Courses for Early Childhood Educators

Teaching Beyond Bars is a course fit for those who work with children that have a parent incarcerated and unsure how they can be a resource. This interactive course teaches you how to address that uncomfortable and sensitive topic of incarceration with ease and confidence.

This course is presented in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association's Training West. This course will help participants use favorite Circle Time stories to engage children in STEM thinking. With a focus on specific learning objectives, academic vocabulary, and intentional questioning strategies, Circle Time can create a sense of “I wonder” leading to STEM-based thinking and exploration at learning centers throughout the day.

Culture impacts all of us and who we are. It is important to consider culture in early learning as young children are developing their identity and sense of belonging. After an overview of what is and why use culturally responsive teaching, this course provides numerous practical ideas to be responsive and inclusive of all cultures when working in an early childhood setting.

This course addresses the challenges of working with young boys in early childhood programs. After discussing some of the many reasons why young boys are more difficult to care for and educate than young girls, a variety of suggestions are provided to address this dilemma, from overall policy and school-wide program changes to curricula, instruction, and the environment alterations.

This course discusses the challenge of meeting the unique needs of twice-exceptional students in early childhood programs. These students are both gifted and talented, and have one or more special needs or developmental delays. Several approaches to teaching these children are provided, including three specific teaching models.

This course invites teachers to think critically about their early childhood classroom from the child’s perspective, and through the lens of aesthetics and beauty. It encourages teachers to enhance children’s environments through the Seven Principles of Design with nature, color, textures, lighting, furnishings, displays, and focal points.

This course challenges early childhood teachers and caregivers to help each child construct their own healthy racial and ethnic identity. Teachers and caregivers should not impose their view of the child’s race or ethnicity on the child; they must support each child’s unique process as the child develops a healthy sense of his/her racial and ethnic identity.

Instructional leaders will develop clarity and conviction around the power of person-centered coaching on improving teacher satisfaction and reducing turnover in early childhood centers. We will conduct a "retention audit" to assess your center’s strengths and areas for growth as it relates to teacher satisfaction and overall sustainability, identifying clear next steps for improving retention on your team. This course is presented in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association's Training West.

Attendees will learn about the hazards of conventional cleaning products and how to recognize safer alternatives for Early Childhood settings. The elements of a “green” cleaning program will be discussed.

Block play is essential to every child’s physical, social-emotional, and cognitive development and key in building important 21st-century skills such as initiative, persistence, creative thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. This course will explore the benefits of block play and help teachers acquire or expand expertise in arranging the block area, selecting materials, establishing rules, and providing time for open-ended exploration. It will also identify the stages of block play as well as the components of a play-based, teacher-guided learning experience with blocks.