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.

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

Current neuroscience reveals a remarkable truth: the way young brains process sound builds the foundation for language and literacy, and music-making actively strengthens that foundation. Join Ann C. Kay, M.A., Co-founder of Rock ’n’ Read Project, for a fun, engaging session where you’ll sing (on mute!), explore the science of early brain development, and learn how to use music-making to help babies and toddlers build essential pre-reading skills. No prior music training is required.

Long before a child says “Mama” or “Dada,” they begin “warbling”—experimenting with pitch and rhythm. Through singing, caregivers and educators can nurture connection while strengthening auditory processing, auditory memory, phonological awareness, and beat synchronization, or the ability to keep a steady beat. Research consistently links beat-keeping with later reading achievement, making everyday musical experiences a powerful tool for early learning.

In this high-energy webinar, Ann will show you how to turn brain research into simple, practical “Monday morning” strategies that support infant and toddler development. Together, you’ll practice foundational music-making skills such as keeping a steady beat and matching pitch, while discovering how daily musical experiences build “musical fitness” over time. Like physical fitness, musical fitness develops through regular practice and supports the cognitive growth necessary for language and literacy acquisition. By singing the day away, you can create a joyful, nurturing environment while helping lay the groundwork for lifelong learning.

Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:

1. Examine the research linking auditory processing, auditory memory, phonological awareness, and beat synchronization to future reading success.

2. Apply age-appropriate music-making techniques such as beat-keeping and pitch matching with infants and toddlers.

3. Implement daily musical practices to support long-term cognitive development in infants and toddlers.

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

What if you could stop chasing endless new art ideas—and still offer rich, meaningful creative experiences all year long?

In this practical and inspiring session, Faigie Kobre, early childhood educator, former preschool director, and creator of the Beyond Copycat Crafts framework, invites educators to rethink how they approach process art in the classroom.

Many educators feel pressure to constantly introduce new and exciting art activities to keep children engaged. Yet in reality, four core process art activities can be expanded, adapted, and revisited in countless ways—enough to sustain an entire year of creative exploration. In this webinar, Faigie will walk participants step-by-step through these four essential activities and demonstrate how they can be used over and over again with fresh purpose and intention.

This session is rooted in her Creative Trio PAC Framework, where P = Process Art, offering educators a repeatable system that replaces “cookie-cutter” crafts with meaningful, child-led creative experiences. You’ll learn how to balance structure and freedom, support creativity without chaos, and confidently guide open-ended art that is developmentally appropriate, engaging, and manageable—no matter your classroom setting.

You’ll leave with a clear framework, adaptable ideas, and renewed confidence in your ability to foster authentic creativity without the overwhelm.

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

• Identify the four core process art activities that can sustain creative work across an entire year

• Distinguish between copycat crafts and true process art

• Apply the Creative Trio PAC framework to plan intentional, open-ended art experiences

• Design developmentally appropriate art invitations that balance structure and creative freedom

• Reduce planning overwhelm while increasing meaningful creative engagement

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

Are you finding that more and more children present you with more and more questions? Do you ever feel like some days you just can’t find the answers—or that when you do, nothing seems to work or keep working?

In this insightful session, Michele Hemenway Pullen, Project Specialist at the University of Louisville Early Childhood Research Center, will guide you through a simple, step-by-step approach to help you regain your confidence and know “what to say when,” as well as which next steps are best to take.

Originally designed for early childhood college students who were experiencing new levels of frustration, Michele’s “When to Say When” checklist has, over the past fifteen years, become a trusted framework for educators seeking composure, clarity, and confidence—especially when working with children whose behaviors are complex or whose neurodivergent traits may be misunderstood.

Each step highlights areas where you can seek additional training or collaboration and provides practical strategies grounded in evidence-based practices. You’ll leave with clear, actionable “next steps” to guide your professional growth and interactions with children and families.

You’ll gain:

1. Greater confidence in identifying which areas of a child’s development to consider when confronted with confusing or challenging behaviors.

2. Stronger communication skills for engaging families in ongoing, collaborative conversations about what you’re experiencing.

3. A renewed sense of well-being and reassurance that you have a plan—and that you’re doing all you can.

As we move through this process, you’ll be invited to use the checklist document to take notes, reflect, and apply your learning in real time.

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

What if the key to better planning isn’t doing more—but seeing more? Join the Founder of Clare Devlin - Education Consultancy, in this engaging and down-to-earth session where you’ll discover a practical, no-nonsense approach to observation, assessment, and planning in early childhood education.

This isn’t about checklists or paperwork overload—it’s about truly seeing your children, understanding what their play and behavior are telling you, and using that insight to plan meaningful experiences.

In this session, Clare Devlin, will walk you through a simple yet powerful three-step reflective cycle—What, So What, Now What—designed to help you observe with purpose, assess with clarity, and plan with intention. You’ll learn how to tune into children’s natural play, record meaningful observations, and collaborate with your team to make confident, informed decisions that support each child’s development.

You’ll leave this session feeling inspired and equipped with tools you can use right away—whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or just starting out.

In this session, you will:

• Learn how to record rich, objective observations that capture the essence of children’s play, thinking, and learning.

• Strengthen your skills in making sense of observations through reflective team discussions.

• Explore how to plan purposeful next steps that build on children’s strengths, interests, and emerging priorities.

• Use involvement levels as a practical tool to understand and support deep engagement.

• Discover how to simplify your observation, and assessment process using a clear, one-page format.

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

Insurance costs are rising, and for many child care providers, the reasons behind those increases can feel unclear, inconsistent, and out of their control. In this timely session, we’ll explore how licensing inspection data is often used by insurers to assess risk—and why approaches based primarily on counting violations can miss the bigger picture of program quality, safety, and consistency.

Participants will examine how these practices can unintentionally penalize providers, contribute to rising liability insurance costs, and create additional challenges for programs already working hard to maintain high standards of care. The session will also introduce a more collaborative and transparent approach to evaluating compliance, one that considers the severity of regulations, applies more consistent scoring practices, and tracks patterns over time to support fairer and more reliable risk assessment.

Designed as a participatory conversation, this session invites providers, administrators, and agency staff to think together about what needs to change. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of the problem, a practical framework for rethinking risk and compliance, and concrete ways to contribute to a growing grassroots effort to improve child care liability insurance outcomes.

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

• Analyze how licensing inspection data is commonly used by insurance carriers and identify the limitations of violation-count-based risk assessments.

• Compare traditional inspection reporting with a weighted, more universal scoring approach to understand how severity and context influence risk interpretation.

• Apply at least one strategy for using compliance data more effectively in conversations with insurers, regulators, or organizational partners.