Date: Thursday, June 27, 2019

Time: 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Place: Western Suffolk BOCES Conference Center, Wyandanch

(Note: Lunch is included; coffee/tea only in the morning.)

REGISTER NOW: $75 per person

Keynote: High-Quality Early Learning for a Changing World: Images of Possibilities

Presenter Beverly Falk will not just talk about research-based early learning--she'll show videos from classrooms and lead a discussion about what you see teachers doing. Falk is Director of Graduate Programs in Early Childhood Education at CCNY's School of Education.

Choice of workshops 

The full day's schedule is still being finalized, but choice of workshops will include Eco-Conscious Early Childhood Programs and Research-Based Early Literacy Practices .

A new study of our region's public school workforce shows that mostly white teachers are in classrooms with an increasingly diverse student population. The research, conducted by the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, determined that only 8% of Long Island's teachers are minorities, while nonwhite students now total 45% of enrollment.

This leaves "thousands of students without role models of their own race or ethnicity and limited opportunities for teachers of color," said Newsday. Further, it quoted Hofstra's report: "Exposure to diversity makes people smarter...Because diversity brings different viewpoints, understandings and cultural frames, people who are exposed to diversity blend these various ideas, and in the process innovation flourishes."

The online version of Newsday's coverage includes a link to the full 42-page report (the source of the pie charts shown above) and to a school district-by-school district breakdown of teacher demographics.

Would you like to have richer discussions with your students? The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has been exploring the conversational back-and-forth in preschool classrooms in a series of articles. It not only offers some guidance, but has transcribed real conversations to help promote teachers' questioning.

For example, in a discussion about building with cups, the article's author, Janis Strasser, shows how the teacher's questions helped a young child analyze ("Do you have any idea how you will build with them?") and develop understanding ("Can you describe what you did?"). Strasser, from William Paterson University in New Jersey, also offers suggestions for "stretching" conversations, such as asking another questions or making a comments after a child answers a question: "...you can almost always say, 'What else can we add to that?' or 'Tell more more about that.'"

This online article is from the February/March 2019 issue of Teaching Young Children. It's the fifth and final piece in a series. Two of the others are also available on the same page of the NAEYC website.

A dozen biographies of "truly amazing" women are suggested by Brightly, the nonprofit literacy partner of Penguin Random House. They range from well-known figures like Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and chimp researcher Jane Goodall to Muslim architect Zaha Hadid and computer scientist Grace Hopper.

"These 12 women changed the world in a way that only they could--through their words, their actions, their talents, their ideas and their resilience."

Read more.

Part-Time Toddler Teacher Assistant

Campus Kids Children's Learning Center, Selden

Email resume to crispil@sunysuffolk.edu

• Your name
• Your position
• Your e-mail and phone number

• The name of your school and the town it's located in. You can include your web address, if you have one.
• A very brief description of the position or positions you want to fill. (For example: "Part-time Teacher Assistant" or "Full-time Pre-K Teacher."
• Information about how potential applicants should contact your for details or to apply. (For example: "Call Jane Smith at 631-xxx-xxxx" or "Send e-mail to jane.smith@schoolname.org")