2020 Summit

Melanie J. Hargreaves Champion of Children recipient to the left and our virtual summit with Michael Leeman and Cate Heroman pictured above.

The 2020 Early Childhood Summit took place on September 25-26 virtually through West Shore Community College. The 5th annual Summit included pre-recorded and live guest speakers virtually. Our summit honored local early childhood leaders, including Melanie J. Hargreaves of Small Wonders who received the 2020 Champion for Childhood Award. Friday and Saturday were filled with interactive keynote addresses, breakout sessions, panel discussions, and networking opportunities.

 

Keynote Speakers

Cate Heroman is passionate about helping young children become successful learners and socially competent. She is an early childhood consultant with 40 years in the field as a teacher, Louisiana state early childhood administrator, trainer, keynote speaker, corporate vice president, and author. She has authored numerous early childhood publications including The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool, Teaching Strategies GOLD®, Coaching to Fidelity, Building Your Baby’s Brain, Helping Children Rebound: Strategies for Preschool Teachers, Helping Children Rebound: Strategies for Infant Toddler Teachers, and more. She is especially interested in the maker education movement and is the author of a soon-to-be-released publication for NAEYC called Making and Tinkering with STEM: Solving Design Challenges with Young Children.

Cate previously served on the NAEYC Consulting Editor Panel and has been a guest author for blogs on their website. She is currently volunteering as Board Education Chair of Knock Knock Children’s Museum, an emerging museum for children from birth to age eight. Cate was recently recognized as the 2016  Alumnus of the Year for the LSU College of Human Sciences and Education and received the 2015 Excalibur Volunteer Recognition Award.

Michael Leeman has been at Roseville Community Preschool as a parent and in various other capacities. He has served as a Teacher and is currently Co-Director.  A graduate of CSU Sacramento, Michael is the Director and a Teacher at the Roseville Community Preschool a play-based, parent participation preschool established over 50 years ago. For over 25 years he presented seminars to parent & teacher groups with RCP founder Bev Bos. His preference for creative hands-on opportunities for children can be observed in RCP’s woodworking area.

Attendees

Participants included child care providers, preschool teachers, early interventionists, home visitors, and parents. There was an average number of 180 participants for the event representing 16 Michigan counties. The cost of attendance for 180 participants was offered free virtually.

Breakout Sessions - Pre-recorded

  • Crystal Park: How to Meet Everyone’s Needs in Infant & Toddler Programs

    • Participants explored steps and strategies to scaffold learning for all ages. They had an opportunity to identify which strategies would work for their program. During this session, they were able to create an implementation plan with specific strategies to use with the children in their program.

  • Elizabeth Villaverde: Cultural Competency

    • Participants learned how being culturally competent is reflected in their everyday work with families and children. They participated in activities and discussions that helped them understand their own cultural lens and how that applies to their work with infants and toddlers.

  • Kerri Davis: Inclusion: What Is It and How Do I Do It?

    • Participants looked at the definition of inclusion and what components are necessary to provide inclusion in classrooms. They identified community-based resources that will support the inclusion model as well as learning about how to involve parents in the process. Techniques for adapting and modifying classroom materials were also shared.

  • Kathy Gibson & Melanie Hargreaves: Outdoor Nature-Based Environments

    • Participants watched a recorded video from local early childhood facilities. This gave participants perspective on creating an intentional teaching environment(s) utilizing nature-based or natural "open-ended/loose parts"

  • Holly Karlsen: Intentional Teaching-Child Centered-Focus

    • Participants watched a recorded conversation with the area lead teacher(s) on how to use a child's question(s) to develop and extend a program of study within the classroom.

  • Quran Griffin & Shawn Washington: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

    • Participants gained knowledge of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), which is a research-informed approach to increasing family strengths, enhancing child development, and reducing the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. It is based on engaging families, programs, and communities in building protective factors and parental resilience.

  • Kristina Bajtka: Doing STAR Rating is Good Business

    • In recognition of the importance of quality programming, the State of Michigan launched Great Start to Quality, a voluntary, online tool with information about the quality of their programs that licensed providers can share with parents. Each center or daycare home is listed on the website and quality-rated on a scale of one- to five stars. A program's star rating is also directly tied to reimbursement funds for your business. This session was designed to motivate and inspire participants to focus on the marketing management aspect of their business with the use of a quality rating system.

  • Julie Sizemore: Avoiding Burnout – The Importance of Self Care for Childcare Providers

    • Self-care is a hot topic. In this 1-hour webinar participants will learn what this looks like in child care and how they can implement it regularly.

Thank you to the following sponsors!