Greetings!
Early Learning Update Week of November 20th, 2023
Items Covered:
· Thank you and Thanksgiving Prayer
· December Monthly Early Learning Professional Development: “Sensory and the Brain: Promoting Self-Regulation and Learning” - Thursday, December 7th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm
· Licensed ONLY – Must complete 10 Hours of STARS In-Service Training by December 31st, 2023
· Licensed ONLY - Licensing “WAC” of the week – Emergency Preparation and Exiting
1.) Thank you and Thanksgiving Prayer
As we enter Thanksgiving Week I want to pause and say thank you for all the incredible work you do for your programs, school and families of your communities. It is an honor to work alongside you and I hope that you have the opportunity to rest and spend time with family and friends over this long Holiday weekend. Please see below for a Thanksgiving Prayer:
Father in Heaven, Creator of all and source of all goodness and love, please look kindly upon us and receive our heartfelt gratitude in this time of giving thanks.
Thank you for all the graces and blessings You have bestowed upon us, spiritual and temporal: our faith and religious heritage. Our food and shelter, our health, the loves we have for one another, our family and friends.
Dear Father, in Your infinite generosity, please grant us continued graces and blessing throughout the coming year.
Amen.
2.) December Monthly Early Learning Professional Development: “Sensory and the Brain: Promoting Self-Regulation and Learning” - Thursday, December 7th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Each month we will be offering a FREE Professional Development Training facilitated by one of our great Professional Development Partners. These trainings are available for any Early Learning staff and will have STARS and CLOCK hours available for those that need it.
December’s training is offered by IMPACT and is called “Sensory and the Brain: Promoting Self-Regulation and Learning.” The training will take place virtually on Zoom on Thursday, December 7th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. Please see description and registration below:
Description: Do you like roller coasters? Do you hate spicy foods? We all have sensory preferences that guide the things we seek out and the things we avoid. Many “challenging behaviors” are actually a child’s attempts to regulate their sensory system, so join us to learn how to recognize sensory-seeking and sensory-avoiding behaviors in the classroom. This course teaches brain-based strategies that effective teachers use to get entire classrooms of children regulated and ready to learn. We put this into practice with a case study to identify an individual child’s sensory needs and walk through the whole process together – connecting a child’s behaviors to their sensory needs and then creating an easy-to-follow plan for supporting those needs in the classroom. As a bonus, you’ll get a printable Sensory Matrix template that you can customize for your students and use again and again in your classroom.
3.) Licensed ONLY – Must complete 10 Hours of STARS In-Service Training by December 31st, 2023
All staff working in Licensed Programs must complete 10 Hours of STARS In-Service Training by December 31st, 2023. In addition to the two hour December 7th training listed above please see below for other options:
·
Go to the Professional Development tile on the Early Learning Webpage and click on upcoming trainings. As a reminder if there are trainings with costs connected to them each staff person can get up to $250 reimbursed every year through the state when taking trainings from state approved trainers. The application for reimbursement is the first link under “upcoming trainings”. Each staff can only turn this in once per year so if you are planning to use the application for multiple trainings list them all before submitting the form.
Early Learning Professional Development - My Catholic School
·
There are two free On-Demand trainings for one STAR hour each on the Eastern Washington Child Care Association Website – scroll down to “On-Demand” Trainings
EWFCCA
4.) Licensed ONLY - Licensing “WAC” of the week – Emergency Preparation and Exiting
The Emergency Preparation and Exiting WAC focuses on Emergency Preparedness Plan Requirements, Emergency Light Source, Phone availability and ensuring safe exit with exit door requirements. For this WAC we concentrate on sections 1 – 3. The remaining section focus on Family Home early Learning Environments. Thank you and please let me know if you have any questions.
Emergency Preparedness Plan WAC:
Chapter 110-300 WAC: - a good checklist to make sure your plan includes all relevant items.
Have a great week!
