What does it mean to be an MVP and encouraging school staff to role model healthy behaviors? A CATCH MVP does these things everyday: 1. Moves and Stays Active, 2. Values Healthy Eating & Mindsets, 3. Practices Healthy Behaviors and Social Emotional Wellness.

Discuss the difference between stress and overwhelm and how to effectively focus on needs to support yourself and the families you serve. We will talk about resilience and how to focus on early relationships and support as a way to build resilience with children and families. Learn about the importance of early relational health and compassionate models, and discovers some tangible tools to connect with families.

Join this interactive 45-min webinar session to demystify mental health and overcome feelings of self-doubt, isolation, and fear to pave the way to better self-care.

Culture influences our values, beliefs, gender roles, family structures, language, and even our teaching styles. The ability to understand and celebrate differences is more important now than ever. Join our go-to social emotional development and learning expert, Barbara Kaiser to explore the dynamics of culture in shaping teachers’ expectation and children’s behavior.

Sign up to join Cascade Health Counseling & EAP manager Jodi DePaoli, L.P.C., for a virtual lunch hour wellness class to learn more about anxiety and how to manage it.

During this webinar, we’ll explore ideas for supporting the development of children's first and second languages.

A two-day Saturday workshop hosted on Zoom.
Two-generation approaches draw from findings that a child’s social-emotional, academic, physical and economic well-being is grounded in the well-being of their parents. At the same time, parents’ ability to succeed in life is affected by how well their children are doing. Teachers and early care providers play a profound role in creating opportunities for families and children to grow and learn together. Explore how to close the opportunity gap, support families’ financial wellbeing, and become partners with parents in growing great kids.

During this interactive edWebinar, we will share ideas on how to celebrate diversity in the classroom and beyond by using books and podcasts to help educators connect with students and families in authentic ways, helping to preserve cultural awareness and build bridges of communication. We will provide you with Common Sense’s “best of” lists for powerful podcasts and multicultural books that break barriers as we come together to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month.

In this edWebinar, attendees will explore the importance of at-home materials for bilingual families and strategies for using literacy-based discussion prompts to strengthen participation. Literacy experts will review why it is important to collaborate with families, both in person and digitally, and strategies observed from the field for doing so. Dr. Samina Hadi-Tabassum, Clinical Associate Professor at Erikson Institute in Chicago, will discuss her home ecology research.

Healthy People 2030 introduces an updated definition of health literacy as being two-pronged: personal and organizational. In this webinar, we explore this revised definition, demonstrate how health communication is a process, and explain the importance of incorporating health-literate practices into service delivery.

The foundation for literacy starts at birth! From babies’ first smiles to toddlers’ first steps, literacy development is intertwined with language, cognitive, social-emotional and motor growth. Join literacy experts Stefanie Paige Wieder, M.S.Ed., and Dr. Paula L. Jackson to discover the building blocks for scaffolding early literacy skills in pre-mobile infants through talking toddlers and come away with practical tips and activities for the children in your care.

Building positive learning environments can feel challenging for families. Home visitors have a unique opportunity to partner with them to create safe, responsive, and nurturing environments. In this webinar, we're exploring strategies and resources focused on creating home environments that encourage growth, learning, and exploration and promote positive behaviors. 

For Head Cooks.  Facilitated by Caroline Weber.

Join Office of Head Start leadership in using monitoring data to explore patterns of child health and safety incidents across Head Start programs. Get a better understanding of the role of Head Start programs in reporting health and safety incidents, the federal staff to whom programs must report, and the reporting time frame. Find out about the trainings and resources you can use to appropriately train and support your staff to build a culture of safety and wellness in your program.

Black and Brown children. In this paradigm-shifting webinar Dr. Iheoma Iruka will help you examine the historical and contemporary impact of racism on early intervention and special education access, services, and outcomes. You will learn to incorporate an intersectionality lens that examines equity through a race and ability equity lens to dismantle racism and other systemic barriers and ensure equitable opportunities.

Every day, every student will bring their developing brain and their developing identity to school. As teachers and school leaders, we can implement research from the Science of Learning and diversity, equity, and belonging to benefit all students. This edWebinar will explore how principles from these two fields intersect to support teaching, learning, and the student experience. The presenters will share and use a tool for reflection on teaching practice and creating a culture of belonging in our school communities.

This New Teacher training session will focus on Family Partnerships & Goal Setting.  This is required for new teachers, and any interested staff member is welcome to attend.  Facilitated by Kerry Holmes and Karla Snell.

Join this webinar for a 45-minute introduction to MyPeers for family services staff! MyPeers is a community of practice forum for Head Start programs, staff, and partners. MyPeers is a virtual space for brainstorming, exchanging ideas, and sharing resources. Local program staff across the country are connecting with and lending support to fellow colleagues around family engagement goals, parent involvement, economic well-being, community partnerships, and more.

Happy, healthy, and joyful early educators make for happy, healthy, and joyful programs. In this refreshing and inspiring webinar, early care and education leader, author and inspirational speaker, Erin Ramsey will inspire you to pave a positive path forward with ways to claim your power, remove your roadblocks and find your joy. Erin will share tools, stories, photos, and poetry that will provide you an opportunity to reset and rejuvenate to improve your life and work!

Reading aloud to early learners models fluent and expressive reading, models the reading process, facilitates comprehension for English language learners, provides interactions with a variety of texts, helps children make connections, stimulates participation, and encourages sharing of children’s thoughts. Attend this session to learn ways to introduce and build vocabulary, and what to do before, during, and after a read aloud. As you will see, it’s beneficial to have a read-aloud strategy for effective learning.

Establishing boundaries in the work of parent education is essential. This workshop explains the importance of this and provides practical strategies for creating healthy boundaries while honoring the needs of others.

Language is an important developmental gateway for all young children, especially dual language learners. In this webinar, language experts Aquiles Iglesias, Ph.D., Jill de Villiers, Ph.D., and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D., will highlight the importance of monitoring the language skills of English–Spanish bilingual preschoolers and providing needed supports early. They’ll share best practices for screening bilingual preschoolers, including what to measure, when to screen, and how to screen. Available screening tools will be discussed, including the new Quick Interactive Language Screener: English–Spanish (QUILS: ES).

This presentation will share examples of Indigenous family strengths in the forms of benevolent childhood experiences, positive cultural identity, and other socio-cultural factors. Research from ongoing tribally-based participatory research studies reveal how these strengths are associated with positive health outcomes and thus represent important protective factors for promoting Indigenous wellbeing in holistic ways.

In this lively yet practical webinar, early childhood technology experts Brian Puerling and Gail Lovely will present insights and ideas for administrators to  help teachers implement meaningful uses of technology with young learners. Knowing that early childhood educators often face resistance, hurdles, and challenges when it comes to using technology with children, this tour will also review and help you address potential roadblocks so you can find alternative routes to strategies using technology. You will come away from the session with insights that will help you support teachers in meaningful implementation of the many technology resources available for young children.

What are some of the attitudes and behaviors of resilient educators who successfully manage the unique stressors of this profession? Are there certain habits or practices that we can use to cultivate resilience? Within each of the 7 Mindsets, there are specific thought structures that we can focus on to develop and nurture resilience. Using research from 7 Mindsets as well as other contributors, this edWebinar will help to strengthen the reserves of educators who may be struggling with bouncing back, who may want to deepen their understanding of themselves and how they choose to respond to things, and who understand the importance of thriving, not just surviving, as educators.

This New Teacher training session will cover Poverty Informed Services (Part 1 of 2).  This is required for new teachers.  Any staff member that has not completed the Poverty Informed Services series is highly encouraged to attend! Facilitated by Karla Snell and the Poverty Informed Services team.

This webinar will explore the impact of food insecurity on health and factors reducing access to healthy and affordable food. Experts will discuss solutions such as community-based food system partnerships targeting vulnerable populations.

This edWebinar takes a detailed, year-round look at practical and engaging outdoor experiences for children ages 3-6. Special attention is given to easy-to-obtain materials, seasonal activities that could be taught in a range of environments, and meeting the developmental needs of children—using nature as a teaching partner. The learning objectives of the session include:

As early childhood educators and caregivers, you are the first point of contact for parents for all things related to their children. From “good morning” to circle time, snack time to nap time, potty training to lunch, curriculum to playground time – you are the captain of their child’s ship during school hours, and the one helping to steer their child’s journey, not only their learning journey, but their social and emotional journey as well. This is a journey that comes with significant needs, requiring the necessary navigation of myriad expectations. Parents need you, but you also need them. Only together can you build the essential bridge that must exist between home and school to guide children on the best path forward.

Healthy social and emotional development in the preschool years is foundational to healthy development in all other areas. Research shows that fostering positive relationships is key to that healthy development! Join us as we discuss the importance of social and emotional development for preschoolers. Learn ways teachers and family child care providers can use the Positive Behavior Supports Framework to build relationships with the children in their care.

In this introduction to trauma, we will discuss various types of  trauma and its effect on the brain, body, and health. We will explore  trauma as it relates to behavior and learn how to identify ways to  reduce episodes of re-traumatization of survivors. 

Participants will engage in a hands-on exploration of grant research, writing and evaluation. The workshop will use sample proposal forms and proposals to introduce the elements of grants and the evaluation process used by funders. Students will explore how to find relevant grants and how to develop successful proposals that match funders’ priorities. They will develop an individual project proposal, learn how to research the organizational background, how to document need and how to establish an evaluation plan and timeline. Participants will leave ready to write grants and excited about the possibilities of developing funding.