April 23, 2020 Supporting Your Child’s Learning in Everyday Activities Are you interested in learning how to support your child’s learning in everyday activities? Join Autism Navigator on April 28 for their webinar, “How-To Guide for Families: Supporting Your Child’s Learning in Everyday Activities.” About Autism Navigator is collaborating with the Autism Science Foundation to host a webinar that will review what it takes to learn to talk – the gestures, sounds, and actions; how to support children’s learning in everyday activities; and how Autism Navigator and Baby Navigator online resources can support families. Specifically, this webinar will explore their How-To Guide for Families and ways that families can use this resource to help develop their child’s social communication skills. In celebration of Autism Awareness Month, the hosts will offer enrollment in their How-To Guide for free to all families of children ages one to six years old who join this webinar. Registration To register, visit the event webpage.
April 3, 2020 Building Students’ Social-Emotional Strength Through Literacy Are you interested in learning about classroom-ready resources that support social-emotional learning? Join Dr. Nancy Boyles on April 7 for the webinar, “Building Students’ Social-Emotional Strength Through Literacy.” About During this webinar, participants will gain a better understanding of CASEL focus areas that impact personal strength: managing feelings, a positive view of self, developing self-confidence, controlling impulsive behaviors, setting goals, and skill in communicating. This will include a reflection on questions for professionals in each area, an introduction to noteworthy picture books aligned to the focus areas, and application of a student-friendly questioning strategy for starting SEL conversations. This webinar will be of interest to pre-k through high school teachers, librarians, and school leaders. Time for questions will be included. Registration To register and learn more, visit the event webpage!
March 31, 2020 Understanding the Impact of Coronavirus on K-12 Education As of early March, the COVID-19 coronavirus has put about 300 million students out of school around the world, as communities and whole countries try to contain its spread. Join EdSurge for weekly live webinars on how K-12 schools are coping, the move to remote learning, and how students and educators are being impacted by the virus. EdSurge K-12 Editor Stephen Noonoo and other editors and reporters will host different panelists each week to discuss the latest developments in this rapidly evolving situation. Series Topics Some of the topics series panelists will discuss include: equity; special education; universal design for learning; parent communications; social-emotional learning; remote instruction for early learning; and lessons learned from Chinese educators (Wednesday, April 8 at 7 p.m.). Registration To register and learn more, visit the event webpage.
March 17, 2020 Bullying Prevention and SEL: What Can I Do Now? Are you interested in learning best practices in social-emotional learning and bullying prevention? Join Leah Galkowski from the Center for Safe Schools on March 24 for her webinar, “Bullying Prevention and SEL: What Can I Do Now?” About The research tells us that evidence-based practices in social-emotional learning and bullying prevention help students to be successful in school. The question is: “What does that look like?” This interactive webinar will provide a brief overview of best practices in social-emotional learning and bullying prevention. Participants will be provided with some simple, hands-on strategies to implement in their schools and classrooms that will support students and teachers in building a positive, cohesive, and welcoming environment. Registration To register and learn more, visit the event webpage!
Social-Emotional Learning and Equity: Follow the Data Join Education Week on March 25 for their webinar, “Social Emotional Learning and Equity: Follow the Data.” About Providing equitable opportunities for young people’s social, emotional, and academic growth is paramount. Equity in education goes deeper than providing equal education to all students. Equity in education is providing each student with the education they need to live and thrive. Hear the most recent findings of ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning and how SEL can be leveraged to promote equity. Get a first-hand look at some of the most recent data compiled, using measures of SEL achievement across diverse populations, and an understanding of which approaches yield the most substantive results. And briefly preview ACT’s SEL Solutions—evidence-based K-12 student curriculum, a suite of ELL options, educator professional development, and assessment—that align with CASEL’s 5 core competencies. Registration To register and learn more, visit the event webpage. *Information provided by Education Week
March 5, 2020 New Early Childhood Mental Health Survey Available The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) invites early childhood education professionals, family members, higher education staff, and mental, physical, and oral healthcare professionals to take a brief survey regarding their experiences and communications around early social-emotional development. Survey results will be used to assist the Infant Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMH) Project in developing tools for families and professionals to use in understanding and obtaining supports around early childhood social-emotional health. Take the Survey Click here to complete the survey. All surveys must be submitted by April 7, 2020. More Information on Early Childhood Mental Health For more information about the IECMH Project, visit the Pennsylvania Key website. For more early childhood related news, please visit Trying Together’s News Section here. *Information provided by The Pennsylvania Key
February 17, 2020 Message from Me Expands Its Services Nationwide Made possible by PNC Grow Up Great, Message from Me is expanding its reach nationwide to serve parents, caregivers, and early care and education professionals in more than 50 PNC networks. About Although children are developing critical language and literacy skills in their early learning environments, they sometimes struggle to communicate what they learned to the adults and caregivers around them. That’s why Trying Together and Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab collaborated to develop Message from Me, a digital tool designed in alignment with the NAEYC and Fred Rogers Center Joint Position Statement on Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children Birth through Age 8. Program Director Katie Gullone defines Message from Me as a child-led digital tool designed to strengthen relationships and provide children opportunities to share their thoughts and feelings with the adults most important to them. Implemented in early learning programs and classrooms, the digital tool provides caregivers with a series of pictures and audio messages of their child’s daily learning experiences. Delivered through email or text, these messages build connections between home and early learning environments by providing children with a platform to share their voice, feelings, and perspective on the world around them. Why It Matters Caring, responsive adult-child relationships play a critical role in the healthy development of young children, and these types of relationships are exactly what Message from Me helps to foster. “When children are exposed to high-quality early learning environments, they gain access to credentialed professionals who support their development through child-led, developmentally-appropriate activities and learning experiences. Message from Me was developed to ease the transition between school and home. By receiving photos and audio messages of their child’s early learning experiences, parents and caregivers gain a frame of reference they can build from when interacting with their early learner.” – Cara Ciminillo, Executive Director, Trying Together Thanks to PNC Grow Up Great for their continued sponsorship of Message from Me. With their generous support, countless children, families, and early care and education professionals throughout the country will now gain an opportunity to further nurture their adult-child relationships through the latest expansion of Message from Me. Impact To date, Message from Me has been implemented in early learning centers and school districts in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Utah, Michigan, and Atlanta Public Schools. Through its nationwide expansion, Message from Me looks forward to engaging more children and families as early childhood professionals begin implementing Message from Me in their classrooms. More Information Educators interested in using Message from Me receive hands-on professional development that supports teaching practices when using digital technologies with children. Trying Together exclusively provides the professional development for Message from Me. For more information, visit the Message from Me website and sign up to receive their newsletter.
February 11, 2020 Using Ages and Stages Questionnaires as a Screening Tool Are you interested in learning how to use Ages and Stages Questionnaires®, including Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional, as a screening tool for children ages three months to five years old? Join Trying Together for a three-hour professional growth session that provides information on how to administer, score, and share the results of the screener with families. Directed by Carlow University’s Coordinator of Undergraduate Education Programs, Pamela Zimmerman, this course session will include resources for making referrals to additional services. Three hours of PQAS and/or Act 48 credits will be offered. Core Knowledge Competency (CKC): K4 Keystone STARS Alignment: SQ.3.4.7, EC.3.4.3 Registration To register for this course, complete the form below. More Information For questions or more information, contact Jasmine Davis, Professional Learning Program Manager, at 412.567.3933 or jasmine@tryingtogether.org. Share this flyer with your network.
Promoting Infant and Toddler Social and Emotional Development Are you interested in learning how to better support children’s social and emotional development? Join Trying Together for our online course, “Promoting Infant and Toddler Social and Emotional Development.” About This online session will explore the questions: “What is social and emotional learning within infants and toddlers, and why is it important?” Participants will be provided with positive social-emotional opportunities for infants and toddlers and develop skills necessary to build a solid foundation for very young children. Course instructors will discuss how to support very young children to form secure relationships with others to ultimately be able to focus and learn in their day to day experiences. Also, skills and techniques will be provided to engage with infants and toddlers to teach them to feel good about themselves while developing confidence and self-control. Three hours of PQAS and/or Act 48 credits will be offered. Core Knowledge Competencies (CKCs): K1.9 C2 and K2.2 C2 Keystone STARS Alignment: SQ. 3.4.4 Timeline This online course will be available from March 9 through March 30, 2020. Please note that this event listing is not a day-of, in-person event. Once registered, course instructors will provide further information on accessing the course. Registration To register for this course, complete the form below. More Information For questions or more information, contact Jasmine Davis, Professional Learning Program Manager, at 412.567.3933 or jasmine@tryingtogether.org. Share this flyer with your network.
January 15, 2020 Joyful Transitioning for Toddlers with Music and Movement Join the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust on February 8 for their professional development session, “Joyful Transitioning for Toddlers with Music and Movement.” About Transitioning into a classroom for the first time can be a big challenge for young toddlers. Ease the transition and even make it joyful by using music and movement! In this workshop, participants will experience a variety of soothing songs and rhythmic movements that can be incorporated into their daily practice to support children’s social-emotional development. PQAS and Act 48 hours available. Registration To register, visit the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust website. More Information For personal assistance selecting accessible seats or for more information about accessibility for a person with a disability, contact Customer Service at 412.456.6666. To learn more, visit the event webpage.
