Early Childhood – Region 6 Comprehensive Center

What’s Your Why? How Educators Engage to Create a Dynamic Learning Environment

10/03/2024
Curtis Burgins
News

SERVE’s PK-3 Distinguished Leadership Institute (DLI) provides educators across North Carolina the opportunity to connect and receive specialized leadership development in their field that is designed to lead to positive educational outcomes for early learners. Cohort IV of the DLI kicked off this year at a day and a half meeting on September 20 and 21, 2024. The overall theme of the meeting was “What’s Your Why?”

Relatedness was a key focus for the day and Carla Garrett, Early Childhood Specialist for the RC6 at SERVE, emphasized the importance of thinking about relatedness and what it means. She spoke to Cohort IV participants about how the DLI group functions as a community to make connections and asked them to think about the importance of being able “to cooperate, to collaborate, to learn and grow together.”

Carla Garrett engages with Cohort IV participants.

In advance of the meeting the members of the group built a virtual “Community Wall” using PowerPoint in a shared document where each person added images and words of what is important to them. Eva Phillips, Early Learning Team co-leader, shared these results and said, “One of our most important goals is getting to know each other and building relationships.” Commonalities on the Community Wall were friends, faith, family, adventure, travel, nature, food, music, and children.

Tracy Cole, Principal, East Carolina University (ECU) Community School, and participant in Cohorts I-IV noted, “We know that when we focus on our youngest learners that we are setting them up for success. We know our why, but also are actively involved in the process. We have our own action plans, and we can go back to our settings and make a difference.”

Principal Tracy Cole with Dr. Sharon Ritchie

Cole emphasized relatedness and the importance of having time to process. “What does the learner need to know, how do you learn it? In this case, where we are in the Distinguished Leadership Institute –we are looking to provide equitable learning environments for PK-3 students, and that is our why,” she added.

Kelly Anne Mudd, Principal, Martin Millennium Academy, and member of SERVE’s DLI Cohorts III and IV, shared the ideas that she had implemented in her school to help develop relatedness. “When Carla asked me to speak about relatedness, I immediately thought of our Design Anchors… we have these four design anchors that all of our work is rooted in. Every day we lead with love, we foster safety to succeed, we are committed to doing hard things together, and we believe that YOU MATTER,” Mudd said.

Kelly Anne Mudd speaking — Kelly Anne Mudd

For the Friday afternoon closing activity, the group broke out into teams and played the Brain Architecture Game, which helps players learn about the powerful role of relationships on early brain development. In the game, team members draw random cards, which offer a life experience to build upon. The experiences can be positive or negative. The positive experiences can lead to a stronger foundation as shown by the height of the architecture built using pipe cleaners, while the negative experiences can lead to a weaker foundation, which removed foundational pipe cleaners from the structures.

Cohort IV participants discuss the Brain Architecture Game results and share how they were able to identify with how many of their students face random challenges which can impact their ability to focus and learn.

Akira Hall is a Kindergarten teacher at the ECU Community School. Her principal, Tracy Hall, encouraged her to join Cohort IV DLI. “It’s an amazing opportunity to network and ground yourself. This is a place of peace where you can remind yourself of why you do what you do. I love being a part of this group,” Hall said.

According to Dr. Sharon Ritchie, the bottom line is that it’s more meaningful to participants when they have time to talk so that they are able to take everything in. “That’s our adult learning theory – they have to do the work, and in doing so, they get to know each other. Because we are working with multiple cohorts, we are constantly thinking about our people that have done this before,” said Ritchie.

The SERVE PK-3 Distinguished Leadership Institute was developed by the RC6 Early Learning Team, composed of Carla Garrett, Dr. Sharon Ritchie, and Eva Phillips.

Sharon Ritchie, Eva Phillips, Carla Garrett

Visit our photo album from the day: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pQXBqaJFXdDjF4AE8.

Post and Photos by: Judi Rossabi, Communications Specialist

Building a Community of Practitioners

05/01/2024
Beth Thrift
News

Improving Experiences for Preschool to Third Grade Children and All Who Support Their Education and Development

Dr. Sharon Ritchie, Carla Garrett, and Dr. Eva Phillips

SERVE’s Preschool–3^rd Grade Distinguished Leadership Institute (DLI) Meeting convened on April 12, 2024, in Chapel Hill. Carla Garrett, Program Specialist for the Comprehensive Center Network’s Region 6 (RC6) at SERVE, was joined by Dr. Sharon Ritchie, Senior Research Scientist (ret.), Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, and Dr. Eva Phillips, early learning consultant, as presenters for the day-long institute. Members of the Preschool–3^rd Grade DLI Cohorts I, II, and III were in attendance, plus guests interested in being a part of Cohort IV.

Children Come First — Building Relationships is #1

Garrett noted during her presentation that the work being done at SERVE is framed around the white paper, Children Come First: Ensuring School Policies, Practices, and Strategies Lead to Positive 3rd Grade Outcomes.” She said, “all of our professional development comes out of that paper, including ensuring equitable access to high quality learning, making the connections in terms of alignment, and most of all, a focus on the child and content pieces. We are here to build relationships first of all, and to help you continue to grow your community of practice.”

Two key topics covered in the institute were universal needs and parallel process. Dr. Ritchie spoke about “relatedness and how people who feel related to those around them are able to function as productive members of a community.” Ritchie added, “People who feel related are better able to interact effectively with others, and to give and accept responsibility, cooperate, have compassion, and show respect.”

As noted in the white paper, Children Come First: Ensuring School Policies, Practices, and Strategies Lead to Positive 3rd Grade Outcomes, “a parallel process is one in which the conditions considered desirable for one group are the very same as those established for others.”

During her presentation, Dr. Phillips spoke about the importance of building relationships. “We are thrilled to be working on this project with all of you. It’s my life’s passion to share with educators this important information and we hope that you get both guidance and ideas,” says Phillips.

One segment of the meeting addressed brain research and featured information on toxic stress, memory, self-regulation, and executive function. As Dr. Phillips noted during her presentation, “All of our children are experiencing more toxic stress than ever before. The pandemic bumped toxic stress up to the next level. It has a powerful, unfortunate effect on children in that it can derail healthy development. Play reduces toxic stress and joy is the opposite of toxic stress.”

Nearly 50 early childhood educators from across North Carolina gathered at SERVE’s Preschool–3rd Grade Distinguished Leadership Institute Meeting in Chapel Hill on April 12th.

What Cohort Participants Have to Say

decorative — Michelle Carr (l), second grade teacher at East Carolina University’s Community School with Tracy Cole.

Tracy Cole who has been in the Preschool–3^rd Grade Distinguished Leadership Institute since the beginning as part of Cohort I, is Principal of East Carolina University’s Community School in Greenville.

“We are one of nine laboratory schools in the UNC system. This has been an amazing journey participating in the cohort from the very beginning. The support and one-on-one time to listen has been invaluable,” says Cole.

Sam Mehrlich is a member of Cohort II. She is a 24-year veteran kindergarten teacher at Catawba Springs Elementary in Lincoln County. Sam says, “It is a positive and enlightening opportunity for me to be with educators in North Carolina that are passionate about working with young children. The importance of building the transition between the PreK world and early learning. We spend so much time in our own bubble that it’s important to see people from across the state and I feel like I have an opportunity to do something with the things I’m hearing and learning. I enjoyed the interactions from being a part of the cohort. It’s nice to know that there are people advocating for early childhood.”

Ro Lewis, Coordinator of Professional Development and Outreach for NC Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Association says, “The facilitators of SERVE’s Distinguished Leaders Institute act as conductors for the various organizations and stakeholders working with children birth through third grade so that all the entities in all the counties can work together like a symphony to make the beautiful music needed to sing our next generations into the future. It’s empowering to be in a community of people working for the same goal and it keeps your hope afloat!”

Making and Keeping Connections

“One part that we love about this project is making and keeping connections,” says Garrett, who spoke about the importance of the development of the prefrontal cortex in executive function and self-regulation and how it ties into the ability to manage one’s emotions and behavior. “Children cannot learn to self-regulate when regulated by adults,” she added.

SERVE’s Preschool–3^rd Grade Distinguished Leadership Institute is offered through the Region 6 Comprehensive Center (RC6) at SERVE at UNC Greensboro. Learn more about RC6 here.

Garrett, C., Ritchie, S., Phillips, E.C. (2021). Children Come First: Ensuring School Policies, Practices, and Strategies Lead to Positive 3rd Grade Outcomes. Greensboro, NC: SERVE Center at UNC Greensboro.

In addition to the white paper, read 10 briefs in the Children Come First series found on the RC6 Resources page under the Early Childhood tab.

Post and photos by: Judi Rossabi, SERVE Communications Specialist

The Importance of Relationships for Young Children Experiencing Homelessness Presentation at NAEHCY Conference

08/18/2022
Beth Thrift

The impact of the pandemic on our youngest, often vulnerable, and under-resourced learners, as well as their families, and school staff, is unprecedented and should guide how we choose to provide support, particularly to those who are experiencing homelessness. This session will focus on equitable access to high quality early learning environments that are culturally responsive and support growth for both children and adults. Presenters will illuminate the significant contributions of consistent relationships and experiences to their well-being. Recommendations and strategies for collaborative and integrated supports aimed at reducing inequalities will be highlighted. A feature presentation includes an LEA Early Childhood Specialist sharing how relationships with LEA and community partners support the provision of needed services to children and families experiencing homelessness.

Presenter: Carla Garrett, Early Childhood Specialist, Region 6 Comprehensive Center

Conference Dates: October 29th – November 1st

San Diego, CA

Visit the NAEHCY Conference web page for more information.