Early Childhood Professionals are tasked with caring for vulnerable children and providing emotional support throughout the day. The nature of the work can be emotionally charged and often comes with a degree of negative vicarious impact for even the most seasoned teachers and staff. These effects can lead to burnout and compassion fatigue, impact staff retention, and increase strain and stress on the childcare system at large. Reflective practice is an evidence-based method for reducing the effects of caring for the most vulnerable. Reflective practice is the act of stepping back from the immediate, intensive experience of hands-on work and taking time to wonder what the experience really means. It is the process of examining, with someone else, the thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions evoked in the course of working closely with young children and their families.

This two-hour workshop will focus on:

• Define reflective practice and reflective supervision/consultation
• Identify the importance and purpose of reflective practice and reflective supervision/consultation
• Understand how to implement and facilitate the “fishbowl” technique in order to support the consistent use of reflective supervision/consultation in the early education setting.

Jacquie Goodall is a Licensed clinical social worker who has spent her career in community mental health focused on young children and their families. As a clinician and supervisor, Jacquie has supported numerous childcare centers in their engagement with the most vulnerable children in their care.  Jacquie has witnessed the transformative effects of reflective practice and is passionate about sharing this practice with others.  Jacquie is the Assistant Director of the Early Childhood Program at Howard Center and is a certified Child Parent Psychotherapist.

Are you concerned about the impact of the pandemic on young children? Are you worried about how quarantine and frequent absences are effecting young children? This training will cover many concerns that families, child care programs, and various providers have been experiencing since the pandemic began in 2020. This training explores topics such as behavior challenges, speech development, social skills delays, and much more. Upon completion of this training, participants will have concrete examples of strategies they can implement and access to materials that they can use in their programs.

Kara McDonough is an Early Childhood Special Education teacher for the South Burlington school district. She has twenty years of experience in the early childhood education field. Currently she is the Outreach specialist for the school district and serves children in their community placements. She helped to create the Early Multi Tiered Systems of Support program that is used in the South Burlington school district and trains local preschools on how to implement it in their classrooms. When she’s not working she is hanging out with her husband Pat and two teenage daughters, Maggie and Catie.

As early childhood educators we juggle many responsibilities everyday.  One of our primary responsibilities is monitoring the development of the young children in our care.  When children are following the typical developmental trajectory these conversations are easy, but what happens to the conversation when we have concerns?  In this workshop we will discuss how to start the conversation, family-teacher relationships, strength-based conversations, and resources for discussing concerns with families.  This workshop is appropriate for all audiences, but will specifically be geared toward empowering the teacher in the relationship to hold challenging conversations.

Becca Webb has been in the field of early childhood since 1997.  She has worked in a variety of early childhood environments including as a classroom teacher and director in community childcares, developmental educator for Early Intervention, as a public-school classroom teacher and itinerant special educator.  A 2017 graduate of the Early Childhood Leadership Institute, she is deeply interested in Vermont’s early childhood systems and supporting early childhood educators and leaders.   Becca has masters degrees in both Early Childhood Special Education and Educational Leadership from UVM. She has a Vermont teaching license with an endorsement in Early Childhood Special Education. 

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a positive change management approach that focuses on identifying what is working well, analyzing why it is working well, and doing more. The basic tenet of AI is that organizations, programs, and individuals will grow in whichever direction people focus their attention on. Participants of this training will learn the AI principles and the 4-D model. Then, through questions, storytelling, and continuous dialogue, they will design strategies for creating a program culture that values open and curious mindsets.

Ellen brings over 27 years of experience in the early childhood field. Her enthusiasm and passion for working with young children and families are as enormous as her passion for working with early childhood teachers, directors, mentors, administrators, and the entire team of early childhood educators. In addition, Ellen is passionate about advocating for children and families, the early childhood workforce, and equal access to high-quality, affordable child care.  Ellen has spent several years training, mentoring, and consulting with early educators from diverse economic and educational backgrounds, which helped her develop a broad understanding of the early childhood workforce needs and a comprehensive approach to supporting individuals and organizations

This workshop will lead participants through exercises focused on helping them recognize racialized experiences their students have and reflecting on the language and conceptual framing that children already use to talk about their own experiences. The intention is to help demonstrate to teachers of how deeply race is operating in every classroom and how children already understand many of the concepts at the heart of racism and racial violence. This lens on their students and environment hopefully can support teachers to feel driven and purposeful in their attempts at building honest classroom communities that center anti-racist values

Emma Redden (she/her) is a preschool teacher who has taught in both preschool and multi-age elementary classrooms. Emma understands her job to be part of a larger feminist, anti-racist, anti-classist, anti-colonial, anti-capitalist movement.  She has an undergraduate degree in International Studies with a focus on race and gender and a Masters degree in Education, with a concentration on Racial Justice Early Education. Emma is the author of the illustrated book for adults entitled Power Means Who the Police Believe: Talking With Three Year Olds About Race and Racial Violence. She teaches community workshops, works directly with early education programs and teaches graduate level continuing education courses. 

This workshop will address the language gap between early childhood educators and the special education process.  The key questions we will address include: how to make a referral, an overview of the special education process, and what to expect during this time.  We will focus on the role of the early educator from referral to services with a focus on strategies for successful collaboration.  This workshop is appropriate for teachers and program leaders who work with children birth-Kindergarten.

Becca Webb has been in the field of early childhood since 1997.  She has worked in a variety of early childhood environments including as a classroom teacher and director in community childcares, developmental educator for Early Intervention, as a public-school classroom teacher and itinerant special educator.  A 2017 graduate of the Early Childhood Leadership Institute, she is deeply interested in Vermont’s early childhood systems and supporting early childhood educators and leaders.   Becca has masters degrees in both Early Childhood Special Education and Educational Leadership from UVM. She has a Vermont teaching license with an endorsement in Early Childhood Special Education. 

As early childhood professionals, we are entrusted with the responsibility of supporting the mental health of our little ones during the most developmentally impactful years of the lifespan. Culturally, we often minimize the emotional challenges inherent in being a child and neglect to acknowledge the lack of control, predictability, or connection experienced by this population. Experiences of fear and anxiety are quite common in young children and in many cases have been intensified with the uncertainty, loss, and trauma associated with the global pandemic. While we cannot completely eradicate the everyday stressors our children face, we can learn and implement interventions and supports that promote healthy social/emotional development and both prevent and reduce anxiety in early childhood settings. The EMTSS Pyramid Model is a bottom-up framework of evidence-based practices designed to do just this

This two- hour workshop will focus on:

Participants will identify the difference between common fears in young children and anxiety disorders.
Participants will describe signs of anxiety in young children.
Participants will identify teaching practices that they can use to reduce feelings of fear and worry for children in their classroom

Jesse Milligan has been employed at Howard Center for over ten years. She has provided case management to adults living with chronic mental health illness, supported kids and youth on the Autism Spectrum, and currently serves children 0-6 and their caregivers as an early childhood and family mental health clinician. Jesse is passionate about empowering caregivers through increased understanding of their children’s emotional experiences, strengthening healthy attachment, and advocating for trauma-informed and shame-free interventions. Jesse is a licensed mental health counselor and is trained as a perinatal support services clinician.

Can you catch it from others in your environment? It turns out that both positive and negative morale can be transmitted from one person to the next and quickly spread across the entire work culture. Join us to gain an understanding of what morale actually is, and how you can give it a boost. Cydney will also share the resources available to supervisors through InvestEAP membership.

Cydney Spohn, EAP Account Associate, has an extensive background in higher education and the arts with over 25 years of experience teaching and helping people of all ages reach their potential. Along with developing and presenting workshops for Invest EAP, Cydney provides instruction on leadership, communication, and other professional development classes to adult learners at a private organization in Vermont.

Have you thought about using hand signs in the classroom?  Have you been told that using visual supports will help support children in your care?  What do these two techniques have to do with each other? Why would we want to use these strategies? How do we move past the overwhelmed feeling of not knowing where to start?  In this workshop we will engage in learning why hand signs and other visuals are important.  Participants will gain a solid understanding of how to design visuals and leave with specific plans for implementing these strategies in their own space.

Becca Webb has been in the field of early childhood since 1997.  She has worked in a variety of early childhood environments including as a classroom teacher and director in community childcares, developmental educator for Early Intervention, as a public-school classroom teacher and itinerant special educator.  A 2017 graduate of the Early Childhood Leadership Institute, she is deeply interested in Vermont’s early childhood systems and supporting early childhood educators and leaders.   Becca has masters degrees in both Early Childhood Special Education and Educational Leadership from UVM. She has a Vermont teaching license with an endorsement in Early Childhood Special Education. 

Have other people’s behaviors ever left you feeling annoyed or frustrated? Have you ever wondered why some people talk things out while others think things through? Or perhaps, you have experienced misunderstandings because of differences in communication styles. If so, you are not alone. We have been there ourselves, but we have found a way to create a collaborative team by making sense of the “people puzzles” in our lives. This session applies an empowering model that leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of ourselves and others. This model can be used to reduce tension, minimize confrontation and conflict, restore relationships, enhance communication and manage team dynamics.

Jeanine Fitzgerald draws on more than 35 years of professional experience to empower teachers and parents to achieve more with children “at risk.” With experience as a certified teacher, mental health professional and mother of three grown children, she understands the promise of every child, as well as the diversity of their needs.

In this workshop, we will dive into all things sleep! Specifically looking at how to provide an emotionally supportive sleep foundation for tiny humans birth to 5.  We will look at sleep pressure and how it affects naps and bedtimes. How to help kids fall asleep independently and stay asleep. We will dive into creating a sleep environment with systems that support sensory regulation and promote syncing sleep cycles both at home and at school. We will also be troubleshooting some of the sleep challenges we hear about most often.

Alyssa Blask Campbell has an M.Ed. in Early Childhood, is a leading expert in emotional development speaking to people around the world, podcast host for Voices of Your Village, and CEO of Seed & Sew LLC. Alyssa was featured as an emotional development expert in publications such as The Washington Post, Kids VT, and Family Education. After co-creating the Collaborative Emotion Processing (CEP) method with Lauren Stauble, she researched it across the U.S., and co-authored a book on it (coming soon!). Alyssa is deeply passionate about building emotional intelligence in children, stating, “It’s never too early or too late to start.” Alyssa’s show up as you are approach welcomes people into her village to get support at all ages and stages, shame free.   

Participants in this workshop will come together to learn about common mental health challenges for early childhood, as well as explore a range of therapeutic praxis and research in order to create developmentally appropriate action steps for integrating these perspectives and tools into the classroom space, and workplace culture. Participants are encouraged to bring their questions and experiences as it relates to supporting mental health in the classroom, to aid in informing and framing these discussions with relevant challenges found in your classrooms.

Mak Morin, LP-CAT (they/them) is a trauma-informed, liberation-focused, and person-centered drama therapist.  Mak uses talk therapy, expressive arts, and narradrama techniques in their practice, partnering with clients to match modality with an individual’s needs and treatment goals.

NATURE PLAY has taken center stage as a solution to the increasing behavior, health and learning challenges that children face. More and more children are growing up noticeably weaker– their balance systems significantly underdeveloped compared to children of previous generations. The cause? Children are not spending enough time playing outdoors and it is affecting their sensory systems and quality of life. Based on the philosophy from TimberNook, an innovative outdoor program developed by author & pediatric occupational therapist, Angela Hanscom, this workshop aims to empower parents and educators with strategies and resources to reverse this childhood trajectory.

Key topics of this workshop include:
* The importance of nature play.
* Creating outdoor play environments using loose parts.
* The art of observation and “dissecting” play– documenting play in an educational setting.
* Managing risky play– renegade rules for respecting childhood and promoting healthy development.

Colleen has a passion for discovering the strengths of each individual and looks for the positives in every situation. Her patience, hard work and calming demeanor have helped her and those around her blossom. She is the true sense of a resource provider– meeting each person where they are and providing them the tools to grow successfully. A Vermont licensed teacher with nearly 15 years in education, Colleen has worked with ages birth to adult. For the past 8 years, she has taken the role of early childhood educator and most recently– instructor of educator professional development. In her work with children, she recognizes the importance of supporting the WHOLE child and as a result– she is a fierce advocate of PLAY.

Learning how to address the uncomfortable and unspeakable is a necessary part of our profession. Children struggle when the people close to them get sick, are hospitalized or die. Others struggle with issues associated with domestic violence, substance abuse or mental illness in their family. The desire to shelter children from some of life’s harsher realities must be balanced with teaching them skills so they grow into compassionate and healthy individuals. This session covers valuable tools to address the unfortunate and sometimes, unexpected life events.

Jeanine Fitzgerald draws on more than 35 years of professional experience to empower teachers and parents to achieve more with children “at risk.” With experience as a certified teacher, mental health professional and mother of three grown children, she understands the promise of every child, as well as the diversity of their needs.

Pivoting became a trendy word starting in 2019 when the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on every aspect of our life. So why have these past few years been hard? How is resilience vital as we dig out from under the past three years of pivoting like a ballerina. Join me to learn how grief plays a part in the evolving world we exist in and what can be done to keep our minds and spirit healthy and thriving.

Ellen brings over 27 years of experience in the early childhood field. Her enthusiasm and passion for working with young children and families are as enormous as her passion for working with early childhood teachers, directors, mentors, administrators, and the entire team of early childhood educators. In addition, Ellen is passionate about advocating for children and families, the early childhood workforce, and equal access to high-quality, affordable child care.  Ellen has spent several years training, mentoring, and consulting with early educators from diverse economic and educational backgrounds, which helped her develop a broad understanding of the early childhood workforce needs and a comprehensive approach to supporting individuals and organizations.

Toddlers move through their world asking questions, testing hypotheses, and searching for understanding. When we slow ourselves down and listen to the questions asked, we can reframe our understanding of many of the actions that take place and join them in joyful research. This presentation follows a class of one-year-old children who teach their teachers how to find physics in the ordinary moments.

BJS bio: Boulder Journey School is a full-day, full-year early childhood program located in Boulder, Colorado that welcomes over 200 children, ages 6 weeks to 5 years, and their families. Our school focuses on the education of young children, as well as the education of teachers. In partnership with the University of Colorado Denver, we have engaged in two decades of experimentation and innovation that have affected all aspects of daily life at school, including our image of the child, relationships with families, teacher professional development, curriculum planning, collaboration among faculty, and our connection to the local, educational, global and political communities.

How do you respond to the emotional child beyond behavior charts and positive discipline? How do you build comfort in experiencing a feeling and learn how to express in a prosocial manner? How do you foster children’s coping strategies to last a lifetime, moving away from temporary coping mechanisms? When is it time to problem solve? Now, how do we do this in everyday life with children as we bring our biases and social programming to the table?

We know that emotional development is at the cornerstone of learning, that children need to process emotions before they are ready to absorb content, but there hasn’t been a “how to” guide for building this development, until now. We work with folks to dive into the Collaborative Emotion Processing (CEP) method as well as the Phases of Emotion Processing in order to build the adult’s mindful practices alongside their toolbox for responding to emotional expressions to emotional intelligence. We cannot expect children to engage in social relationships without supporting their emotional development. In a world where social/emotional learning is heavily focused on the social aspects, we are collaborating with folks to help children develop the emotional intelligence and sensory regulation to have the confidence, communication, and processes to navigate their complex world and build resiliency.

Alyssa Blask Campbell has an M.Ed. in Early Childhood, is a leading expert in emotional development speaking to people around the world, podcast host for Voices of Your Village, and CEO of Seed & Sew LLC. Alyssa was featured as an emotional development expert in publications such as The Washington Post, Kids VT, and Family Education. After co-creating the Collaborative Emotion Processing (CEP) method with Lauren Stauble, she researched it across the U.S., and co-authored a book on it (coming soon!). Alyssa is deeply passionate about building emotional intelligence in children, stating, “It’s never too early or too late to start.” Alyssa’s show up as you are approach welcomes people into her village to get support at all ages and stages, shame free.  

The brain is not the largest organ in the body, but it is the source of all behavior, emotion and thought. This session answers three critical questions; on being “Are the brains of children today getting the right types of stimulation during the right developmental stages to optimize their development?” The emphasis in this session is one the seven golden maximizers that can enrich over 90% of a child’s brain, including those living in poverty, diagnosed with special needs or mental health challenges, and those who have experienced a traumatic event. Experiences wire the brain, and repetition of the experience strengthens the wiring.

Jeanine Fitzgerald draws on more than 35 years of professional experience to empower teachers and parents to achieve more with children “at risk.” With experience as a certified teacher, mental health professional and mother of three grown children, she understands the promise of every child, as well as the diversity of their needs.

Early Childhood professionals recognize the importance of play as a key motivator for embodied pleasure and learning, health and fostering strong connections. Yet, children and adults alike are incapable of engaging in play when our bodies experience too much stress. In order to best promote and advocate for play in our early childhood education settings, it is crucial to understand how the play drive functions in the body and its influence across the developmental spectrum.

This two-hour workshop will focus on:

• The relationship between play, the brain, the nervous system, and the 53 natural senses and sensibilities.
• Play as a means of developing resilience and coping with stress.
• Play as a form of self-care, including an introduction to the play personality, traits formed from core memories and experiences of play.

Participants should dress comfortably.

Tracey Girdich, MA Health Arts & Sciences,  currently provides play-based and arts-based interventions to children under six as an interventionist, team lead and supervisor for the Early Childhood Program at Howard Center. She has worked for decades in the field of early childhood education as a teacher and mentor for professionals new to the field.  She is also an actor, director, and storyteller in the oral tradition.

Loose parts are the materials of play. Most importantly, they support STEM learning and investigations. This session will introduce Kodo’s philosophy to STEM and how material properties, Loose Parts, and the environment supports children’s learning through play with a focus on infants and toddlers.

Participants will have an understanding of STEM learning and opportunities to extend STEM investigations in the environment, especially how they connect to infants & toddlers. Participants will be introduced to Loose Parts and materials properties to support STEM, with a focus on infants & toddlers, and will understand the importance of the environment to support STEM and Loose Parts, with a focus on infants & toddlers.

Kasey has been working for 15+ years in the early childhood field as a Center Director, a training specialist, written curriculum for the Kinesiology Department of Kansas State University, provided technical assistance to programs across the State of Kansas while serving on committees to develop a state-wide QRIS system, and has presented on a variety of topics nationally. She received her Bachelors and Masters of Science in Early Childhood Education from Kansas State University.  

Currently she is the Director of Professional Development with Kodo Kids. As a leader in the field, she served on the Board of Directors for the Kansas Association for the Education of Young Children for over 12 years as President and Conference Chair. Further, she was recognized as an Emerging Leader by Child Care Exchange. 

This workshop will take a multi-dimensional approach to learning about how to actively support transgender youth and their families in an ECE setting. This will include training on current standards of care for trans children, exploration of challenges the trans community currently faces, as well as self reflection and small group work geared towards integrating this learning and more confidently facilitating conversations around trans inclusion and justice — with children, with families, and with co-workers. Resources for further learning as well as resources for the classroom space will also be shared as a part of this workshop.

 

Mak Morin, LP-CAT (they/them) is a trauma-informed, liberation-focused, and person-centered drama therapist. Mak has specific expertise working with LGBTQ young people. Mak uses talk therapy, expressive arts, and narradrama techniques in their practice, partnering with clients to match modality with an individual’s needs and treatment goals.