Workshops at a Glance
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Addressing Challenging Behaviors: Tools for the Classroom
More and more, teachers identify behavior problems in the classroom as a source of conflict, stress, and a barrier to learning. The quality of the program and skill level of the staff do not preclude some children from exhibiting behaviors that disrupt the group and limit individual learning. This workshop is designed to help participants reduce challenging behaviors, promote replacement skills, and better support the individual needs of children. |
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Brain Development: Applications for the Early Childhood Classroom
Did you know that by the first three years of life, a child's brain is 90% developed and has created a "template" that impacts the child's personality, social behavior, emotional resiliency, motor development, and learning ability? Early childhood educators play an important role in helping children's brains develop to become ready to learn. In this workshop, participants learn practical ways to create a "brain friendly" curriculum and classroom that help children reach their highest potential. |
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Challenging Behaviors: Developing a Positive Behavior Support Plan
Are you tired of reacting every day to the same challenging behaviors in the early childhood environment? Participate in this workshop to learn an intervention strategy that explores why children have challenging behaviors and how early childhood educators can stop reacting to challenging behaviors and develop a proactive approach that will make a difference. |
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Early Steps to Reading Success II
The ability to read is essential for academic success, and this two-day workshop focuses on the skills children need to ensure they are ready for kindergarten and beyond. Dialogic reading, vocabulary development, and awareness of phonics, alphabet, and print are the subjects that will be presented. Videos featuring teachers and providers modeling the ideal reading and learning techniques will allow participants to walk away with the knowledge needed to develop literacy skills in the young children they serve. (Please call for pricing on this workshop). |
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Everyone Pays the Price: Minimizing the Cost of Staff Turnover
This workshop focuses on the true cost of staff turnover and its broad implications. Losing a member of a child care team impacts more than dollars and cents. This session explores those deeper effects and provides tips to avoid turnover in the first place. |
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From Imagination to Discovery: Inspiring Young Scientists
How do early educators create a science-rich classroom and curriculum that invites children to learn and explore science? This workshop offers strategies to help early childhood educators incorporate science throughout early childhood environments from infant/toddler programs to early school-age. Discover things you can do that will encourage the development of science learning. |
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Leadership Series I: Introduction to Early Childhood Leadership
This session examines an overview of leadership in the early childhood education field. Classroom lecture and discussion will address the characteristics of leadership. Participants will draw from their personal experiences, as well as historical examples at both national and local levels. |
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Training the Early Childhood Trainer
Whether you offer free training, fee-for-service training, or staff development training, this conference provides innovative tips and strategies to utilize in your training environment. You will learn how to put theory into practice so you can sharpen your training skills immediately.
Please Join us for the 2nd Annual Training the Early Childhood Trainer Conference on September 22-24 in Los Angeles. Click here for more information. |
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Leadership Series II: Leadership Styles
Leadership theory abounds with guiding principles and examples that can assist the emerging early childhood leader. This session introduces the applied differences between management and leadership. Leaders help define and articulate a vision while managers implement and refine this vision. Class lecture and activities highlight skills and aptitudes necessary for leaders and discuss how the differences between management and leadership occur in daily roles and responsibilities. The session also addresses the four various leadership styles and asks participants to identify their personal style. |
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Leadership Series III: Leadership in Action
Understanding one's personal leadership style is the first step in learning to apply that style to day-to-day interactions with staff, community partners, and others. This session builds off of the previous session and offers participants practical ways to modify and adapt their individual style based on a variety of leadership opportunities. Through the use of case studies and lecture the discussion will focus on applications of leadership style and skills. This session also exposes participants to the concept of "servant leadership," the concept that the best leaders learn to follow others. |
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Leadership Series IV: Mentoring
Research shows that mentoring in early childhood education provides increased professional engagement, career longevity, and professional growth. Good leaders play a critical role in mentoring others in the field. This session introduces the foundations of mentoring in the early childhood education field. Through lecture and group discussions, participants gain an understanding of the role of a mentor and strategies to mentor others. Participants are exposed to Lilian Katz's "stages of preschool teacher development" to identify how to work with others. Class time will also focus on participants identifying their needs for a professional mentor. |
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Leadership Series V: Strategic Planning
Quality early childhood education programs thoughtfully engage and implement long- and short- term planning. Effective early childhood leaders facilitate this through strategic planning. Strategic planning concepts introduced include: setting goals, SWOT analysis, involving others, and specific steps to creating a strategic plan. Lecture and discussion will focus on the process and structure of strategic planning and will provide participants an opportunity to develop goals and plans for a need at their program. |
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Leadership Series VI: Improving Communication
High performing teams require all members to have strong communication skills. Understanding a variety of communication styles and techniques improves one's ability to effectively motivate and encourage others. This session introduces the types of communication (oral, written, and nonverbal,) as well as communication styles (drivers, expressive, amiable, and analytical). Participants are asked to identify and evaluate their own styles. Lecture, discussion and activities also focus on implementing specific communication models and techniques to improve communication. |
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Leadership Series VII: Building Teams and Partnerships
Developing and participating on strong teams is an integral component for each member of the early childhood field. Learning to perform on high functioning teams and working to identify issues is necessary for each member. This session identifies strategies for both, as well as highlights conditions necessary to form effective teams and partnerships. Lecture and discussion will introduce the concepts of "team roles" and the Four Stages of Team Development (forming, storming, norming, and performing). The session also addresses other key components of strong teams: shared decision making and consensus building. |
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Leadership Series VIII: Motivating Others
This session focuses on the role each individual plays in motivating others and self. Participants will understand extrinsic, intrinsic, and self-motivation in the context of a Control/Power Needs, Achievement/Creative Needs, Social/Affiliation Needs analysis. This session also addresses how coaching and mentoring contribute to how we are able to empower others. In addition, participants will learn how to empower others by developing delegation skills. |
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Leadership Series IX: Involving Others
Program leaders, along with many others, play a critical role in helping organizations partner with others through a collaborative process. During this session, concepts are introduced through lecture and discussion that highlight Gardner's "hierarchy of collaborative systems change" and institutionalization. Participants are also exposed to strategies for implementing formal and informal collaboration. |
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Leadership Series X: Advocacy and Public Policy
Engaged early childhood leaders need to stay abreast of the role of advocacy in the field. This session's lecture and discussion will provide a general overview of early childhood education advocacy trends (i.e., compensation issues, brain development, quality improvement efforts, and school readiness). Participants will also learn about ways to become involved in the advocacy process. |
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Leadership Series XI: SWOT Analysis to Support Advocacy and Public Policy
Building off of the previous session's content, this session focuses on specific strategies for implementing advocacy for systems change. The session addresses how to utilize a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to determine the feasibility of various quality improvement efforts in the early childhood field. Lecture and discussion applies these concepts to publicly funded program models (i.e., state preschool and Head Start), compensation, and universal preschool initiatives. Participants will explore these analysis to the fragmentation in the ECE system. |
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Leadership Series XII: Program Evaluation and Improvement
Improving the quality of early childhood programs starts with thoughtful and reflective program evaluation. Program evaluation sends a powerful message about a program's effectiveness to funders, partners, staff, and clients. This session highlights the Logic Model as a systematic way to implement a basic program evaluation by identifying and evaluating the inputs, outputs, and outcomes of the program. Participants will learn to select appropriate outcomes, collect data in an effective manner, and plan for specific program improvement goals for their own program. |
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Leadership Series XII: Informed Decision Making
Completing an evaluation is the first step in implementing changes from evaluation findings. A critical role of the ECE leader is to effectively communicate the findings and guide a productive and proactive process of change. This session provides specific tools to communicate with a variety of audiences. Lecture and discussion also introduce the theory of change management and how to effectively and positively guide staff and others through a challenging period of change. |
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Leadership Series XIV: Resource Development
Fund and resource management is a key responsibility for any early childhood leader. This session focuses on how leaders can identify and expand funding opportunities for their programs. Specifically, the lecture and discussion highlight how grant seeking and fundraising can be easily and creatively achieved. The session highlights common pitfalls of fund development and provides specific tools to utilize when creating fund development plans. Participants will identify a specific need relevant to their individual program improvement goals and craft a fund development plan to support the goal. |
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Leadership Series XV: Promoting Professional Development
Ongoing professional growth is a critical component of fostering leadership in the ECE field. Emerging leaders need to maintain enthusiasm and interest through constant growth and development. This session offers strategies for reducing stress and maintaining professional development, including setting boundaries, building support systems, time management, and long-term planning. Through class activities, participants will identify strategies to implement a professional and personal growth plan. |
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Participatory Management: Building Strong Staff Teams
Learn to delegate dynamically through participatory management. A philosophy and framework that encourages staff input and influence over decisions affecting children, families, and the working environment. Learn how to create a safe, blame-free environment that supports healthy staff communication, group problem solving, team consensus building, and positive relationships. |
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Running on Empty? Refueling Ideas for the Early Childhood Profession
It is no surprise that the demands of our profession, early childhood care and education, can become overwhelming. However, we can learn to avoid and prevent situations that lead to stress and loss of energy. Join other early childhood educators and administrators in an interactive and informative session to examine the causes and symptoms of increasing demands and strategies to diminish the intensity of your work environment. |
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TAP: Teachers and Parents Learning to Dance Together
Being an effective early childhood educator means partnering with the families in your care. Participate in this workshop to develop new strategies for engaging parents in your early childhood program and come away with fun-filled ideas and resources that will help you learn to dance together.
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