To counter the pressure, stress, and chaos around us, professionals need to practice healthy, practical habits, and routines of wellness and self-care. They also need to rise up to the expectations of taking care of students and their colleagues, amidst the challenges of this unprecedented school season.
In this engaging, fun-filled webinar, Dr. Tina Boogren and Dr. Timothy Kanold will provide practical strategies to avoid exhaustion and burnout and give you the courage and permission to attend to a more balanced and joyful professional life! Time for questions will be provided.
Registration
This webinar is best suited for prek-12 teachers, librarians, and school and district leaders. To register, visit the EdWeb website.
News
August 31, 2020
Virtual Community of Practice Meetings
Are you interested in discussing topics of interest and current trends with fellow professionals in the early childhood field? Join ELRC Region 5 for their virtual Community of Practice sessions!
About
Community of Practice sessions provide early learning professionals with opportunities to discuss topics of interest, current trends in the early childhood field, and offer insight and inspiration to their fellow professionals.
In September, these virtual sessions will discuss the most current school-age care updates, information, trends, resources, and professional development opportunities. Participants will connect with out-of-school-time partners and professionals, and they will receive support as new or existing school-age care programs. The session will also focus on supporting virtual learning, daily schedules, and keeping the children engaged.
Available Sessions
Saturday, September 12: School-Age Care Updates
10 a.m. | Zoom Meetings | Attend the Session
PA-AIMH strives to provide a meaningful professional learning environment for all cross-sector professionals working with very young children and their families. Keynote topics will include:
Infant and early childhood mental health-focused policy and messaging;
Clinical interventions;
Disaster and critical incident response; and
Reflective supervision and practice.
PQAS and Act 48 credits available for professionals in the Early Childhood Education system.
Implicit Bias, Cultural Humility, & Parent Engagement Workshop
Join the Partnerships for Family Support Office of Child Development on June 27 for their Implicit Bias, Cultural Humility, & Parent Engagement workshop. This training is for staff of centers in the Allegheny County Family Support Network.
About
This interactive workshop explores various strength-based strategies to increase immigrant and refugee parent engagement. Participants attending this training will have the opportunity to reflect on their current practice, understand and apply the cultural humility perspective when designing and implementing parenting activities, and identify specific steps to enhance their knowledge and skills in working with diverse families.
Learning Objectives
Participants will:
Reflect on how social stereotypes impact their work with immigrant and refugee families;
Apply a cultural humility perspective to analyze scenarios and propose solutions that respond to the characteristics and interests of immigrant/refugee families; and
Discover key strategies and best practices to develop relationships with diverse families, support families in their parenting, and advocate with them for culturally relevant services and resources.
The APOST Summer Conference for Out-of-School Time is a professional development conference that shares best practices in youth development. This conference is open to youth practitioners who desire to increase their skills in working with youth in out-of-school time programs or in mentoring relationships. This year’s event will feature Keynote Speaker Timothy Jones, an expert in youth development and hip-hop culture/pedagogy who has developed, implemented, and evaluated out-of-school time programs inside and outside of schools for over 20 years.
Limited free parking is available, but carpooling is recommended.
For questions, contact APOST via phone at 412.456.6876.
News
May 9, 2019
Historic Increases for Early Learning & Development Programs
The House Appropriations Committee recently approved the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education spending bill for FY2020, which outlines funding for early care and learning programs critical to babies’ development. The first three years are a time in development unmatched by any other later point in life. But the recently released State of Babies Yearbook: 2019 reveals troubling early warning signs that too many young children face conditions that place their development – and our future – at risk.
About the Bill
The bill includes historic increases to key early learning and development programs that can help to reverse this path we have set for our future, including:
An increase of $2.4 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant;
$525 million increase in the set-aside for the expansion of Early Head Start, including through EHS-Child Care Partnerships;
Doubling of the Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Grant Program, to a total of $10 million; and
An increase of $21.3 million for Part C Early Intervention.
By laying the foundation today for 12 million infants and toddlers living in the U.S., we are investing in our society’s future.
On behalf of OCDEL and hosted by WCCC’s Early Childhood Education/Pre-K – Grade 4 Program, the “Behaviors: Ours & Theirs” mini-conference will focus on improving practitioners’ knowledge and skill to support children’s social and emotional development through culturally relevant practices, as well as exploring how to apply these skills to practitioners’ CQI plans.
About
Early childhood professionals are invited to attend a personalized mini-conference experience. Attendees will split into two groups and presenters will offer each session two times so that each group will have an opportunity to participate in both sessions. Participants will be provided with a continental breakfast, welcome and introduction, two educational sessions (each including a bound notebook of instructional materials), and a tour of WCCC’s NAEYC accredited Campus Children’s center.
This event includes 3 credit hours; PQAS approved. Participants should be familiar with the ECERS and other Keystone STARS CQI tools such as CLASS, PAS, and Good, Better Best.
Learning Objectives
Attendees will be able to:
Discuss and recognize positive observation and interactions with children and families,
Examine and organize their understanding of culture and how positive interactions can lead to solid relationships with children and families,
Review commonly used Keystone STARS CQI tools to determine areas where changes or improvements can be made in their programs,
Explain why these changes will enhance the positive social and emotional development of children, and
Discuss how these changes will also help them recognize and value cultural diversity.
Registration is required and is $15 for the first 50 registrants! This fee is due (paid by check) on the day of the event, June 1, 2019. To learn more about the event, visit the PD Registry website.
Join Healthy Start for BreastFED, Pennsylvania’s only regional breastfeeding summit. BreastFED is a two-day regional symposium aimed at providing information from professionals and community experts locally, regionally, and nationally on innovative approaches to address the needs of mothers and lactation practitioners in this region.
Throughout the two days, participants will receive both clinical and community perspectives and will be able to share insights and experiences to move forward with best practices and groundbreaking methods to changing the culture of feeding our babies.
This summit is approved for a maximum of 10.75 continuing nursing education contact hours. The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
For any questions, contact Healthy Start by phone at 412.247.4009 or email at email@hsipgh.org.
News
April 5, 2019
Learning to Listen: Webinar Series
Join Brazelton Touchpoints Center for the Learning to Listen webinar series, as they celebrate Dr. Brazelton’s enduring legacy by learning from other masterful communicators about what children and parents have taught them through the power of listening.
Available Times & Topics
The series includes three webinars:
May 21, 2019, 2:00 PM: Listen With More than Our Ears: Helping Children through Simple, Ordinary Interactions
T. Berry Brazelton, MD (1918 – 2018) foresaw the many new challenges facing families today, including the interference of social media and digital technology with family relationships and child development, and their polarizing effects on public debate. Brazelton was a master of the kind of observation and listening so desperately needed today, and helped generations of parents and professionals around the world to learn to listen to babies, children and to each other.
News
March 29, 2019
Trauma-Informed Care: Training Session
Our past experiences – personal, familial, societal – influence our brain development and shape how we interpret and respond to the world. Sometimes adults do not recognize how these experiences manifest as behaviors and they unintentionally harm children. This introductory session is designed to change participants’ approach to the behaviors children exhibit to decrease the likelihood of triggering them.
Session Objectives
Participants will be introduced to the Trauma-Informed Care framework.
Participants will become familiar with the foundations of Trauma-Informed Care.
Participants will understand complex trauma and the parts of the brain related to trauma.
Participants will learn to recognize the impacts of trauma.
*A certificate of participation will be given upon request.
Session Focus Areas
General Overview
Trauma-Informed Care Framework
Complex Trauma including Brain Development
Impacts of Trauma
What ELIE Circle Is Bringing
Self-Reflection
Self-Care
Growth Mindset
Intentionally Building Relationships
Importance
Barriers including Race and Gender
Techniques
Communication
Importance
Barriers
Techniques including Motivational Interviewing, Empathic Communication, Restorative Practices
About ELIE Circle
ELIE Circle works to eliminate that through professional development training sessions that create trauma-informed communities – environments that focus on not re-traumatizing individuals and assist with development that may have been lost or delayed due to trauma – emotion regulation and empathy for example. ELIE Circle provides the following professional development services:
Collaboration to create training sessions for organizations
Consultation on creating trauma-informed out-of-school programs
Facilitation of discussions with Q&A
*Each customer receives a free consultation meeting to discuss organizational needs.
Questions & Concerns
For any questions or concerns, contact Debralyn Woodberry-Shaw, MSW, LSW at eliecircle@gmail.com.
