B’Simcha: Do It With Joy
ECE-RJ Conference Intensive Sessions
Refreshing the Professional
This series invites ECE professionals, of all kinds, to set down their responsibilities as a lesson-planner, regulation-follower, toilet-plunger, scheduling-wizard, logistical-manager-in-chief and become reacquainted with an essential role of the profession: nurturing. However, instead of focusing on how we nurture children, we will investigate the often under-discussed complexity of nurturing the other adults around us – colleagues and families – and ourselves! Using developmental theory and research as a framing, we will explore the roots of trust and security and their influence on communication and sharing power. When we turn the lens on ourselves, we’ll gently explore our own biases and examine the ways that our nervous system impacts our mood, our behaviors, and our professional practice. This series seeks to offer participants a place to increase confidence, feel refreshed, and rediscover the joy of early childhood education.
Noah Hichenberg
Preschool Director, Author & Adjunct Professor Adas Israel Congregation & American Jewish University
Trust the Children
Description: Contemporary American parenting and teaching practices have been built to control the preschool child. This over-extension of control into the daily life of the child diminishes their capacity to participate in, and contribute to, the world they live in. This intensive will examine how and why this came to be, and what teachers and parents can do to re-orient their relationship with children away from control and towards trust. We will discuss concrete classroom strategies for bringing children’s agency and volition to the forefront while chipping away at some of our assumptions about what is “supposed to” happen in the early years.
Joyful Leadership through Partnership: A Deep Look at Shared Leadership
In this three-part professional learning series, participants will explore leadership models that strengthen their ability to lead with others. The content and activities will support connecting existing leadership capacities to shared leadership development and recognizing staff/colleague strengths to build meaningful shared leadership opportunities. Through collaborative inquiry, reflection, and group work, participants will discover how shared leadership can transform their work and revitalize their sense of purpose.