Every Child's Champion

Send us a textHave you ever considered that PLAY might be the missing piece in making children's education truly effective and joyful? Join me in this episode as we explore the transformative potential of PLAY-based learning in the classroom. Reconnect with your inner child and rediscover the joy of teaching. We know how life's pressures can overshadow our passion for education but there are strategies to reignite that spark through playful engagement. Educators can become co-players in inquiry-based learning, helping children naturally grasp complex concepts like stabilization through playful interactions.This episode is packed with practical strategies to elevate your teaching game! Learn how to spark meaningful conversations with children using open-ended questions, self-talk, and parallel talk, all while fostering their language skills and critical thinking. Do you know that emotional support and secure attachments contribute significantly to both cognitive and emotional development of these children? By prioritizing these connections, educators can inspire children to become confident, problem-solving individuals. Embrace PLAY, foster curiosity, and witness the transformative impact on both you and your students.Make sure you tune in to this podcast, and share it with colleagues, as we discover the inner secrets of beingEvery Child's Champion!(Refer to the Chapter Markers tab for time-stamped highlights)Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE! On Apple Podcasts                      On Spotify              On Google Podcasts Make sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!! For a copy of all our show notes, go HERE ß Even better if you could also join ourFacebook Page to share your thoughts and let us fire your sparks, dear Champions! Or follow us on Instagram. Have you missed the last episode?Take a listen here →Creating Joyful Classrooms: Enhancing Child Relationships and Educator Well-being, Ep30

Send us a Text Message.Imagine being the cornerstone of a child's development, where every action you take has the potential to shape their future. As educators, your mental, emotional, and physical well-being is indispensable. In this episode, we will delve into the profound influence you have on your students. Reflecting on self-efficacy, we urge you to list your strengths and find joy in your teaching practice, even amid the current staffing crisis and high stress levels. This episode is a tribute to your immense value, to foster a positive mindset that will enhance both your effectiveness and the learning experience for your students.Building strong relationships with students is at the heart of our discussions. Drawing from attachment theory, we'll figure out how early relationships influence a child's ability to trust and regulate emotions. By prioritizing personal connections and maintaining a positive attitude, educators can create a secure environment that supports both emotional and behavioral development. This episode is packed with practical advice and heartfelt insights designed to help you become an even more nurturing and effective Champion for every child in your classroom.Make sure you tune in to this podcast, and share it with colleagues, as we discover the inner secrets of beingEvery Child's Champion!(Refer to the Chapter Markers tab for time-stamped highlights)Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE!On Apple Podcasts                  On Spotify           On Google PodcastsMake sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!!For a copy of all our show notes, go HERE

Send us a Text Message.What happens when nearly one-third of early childhood educators abandon their classrooms? The alarming ripple effects of teacher shortages, inadequate training, and rising stress levels are unraveling a crisis in early childhood education. In this eye-opening episode of Every Child's Champion, Sara unpacks the statistics and stories behind this troubling trend. Let's explore the urgent necessity for systemic change, including better support structures like mental health consultants, on-site coaching, and comprehensive training to help educators navigate these turbulent waters.There's hope! This episode can guide you to actionable strategies that can transform early education experiences for both teachers and children. Every Child's Champion offers resources and community support designed to empower teachers. Let's uncover how we can collectively bring about the broader societal and systemic changes needed to fortify early childhood education for the future.Make sure you tune in to this podcast, and share it with colleagues, as we discover the inner secrets of being Every Child's Champion!(Refer to the Chapter Markers tab for time-stamped highlights)Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE!On Apple PodcastsOn SpotifyOn Google PodcastsMake sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!!For a copy of all our show notes, go HERE

Here are some links to resources I shared in this week's Podcast! I love my Degrees of Comfort Weighted Blanket !!  It is 60x80” and 15 lbs.  So calming to the body! Enter the Every Child's Champion Contest!Check out the prize for our current Contest! One lucky winner will win the  Lakeshore Classroom Management System  - a $299 value! To enter, just do this:1.       Subscribe to our website / email list2.       Enter a comment on our Facebook page for Every Child's ChampionEvery person who comments on ECC Facebook page who is also a subscriber, will automatically be entered in our contest to win! Visual Schedules:Instructions for Making a Visual Schedule  by Rochelle Lentini and Lise Fox  / University of South Florida(From the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations website)Helping Children Make TransitionsLink to Article   

As we've shared in other podcasts, the prenatal to 3 period of development is all about incredible amounts of brain development that is occurring at this time, with billions of new connections forming the very architecture of the brain not only during the prenatal period but for the entire span of these early years. The sensory inputs (not the least of which is touch) a child is receiving throughout this period is what makes this development happen. In this Sensori-motor period, the ability to touch, taste, smell, see, and hear the world around babies is literally the curricular landscape for infant / toddler teachers. This week's podcast is all about the power of touch for infants and the parents, caregivers and other adults to whom they become attached. An interview with certified infant massage instructor Lynn Barts, owner of Baby and Me, LLC. Lynn brings over 29 years of experience in Prenatal to 3 work, with Early Intervention, Home Visiting, and Early Childhood Professional Development for teachers and caregivers. She shares what a beautiful compliment to the parent-infant bonding experience Infant Massage can be, as well as how this simple but powerful practice can be offered through early childhood programs across multiple sectors of the early childhood field. Make sure you tune in to this podcast, share it with colleagues, as we discover the inner secrets of being Every Child's Champion!(Refer to the Chapter Markers tab for time-stamped highlights)Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE! On Apple Podcasts                      On Spotify              On Google PodcastsMake sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!!For a copy of all our show notes, go HERE Even better if you could also join our Facebook Page to share your thoughts and let us fire your sparks, dear Champions!Have you missed the last episode?Take a listen here →Mindfulness for Champions: Take Care of You! Ep24

Today's podcast message goes to all children's champions out there. Sara is sharing ideas and resources for our own emotional and mental health. Difficult times will always be ahead of us even post pandemic and still, teachers are really hit the hardest. So, how are you all holding up emotionally and physically? When our minds are under stress, it is really difficult to focus. So in this episode, Sara will take you to a place of mindfulness, of simply paying attention to the experiences of paying attention. Let us support emotion management and reduce the stress that might have built up since the pandemic started. Every teacher should learn to do this for their own self-care practice. So we can give from a place of inner fulfillness, rather than depletion (from the article of Sharon Salzberg, Care for the Caregiver: How to Practice Self-Compassion). Make sure you tune in to this podcast, share it with colleagues, as we discover the inner secrets of being Every Child's Champion!Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE! On Apple Podcasts                      On Spotify              On Google Podcasts Make sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!! For a copy of all our show notes, go HERE  Even better if you could also join our Facebook Page to share your thoughts and let us fire your sparks, dear Champions! Have you missed the last episode?Take a listen here →Anxiety, Depression, and the Polyvagal Theory: My Story, Ep23

In this podcast, Sara shares her own personal history with trauma, depression, and anxiety, and introduces what she has learned about the different ways children cope with trauma. Why do some children have hairpin triggers, lashing out at their classmates, teachers, and virtually anyone else who tries to set limits on their behavior? On the other hand, why are some children “walled off,” aloof, or mostly disconnected from others, socially?Humans are social beings, and we all need other people. When children experience scary, stressful situations in their lives, this can impact the ways they relate to others, and we see this regularly with some children who have great difficulty adapting to basic Pre-K expectations. The Polyvagal Theory provides a framework for understanding the many complex behaviors teachers are faced with on a daily basis, as well as the most helpful ways for responding to them. So in this podcast, we look at the different response patterns that are built-in to all of us, and how things like abuse, neglect, or chronically high-stress levels can set children up for some very maladaptive social behaviors. We also talk about the primary solution to helping these children adapt and learn how to interact in more socially acceptable ways.Make sure you tune in to this podcast, share it with colleagues, as we discover the inner secrets of being Every Child's Champion!(Refer to the Chapter Markers tab for time-stamped highlights)Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE!On Apple Podcasts On Spotify      On Google PodcastsMake sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!!Even better if you could also join our Facebook Page to share your thoughts and let usfire your sparks, dear Champions!Have you missed the last episode?Take a listen here →A Play Therapist's Perspective on the Impacts of Trauma on Children's Behavior, Ep22

“You need to work on building your relationship with that child.” How many times have you heard this from a supervisor or coach, when trying to get support for dealing with extremely challenging behavior? What more do we have to DO, beyond what we do with all students? Our guest today will answer this question, as we explore the reasons why the RELATIONSHIP you build with a challenging child is the  KEY to healing their heart and changing their behavior. In today's podcast, play therapist Megan Wolf expands our understanding of how things like abuse, neglect, and dangerous home environments can impair children's ability to form relationships and get along with others. Megan is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Missouri who works with all ages of children, and their families. Her caseload includes some of the most challenging kids who have experienced abuse, neglect, developmental trauma, severe medical issues or disability.Developmental trauma is the cumulative impact of chronic, high levels of stress and fear. These experiences can elicit strong feelings and physical reactions that impact children's development and cause major disruptions in their behavior and their ability to form relationships. As teachers, we can provide immediate aid to these children in ways that are fun and helpful for the child. This episode is going to open our eyes to some simple but very effective methods of building relationships, calming, and building social skills with some of our most challenging children.Make sure you tune in to this podcast, share it with colleagues, as we discover the inner secrets of beingEvery Child's Champion!(Refer to the Chapter Markers tab for time-stamped highlights)About Megan WolfMegan Wolf is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Missouri. She got her MSW from Washington University in St. Louis Brown School of Social Work, and her undergraduate degree was from Augustana College in Illinois in sociology and social welfare.Megan works with lots of different types of families and lots of different types of kiddos. She does early intervention and deals with children who have developmental delays, medical issues, and disabilities. She also helps parents work through that. She practices play therapy with some of those children, specifically the children who've had mental or medical traumas who are in foster care or were in the foster care system and subsequently were adopted. She helps these kiddos survive to learn some skills and to learn how to regulate their bodies and deal with their traumas.____________________________________________________________Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE!On Apple PodcastsOn Spotify On Google PodcastsMake sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!! Even better if you could also join our Facebook Page to share your thoughts and let us fire your sparks, dear Champions!Have you missed the last episode?Take a listen here →Children and Trauma: A Look at Resilience in Early Childhood Development, with Allen Rosales, Ep21

The incidence of childhood trauma is higher than most people think: many, many of our children have experienced what experts refer to as “developmental trauma,” meaning the cumulative effects of chronically dangerous and stressful environments and daily life circumstances. Often, we teachers are unaware of the fact that challenging behaviors in the classroom are actually symptoms of this early trauma. There are strategies available to help teachers and children alike in developing resilience throughout their day-to-day living. This episode  hopes to bring a trauma-informed lens to all of our work. Our guest for today's podcast, Allen Rosales, has been in the early childhood field for  over 27 years, and is the Director of Professional Learning and Development for the Carole Robertson Center for Learning in Chicago, a large, urban Head Start agency. He has published an early childhood curriculum book for teachers entitled Mathematizing, an Emergent Math Curriculum Approach for Young Children. In 2021, he published Allen children's books series focused on supporting and developing children's resiliency skills. Allen's impression of the roots of childhood trauma, the toxic stress that children in poverty are exposed to, and his appreciation for the keys to building resiliency can benefit all of us. His books and his explanations will take us all deeper into understanding what children need in order to cope with traumatic or stressful experiences and develop life skills for weathering whatever storms may come in their futures. Make sure you tune in to this podcast, share it with colleagues, as we discover  the inner secrets of being Every Child's Champion! (Refer to the Chapter Markers tab for time stamped highlights) About Allen Rosales Allen Rosales has been a teacher, an education manager, a coach, and is still currently a  professor and a national presenter. He is an author and now he's currently the Director  of professional learning and development for the Carole Robertson Centre for Learning  in Chicago. He designs and facilitates professional learning communities for leadership  and for teaching staff, in the process of trying to enhance the learning climate and the  culture of the organization.Allen has published several books. He's published an early childhood curriculum book  for teachers that was titled Mathematizing: An Emergent Math Curriculum Approach  for Young Children, which is a really good book. Also, in the summer of 2021, Allen  published a series of four children's books that are focused on supporting and  developing children's resiliency skills. Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this  episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE! On Apple Podcasts On Spotify On Google PodcastsMake sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!! Even better if you could also join our Facebook Page to share your thoughts and let us fire your sparks, dear Champs! Have you missed the last episode?  Take a listen here

Research has shown that teachers who provide high levels of emotional support for their students (create a positive climate, are highly sensitive, and support children's autonomy and individuality) AND who provide high levels of classroom organization interactions (supporting behavior management, productivity, and engagement levels), these classrooms have lower levels of aggressive behaviors! Dr. Angela Searcy, the researcher, professor, speaker, and author of the book “Push Past It: A Positive Approach to Challenging Classroom Behaviors,” is our guest for today's podcast. In her lively, energetic, and insightful style, Dr. Searcy reminds us all that it really is the teacher who determines how successfully challenging behaviors will get turned around. You won't want to miss this! Make sure you tune in to this podcast, share it with our fellow champions as we discover the inner secrets of being Every Child's Champion! (Refer to the Chapter Markers tab for time stamped highlights) About Dr. Angela Searcy Dr. Searcy is an author, a national speaker, and trainer. She's been in the education field for lots of years. She has a doctorate in education and her specialization has been in neuroscience. Her research revolves around brain based learning as assessed by the CLASS Assessment Scoring System assessment scoring system and its correlation to aggressive behaviors in preschool kids. She published a book called “Push Past It: A Positive Approach to Challenging Behaviors”, through Griffin House Publishing. Dr. Searcy has been adjunct faculty and a seminar leader as well at Erikson Institute. She is the owner and founder of Simple Solutions Educational Services. Also, she's on TV and radio programs all over Chicago, Illinois, and nationally. Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. If you liked listening to this episode, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE! On Apple Podcasts On Spotify On Google Podcasts Make sure you'll never miss out, Children's Champions!!! Even better if you could also join our Facebook Page to share your thoughts and let us fire your sparks, dear Champs! Have you missed the last episode? Take a listen here → Equity and Implicit Bias, Part 1 (Ep 19) 

Everywhere we look, on every news channel, all our social media feeds, all around us, we see race-related actions and expressions, both hate-charged and promoting of unity and healing. Racial attitudes have become blatant and polarized, more so than many of us can ever remember. And now we even have an extensive research base supporting the notion that many of our policies in education and child care have been influenced by racial bias. In this the first part of a multi-episode podcast, we lay out some of the topics and issues related to the problem. How we think about and how we treat children and families of color should be on the forefront of all of our minds, because we have a real problem in our country with suspending and expelling children of color at more than twice the rate of white children. Additionally, children of color make up a disproportionate amount of our kids who experience trauma and live in poverty another outcome of our inequitable systems. If we are willing to be open, be honest, and share our own narratives about race within safe coworker teams, we can all play a part towards creating more equitable classrooms and learning experiences for all our children.

So your program is re-opening after a long period of quarantine. So much to do to get ready- so much stress! In this episode of the Every Child's Champion podcast, Sara gives you several key areas of focus and stresses the most important things you can do to ensure a smooth and healthy return for everyone. She shares a plethora of great resources for helping kids understand new routines, systems, and protocols; providing clear rules and routines; and building positive relationships right from the start.

In this episode, Sara will explain the executive function skills of self regulation. Self Regulation capacities involve calming the physical body, understanding and expressing emotions, and having some problem-solving skills. Although developing self regulation depends on brain development, we know that brain development itself is highly dependent upon the relationships and interactions children experience with parents and teachers. In addition to providing a safe, nurturing place to grow, there is a great deal that teachers and parents can do to proactively teach self-calming, management of emotions, and problem-solving in relationships with peers. The more children have problems coping with expectations and frustrations, the more we need to focus on teaching self regulation skills. The good news is, with the right mix of patient, calm, co-regulation by adults, and some very explicit teaching of specific self regulation skills, children can learn to take control of stressful situations and get along with others in learning settings and at home.

This week we are reviving part of our first broadcast on "How to enjoy your job". A year ago, we would have thought things couldn't get any more stressful when it came to the work we do and juggling it all with families, education, etc.....None of us was prepared for a pandemic! Our world has really changed, and so has teaching! So it is a great time to revisit the topic of stress reduction, and getting our mindsets in a positive place about the work we're doing. Never was creating a safe, consistent learning space for our students more important than it is at this very moment. And never was there a more critical time for guarding and championing our own health and mental health! Find out how in this podcast.

Drawn from the e-book “Think UP! Developing High Level Instructional Supports – A Guidebook for Coaches and Instructional Leaders,” (which is currently in development!) this episode looks at teacher intentionality. The ultimate goal is for all teachers to become conscious and competent practitioners. In this podcast, Sara discusses the benefits of pushing oneself, as a teacher, to become more intentional, and what this means. Using some real classroom examples, we promote taking the initiative with our reflective practices and doing several things to move towards greater intentionality: 1)to carve out specific time each week to reflect upon our teaching practices and the outcomes they are generating; 2)to make more efforts to dialogue with colleagues about the individual instructional support strategies (CLASS™ indicators and behavioral markers) so that we deepen our own understandings; 3)to think about what connections to previous learning or to their own experience children might make; and 4) to mindfully plan specific instructional conversations, open-ended questions, analysis and reasoning strategies, advanced vocabulary, etc. when you do your lesson planning. In this podcast Sara outlines key behaviors of an intentional teacher, when it comes to engaging in high level instructional supports.

Lions, and tigers, and bears – Oh My! Water, and sand, and air – what flies!? Flowers, and weather, and bugs – these too! Planets, and textures, and weights – computers, machines, and tunnels and ramps! Hot and cold, smooth or sticky. Skin, fur, feathers, and scales! Experimenting, mixing, and cooking! All of these things fit in the category of science teaching and learning. It’s about things that that live, things that grow, things that move, things that happen, causes and effects, tools and technology. In fact, there are sciences concepts and processes to be found in every single topic and every single center in the Pre-K classroom. As teachers, many of us need to change our lenses and view Science as “the multitude of opportunities to WONDER” that the world around us holds for not only children but for us! With this podcast, I’m going to explore science in the early childhood classroom. We’ll talk about standards, learning objectives, planning, and questioning strategies you can use to promote inquiry, exploration, experimentation, and how to capture that sense of wonder that’s so, so important! With an open mind and an expanded view, we realize that there’s science in EVERYTHING, and we can capitalize on children’s innate curiosity and inquisitiveness to achieve high levels of engagement and open the doors for so much rich learning and deeper understandings of the world all around them.

Math is a subject alot of teachers either shy away from or don't really know how or what to teach. Yet, research has shown that early Math skills are predictive of later math AND reading achievement; there is a strong tie between children's expressive vocabulary and their math learning in Pre-K. In this two-part podcast (episodes 012 and 013), Sara looks at the number and math items from the ECERS-3, and goes into depth on teaching math in meaningful ways. She reviews the many math concepts and skills teachers should introduce to students, and how to make math fun and meaningful by connecting these concepts and skills to the topics and activities children are most interested in. Challenging children's higher-order thinking skills by focusing in on the "how" and the "why" of things, utilizing number, measurement, shapes and spatial awareness to find the answers to children's important questions - all of this is done within the context of children's play and the every day routines and activities like outdoor time and making snack. Through this podcast, Sara offers some words of inspiration that will help teachers look at the teaching of math concepts and skills as an opportunity for fun, creativity, and student engagement.

Math is a subject alot of teachers either shy away from or don't really know how or what to teach. Yet, research has shown that early Math skills are predictive of later math AND reading achievement; there is a strong tie between children's expressive vocabulary and their math learning in Pre-K. In this two-part podcast (episodes 012 and 013), Sara looks at the number and math items from the ECERS-3, and goes into depth on teaching math in meaningful ways. She reviews the many math concepts and skills teachers should introduce to students, and how to make math fun and meaningful by connecting these concepts and skills to the topics and activities children are most interested in. Challenging children's higher-order thinking skills by focusing in on the "how" and the "why" of things, utilizing number, measurement, shapes and spatial awareness to find the answers to children's important questions - all of this is done within the context of children's play and the every day routines and activities like outdoor time and making snack. Through this podcast, Sara offers some words of inspiration that will help teachers look at the teaching of math concepts and skills as an opportunity for fun, creativity, and student engagement.

This podcast episode reviews the many health, safety, and sanitation recommendations recently issued by the Centers for Disease Control. These are the current recommendations; ultimately it will be the job of child care centers, Early Head Start and Head Start centers, and public and private preschool programs to meet the guidelines that are adopted by each state. The question is, how will these new practices, material goods, and capacity reductions be funded? This remains to be seen.Operating on the hope that the state and federal government will provide financial resources to enable programs to operate in these new ways, teachers and directors can (and should) begin now, creating their plans for new policies, procedures, procurement, and the organizational systems (such as staffing plans, parent communications, HR). Teachers should access the many free resources available online, for structuring and teaching new classroom routines. This podcast offers some recommendations for how these plans can be developed, and where to access resources.

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week - and never before have parents had such a window in to their children’s teachers nor have they been so tied in to the actual learning process. Suddenly, parents have to manage their children’s days, make sure they get online at the right times, and then figure out how to keep their kids occupied for large stretches of time each day. After Covid19 will our society be more appreciative of teachers? What can you do to make yourself even more important and win the recognition of parents and administrators? In this episode, Sara discusses why teachers feel unappreciated, and encourages teachers to continue building relationships and growing professionally, as changes in society are redefining the roles of both teachers and parents and forging a new level of appreciation for the work teachers do.

The COVID19 Pandemic is wreaking havoc on our individual and collective mental health in this country and around the world. As scary, stressful and anxiety producing as the quarantine has been on all of us, we can anticipate that there are some real consequences for young children and their development. Preschoolers' brains are still in a rapid period of development, and that is directly dependent upon children's experiences and relationships. We know that "serve and return" interactions with adult attachment figures is what matters most for children's brains to continue building healthy connections and lay down strong neuropathways for skills such as self regulation. But during these very uncertain times, parents high levels of stress as well as the economic ramifications of the pandemic, put in peril the very conditions (safety, routines, positive relationships) that children depend on. In this episode Sara addresses brain development and the negative impacts of trauma and toxic stress in young children, and shares with listeners the ways they can help their young students to overcome these impacts after returning to school, Head Start, and child care once it is safe to do so.

Lots of teachers these days are asking "What the heck is going on with all of these insane behaviors kids are bringing in? Teachers are dealing with high levels of aggression, fighting, arguing, swearing and name calling -- on a DAILY BASIS! Whether it is because of trauma, electronic babysitters and parenting in the electronic age, lack of limits at home, or something we haven't identified yet--we are seeing a huge upswing in children who simply cannot handle the rules and interactions of the PreK setting. So what is a teacher to do if she or he has one or more children like this in their classroom? Well, regardless of the source of the problem, what we're dealing with here is a LEARNING PROBLEM. Children have LEARNED to use aggression to interact with others. Remember that these behaviors are not about YOU--unless you get into power struggles!! This episode covers the KEY strategies teachers must put into place in the classroom and follow through with consistency, in order to prevent the majority of bad behaviors from continuing. With positivity, time, and commitment to these practices, you can see major turn-arounds in a short amount of time!

Are you looking for a way to enjoy teaching more? Do you find kids disengaging from group time, acting bored, messing around when they should be listening? This podcast will challenge you to engage kids in "higher-order-thinking processes" as a way to get them more engaged, and deepening everyone's understandings much, much more! Asking "how" and "why" questions, comparing and classifying are a few of the "analysis and reasoning" practices we talk about in this podcast. When you challenge children to compare and contrast, classify, problem-solve, and use their powers of reasoning more, you engage their minds in ways you never thought possible. When they get used to being challenged, they will rise to the occasion and begin exercising parts of their brain like a muscle, they get better and better at with time. Deepen their learning by more fully developing the concepts that come from your curriculum. You can do this by focusing in on the "how" and "why" of things, rather than just the "what." Read stories numerous times, engage in creative projects, and keep those little minds very busy by engaging them in challenging discussions. Your teaching time will fly by as you observe and enjoy your students amazing thought processes. High levels of Concept Development are built on increasing the frequency of analysis and reasoning questions, brainstorming and creating, and engaging children in deep discussions to help them make new connections. Teaching becomes much more fun when you challenge both yourself and your students to THINK!

This episode looks at how to support language development in preschoolers, by intentionally modeling language, specifically through the use of Self and Parallel Talk. Language is how people communicate. Without a way to communicate, children have to 100% rely on behaviors to communicate their needs, wants, emotions, and everything else. In the hearing world, we use speech, or verbal language, to communicate. Researchers estimate that children learn between 2,000 and 3,600 words per year (and 10 new words per day) during each year they are in school. Children’s receptive and expressive language is predictive of their later reading achievement. The more words children know by kindergarten, the better they are at learning to read; and their expressive language is even more powerfully connected to later reading achievement! To learn language, children need to HEAR language, starting from day one. This is one developmental area we need to do all we can to support. And there are so many things we can do every single hour of every single day to promote and facilitate new language development in our kiddos. SELF and PARALLEL TALK are two such strategies.

The emotional climate of the classroom is established by the teachers, and not the students! YOU get to decide what values are most important in your classroom. Things like kindness, patience, helpfulness, acceptance, and friendship are values you have to intentionally teach, promote, and reinforce on a daily basis, if you want them to be exemplified in your classroom. Establishing a positive climate begins with your Relationships with the children - which have to be thoughtfully cultivated! But it also includes child-to-child relationships. Relationship skills such as "how to be kind," "how to give a compliment," "how to make be a friend," and "how to be respectful of each other" --these things have to be explicitly taught, and intentionally promoted every single day by the teachers. If you want kids to care about each other, you have to talk about that! Talk about how they feel if one of them hurts the another - and how they need to treat each other in order to be liked and to be friends. Teachers can be very intentional about building into daily routines, a variety of positive, community-building features that help children learn to take care of each other and develop the social skills they need to succeed in life. For helpful handouts and other resources, go to the Resource page on our website, at: https://synapseearlylearning.com/resources-2/

Research studies have shown that schedules and routines definitely impact children’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. For example, predictable and consistent schedules in preschool classrooms help children feel secure and comfortable. Also, we know that when you explicitly teach children about the daily schedule and the steps to the everyday routines, this reduces the frequency of behavior problems, such as tantrums and acts of aggression. In this episode, Sara will give you 5 key components of all successful routines, and help you do a detailed breakdown of the steps involved in your daily routines - and even help you to establish routines within routines, within routines! Find show notes with lots of fantastic tools, videos, and resources at https://synapseearlylearning.com/resources-2/

One of the most common issues for PreK teachers is figuring out Classroom Management. Classroom Management encompasses a wide array of practices, from managing the daily schedule, to routines, rules, and behavior. Such a huge topic that we are taking more than week to discuss it all! Children adjust to PreK and go along with our routines when they are clearly spelled out, explicitly taught, and consistently followed. Lots of visuals helps children to know what's coming next. Remembering that children are dealing with alot of stress (and often anxiety!) that they carry with them depending on their homes and life circumstances, providing a safe and consistent classroom is key! Tips for teachers in handling the tough issue of transitions, with real classroom examples and the feedback that teachers need in order to not have your hot buttons pushed, and establishing reasonable and appropriate expectations for your kiddos.

We all know that teachers these days are super stressed. Every day in classrooms, teachers are dealing with thousands of needs, challenging behaviors like never before, inadequate staffing levels, high demands for keeping up with quality measures, paperwork and the latest initiatives, and not to mention inequitable salaries. So in the face of all of that stress, how is it possible that some early childhood teachers still actually enjoy their jobs? This podcast looks into that question and presents some of the latest research about what factors can influence your job satisfaction. You may be struggling, but there is still time to turn this year around! Sara will give you some ideas to ponder and some tips to try, for changing the way you feel, even in the face of some undeniably negative circumstances. Hang on, kids -- there is hope and things CAN get better!

Introductory episode tells us what the Every Child's Champion Podcast is all about: who it's for, and what we'll be doing here each week. We'll tell you about the first 10 episodes and giving you a preview of our guests and topics. Start here!