Early Childhood Educators Institute 2025 Schedule, Session, and Course Information

Institute Information

Thank you for your interest in the 2025 Early Childhood Educators Institute (ECEI). The 2024 institute has already started and no further registrations are being accepted. However, if you wish to access some of this year's institute resources, including the recorded keynote presentations, you can visit the ECEI Google Site. Registration for the 2025 institute will open in spring 2025. We hope you will consider joining us next year!

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2024 Institute Information

The 2024, Eighth Annual Early Childhood Educators Institute (ECEI) will be live online July 30, August 1, August 6 & August 8 from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm. If you are an early childhood or primary teacher (birth to grade 3), a special educator, home visitor, or related service/CIS personnel, then this Institute is for you!

The ECEI consists of 8 strands. Participants choose to take one strand for the duration of the Institute. Those who wish to attend the institute only (four days of live online learning) will receive a certificate of completion recognizing 20 hours of professional development. Those who wish to extend their learning can take the 3-credit course aligned with the strand they choose and will complete the course by October 1, 2024. Courses may be taken for graduate or undergraduate credit. Course takers will receive a grade on their transcript in lieu of a certificate of completion. The courses are designed to deepen practice, meet child care professional development requirements, and contribute to early childhood or elementary educator licensing competencies and/or renewal of educator licenses and endorsements. All courses are aligned with the Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS) and the Vermont Guiding Principles for Full Participation of Each and Every Child, which are central to a shared vision for young children in Vermont in the years from birth through Grade 3. Participants taking an aligned course must also attend ALL four online days of the Institute session they choose and complete coursework through September.

The four-day institute will take place online and is fully interactive using Zoom videoconferencing on July 30, August 1, August 6 & August 8 from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm each day. Some coursework may require reading before the institute, and all courses continue after the institute until October 1, 2024. There are links to full course syllabi in the strand descriptions below. Any required books are not included in the course/institute costs.

Questions?

For more information, please contact ECInstitute@vermontstate.edu. 

Keynote Presentations

The Power of Shared Learning

Tuesday, July 30

Early Childhood Education programs benefit from authentic learning experiences with staff and children in community organizations. Since it started in 2022, the Head Start / Vermont State University (VTSU) partnership has demonstrated the ways community organizations and university programs enhance learning and build better early learning experiences for young children. The panelists will discuss the collaborative projects and share photographs and work samples of the virtual behavior assessment project, mural project, and expressive arts class on site at Rutland County Head Start.

Donna Barrow, Ed.D., Director, EHS/ Head Start

Dr. Angela Sillars, Ph.D., Early Childhood Program, VTSU

Dr. Lauren Weiss, Ph.D., Early Childhood Program, VTSU

Missy Burke, B.A., Education Manager, RCHS 

VT Early MTSS - Creating Positive Outcomes for Administrators, Teachers, Children and Families

Thursday, August 1

The Early Multi-tiered System of Support (Early MTSS) framework is innovation-neutral and aims to improve early learning, social and emotional well-being, and academic competence for children birth through age 8. Vermont Early MTSS focuses on capacity building within a two-prong approach. Early MTSS balances building a system of support for early childhood programs, families, health providers, and community partners while supporting evidence-based, equitable, and inclusive practices in the classroom. Early MTSS is a tiered framework of evidence-based practices of promotion, prevention, and intervention. It is promoted by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Division for Early Childhood and Head Start. This tiered framework is the model for delivering information about evidence-based practices, strategies, and resources to families and early childhood practitioners, related service providers, paraprofessionals, and community partners, and it aligns with our K-12 VTmtss framework.

Thalia Garcia, Early MTSS Coordinator, VTAOE

Tammy Bates, Early Education Program Manager, VTAOE

Advancing the Workforce and Increasing Program Quality

Tuesday, August 6

Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VTAEYC) is weaving impactful programs to grow, strengthen, and advance the current and future early childhood educator workforce and increase early childhood program quality. Sharron Harrington, executive director of VTAEYC, will share  how the organization is leading Vermont's efforts for a well prepared and well compensated ECE profession and the resources available to support early childhood educators and programs.

Sharron Harrington, Executive Director, VTAEYC

Celebration, Affirmations & Raffle

Thursday, August 8

Ric Reardon, Ph.D.

Pricing

Thanks to a generous financial sponsorship from the Child Development Division (CDD), part of the Department of Children and Families, the institute registration fee of $200 has been waived this year.

Pricing for the Institute is as follows:

Course Funding Opportunity

The Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VTAEYC) may be able to offer some financial assistance for those who register for the aligned credited course at the 2024 ECEI Institute.

If you are interested in taking the aligned 3 credit course, the VTAEYC offers the Child Development's Division's College Tuition Assistance Grant to help cover the cost. You can check to see if you are eligible and learn how to apply by visiting: https://www.vtaeyc.org/grants-bonuses/

Schedule for Online Institute

Strand Information

Select a strand title below to read the description. You will be asked to make a first and second strand choice when registering for the Institute. If your first choice is full or has been cancelled, you will automatically be registered for your second choice. You will be notified of the change.

NOTE: Even if you are participating in the institute only, and not the aligned course, you still need to select a strand for the 4 institute days.

Please note that some strands/courses require reading before the Institute. For more information about pre-reading, please refer to the syllabi linked after each strand/course description, or reach out to the instructor.

Creative Techniques for Working with Trauma-Impacted Children and Families

Session Description: 

According to SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) 2/3^rds of children report experiencing at least one traumatic event by age 16.  Potentially traumatic events might include things such as abuse, community or school violence, natural disasters, grief, serious accidents or illnesses and many others. Understanding how to recognize these signs in the children in our care is the first step in our ongoing goal to best care for and teach them. Recognizing the possible problematic resultant behaviors is the second step and then having strategies in our tool box to help them recover and thrive is step three. Having the knowledge to be considered a trauma-sensitive educator is not only a “nice skill”, it is critical tool.

Audience: Birth through age 8.

Intended Outcomes:

• Distinguish the difference between stress and trauma
• Define events that often rise to the level of trauma for our children
• Pick out clues that problematic behaviors may be connected to trauma
• Understand techniques that are helpful
• Understand techniques that are not helpful
• Be connected to resources for additional support

Syllabus

Register to be added to the wait list.

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Moderating the Effects of Adversity and Promoting Young Children's Resilience

Session Description:

This course will explore the science of stress (particularly the toxic stress that can accompany trauma), the childhood adversities that can underlie the manifestations of stress, and the strategies that parents and other caregivers can enlist to promote young children’s resilience. Examples of evidence-based interventions designed to help children move beyond trauma and re-establish positive developmental trajectories will be presented.

 Audience: Birth through age 8.

Intended Outcomes:

• Gain familiarity with concepts of trauma and other adversities of early childhood
• Identify important strengths of young children that can moderate the negative effects of adversity
  Understand the key principles behind effective interventions to ameliorate trauma and build resilience

Syllabus

Register to be added to the wait list.

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Supporting the 'Social' in Social Emotional Learning: Effective Exchange in our Diverse World

Session Description:

Effective communication involves a back-and-forth interaction between social partners. Additionally, the quality of social connection and exchange of information relies upon how one manages emotional experiences. The development of effective social communication and social emotional regulation begins in infancy and continues to expand across our lifetime. Within the context of secure relationships, exploration, play, emotional signaling, and other social emotional competencies, young children strengthen the foundation for effective social exchange.

This course will explore how educators can create the optimal environment, using neurodiversity-affirming practices and leaning into preferences and tendencies, to foster engagement, social emotional regulation, and social communication for all children. We will explore sensory processing systems that support social emotional well-being, and individualized tools for coregulation. Participants will engage in readings, discussions, simulations, and guided application as they develop and design strategies and practices that draw from universal design. These practices celebrate children as their authentic selves, balance guided and unguided opportunities for exchange, and hone children’s capacity for social emotional regulation and effective communication.   

Work students will be required to complete prior to the institute, if any:

• Read required readings prior to the day of the first session
• Identify a real or made-up learner which you will use to guide the development of a play plan to support social communication. This will be discussed more in the introductory session.
• Attend introductory session on July 23^rd 8-9am

Audience: Birth through age 8.

Intended Outcomes:

• Define play, highlighting its importance for facilitating language, growing social connections, and fostering learning and resilience
• Develop and simulate play plans that balance play types and create a facilitative context for the development of language, social relatedness, and communication for all learners.
• Explore individual sources of neurodivergence across all communication modalities
• Develop and simulate strategies to increase joint attention, mutual engagement, and early perspective-taking 
• Learn strategies to support social communication, perspective-taking, language, associative and cooperative play through PMII
• Assess neurodivergence in terms of play, communication, sensory preferences, and self-regulatory approaches
• Define SEL competencies as outlined by the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
• Explore the connection between sharing perspectives, pragmatic language, and social emotional well-being                                     

Syllabus

Register to be added to the wait list.

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The Hundred Languages: Knowing Diverse Ways of Knowing, Thinking, Communicating

Session Description:

Loris Malaguzzi (1993) coined the term “The Hundred Languages” to suggest the multiple ways in which young children express their theories, feelings, and questions about the world. This concept is especially relevant in the rich, diverse early childhood classrooms of today. How do we promote diverse ways of knowing, thinking, and communicating in our classrooms? This course will offer students the opportunity to learn about the theory of “The Hundred Languages,” consider the role of creativity in their lives, and to think more intentionally about materials that support children’s efforts to communicate and represent their intent, ideas, and feelings. Finally, students will be invited to learn about the affordances and possibilities of a self-chosen medium/material, revealing how it functions as one of “The Hundred Languages.”

Work students will be required to complete prior to the institute, if any:

• Read the Course syllabus
• Barazzoni, R. (2000). Brick by brick: The history of the “XXC Aprile” People’s Nursery School of Villa Cella.
• Play and the Hundred Languages of Children: An Interview with Lella Gandini (https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2022/01/4-1-interview-gandini.pdf)

Audience: This course is intended for teachers who work with children ages 2-5 years old

Intended Outcomes:

Students will...

• Learn about the historical-cultural context and social constructivist perspective that define the values and principles of the Reggio Approach
• Learn about the concept of “The Hundred Languages” of children
• Learn about the role of materials (such as clay, wire, textiles, etc.) in giving voice to children’s hundred languages in early childhood classrooms
• Learn about the historical and cultural “stories” of materials (such as clay, wire, textiles, etc.)
• Have hands-on experiences with a chosen material and develop in-depth knowledge of its affordances and possibilities
• Develop strategies to incorporate their chosen medium/material into their classrooms
• Observe, document and share the children’s interactions with their chosen medium/material with their colleagues and families.

Syllabus

Register to be added to the wait list.

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Therapeutic Work with Young Children in Classroom Settings

Session Description:

This course will focus on providing therapeutic learning and/or healing experiences in a classroom setting for young children who, for either internal or environmental reasons, struggle in their relationships with the people in their world. An overview of normal social/emotional developmental milestones Birth - 5 will be shared and discussed. We will examine the personality traits and knowledge base that are critical for teachers to possess in order to succeed in this challenging and highly rewarding work. We will also explore how curriculum, physical environment, and program supports can either hinder or advance this work. We will look at issues such as attachment, parent support and education, strategies for working with children who are acting out, and effective reflection time and supervision, to name a few. The course will entail a mix of didactic presentation, small group and one-on-one modalities. Participants are asked to bring in case examples of children and family situations that have presented challenges in their work or their programs.

Audience: Birth through age 8.

Intended Outcomes:

• Understand normal social emotional developmental milestones of young children birth to age five
• Understand what is meant by therapeutic early care and education
• Familiarity with Addison County Parent/Child Center therapeutic childcare assessment
• Understand Teacher/Caregiver Attributes and Training essential in therapeutic work with young children
• Understand Social/Emotional Curriculum implications of working in a therapeutic classroom
• Understand Physical Environments that support therapeutic work.
• Understand Program Supports needed to establish and maintain a therapeutic classroom.
• Familiarity with reflective supervision practices in therapeutic work with children and families
• Effectively giving and receiving peer feedback
• Understand common goals in working with children with challenging behaviors, strategies for achieving these goals, and anticipated outcomes
• Develop and articulate a personal understanding of how change happens for young children struggling with SEB challenges
• Understand strategies for working with families of children with SEB challenges
• Familiarity with the frequent role of sensory integration issues in children’s social/emotional struggles

Syllabus

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