heard people discussing the importance of executive functioning skills, but were confused as to what this topic is all about? This workshop will answer many of your questions by offering an overview of executive function, briefly discussing the architecture of how the brain develops, and offering resources and strategies for children that are struggling with self-regulation, attention issues, and creative thinking.

School-Age Care: Learning By Design

Understand the school-age child and how to create an environment that engages the whole child and fosters learning. Examine how to encourage exploration, uncover interests, and support peer relationships in a school-age environment. Identify the basic needs of school-age children and learn how to create an environment that supports these needs. Assess the role the environment plays in learning and describe an ideal, quality learning environment for school-age children. Explore a variety of strategies and activities to support peer relationships, self-esteem, literacy and math learning, and physical development. Through interactive learning activities, group discussion forums, scenarios, and reflective writing exercises, participants will gain a solid understanding of the school-age child and creating an environment that supports personal needs, learning, and development.

The Developing Infant and Toddler

As infants and toddlers grow and develop, they are establishing a foundation for learning that prepares them for success as they enter school and later in life. Beyond establishing responsive care and a nurturing environment, infant and toddler educators also have the responsibility to provide experiences that stimulate the developing brain and create pathways for learning. In order for teachers to effectively support infants and toddlers as they learn, they must increase their knowledge about theories of learning, brain development, and teacher practices that support learning. In this course, participants explore the basis for how infants and toddlers learn and the developmental goals and observable teacher behaviors that support school readiness. There is a focus on three areas of infant and toddler development that underpin learning and the associated competencies for infant and toddler educators.

Developmental Milestones: Teacher, Teacher, What Do You See?

Teachers will expand their knowledge of developmental milestones and be able to find free, high-quality tools to use in this process. View photos and videos of milestones to ensure you recognize milestones “in action.” Explore how to have difficult conversations with parents and think through responses to a variety of scenarios you may face with the families you serve. You will be knowledgeable of where to refer families for additional help. Practice tracking the milestones of one child, review the process with other course participants, and discuss how to begin tracking the milestones of the community of children in your care.

The Nuts and Bolts of Developmental Screening–online

Developmental delays, learning disorders, and behavioral and social-emotional problems are estimated to affect 1 in every 6 children. Only 20% to 30% of these children are identified as needing help before kindergarten, meaning the vast majority miss out on the benefits of early intervention. Because early educators spend so much time with children, they are in a great position to change this. The Nuts and Bolts of Developmental Screening covers the importance of developmental monitoring and developmental screening, as well as how to monitor, choose a screening tool, talk with parents, use screening results in the classroom, and more. Participants will practice monitoring and will do a thorough review of multiple screening tools.

Dual Language Learners

The number of dual language learners in early care and education programs and public schools in the United States has risen over the past 20 years, with some states experiencing over a 200% rate of growth. Currently, nearly one out of three children enrolled in preschool programs come from homes in which a language other than English is spoken. Regardless of whether a child began learning multiple languages at birth or was first exposed to English upon entry to an early care and education program, the same strategies can be used to help her become proficient in her home languages and in English.

This course covers separating myths from facts, creating a supportive environment, supporting English language and literacy acquisition, supporting the home language, and assessment. Participants will be able to define dual language learning in the early childhood education classroom. They will learn to assess the roles of parent, child, and teacher in supporting dual language learning. They will be exposed to the components of best practice for including more than one language in the classroom. Finally, they will learn to implement a variety of activities that support dual language learners.

Cut the Cooties! Communicable Disease Prevention in Child Care

This course provides a foundation for health practices, and it closely parallels the “Health” section of the “Health, Safety, and Wellness” Domain. This training presents information and practice to iterate program policy, illness, medication administration, disinfection, and education to students about healthy hygiene. This course builds skills to protect students, teachers, and centers from illness by following requirements and procedures. Education is most impactful when students and teachers are healthy; when their bodies are able to function at their best, their brains perform likewise. Cut the Cooties structures and emphasizes the necessary precautions to better prepare teachers to maintain a healthy learning environment.

Child Language Development & Signs of Delay

Learn about typical, delayed, and disordered language development and how to address concerns about a child’s language development. Gain an understanding of what language is, identify the five components of language development, and describe typical language developmental milestones for infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children. Participants will be able to identify examples of typical, delayed, and disordered language development as well as the four kinds of language and speech disorders. Learn when and how to refer a child for early intervention and special education services. Understanding language, the important developmental milestones for speaking and listening, and risk indicators enable teachers to create a supportive learning environment.

Your Path to Teacher Leadership

To be a teacher leader is to commit to supporting the growth of development of not only the children in your classroom, but of your colleagues, your program, and the profession of early childhood education. This course helps professionals understand what it means to be a teacher leader and supports you examining ways you might increase your influence for the benefit of others, by reflecting on the five teacher leader competencies and how you might support your growth in each. As you set goals around these competencies, you are deliberately plotting your own path to teacher leadership.

Nourishing Healthy Eaters in Early Childhood

Shortly after birth, via breast or bottle, our food stories begin, and they continue throughout our lives. Our early feeding and eating experiences influence our eating habits as adults. For children in full-day early education settings, a significant part of their food stories are created away from home. In this course, provided by Nemours Children’s Health System, we will cover basic information about nutrition and wellness for children and adults, explore the role of nutrition in several areas of growth and development, and consider the character that ECE professionals play in children’s food stories – your part in Nourishing Healthy Eaters.

Phonological Awareness: The Connection of Sounds to Reading

Phonological awareness is a set of skills that develop a child’s ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in language. Research has demonstrated that phonological awareness is a critical factor for reading success. In order for teachers to effectively support the development of phonological awareness, they must be able to identify phonological awareness skills and tasks in the proper sequence of development. Through interactive learning activities, group discussion forums, classroom examples and videos, and reflective writing exercises, participants will learn phonological awareness skills, tasks, and activities to engage children in learning that is targeted and fun.

Building Resilience After Natural Disasters–online

While some people easily bounce back from adversity brought on by a natural disaster, others struggle to overcome the experience and its aftereffects. Resilience – the ability to adapt or recover from a traumatic event – can be learned during childhood or later in adulthood. Building Resilience After a Natural Disaster is a two-part course: Part I addresses how traumatic events affect the physiological and mental well-being of adults, how resilience support well-being, and how to strengthen one’s resilience. Part II provides information on how to support children after natural disasters, including recognizing when a child might need extra help recovering, and building resilience to improve their ability to “bounce back” throughout life.

Honoring all Families

Build the knowledge and skills needed to interact with culturally diverse families in a manner that is respectful and appropriate to their diverse needs. This course strengthens educators’ cultural competency, including understanding how distinct cultural perspectives influence interactions with families. This course equips participants with an awareness and understanding of different cultural groups and provides strategies to effectively engage culturally diverse families, including families of children with disabilities, families who identify as LGBT, and families from different refugee and immigrant communities. This is the third course in the Quorum family engagement series.

Responsive Feeding for Infants and Toddlers

Many caregivers approach feeding infants and toddlers using strategies similar to how they were raised. These traditional and often nonresponsive feeding practices can lead to overweight infants and toddlers, which is becoming more frequent in the United States.

Responsive feeding gives children the opportunity to notice, understand, and trust their bodies’ cues. This helps to build the skills they need to self-regulate food intake and has been shown to prevent obesity. If caregivers do not watch closely, it is easy to overfeed infants and toddlers. Regular overfeeding can eventually override a child’s internal controls, so that they no longer have appropriate hunger and fullness cues, or don’t recognize those cues.

Responsive Caregiving: Nurturing Relationships with Infants and Toddlers

Responsive caregiving is the foundation of quality infant and toddler care. Nurturing relationships, one component of responsive caregiving, creates a secure base for infants and toddlers to develop socially and emotionally. When infants and toddlers spend time in the care of others in various settings, caregivers and families share the responsibility of developing nurturing relationships. This course begins with an overview of responsive caregiving, then goes deeper into the aspects of developing nurturing relationships with infants and toddlers. Participants will explore Attachment Theory which is at the heart of responsive caregiving, examine the role of the caregiver in understanding social and emotional development, and review a variety of communication strategies that foster nurturing relationships.

Waves of Reflection: Building the Foundation for Becoming an Anti-Bias Educator

This series is designed to enhance your understanding of anti-bias education in the early childhood classroom by using a variety of reflective methods. These methods include journaling, dialogue, mindfulness practices, and more. My hope is for you to use these tools in your own unique way as a means to foster intrinsic and systematic change in your teaching practice and in the world beyond.

Counting on Math: Bringing Math to Life in Everday Routines

Wondering if you’re offering enough daily opportunities in meaningful math skills, beyond rote counting? Looking for new ways to foster deeper meaning in your math curriculum? Do you have a math center that offers a child a balance of hands-on opportunities to work alone, and also time with others to become a mathematical thinker? This session will provide a richer understanding of the many ways in which math is already embedded in your everyday activities and routines, and how to capitalize on those teachable moments. Participants will explore ways to enhance mathematical learning in developmentally appropriate ways for the curious young child. Just as literacy requires a spectrum of concepts for learning to read, the process for mathematical skills is equally complex and intentional. It also requires an emerging desire for playful math experiences. Children are naturally engaged in math from outdoors to indoors, from sorting to balancing blocks to telling you another child has “More toys than me!” Don’t just hope you’ll come away with new ideas and angles….you can COUNT on it!

Developing and Implementing a PBIS Model in Your Program (to Assist with Challenging Behaviors)

Are you looking for assistance with both classroom and behavior management that moves beyond quick fixes and magic wands? Then this is the workshop for you! This training will introduce participants to the basics of PBIS (Positive Behavior, Interventions and Supports) and help them develop and implement a system- wide approach to teach and encourage pro-social skills and behaviors. Participants will also be offered specific social-emotional examples of tools to implement in their classrooms and be able to view short video clips of exemplary classrooms. Some examples are picture schedules and social stories.

Active Minds/Active Bodies Part 3: Extending the Journey Further — Helping Children Benefit from a Focus on Physical Activity and Nutrition

This training is the third training of my first two Active Minds/Active Bodies workshops. The purpose of this training is to further help participants continue their work of integrating both physically active learning opportunities and nutritional activities into their daily routines on an ongoing basis.

Time Management: Making the Clock Work for You

Do you find yourself running out of time? Often, it seems there just are not enough hours in the day to fit everything in. This workshop explores common mistakes regarding managing time (such as multi-tasking, procrastinating, not creating goals, etc.) and steps one can take to make improvements.