This year’s conference is open to all community members interested in learning more about early childhood education’s key role in building a promising future for our community. Conference training sessions are Missouri clock-hour approved professional development hours for early childhood educators. At the conclusion of the conference, we will host a networking event. The networking event’s main program will be two keynote speaker addresses. Please see additional details below.

This year’s conference theme is Thriving Through the Times — Navigating Early Childhood Programs. Our conference sessions below focus on Partnering with Parents, Staff Recruitment and Retention, and Rebuilding Quality Programming.

Wednesday, August 17

Thursday, August 18

How do you champion recruiting success? How do you take time to build into your employees? Child Care Aware of Missouri can help in using education and compensation to recruit and retain early childhood educators. Come and find out strategies to recruit, hire and retain staff. Recognize the connection of investing in employees who will continue to invest in the work they do.

Early Childhood Professionals are responsible for observing, recording, and assessing young children’s development in the classroom. Teachers can use a variety of methods for observation and assessment, in this session we will introduce strategies and systems for making observation and assessment manageable in the classroom setting. We will look at objective observations, organization of observation notes, note taking, creating children’s portfolios and administering assessment tools in the early childhood classroom.

How can we ensure that all educators are prepared to provide high quality instruction in literacy and language?  Join us in a discussion of the professional development and learning needed to boost the knowledge and skills of all educators.  An overview of Early Childhood LETRS will be provided as a framework for providing effective professional development in all areas and focusing on literacy and language.  We will also engage in some of the LETRS activities.

Who is the driver’s seat in your ECE program? Are professional-family relationships a ‘two-way’ street? Are families guiding the direction of their child’s education and development? Are families active partners or ‘back seat drivers’ in your program and classrooms? In this session, we will use the DEC/ECTA Family Centered Practices Checklist to reflect on current family centered practices, identify strengths in promoting family partnerships, and create an action plan to increase family centered practices within our ECE program or classroom. Participants will engage in self-reflection, small group discussion, and share effective family-partnership practices to support families as active decision-makers and participants in their child’s education and development in the ECE program, at home, and in the community.

Friday, August 19

Did you know that 80-90% of learning is through your vision? Young children are learning so much during the early years that unidentified vision problems can cause delays in their development. Because young children cannot communicate or think what they see is normal, childcare providers are in a unique position to promote early identification through vision screenings and parent education. Learn more about the importance of vision to development, indicators of vision concerns and resources available to childcare providers and families.

Have you ever had a child that was behind and just not meeting developmental milestones? You know, that child that just can’t keep up with the rest. Or perhaps, you have had a child that just could not follow the rules and norms in the classroom? Perhaps you have a child that cries all the time or possibly cannot play appropriately with the others. You know there is a concern, but you are not sure how to break the news with the family because you are worried about how this family might react. In this session you will learn how to use reflective practices to examine your own attitudes, biases, and beliefs to form a strengths-based perspective of the family. You will learn how relationships-based strategies with these families can help communicate developmental or behavioral concerns to families, while enhancing family participation and engagement during these difficult conversations.

Trauma informed Care is more than just understanding the effects of Trauma, more importantly its knowing how to help heal trauma. Although there is no “cure” there are things that early childhood educators can do to help ensure that those affected by trauma can have a chance to succeed in life.

Saturday, August 20

The last few years have been filled with unpredictability for families. Many families have been isolated, had limited resources, and experienced lots of change within their families. This presentation will discuss trauma and how it impacts the development of our youngest learners. In addition, it will provide practical resources and play-based activities that will help build a sense of community and safety in your classroom.

Partnering with parents is all about building positive, engaging relationships with parents even when we must have those not so comfortable conversations! How do you recruit and retain staff? What has worked, what hasn’t worked, and what are you willing to do to make it work?

Panel Discussion: Thriving Through the Times – Navigating Early Childhood Programs

Details:

10:30 a.m. to Noon Saturday, August 20 

Meet the Panelists:

• Julius B. Anthony, president of St. Louis Black Authors of Children’s Literature;
• Cortaiga Collins, founder of Good Shepherd Infant and Toddler Center;
• Beth Csengody, the diverse client segment leader at Wells Fargo Advisors and a member of United 4 Children’s Board of Directors.

Networking Event

Details:

1-4 p.m. Saturday, August 20

The Schlafly Tap Room, located at 2100 Locust St, St. Louis, MO 63103

Tickets: $50 

Meet the Keynote Speakers: