June 4, 2019 Empowering and Strengthening Relationships Across Early Childhood Settings Join the Harvard Graduate School of Education on June 27 and 28 for “Empowering and Strengthening Relationships Across Early Childhood Settings,” a new program intended for early education leaders, principals, program directors, administrators, and teacher leaders. About “Empowering and Strengthening Relationships Across Early Childhood Settings” is offered as part of the Zaentz Professional Learning Academy, featuring the tools and resources of “Simple Interactions,” a collaboration between the Fred Rogers Center on Early Learning and Children’s Media and the Zaentz Initiative. Led by Faculty Co-Chairs Junlei Li, Nonie Lesaux, and Stephanie Jones, this two-day on-campus institute offers participants a combination of practice-based learning experiences, research and theoretical insights from both within and beyond the early childhood field, and community-supported problem-solving. Program Objectives Participants will: Define what is a developmental human interaction and how such interactions contribute to the full range of child development goals from language to social and emotional learning; Envision and plan how to support the development of young children’s helpers and empower adult-child human interactions; and Engage in practice-based conversations for professional learning settings and re-examine early childhood systems with a relationship-focused lens. Program Costs The program will be hosted on campus and will require a $199 tuition payment per person. Special rates are available for Program, Community, District, and Network Teams. Participants will receive a certificate of participation and a letter confirming clock hours of instruction. Tuition includes all instructional materials, however, participants will have to pay for associated travel expenses and hotel accommodations. For more information, visit their Payment page. Registration Registrations must be submitted by June 20, 2019, via the event website. More Information For more information, visit the event webpage or email ppe@gse.harvard.edu. Share this flyer with your network.
May 3, 2019 Call for Nominations: 2019 PACCA Awards PACCA is accepting nominations for the 2019 Educator of the Year and the Award of Excellence. The awards recognize contributions made by PACCA members to the early care and education profession. Members and non-members may make nominations. About the Awards The Educator of the Year Award The Educator of the Year Award honors outstanding service and accomplishments in the delivery of services to children. It is given to an individual at a PACCA member agency who has contributed significantly to the direct care and education of young children. We are seeking nominations for both center-based and family child care educators. It is suggested that the person has been a teacher for at least three years. The Award of Excellence The Award of Excellence honors outstanding service and accomplishments in the field of administration. The award is presented to a member of PACCA who has demonstrated qualities of vision (ability to see possibilities for making things happen and communicating this vision to others), teamwork (ability to work with and support others) and leadership (willingness to reach out to benefit the child care community). It is suggested that the person has been a director, executive director, administrator, or owner for three years. Eligibility In order to receive an award, nominees must meet specific eligibility guidelines that vary by award. To see these guidelines, visit PACCA’s website. Benefits In addition to receiving the award, awardees will receive the following benefits: Complimentary registration and hotel accommodations for the Early Childhood Education Summit, October 21-23, 2019 in State College Honored during the official awards presentation at the 2019 Early Childhood Education Summit Recognition in PACCA’s newsletter, website, and Facebook page How to Nominate To nominate a colleague, complete the nomination form and include a written description of why this person deserves the award. PACCA encourages testimonials from children, fellow staff, colleagues, and parents to illustrate your nominee’s exceptional work. Nomination Deadline: June 30, 2019 More Information For more information on the awards, nominating, and eligibility, visit PACCA’s website. *Information provided by PACCA
January 9, 2018 UnConference Through the generous support of PNC Grow Up Great, Trying Together is proud to present a series of UnConferences as part of its leadership and professional development courses. <span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span> About The UnConference is an innovative, hands-on professional development training format where a deeper experience is provided around a particular theme. Local and national speakers are invited to present and participants are encouraged to engage hands-on in the workshops. The day concludes with a roundtable discussion on how to apply these experiences and ideas in the early childhood environment as well as share ideas on how to partner with new colleagues. Would you like to hear about future UnConferences? Sign up to receive emails from us. Past UnConferences 2024 UnConference: Mental Health in Early Childhood Education, February 19 2023 UnConference: Race Equity in Practice, February 11 2022 UnConference: Creating a Safe Place with Trauma-Informed Care, February 8–18 2021 Exceptional Care with a Team Approach to Inclusion, January 19–29 2020 Virtual UnConference: Caring in a “New Normal”, September 14–23 Re-Opening to Our ‘New Normal’, May 26 2019 The Business of Child Care, October 19 Young Learner’s Guide to Tech, March 30 2018 P.R.I.D.E. Speaker Series – Reimagining Early Childhood: Being Intentional About Race and Young Children, September 27 Being Intentional about Race and Young Children, September 29 Play for Change, October 30 Destination Moon, November 3 2017 Maker Tots, May 20 (part of Remake Learning Days) Mindfulness, August 10 Get Dirty!, September 22 Friedberg-Segel Early Literacy featuring Hervé Tullet, October 14 2016 An unprecedented six UnConferences were held including: Total Leadership, March 9 Maker Tots, May 14 Children+Arts 2.0 Get Dirty! Fred Rogers—The Friend, Teacher, Advocate Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood 2015 The UnConference: Children+Arts was presented with the Reggio Emilia Pittsburgh Initiative, NAREA and the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh. In addition to a private tour of the “Wonder of Learning” exhibit presented by NAREA, this UnConference explored the importance of arts in early childhood education and highlighted its evolution of innovation through the lens of Reggio Emilia’s philosophy. Keynote speaker was Reggio Emilia expert Jennifer Strange. Workshop presenters included: Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Attack Theatre, Gemini Theater, Pittsburgh Opera, Carnegie Museum of Art and the Andy Warhol Museum. 2013 The inaugural UnConference, Game On! was presented in collaboration with the CREATE Lab and Google Pittsburgh. This UnConference focused on how to embrace and appropriately use old and new technology with young children. In addition, Trying Together presented a “hackathon” where app ideas presented by teachers were brought to life through a hackathon team of programmers, designers and teachers. Keynote speaker was Illah Nourbakhsh from CREATE Lab. Workshop presenters included: Google Pittsburgh, TechShop, Dream Flight Adventures at Shaler Elementary, Pittsburgh Center for Creative ReUse, Schell Games, MAYA Design, Education Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, CREATE Lab, MakeShop at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Etcetera Edutainment and Assemble.
