Early Childhood Educator Symposium

Registration Rates:
(Continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, bottled water and soda is included.)

Early Bird Registration (until February 16): $30.00
Regular Registration (until March 19): $35.00
Walk In Registration (until day of event): $50.00

Cancellations and Refunds: $50 Cancellations made on or before March 21, 2025, will receive a refund of their registration fee, minus a $10 processing fee. No refunds are available after March 21.

Transfer of Registration / Substitutions: If you are unable to attend after registering, you can transfer your registration to another individual at no additional cost, email [email protected]

Centers can be invoiced or pay on-line, individuals must pay on-line to register. When registering, please have ready the name, address, DOB, email, phone, full SSN, T-shirt size and sessions selected for each individual being registered.  

Click here to register!

The Symposium will be held in the Rural Health Education Center on the IHCC Ottumwa Campus.

Click here for map and directions

There is no day care provided. Please do not bring children to the Symposium. A room for pumping or breastfeeding will be available. 

Event registration includes Continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, bottled water and soda.

People with food allergies should be advised food cross contamination cannot be guaranteed. Individuals with food allergies or specific dietary needs should contact lori. [email protected]. 

Photos of the symposium and participants will be taken to be used without compensation for publicity and public relations purposes by the entities sponsoring the symposium. You must contact [email protected] if you do not give your permission for your likeness to be used. 

Joan Garrett, PBIS Master Mentor/Coach, AHFA
Meagan Hugen, Early Learning Director, Mahaska County YMCA
Karen Lauer, Child Care Consultant, Child Care Resource & Referral of Central Iowa, Orchard Place
Barbara J. Lisk, MAT, Associate Professor, Education Program, IHCC
Mary Mikulecky, BSN, RN Child Care Nurse Consultant, American Home Finding Assn  
Lori Reeves, Program Director, Continuing Education, IHCC
Cathy Stahl, Coordinator, Continuing Education, IHCC

When was the last time you sat down and thought about what brings Joy to your life? For most of us it has probably been a very long time or maybe we have never done that. Joy is an emotion that is often overshadowed by daily stresses, worry of what others think and judgement and criticism of ourselves. If you could close your eyes for just a moment and picture it…Pure Joy. Where would you be? Who would be with you? What would you be doing? This can seem fleeting and unrealistic, but there are ways to get you closer to joy starting today. Join the conversation on how to rekindle the joy in your life.  We will spend time together understanding how to recognize positive emotions and will learn how to use them on a daily basis. Be prepared to laugh, to learn and to love your life! 

We will look at various types of grief and loss as well as the developmental stages of grief. Participants will learn about unresolved grief and ambiguous loss – the loss is “real” but there is no closure – such as adoption, moving and divorce. Learn to recognize signs of traumatic grief in children, discuss how to provide support to children, and how to respond to a grief crisis in your daycare. 

2024 Childhood Grief And Loss

Addressing Grief Tips

Everything I Learned About Grief

Responding Appropriately To Death

When Parents Divorce

The participants will understand what charting is and how it creates rich language experiences while implementing the Project Approach. The participants will explore the power of participation and identify key components of a rich charting experience. The participants will identify various language chart methods and examine one method they can take back to their classroom and use.

Professionalism extends far beyond the classroom—it shapes the learning environment, builds trust with families, and sets the tone for the overall culture of the program. In this training session, we will explore the essential components of professional behavior that contribute to success in the early childhood education field. From punctuality and work ethic to communication skills and appropriate attire, this session will provide practical strategies for embodying professionalism in every aspect of your work. 

Participants will discuss issues within the childcare environment which may directly inf luence and provoke negative behaviors in children. We will review ages and stages including typical behavior changes and learn to identify and specify aspects and materials that contribute to positive childcare environments which support the developing child in a positive manner. There will be time for discussion and exploration of positive childcare environments. 

Behavior Goals

Behavior Support

Infants, toddlers, and twos are born for STEAM! With a little encouragement, they’re active learners in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math all day long. We’ll talk about ways to set up and encourage activities in each of the STEAM areas, the importance of children’s process vs. their product for these activities, and the six important STEAM skills that little scientists are using every day. 

Participants will explore how to use child-safe, appropriate materials and curriculum that can be used with children to create and structure ramps and pathways. Participants will explore the curriculum content for activities focusing on ramps and pathways including function and use of materials, creative exploration, problem solving, collaborative play, and cooperation in play. 

10 Steps

Article from NAEYC

Materials List

Questions to Ask

The ability to work with parents can be a challenge. Learn ways to communicate and relate to your parents, set expectations for them, involve them with their own kids and overall establish a better rapport with them. We will problem-solve common concerns and practice confidently approaching the most difficult parents.  

I Can Handle the Kids

In this session we will focus on understanding and applying the basic concept of diversity and cultural competency. You will gain tools you can use to check biases when working with children and families. We will also discuss the importance and benefits of starting the work of diversity and inclusion at the early ages.  

Lead teachers learn how to be effective Supervisors to their Assistants. 

Code of Ethics

One More Hat

Learn the importance of self-care for yourself, the children we serve, the administrators we work for, and the teachers we work with. We will look at the difference between distress and eustress to better understand why some stress is actually beneficial. We will also understand why, despite common misconceptions, self-care can be one of the least selfish things a person can do. We will explore our own stress levels and how knowing this can make us better educators.  

Self Care Wheel

Stress Management Techniques

Stress Presentation Techniques

This session will provide an overview of the process to earn a Child Development Associate (CDA)Credential™. Information will be shared about applying for a CDA and the assessment process. You will learn how T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® IOWA can help with a variety of scholarship options for the CDA or another type of college degree in early childhood. We support early childhood professionals across the state and provide a variety of resources. 

Participants will gain an understanding of the importance of outdoor play for children. Learn ways to create the best outdoor play experiences and environments. and learn how to adapt the many components of an indoor program to an outdoor setting. 

Outdoor Play

Nautral Explorers

In this training, we’ll discuss some ways to observe and document the children in your care without being swamped in paperwork (well…no more than usual, anyway!). We’ll also discuss the difference in objective and subjective language in order to practice documenting factual, non-judgmental observations. 

This training session will provide a detailed overview of the new standards, how to use the standards to plan developmentally appropriate activities and lesson plans, and why the standards are important to impact child development. The Orientation uses actual scenarios to explore the use of the standards. 

IELS Planning Process

IELS Post Survey

IELS Pre Survey

Besides feeding, changing, and rocking them to sleep, what else can you do with these little ones? We will explore ideas in areas of art, reading, dramatic play, music, large motor, and science, for older infants through twos. New, easy, and creative ideas add some fun and creativity into your classrooms.   

Participants will develop the knowledge and skills to prevent harm from coming to children who use online “digital” technology. Learn how to intervene, prevent, and protect children from risky online behaviors such as “grooming”. There are multiple kinds of digital risks for children today, such as internet pornography, online groomers, and sexting. It is important for caregivers and teachers to have the information and tools to respond.  

Technicool

The field of Early Childhood is a profession. For the field to be recognized as a profession, it is important that providers understand their responsibility of upholding the ethics of the profession, as well as acting like a professional. 

Collaboration

Fundamentals of ECE

Start, Stop, Continue

This session will look at these techniques and how they can assist children socially, emotionally & behaviorally. We will look at how to teach mindfulness, meditation, breathwork, and mindful movement to different developmental ages and will learn practical ways to implement these skills. You will get a chance to flow through a sample class that incorporates all the principles you have learned. We will end with creating a plan to incorporate these techniques for your childcare kids, your staff, and in your personal life.  

Mindfullness Meditation Yoga

Commitments

Deep Breathing

Inner Listening

Mindfulness Exercises

Yoga Calm Principles

We will practice writing observations in an interactive format, and practice writing experience plans with assessment in mind using intentional planning practices, focusing on both individualized and group plans. Participants will leave with strategies to use in their learning environment to assess children and have a plan for how to track assessments. Participants will also spend time working on how to use assessment data to plan future experiences for children using example data.  

The term “mark making” in the early years describes the improvised marks children make which may include scribbles, dots, lines, shapes, and/or patterns. Mark making goes beyond just drawing or learning to write. In this session, you will learn how children train the small muscles in their hands as they further their cognitive, physical, social, and emotional growth while having fun making marks.  

Participants will learn ways to establish successful partnerships with families. Participants will explore and discuss how to create welcoming experiences for families and ongoing positive relationships. 

Knowing Who We Serve

Communication

Examine effective preschool classroom practices identified by ECERS-3, PBIS and Conscious Discipline. Learn specifics about building a positive classroom community, genuine connections with each child, an effective classroom environment, classroom commitments and expectations, a daily schedule, and routines for the daily schedule. You will learn about classroom management charts, the importance of visuals and how classroom practices support the development of social emotional skills like positive self-concept, self-awareness (understanding your own emotions and self as separate from others), self-regulation (managing emotions and actions), resilience, following directions, relationship skills (interacting with others) and resolving conflict.  

Participants will learn about toddler development with an emphasis on social emotional development and the negative behaviors that may develop during the toddler ages. We will explore and learn skills to identify and deal with precursors to challenging behaviors such as tantrums while supporting each child when these difficult behaviors arise. 

Quest Personality Quiz

Toddler Tantrums

We all know there’s no magic pill to erase behavior issues in an early childhood classroom (dang!). This training will discuss 17 strategies that can be added to a caregiver’s toolbox. Through small group activities, we’ll define these strategies and come up with scenarios where they might be most effective. 

Discuss positive and negative feelings you see and feel in your childcare program. We will define BIG feelings and learn strategies to help children self-regulate to minimize those big feelings. We will also explore resources at the Sesame Workshop and Challenging Behavior web sites and learn how to best offer comfort to children and families when these BIG feelings arise. 

25 Ways to Show Kids You Care

CM Flyer

Comfort - Care, Cope, Connect

Watching for Signs of Stress

School is out for the summer which means full days for the school-age kids! Are you ready? Learn how to design a summer program specifically for older kids that will keep them busy, provide learning opportunities and most of all, allow them to have fun!    

Here All Day

Participants will be trained with a curriculum appropriate for use with children 3-9 years of age that emphasizes adult responsibility for protection and positive messages about sexuality in an age-appropriate and health-focused approach. Participants will learn to identify normal sexual behaviors of young children and how to respond to children’s sexual behaviors and questions. This innovative and research-based program is appealing and fun for children and packaged to make teacher planning quick and easy. 

Did you know that you signed on to love children and their parents in your childcare setting? This training will help you learn some strategies on how to love and accept parents. Even the hard-to-handle ones. 

7 Types of Challenging Parents

Strategies for Building Parent Relationships

9-Step Intervention Approach

Start, Stop, Continue