2008 45th annual early childhood Institute Workshop choices

Thursday, January 10, 2008 | Morning Sessions

T1: Beliefs About Beliefs: Talking About G-d in Kindergarten
Ben Mardell, Associate Professor, Early Childhood Education, Lesley University

Mona Abo-Zena, Eliot Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University
Should schools be a place where children discuss their beliefs about G-d? Should teachers encourage and support these conversations? This workshop provides an opportunity for participants to explore their assumptions about young children and beliefs. A kindergarten curriculum about beliefs about G-d will be shared, along with ample time for conversation.

T2: Blocks, Binders, and Blogs: Bridging Home and School
Joanne Pressman, Director, Community Nursery School, Lexington, MA
Liz O’Neil, Teacher, Community Nursery School, Lexington, MA
This workshop begins with the premise that partnership between parents and teachers is a primary value in creating a nurturing and stimulating learning environment. Presenters will share a toolbox of ideas used to bridge home and school—to support communications and understanding among parents, teachers, and children.

T3: Building Connections through Literacy and Technology
Michelle Godfrey, Child Care Resource Center, Cambridge, MA
Lauren Leiken, Families ROCK, Cambridge, MA
This interactive workshop provides participants with knowledge and tools from the Cambridge Pathways to Family Success program—a collaborative wrap-around support and literacy program for low-income families with young children. The workshop focuses on the program’s design, its evaluation, and the successes and challenges of helping families connect to community resources and strengthen their social networks.

T4: The Impact of Violence on Child Development
Pam Bailey Families First, Cambridge, MA
While many children are exposed to violence, the extent to which they are affected varies. This session helps parents examine children’s developmental understanding and processing of violence. Together, participants explore reactions children may exhibit as a result of violence in their lives (through experiences, media images, etc.) and how best to respond to these behaviors.
Workshops

Thursday, January 10, 2008 | Afternoon

T5: Bullies, Targets and Bystanders (I)
Milly Arbaja, Families First, Cambridge, MA
This workshop focuses on what parents can do to keep their children from becoming (or help them overcome being) either a bully or a victim of bullying. Developing specific social and emotional skills in children helps them to build and project a strong self-image and avoid getting caught in the cycle of bullying and victimization.

T6: Bullies, Targets and Bystanders (II)
Marilyn Buckler, Families First, Cambridge, MA
This workshop focuses on what professionals can do to identify warning signs of bullying and what they can do to keep children from becoming (or help them overcome being) either a bully or a victim of bullying. This workshop also teaches professionals how to create a climate that helps to prevent bullying.

T7: Sharing Difficult Information with Parents
Nina Dickerman, Families First, Cambridge, MA
This workshop provides practical strategies for building and maintaining alliances with parents through effective communication. Participants will learn how to convey information that may be difficult for a parent to hear by practicing the essential skills of listening, empathy, and respect. Ways to convey information without being reactive or aggressive will also be identified.

T8: Taking Back Childhood
Nancy Carlsson Paige, Professor and Associate, Center for Children Families and Public Policy, Lesley University
In this workshop, Nancy will engage participants in a conversation of the myriad issues involved in raising children in a pressure-filled, commercial and violent world. The economic demands on families, the pressure to “fit in” in school, media violence, and more combine to present serious challenges to raising healthy, well-adjusted, and confident children.

Friday, January 11, 2008 | Morning Sessions

F1: Documentation as a Tool to Engage Children and Families in Classroom Culture
Lisa Fiore, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Director of Early Childhood Program, Lesley University
How do teachers communicate with children and families? What strategies can bridge the home and school environments so that the needs of children are met and the development of the larger group context is successful? Documentation of children’s classroom experiences is a means of sharing and extending the learning for all members of a school community. Specific techniques will be addressed, examples will be shared, and participants are encouraged to bring samples of their own documentation to the session for discussion and revision.

F2: Organization and Behavioral Support for Diverse Early Childhood Classrooms
Barbara Gibson, M.Ed., C.A.G.S., Director of Special Education Program, Lesley University
This workshop will help teachers to create classrooms in which all young children will learn and flourish. We will explore ideas for setting up and managing an effective classroom, designing instructional and behavioral supports, and addressing behavioral challenges. We will develop strategies to address the needs of various student populations, including English Language Learners, special education students, students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, students with diverse learning styles, and gifted students.

F3: Working with Parents in Culturally Sensitive Ways
Doug Weinstock, Families First, Cambridge, MA
Cultural competence is the ability to learn from and relate respectfully to people of your own culture and other cultures, adjusting your own behaviors based on what you learn. This workshop will give participants an in-depth perspective of how different cultural experiences, belief systems, family structures, and values influence parenting. Specific skills that will help professionals understand, adapt, and respond sensitively will be addressed.

Friday, January 11, 2008 | Afternoon

F4: Interplay: Skills to Master Social and Behavioral Challenges in the Classroom
Jeanne Shub, Ph.D., School and Child Psychologist, Co-author, Ready to Learn
This workshop provides participants with strategies for creating cohesive primary classrooms in which children learn essential skills for mastering social and behavioral obstacles to learning. Skills addressed include self-regulation, focusing attention, cognitive and social problem solving, social skills, and respect for self and others.

F5: Building and Sustaining Connections among Children, Teachers and Caregivers
Mary Beth Lawton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Education, Lesley University
Relationships are a primary force in development. Children who fail to develop secure attachments with their caregivers often exhibit challenging behavior in the classroom. Participants in this workshop will learn how to identify attachment-related behaviors in young children and learn strategies to help strengthen the relationships between and among children, caregivers, and teachers.

F6: Practical Strategies for Working with Behavior Problems in the Classroom
Kate McInerney Leighton, M.Ed., Educational Behavior Consultant, MA
This workshop will focus on why behaviors occur. Participants will learn how to set expectations and limits and how to create effective routines. We will discuss key strategies to successful behavior management and ways to respond to challenging behaviors. Practical examples of behavior charts, visuals, and incentives will be offered as useful resources.

Saturday, January 12, 2008 | Morning Sessions

S1: Mirrors and Windows: Multicultural Criticism of Children’s Literature
Megan Lambert, Children’s Literature Program Instructor, Eric Carle Museum
Working with Rodine Simms Bishop’s multicultural critical framework from Shadow and Substance: the Afro-American Experience of Children’s Literature (1982), we will survey contemporary children’s books to explore their implied audiences, contents, and creators. This framework will be applied to books about different cultures to support the creation of classroom and library book collections that reflect society’s diversity.

S2: Balancing Act: Use Creative Arts and Games to Reduce Stress in Early Childhood Classrooms
Eileen Warren, Kindergarten Teacher, Norwell Public Schools, Norwell, MA
Early childhood professionals are often caught between increasing academic demands and creating inviting, stress free, and FUN classrooms. This workshop will offer a forum for discussion about this challenging balancing act along with a multitude of well-tested, fun games and activities that support academic instruction.

S3: The Use of Clay in Early Childhood Development
Kathleen Bailer, M.Ed., Educator, Designer, Author and Filmmaker, I am Clay
Working with clay encourages children to explore, communicate, imagine, and problem solve on a three-dimensional level. This workshop, combining theory and hands-on practice, will help you become familiar with clay, use it as an open-ended material in the classroom, talk with children about their artwork, and support children’s creative developmental growth.

S4: Supporting Pretend Play and Story-telling in Children with Developmental and Learning Disabilities in the Primary Classroom
Jeanne Shub, Ph.D., School and Child Psychologist, Co-author, Ready to Learn
This workshop will describe the critical role of play and narrative skill in the development of social, cognitive, and academic skills. Techniques to help learning disabled primary students expand their play and narrative skills will be presented. Handouts presenting classroom ready strategies and lesson ideas will be provided.

Saturday, January 12, 2008 | Afternoon

S5: Creative Movement: Leaping to Learn
Nancy Jo Carillo, Registered Dance/Movement Therapist, Movement Educator, Professor, Lesley University
Research shows that younger students are primarily kinesthetic learners. In this fun, relaxed workshop, we will explore the playfulness of creative movement. Through specific techniques, movement exercises, and discussion, you will learn how to use this modality to support your students’ developmental, social, and academic needs. No experience necessary.

S6: The Use of Clay in Early Childhood Development
Kathleen Bailer, M.Ed., Educator, Designer, Author and Filmmaker, I am Clay
Working with clay encourages children to explore, communicate, imagine, and problem solve on a three-dimensional level. This workshop, combining theory and hands-on practice, will help you become familiar with clay, use it as an open-ended material in the classroom, talk with children about their artwork, and support children’s creative developmental growth.

S7: The Importance of Process-Focused Art in the Classroom
Rebecca Iskric, Teacher, Radcliffe Children’s Center Preschool, Adjunct Faculty, Lesley University
We will engage in open-ended, process focuses art explorations with an emphasis on the use of recycled/found materials, as well as “traditional” supplies. This workshop will highlight the prominence of this approach to art/learning in the Reggio Emilia philosophy as well as practical applications for the classroom.

S8: Connecting Through the Weaver’s Craft
Pamela Engberg, Firewatch Weavers, Brimfield, MA
The art of weaving develops the whole child, cultivating both analytical and creative skills, vision development, and manual dexterity. This workshop introduces teachers to simple but inspiring weaving techniques and presents several options for integrating weaving activities into the curriculum.

*Please don't forget to add your workshop choices to your registration form.