On Monday, April 20, 2015, the Developmentally Successful Learners Committee of the Wethersfield Early Childhood Collaborative presented a professional development training program for local early childhood providers.The workshop was called: Social Emotional Development Infants to Preschool Children and was developed and lead by early childhood consultant Heidi Levitz, M.S, SR

The workshop was designed to help participants better understand and respond to the social emotional needs of students of infant through preschool. The program included an overview of:

• Brain development
• Looking at verbal and non-verbal messages
• How teachers/caregivers can support the child's social emotional development.
• Strategies to use in the classroom to enhance the social and emotional development of infants, toddlers, and preschool children.

As part of a pre-workshop evaluation, participants were asked to rate themselves cased on the following statement:

I regularly use effective strategies to manage challenging behaviors of young children, infancy to preschool, in my care.

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Uncertain
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

The DSL committee plans to follow up with participants at the end of the 2014-15 school year and again in the fall of the 2015-16 school year to further gauge the impact of the workshop. Please note, in order to reflect participants responses from before and after the training, the pre-evaluation is categorized as coming from April of 2015, and post-evaluation is show as coming from May of 2015.

In the fall of 2014, the Developmentally Successful Learners (DSL) Committee of the Wethersfield Early Childhood Collaborative determined that one of its two priorities for the year would be to offer 2 workshops for shared professional development inclusive of early care and education providers with [kindergarten] teachers and/or other school professionals (Community Plan strategy 6).

A subcommittee was formed and its members (Ozlem Camli, Manny Mondanipour, Robin Otis, Pam Molochko, Kim Bobin, Pat Mulrain, Sue Tenorio and Sally Dastoli) planned and developed the content of the two workshops. Additionally, the Subcommittee sought to "kick start" the formation of an Early Childhood Care and Education Directors Network during post-workshop discussion the evening of the event..

Attendees of previous DSL workshops and/or Center administrators indicated that a dearth of offerings existed related to infants and toddlers. "Challenging behaviors", was also previously identified by attendees as a topic of great interest, Accordingly, the Subcommittee developed a series of two workshops in which challenging behaviors of the two different age groups(infants/toddlers and preschoolers)was to be the main focus and Heidi Levitz the presenter at both workshops.

Unfortunately the week before the first scheduled workshop, Ms. Levitz became ill and was unable to present, She graciously offered, however, to combine both age groups into one workshop presentation and did so by agreement of the Subcommittee.

This summary details the outcomes of the teacher workshop, "Understanding and Responding to Young Children", which was held on the evening of April 20, 2015 at Webb Elementary School in Wethersfield. A total of 23 individuals, representing 7 Wethersfield area early childhood organizations were in attendance. Five individuals were administrators and 1 a [non-public school] kindergarten teacher, the remainder being early childhood teachers. A total of 20 individuals completed pre-workshop evaluations. Individuals were not required to identify themselves. Post-workshop evaluations, which included four additional questions, were completed by 21 individuals.

STRATEGIES:

Pre-workshop Evaluation:

REACH:

WECC has also used data collected both at the workshop and by the Wethersfield Board of Education to assess the "reach" of the PD. When talking about reach we are referencing "penetration" or is the PD attracting/influencing its intended audience? WECC's goal is to connect preschool teachers of future Wethersfield children with quality professional development opportunities. By looking at information from the BOE, WECC was able to determine that in 2014-15, 80.7% kindergarteners came from 15 preschool programs that WECC considers "local". By local we mean schools in Wethersfield or very close to our borders. The schools and percent of children they sent to Wethersfield Public Schools is as follows:

By comparing these numbers to the list of attendees form the 4/20/15 PD , WECC was able to determine staff that attended the April workshop came from programs that educated 19.8% of our current kindergarten class. A few notes on this number. First, no staff from United Methodist attended this PD. 15.9% of current kindergartens went to preschool at United Methodist. It is worth noting that United Methodist staff has attended past PDs provided by WECC. It is also worth noting that Webb, Corpus Christi, and Soundbridge are top feeder schools for Wethersfield Public Schools (18.4%, 5.8%, 4.3% respectively). Webb, Soundbridge, and Corpus Christi staff have regular PD (WECC has no detail on topics). WECC also has good connections with most of the schools on the list, so it is reasonable to think that WECC can use those connections to increase participation in future programs. While the reach of the 4-20-15 PD was relatively small, when we consider that the vast majority of our students do in fact come from local programs, it does seem likely that an efficient use of WECC resources will allow us to maximize reach.

UNDERLYING ISSUES:

WECC recognizes that well trained early childhood professionals and a properly structured school environment can stop many challenging behaviors. However, society and a child's home environment are beyond the control of the preschool professional. If WECC's DSL committee chooses to continue with a strategic focus on training preschool professionals to manage challenging behaviors, the Collaborative as a whole will be called upon to look at how WECC can addresses the underlying issues that cause challenging behaviors in young children. Parent engagment efforts and an analysis of local preschool attendance rates are examples of how WECC might approach this issue. Discussion of this topic will continue.

WECC seeks to make a difference in the level of early learning readiness amongst Wethersfield Children. Effective approaches include:

• Universal Preschool - Improve readiness by increasing the number of children attending preschool in Wethersfield.
• Shared Professional Development - When early care and education professionals collaborate with kindergarten staff, they are more likely to develop complimentary curriculum, foster consistent communication, and create smoother transitions which more effectively prepare incoming students for kindergarten.
• A Sustainable System for Preschool Professional Development

Strategy 6:

Provide opportunities for shared professional development inclusive of early care & education providers with teachers and/or other school professionals.

Actions:

• Update the Kindergarten Transition Plan.
• Share curricula and assessment approaches and tools.
• Host a series of workshops on literacy development.
• Explore bringing the Training Wheels curriculum and coaching support, used by School Readiness programs around Connecticut, into Wethersfield preschool programs.

WECC's Developmentally Successful Learners Committee (DSL)

The strategic focus of the DSL Committee includes:

• Implement Learning strategies outlined in Wethersfield's Community Plan for Young Children and Families
• Lead role for WECC in researching and making recommendations for a family support/resource program, bringing together early care providers and Wethersfield Public Schools teachers to share and align their early readiness efforts, improving parent skills and children's reading time and skills.
• Taking a lead in data collection and reporting for WECC
• For more information, contact wethersfieldchildhood@gmail.com

Develop, disseminate and analyze follow-up survey for early care providers

Study preschool attendance, connect preschool partners with professional development related to attendance, and foster parent out reach/education related to school attendance.

June 2015: WECC Follow-up Survey of PD attendees

Fall 2015: WECC Follow-up Survey of PD attendees

CREC region early childhood education teachers and district coordinators are invited to attend monthly council meetings to share best practices, engage in new thinking about early childhood instruction, and to proactively respond to the instructional direction provided by the Office of Early Childhood in supporting high quality preschool experiences for all children.

All sessions are provided at no cost to CREC districts. Monthly registration is available online. For additional information, contact Jennifer Parsons in CREC's Institute of Teaching & Learning at jeparsons@crec.org or (860) 509-3665.

CRECC Institute of Teaching and Learning: Preschool PD 2015-16