Instructional Hours: 30 hours
Credit Hours: 3 CEUs, 3 PLUs

Overview: The Challenging Teachers Institute is a dynamic, high impact week designed to develop the knowledge and skills of teachers and administrators needed to create optimal learning experiences for young children. The Institute promotes a unique blend of content, process, and reflection. Working together, participants create powerful learning groups and networks to design and implement individual and collaborative investigations. These investigations are supported by a fully equipped resource library with the most current and up-to-date research and information on early childhood best practices. The library includes over 2,500 professional books, specialized periodicals, a comprehensive collection of video tapes, and a computer lab with internet access. To bring new perspectives to participant investigations, the Actors' and Artists' Studios transform abstract ideas into unexpected discoveries. Under the artful facilitation of a theater coach with access to props and video taping, new insights and perspectives of behavior emerge. The Artist-in-Residence guides participants through experiences in "reading" paintings, listening with their eyes, and exploring new ideas with a variety of media such as watercolor, collage, clay, wire, and pastel. The individualized approach of the Challenging Teachers Institute emphasizes self-directed and collaborative learning. Facilitators provide time for participants to work at their own pace investigate individualized or collaborative learning projects gather information in a variety of ways including interviews, surveys, role-plays, observations, discussion groups, and library/ internet research test hypotheses in the outdoor environment and Actors' and Artists' Studios share with each other the results of their individual and collaborative discoveries and formulate specific action plans to be implemented when they return to the classroom or center. The following is a description of the specialized courses offered at the Institute.

Infants and Toddlers: Understand the influence of brain development and how to shape the melting pot of attachment, temperament, emerging language, and expanding physical development to produce dynamic learning environments for infants and toddlers. This session is for teachers of infants and toddlers.

Preschool: Uncover the mysteries of early development and guide curriculum planning, transform teacher-child interactions into a catalyst for empowering children as learners, and revitalize classroom environments into studios for emergent learning. This session is for teachers of preschoolers.

Early Literacy: Promote early literacy and language as the foundation for learning; advancing oral language development and emergent literacy through a fully integrated curriculum approach. This session is for teachers participating in an early language and literacy project.

Administration: Discover the secrets of creating a resilient and innovative organization that inspires staff commitment, professional advancement, and loyalty. This session is for program directors.

Art of Facilitation: Examine the dynamics of balancing process and compelling content while facilitating learner-centered, emergent learning. Experience how successful facilitation increases self-awareness and transforms behavior and experiment with facilitation strategies in an authentic setting. This session is for trainers.

Coaching: Explore the skills and competencies necessary for highly effective coaching; identify personal characteristics and beliefs that limit your effectiveness as a coach, and record "real-play" coaching sessions to discover hidden messages in tone of voice and body language. This session is for coaches or technical assistance consultants.

Instructional Hours: 10 hours (2 days)
Credit Hours: 1 CEU

Overview: This two-day course focuses on concepts that create the foundation for successful partnerships. Participants will define coaching, mentoring, and technical assistance. Coaches and mentors learn eight coaching skill areas and the underlying competencies that produce results. Analyze, strategize and practice the skill areas of creating a respectful and supportive environment, maintaining coaching presence, and active listening.

Instructional Hours: 50 hours (8 days)
Credit Hours: 5 CEUs, 5 PLUs, 3 CCRs

Overview: This eight-day course prepares trainers and consultants to provide technical assistance to early childhood programs. The course content focuses on seven technical assistance roles and related competencies. The course emphasizes client-centered processes that facilitate change over time. Technical Assistance Roles are: Partner; Needs Assessor; Facilitator of Change; Joint Problem Solver; Trainer/Educator; Information Specialist; and Caseload Manager.

Instructional Hours: 50 hours (8 days)
Credit Hours: 5 CEUs, 5 PLUs

Overview: This eight-day course prepares qualified, highly accomplished teachers and directors to mentor their peers. Content addresses principles of adult learning, the role and process of mentoring; and best practices in early childhood care and education. Mentoring competencies will be reviewed with opportunities to practice communication approaches that create a safe and supportive environment, promote active listening, and facilitate positive change.

Instructional Hours: 15 hours (3 days)
Credit Hours: 1.5 CEUs

Overview: In this three-day course program administrators design a solution-based system for optimal use of Mentors. Guided facilitation results in the development of a comprehensive plan that includes a work plan, timeline and management system tailored to individual program needs.

Instructional Hours: 25 hours (5 days)
Credit Hours: 2.5 CEUs

Overview: This five-day course prepares administrators to create a climate that fosters leadership across job functions and supports organizational change. The course focuses on organizational and personal change, strategies for building and sustaining effective teams and the role of the leadership in creating resilient organizations.

Instructional Hours: 12 hours (2.5 days)
Credit Hours: 1 CEU, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Discover who you are as a leader and understand how your leadership style impacts your programs' outcomes. In this two and a half day course, you will develop and test strategies for creating positive changes within your program.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Explore the language concepts that lay the foundation for academic success. Learn about the developmental sequence of language acquisition to include auditory processing, phonological awareness, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. Study strategies for supporting the development of enriched language skills in young children.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Study the speech and language delays and disorders that can prevent young children from reaching their full potential. Learn how to observe children and analyze their speech and language skills. Take away strategies for classroom intervention as well as knowledge of indicators for referral to speech and language specialists.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Learn how to create a strong foundation for reading comprehension in later years. Topics focus on the connection between story reading and vocabulary instruction. Using your current curriculum and children's books, you will identify rich vocabulary and strategies to expand children's knowledge of the world.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Understand how conversation develops oral language skills in young children. Take away strategies to enhance oral language skills through conversation including open-ended questions based on children's interest and classroom experiences. Explore how to infuse conversations throughout the preschool day.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Explore explicit instruction techniques in phonology that are interactive and engaging for young children. Learn and practice the components of phonology including syllable and word awareness, sentence segmentation, and rhyming.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Learn how to create experiences for young children that scaffold phonological awareness tasks in order to address the needs of each child. Study typical phonological awareness development and phonological awareness weaknesses and disorders.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Examine emergent literacy skills: book interest and understanding as well as print understanding and use. Analyze activities that develop early literacy skills and practice using them in center time, small and large group time. Develop teaching strategies to expand name writing and alphabet recognition activities.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Learn to create a literacy rich environment in the early childhood classroom. Identify the elements of a literacy rich environment and assess your own classroom. Create an action plan with materials and strategies that encourage literacy in all interest areas and throughout the day.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Study the developmental stages of writing and analyze children's writing samples in order to create strategies for supporting developing writing skills in young children. Identify environmental elements and materials that stimulate children's interest in emergent writing.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Learn the components of early literacy with a focus on the developmental stages and types of writing as well as techniques for supporting writing development through dictation and modeling. Design meaningful and engaging opportunities for children to write throughout the day.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Examine the importance of oral language in the development of literacy skills. Through authentic conversations with young children, learn language stimulation strategies that provide substantial opportunities for children to hear oral language models and produce increasingly sophisticated models of their own.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Study language development for English language learners and how it compares to language acquisition for native English speakers. Learn how oral language is developed through story reading and how to make adaptations for English language learners.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Study the forms, functions and conventions of print. Learn and practice strategies for shared reading and shared writing activities and practice integrating these strategies into literacy curriculum activities specifically during large group teacher led activities.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Explore a variety of children's books and learn to how to identify high quality children's literature. Learn the difference between repeated interactive "read-a-louds" and shared reading and plan and demonstrate story reading.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Analyze the skills needed to successfully complete a variety of preschool tasks. Learn the importance of scaffolding tasks in order to help all children achieve success. Practice scaffolding tasks to assist students with a variety of needs.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Learn a child centered approach to creating a home-school connection that incorporates all levels of family involvement. Develop a customized plan for a successful home-school connection based on your vision of partnerships with families that support early literacy development.

Instructional Hours: 10 hours
Credit Hours: 1 CEU

Overview: The Opening Doors to the World of Learning (OWL)^™ curriculum is an early language and literacy curriculum. This two-day interactive session will prepare teachers to begin using OWL.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: The OWL curriculum includes an in-depth child-assessment component which focuses on language and literacy development. Learn how to use the progress monitoring tool and rubric to assess children's needs and inform planning.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Analyze observation notes, child and classroom summaries to effectively plan for individual children and small groups. Create an action plan for implementing the OWL assessments. The OWL Assessment: Rubrics and Progress Monitoring is a prerequisite for this session.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright From the Start approved

Overview: Learn how to recognize what each child in your classroom needs to reach their full potential. Explore the principles of child assessment, the role of observation, and techniques for collecting anecdotal notes. Survey a variety of assessment tools and link assessment results to planning for each child as an individual.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Learn how the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and PALS PreK assessments are administered and scored. Practice analyzing mock classroom summaries of assessment results and use them to plan activities and individualize lesson plans.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Learn how to create engaging, age appropriate learning experiences that meet the developmental levels of all children. Explore child development, appropriate curriculum content, best practices, and balancing child-guided and teacher-guided learning.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Learn how to use the early childhood learning environment as a teaching strategy. Study arrangement of space, the impact of environment on emergent learning, and how the environment supports self-reliance, problem solving and the competence of young children.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Explore science learning experiences for young children and reignite the wonder of how the world works. Learn ways to bring science confidently into your classroom.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Explore the impact of teacher-child interactions on the development of a young child's self-concept and self-esteem. Learn and practice interaction strategies that promote social and emotional competence and confident learners.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Learn to celebrate conflict in your classroom as an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills and to foster cognitive and social competence in young children. Use classroom case studies to develop individualized guidance strategies that address challenging behaviors.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Discover the influence of well-designed schedules, routines, and transitions on the social and academic competence of young children. Study experts in order to develop strategies that result in a balanced daily schedule, stimulating routines and smooth transitions that foster child independence.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs, Bright from the Start approved

Overview: Study how family culture creates the foundation of a child's self-esteem. Examine how your own values and beliefs influence interactions with the children and families in your care. Leave with strategies for providing culturally sensitive care that honors the unique and universal values and beliefs of all families.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Explore the impact of transition on young children and how to incorporate social and emotional support as they move from a preschool environment to the world of kindergarten. Develop a year-long plan that takes into account multiple perspectives to create a holistic program for transitions.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Reignite your passion for teaching. Through a series of reflective processes and a visioning exercise develop a personal statement of teaching philosophy.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours
Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Develop a portrait of your identity as a professional: how you make decisions, and how your learning style influences how you organize your time and work. Create a vision that builds upon your strengths and highlights opportunities for professional growth.

Instructional Hours: 5 hours Credit Hours: 0.5 CEUs

Overview: Review the highlights of your teaching career and explore methods for documenting the journey. Leave with materials and resources to begin developing your teaching portfolio that tells your professional story. Bring evidence of best practices in teaching such as training certificates, photos, model lesson plans and special recognition. Materials will be provided for organizing and displaying your documentation.