26th Parent Training Seminars
Training Seminars
Registration is required for each seminar. Participation in seminars is free with a paid conference registration. Please note the dates and times of each seminar to avoid scheduling conflicts.
Friday, 12/4/2009
8 a.m.-Noon
Conflict... Your Opportunity to Find Yourself
Do I have a conflict style? If so, what is it? Should I use the same conflict style for all situations? If not, why not? What is my organization's conflict style? What is my ability to handle stress and conflict? These are just some of the questions that will be addressed during this lively, upbeat seminar. Participants will have a chance to learn about their "emotional intellect" and their ability to deal with stress and conflict while at the same time discovering their own conflict style.
8 a.m.-Noon
The Best You: Improving Your Professional Self-Image
Are you ready? This highly active seminar will explore specific strategies for improving your professional self- image. Participants will be guided through developing job search techniques, preparing résumés and cover letters, selecting the right attire for the interview, and the dos and don'ts of interviewing. Other aspects of business etiquette will also be discussed.
8 a.m.-Noon
Parents as Adviactes after Head Start
Head Start recognizes parents as their child's primary nurturer and educator. As such, parental participation is encouraged throughout the program's comprehensive services to children. However, to continue their advocacy efforts and active involvement in their child's education outside the supportive walls of Head Start, parents must recognize and embrace their leadership potential. This seminar will help participants begin a journey of discovery to uncover their talents and strengths through interactive, guided exercises. Participants will have an opportunity to create a personal mission statement based on individual passions, purpose, and priorities. With their mission in hand, they will then develop concrete, obtainable goals and the steps involved in achieving those goals. Participants will leave with a blueprint they can use to build upon the foundations of Head Start, support the success of their children, and strengthen their community.
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Development of Preschoolers
The road to successful child development starts with understanding! Understanding how children develop from birth through adolescence is critical to effective parenting. Parenting is a 24-hour responsibility, filled with demands, expectations, and challenges for any parent. This seminar will review normal developmental patterns of children in order to help parents and providers gain a better understanding of "what is happening and why." This session will also explore various factors including, but not limited to, abuse, neglect, culture, and out-of-home care - and how each affects child development.
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Enhancing Services for Children with Disabilities and Their Families
It truly takes a village! When everyone works together, great things can be achieved. This interactive seminar is designed to show the connection between everyone working together and the development of children with disabilities. Through a multi-tiered approach, participants will be given strategies and examples of how families, leaders, staff, and collaboration partners can work together to enhance services for children with disabilities and their family.
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Ignite the Spark...Art! Art! Art!
Family literacy and school readiness are the ultimate goals of this seminar, which will offer a unique chance for parents and Head Start staff to gain insight and learn strategies for effectively using A Head Start on Picturing America Resource Guide, artwork posters, and activities. Participants will get an opportunity to discover how A Head Start on Picturing America can be used to support family literacy and school readiness success. They will also uncover how the program can provide opportunities for parents to focus on their personal life goals, growth, and development.
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Partnering with Parents: Setting the Stage for Learning at Home and School
This experimental all-day seminar is designed for education coordinators, teachers, parents, and parent educators. Through hands-on activities and discussion, participants will explore ways to create the social and emotional climate at home and at school that spark children's natural curiosity and thinking skills. There will be an emphasis on illustrating to parents how children's simple daily activities both at home and school can build specific areas of the brain. A collection of parent involvement ideas that can quickly and easily be used at programs or at home will be shared.
1-5 p.m.
Parenting with Special Challenges
There are many challenges facing families: poverty, teenage parenting, raising a child with special needs, substance abuse, and incarceration. Participants will learn about the similarities and differences in parenting for families who face these challenges and strategies that can be used to help families identify their social support networks, access community resources, and advocate for themselves.
1-5 p.m.
Having GOOD Difficult Conversations
There are times when having a difficult conversation is unavoidable. In Head Start, these conversations may take place between parents, a parent and teacher, a parent and an administrator, a parent and a service provider, a parent and a child, and so on. During this seminar, participants will learn strategies for making difficult conversations become guided more by common understanding and problem solving and less emotional, offensive, angry, or hurtful. Participants will gain a better understanding of how they can have "good" difficult conversations.
Saturday, 12/5/2009
8 a.m.-Noon
Conflict Resolution: I Had it First
Conflict is a natural disagreement resulting from individuals or groups that differ in attitudes, beliefs, values, or needs. This seminar will help parents, educators, and caregivers work through conflicts effectively. Participants will learn how to solve common problems ranging from children fighting over toys to parental power struggles. They will also learn methods commonly used to solve social conflict, to gain a broader understanding of conflict, and to help children in particular to solve problems.
8 a.m.-Noon
EHS: Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is a natural way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. This seminar will provide a glimpse of the Loving Support curriculum for training home visitors, family advocates, and parent volunteers to promote and protect breastfeeding among Early Head Start families. Participants will identify key breastfeeding benefits, explore concrete ways to support breastfeeding, and gain hands-on skills to help moms and babies breastfeed comfortably.
8 a.m.-Noon
Family Fun with Long-Term Impact: Learning Games
Head Start family members often need support to help them understand, observe, and encourage their children's development. Seminar participants will learn how to implement a structured approach to purposeful and effective play that engages children in developmentally and culturally appropriate activities. These activities and the strategies for implementing them are scientifically-validated and fun for the whole family.
8 a.m.-Noon
Guiding Young Children? How Conscious Are You?
Social and emotional competence increases a child's chance to be successful. In an effort to bolster that success, this seminar will help participants become more conscious of how the brain works and better understand the relationship between brain development and behavior. Participants will discover how rituals can provide children the connection necessary for social and emotional competence.
8 a.m.-Noon
Liver Wellness and Healthy Behaviors for Life
Did you know that the liver is one of the most important organs in the body? The liver has many jobs, including changing food into energy and cleaning alcohol and poisons from the blood - yet it is rarely thought about. The purpose of this seminar is to educate participants about the importance of the liver and healthy behaviors related to liver health. Participants will learn to identify functions of the liver that affect their daily activities and identify ways to protect their liver and avoid liver damage associated with harmful choices and behaviors.
8 a.m.-Noon
Preschool Vision Screening
Many children have difficulty in the classroom due to vision problems. Children are not always able to communicate their vision problems, which can then cause other problems. This seminar will explore the critical role eye examinations play in the successful development of children. Participants will learn why it is critical for children to have an eye examination and also about common early childhood vision disorders that can lead to permanent impairment if not detected and treated early.
8 a.m.-Noon
Promoting Family Service Outcomes through a Holistic Family Wellness Approach
If you are looking for ways to promote family driven outcomes through fun family based activities and events, be sure to attend this seminar! There is no need to focus on deficits when you help families celebrate their individual strengths and successes! This seminar will explore methods for using a multi-directional system to support families within your organization. Participants will be provided with help in developing a plan of action for program improvement - specifically in the area of family services.
8 a.m.-Noon
Resiliency Training for Parents and Educators
This seminar will introduce a scientifically-based training program for parents and educators designed to counter the effects of stress through a set of research-based tools and techniques that is reinforced by an innovative coherence-building technology called the Wave. Participants will learn to transform stress, increase resiliency, and create harmonious home and classroom environments. Participants will also be introduced to a set of social and emotional skills that are appropriate for young children.
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Know the Roles: Head Start Boards and the Parent Policy Council/Committee
Boards and parent policy councils and committees each have unique roles to play in the overall development of children and in the success of the program. And participation in these groups helps further the mission of Head Start and empowers parents and community members. This seminar will review the roles of boards and the policy council in respect to their purpose and walk through governance and shared decision-making.
Noon-4 p.m.
Getting Ready for School!
This seminar, like Head Start, is founded on the principle that families play a key role in promoting their children's growth and development. This is grounded in a solid research base that clearly shows the essential role families play in preparing children to be ready to learn when they enter elementary school. There is a strong relationship between parents engaging their children in playful, language-rich everyday activities and optimal learning. Parents who participate in Getting Ready for School! will learn simple, easy ways to promote learning. As they experience success with these activities, parents' become increasingly empowered in their role as children's primary educator. This realization combined with the joy in learning their children experience encourages families to continue their interactive literacy and math activities. Because Getting Ready for School! is closely tied to the Head Start Outcomes Framework, parents will be further prepared to interact and directly support what children are learning in the classroom.
Noon-4 p.m.
Take it Outside
Are you providing engaging outdoor play experiences for your children? This seminar will give participants an opportunity to learn the importance of outdoor play on children's health, identify the key features of quality outdoor play spaces, and extend their thinking about an adult's role in facilitating movement and learning during outdoor play. Participants will leave reenergized and ready to get outdoors!
Sunday, 12/6/2009
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Conducting Effective Meetings: Parent and Policy Council and Committee
The ultimate goal of any parent policy council or committee meeting is to be effective and fair and to produce measurable outcomes that benefit the Head Start agency, children, and parents. This seminar will provide Head Start staff members and parent policy council/committee members with a framework for beginning the process of conducting effective meetings.
Monday, 12/7/2009
9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Positive Discipline
In child rearing, discipline refers to a variety of techniques that are designed to manage, direct, and reinforce positive behavior. However, managing a child's behavior is not an end in itself! This seminar will introduce participants to an approach to discipline that can result in improved outcomes for children. Participants will be provided useful strategies that will help discipline become an effective tool for growth.
Subject to change.