TRACK: EARLY LEARNING

 

A Teacher Guide to Promoting Equity Within an Early Childhood Classroom - 10:10 - 11:25 AM

 

The Effects of Unconscious Bias - 11:35 - 12:50 PM

 

Finding the Funny: Using Reflection for Professional Growth - 2:00 - 3:15 PM

 

Designing Learning Experiences using Culturally Responsive Literacy Instructional Practices in Elementary Learning Spaces - 2:00 - 3:15 PM

TRACK: EARLY LITERACY

 

Culturally Relevant SEL - 10:10 - 11:25 AM

 

Planting SEEDS for Story Time: Making Books Come to Life for Young Learners - 11:35 - 12:50 PM

TRACK: SCHOOL TRANSITION

 

Cultural Awareness of Effective School Transition Pre-K & Beyond! - 10:10 - 11:25 AM

TRACK: LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCACY

 

Narrowing the Gap: Creating an Equitable Pathway to Leadership Growth for Employees from Underrepresented Minority/Ethnicity Groups - 10:10 - 11:25 AM

 

Social Justice & Early Education: Lifting the Voices of Black Parents and Educators - 11:35 - 12:50 PM

 

Workforce Updates from DECAL - 2:00 - 3:15 PM

TRACK: FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

 

Gardening with Young Children in Family Childcare

- 10:10 - 11:25 AM

 

Strengthening Family Engagement With Developmental Milestones - 11:35 - 12:50 PM

 

Voices & Light: Recognizing & Engaging Parents as Natural Family Leaders - 2:00 - 3:15 PM

TRACK: EARLY LEARNING

 

A Teacher Guide to Promoting Equity Within an Early Childhood Classroom

 

Presenter: Britne McDuffie

 

The early years of a child’s development is the ideal stage to teach our young children the importance of inclusion, diversity, and equity. Educators within early childhood education play a vital part in a child’s understanding and appreciation for inclusion, diversity, and equity. This interactive session will equip participants with the tools, skills, and knowledge needed to create a more culturally appropriate learning environment within a childcare setting. Participants will learn how to utilize the materials within a classroom setting that will support learning in a culturally relevant way while promoting language, social, emotional, and cognitive development in infants, toddlers, or preschoolers. Participants will also learn how to use the Reggio Emilia Approach to create and incorporate inclusion, diversity, and equity within a classroom setting.

 

TRACK: EARLY LITERACY

Culturally Relevant SEL

 

Presenter: Hotep

 

In this workshop, educators will be provided with evidence-based, practical strategies and resources for engaging students of all races and socio-economic backgrounds in meaningful activities to share, critically analyze, problem-solve and overcome traumatic experiences, mis-information, negative feelings and beliefs so they can navigate life successfully.

TRACK: LEADERSHIP & ADVOCACY

Narrowing the Gap: Creating an Equitable Pathway to Leadership Growth for Employees from Underrepresented Minority/Ethnicity Groups

 

Presenter: Melony Gibson

It is critical to build programs and create opportunities which elevate the professional profile of employees from underrepresented ethnicities within our organizations. We will explore a program model designed to provide an equitable pathway for those that have likely had less or limited access to career building opportunities. This inequity could be due to potential implicit bias from supervisors, lack of supervisors’ ability or intentionality to identify potential in diverse populations, and the employee’s negative perception of the potential for growth due to reduced representation of leaders from similar ethnic backgrounds.

 

TRACK: SCHOOL TRANSITION

Cultural Awareness of Effective School Transition Pre-K & Beyond!

 

Presenters: Pamela Ross and Renee Wilson

This training will bring intentional conversations and meaningful information to raise the needle to "Effective School Transition". We will paint the picture of what this may look like as children and families are recovering from the learning loss gap from COVID-19. This workshop will provide opportunities for thought leadership innovation ideas that will help to inform new strategies and activities for the United Way Online Computer Based Toolkit - CBT. This new addition to the CBT Online School Transition Toolkit will elevate the key components of "Effective School Transition" through 3rd Grade!

 

TRACK: FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Gardening with Young Children in Family Childcare

 

Presenter: Myra Abdus-Saboor

Family Child Care Learning Homes offer diverse learning styles to families with young children. Vast opportunities for learning and engaging are always present within this environment. Many Family Child Care Learning Homes Operate year-round. Outdoor learning is an essential component to operating a quality-rated program. Gardening activities can occur year-round. We created an outdoor experience for young children. We created Isaiah’s Garden. Isaiah’s Garden is a Farm to ECE program located on the grounds of TTCELC (Teach The Children Early Learning Center). Whilst the younger ages are watering plants, older ones are cultivating the soil or layering the compost bin. Isaiah’s Garden - A garden where children can play, learn, work and eat. Let us share how we garden with young children in a mixed-age group family childcare setting.

TRACK: EARLY LEARNING

The Effects of Unconscious Bias

 

Presenter: Michael Beard

Every person tends to see the world through the eyes of their past experience. Our exposure is unconsciously governing decisions, fear, anticipation, and relationships. This process of decision-making is a cheat code to protect ourselves from perceived risk. It can also be a barrier to some of the most productive and beneficial relationships. Often these snap decisions are based on gender and ethnicity as a catalyst to judge someone’s ability or character because these attributes are the most obvious. Let’s uncover the connection between Unconscious Bias and Productivity.

 

TRACK: EARLY LITERACY

Planting SEEDS for Story Time: Making Books Come to Life for Young Learners

 

Presenters: Angela Reuvers and Alicia Prather

Participants will walk away with the necessary ingredients to captivate interests of young learners during story time. During the session, participants will plan how to introduce books, engage families with story time, as well as review best practices for promoting oral language through story reads. We will also explore how to extend learning from books through activities while also accessing the SEEDS for Storytime resources available through DECAL.

TRACK: LEADERSHIP & ADVOCACY

Social Justice & Early Education: Lifting the Voices of Black Parents and Educators

 

Presenters: Dr. Natasha Thornton

& BCDI-Atlanta’s Lifted Voices Fellows

The “Divisive Concepts” law was passed in Georgia and prohibits teaching academic concepts related to race and racism. This law has severe implications on the education of Black children. Educators have expressed their frustration of the vagueness of the law, while parents have expressed concern that their children may receive an inaccurate education. This session will be presented by BCDI-Atlanta’s Lifted Voices Fellows, who will share key information to deepen the understanding of the law and will lead an interactive listening session to center participants' voices, questions, and ideas, to collectively identify strategies and next steps ensuring Black children receive a culturally responsive and just education.

 

TRACK: FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Strengthening Family Engagement With Developmental Milestones

 

Presenters: Bridget Ratajczak and Latasha Bailey

Strengthening Family Engagement with Developmental Milestones gives participants an overview of CDC’s Learn the Signs. Act Early. developmental milestones resources and information and ideas on how to use the resources to build relationships with families and engage them in their child’s learning and development.

TRACK: EARLY LEARNING

Finding the Funny: Using Reflection for Professional Growth

 

Presenters: Sharon Hudgins,

Deborah Lynn & Cindy McNeil

How do we find humor in the strangest places? Humor is an essential tool for any professional to have in their arsenal. In this session, we'll explore the power of reflection and how it can lead us down a path toward continuous growth as ECE Professionals! We will discuss strategies like using powerful guided questions or storytelling with your funniest stories yet--all while finding humor wherever possible. Funny things happen throughout everyday life; don't let them go by without making sure you share these moments triumphantly through laughter.

 

TRACK: LEADERSHIP & ADVOCACY

Workforce Updates from DECAL

 

Presenters: Barb McWethy, Shenae Holmes,

Abby Mozo, Miranda Murphy,

Janet Herrera, Tyeichia Mason

In this session, we will share information on the various programs, tools and initiatives the DECAL Workforce Supports Team have available for you. Whether you are wondering how to get into the field, lesson planning tools or how to further your own education, we are here to support you in meeting your goals.

TRACK: EARLY LEARNING

Designing Learning Experiences using Culturally Responsive Literacy Instructional Practices in Elementary Learning Spaces

 

Presenter: Cletis Allen

This workshop is designed to support elementary learning facilitators (i.e., educators, instructional coaches, school administrators) with designing learning experiences that support instructional practices that value literacy, culture, and context using a culturally responsive framework. During this interactive workshop, participants will use the Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction (CRLI), a framework that values the implementation of equitable teaching practices during literacy instruction, to describe instructional strategies that will support literacy learning for PK- third grade elementary-aged learners. Working collaboratively, participants will design a sample literacy block that incorporates grade-level content, literacy, context, and equitable instructional strategies using the CRLI framework.

 

TRACK: FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Voices & Light: Recognizing & Engaging Parents as Natural Family Leaders

 

Presenter: Laura Miller & Pamela Ross

One of United Way of Greater Atlanta’s early learning strategies is to strengthen family engagement by fostering the natural leadership that parents have as their children’s first teacher, brain builder, advocate and coach. In this session, discover how effective family engagement initiatives unite community partnerships and parents as champions to implement culturally responsive programs and services on behalf of society’s youngest citizens.