RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

You’ve been there. You prepare for a coaching conversation, choose your words carefully, and still, something doesn’t land. The teacher shuts down, gets defensive, or nods along without any real change. It’s frustrating, and it can make even the most dedicated leader question their impact.

In this engaging and practical session, you’ll learn how to turn those moments into meaningful opportunities for growth. You’ll explore why resistance happens — and, more importantly, what to do about it in real time. Through relatable scenarios and real-world language, you’ll build confidence in navigating difficult conversations with clarity and care, and learn how to shift teachers from resistant to reflective.

Together, we’ll move beyond compliance-driven feedback and into coaching that builds trust, reflection, and ownership. You’ll walk away with specific phrases you can use, simple frameworks to guide your approach, and strategies to help teachers feel seen, supported, and motivated to improve their practice.

Whether you’re coaching a new teacher who lacks confidence or a seasoned educator who resists change, this session will meet you where you are. You’ll leave with tools you can use immediately — because effective coaching isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about knowing how to ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right time.

If you’re ready to shift your coaching from frustrating to effective — and finally see it stick — this session is for you.

Learning Objectives

• Explain the underlying reasons teachers may resist feedback and how resistance shows up in coaching interactions.

• Apply effective, strengths-based coaching language and questioning techniques to reduce defensiveness and increase engagement.

• Analyze real-world coaching scenarios to determine the most effective responses for promoting reflection and growth.

• Design a practical coaching plan that addresses a current challenge and supports sustained improvement in teacher practice.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

Get ready to play as you learn to speak infant and toddler!

Explore how intentional language during play helps infants and toddlers build meaning, connection, confidence, and a lasting love of learning. Grounded in play-based neuroscience, this workshop examines the powerful relationship between adult expressive language and the ways young children process, understand, and respond to the world around them.

Participants will look closely at how language supports child-led play, self-exploration, and early problem-solving. The session will introduce different types of prosocial play and explore how specific phrases can nurture curiosity, creativity, and communication in developmentally appropriate ways. Through a linguistic lens, participants will also examine common habits in adult language, consider how young children interpret what they hear, and identify more effective ways to communicate during everyday interactions.

Based on The Talking Triangle Framework from Talk to Them Early and Often, this session brings theory to life through modeled examples, video clips, and ready-to-use sentence starters that participants can immediately apply in the classroom or at home. Educators will leave with a practical approach to using language during play in ways that support cognition, strengthen early identity, and foster deeper connection in the first three years.

Learning objectives:

• Explain the difference between receptive and expressive language in preverbal infants and toddlers.

• Name three types of child-led play and describe their early learning benefits.

• Identify five sentence starters that support connection, encourage curiosity, and cultivate creative thinking in infants and toddlers.

• Apply intentional language strategies by generating developmentally appropriate phrases for everyday play and interactions.

RESOURCES

• Watch the full webinar here
• Join our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every week
• Check out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management Software

Early childhood educators are often expected to give endlessly—to children, families, and programs—while their own well-being is rarely prioritized. For program leaders, this raises an important question: How are the adults in your program really doing?

In this webinar, Dr. Cathi Miller—professor, consultant, and host of the podcast Developmentally Inappropriate with Dr. Cathi—is joined by Dr. Keena Mosley, an ECE professor and leadership coach, to explore how administrators can champion strong educator communities that transform program culture, reduce burnout, and support long-term teacher retention. Participants will examine how intentional leadership practices can foster belonging, collaboration, and resilience.

Through reflection and practical examples, administrators will learn strategies for cultivating supportive educator communities within their programs, creating environments where teachers feel valued, connected, and able to thrive alongside the children they serve.

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Examine the relationship between educator well-being, professional connection, and teacher retention in early childhood programs.

2. Apply leadership practices and program-culture strategies that reduce educator isolation and support staff well-being.

3. Implement practical leadership strategies that strengthen educator communities, prevent teacher burnout, and promote long-term sustainability.