Using the Niagara Inclusion Tool - Supporting Diversity and Inclusion in your Centre

Discover practical ways to integrate the Niagara Inclusion Tool into your center’s practices to promote diversity and inclusion. This network will explore how to assess and enhance inclusivity and support children and educators in creating a welcoming and supportive environment for all. Join us in conversation around strategies implementing inclusive practices that celebrate differences and nurture a sense of belonging.

Please note this network is only applicable to educators here in Niagara Region.

With Victoria Armstrong

Niagara Executive Directors are invited to attend this network to connect about issues and opportunities to share strategies, suggestions, and best practices with their colleagues The Executive Directors and Administrators Network meeting will take place following Recruitment, Retention and Performance Management Series Session Two: Coaching Strategies for Learning - Conflict, Performance, Change with Achieve Centre for Leadership. Participants are invited to watch the webinar at the ECCDC and join the in person meeting which follows. Please register for that session if you wish to join.

With Shelley Brandon

Reimagining Heartbreak was edited by Ann Pelo and Margie Carter and is part of the Reimagining Our Work (ROW) book collection, a book series that inspires early childhood educators to reimage their work and thinking alongside children.

Stop. Look. Listen. Feel. Come fully alive in your encounters with young children. Reimagining Heartbreak is a call to return to fullhearted, embodied teaching. It is a journey through the woods and into the depths. Shelley Brandon’s stories reveal the extraordinary beauty that is possible in ordinary life. Can you dare to bring your whole self to your work with young children? Can you afford not to?  Join Author Shelley Brandon to explore some main highlights of her book, to learn about her inspiration in writing it and to consider key messages in our work with young children.

All participants will receive a copy of Shelley's book with their registration and she will be happy to sign them during the day.

• 9:30 to 11:30 am - Highlights of the Book Shared by Shelley Brandon
• 11:30 am to 12:00 pm - Book Signing

With Angela Hayes, Coordinator and Professor and Cathy Teixeira, Professor, Niagara College

This workshop, presented by Niagara College Professor Angela Hayes, will look at the importance of supporting mental health in early learning environments. Participants will explore the ways they can create secure relationships and spaces for young children to learn and grow, and the importance of these relationships on young children’s mental health. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss the ways they currently support children’s well-being and mental health in their learning environment and next steps in their journey.

Sponsored by Niagara College

With ECCDC Training Team

Are you ready to breathe new life into your onboarding processes and program statement to create a more cohesive team and early learning and child care program? Join us for a dynamic and collaborative series designed to deepen your understanding and enhance the impact of both your onboarding processes and program statement. We will be exploring the connection between the foundation of your mission, vision, values and program statement. Don’t miss this opportunity to reconnect with your core values and inspire your team and families!

Session 1: Onboarding Educators, Friday April 4, 2025
In this session, participants will dive into the heart of their program by exploring its vision, mission, and core values. Educators will gain clarity on their roles and responsibilities, ensuring alignment with your program’s foundational principles. Participants will be equipped with practical strategies to effectively integrate the program’s philosophy into their teaching practice and foster a cohesive learning environment. Through detailed explanations, real-life examples, and reflective conversations, educators will leave empowered to uphold the program’s goals while nurturing a supportive educational journey. This session is designed not only to onboard educators effectively but also to enhance retention by fostering a strong connection to your program’s mission and values.

Session 2: Onboarding Families, Friday May 2, 2025
In this session, we will dive into the onboarding process for families as it is a critical first step to ensure families feel welcomed and informed as they enrol their child in your program. The process is crucial to build a strong foundation and relationship with the family as highlighted within How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years. Within the session we will highlight how providing a thorough onboarding experience will provide an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the family’s goals for their child and consider how your program’s mission, vision, and values align with their expectations of your program.

Session 3: Moving Forward with Your Program Statement, Friday June 6, 2025
In this session, participants will identify key elements in program statements that inform decision-making, such as values, goals, and pedagogical approaches. You’ll discover techniques to engage staff and families in ongoing conversations about the program statement and its implementation, fostering a sense of community and shared vision. Additionally, you’ll learn how to align your program statement with goal setting and staff performance evaluations to ensure consistency and clarity. We’ll also explore opportunities for supervisors to support and share program statements with their teams, encouraging input and development.

Series objectives:

• Understand the purpose and components of a mission, vision, values, and program statement in supporting your organization.
• Develop strategies for effectively communicating onboarding processes and program statement to educators and families.
• Identify methods and techniques to engage and reflect with educators and families within the program utilizing the onboarding process and program statement.

All Sessions take place from 1:30 to 3:30pm EST

With Carolyn Hadcock

We have had knowledge of the concepts of Emotional Intelligence for some time, but many haven’t readily addressed them. In this seminar you will define Emotional Intelligence (EI) and learn the essential components. After completing a brief quiz, you can gain a sense of your personal Emotional Intelligence (EI) which will assist you in ascertaining the importance of possessing a healthy one. Finally, a discussion will ensure where strategies on how to achieve an elevated Emotional Intelligence and become a master of your EI will transpire. Join Carolyn for a journey that promises to be life changing, knowing that it will benefit our professional and personal life.

avec Helene Pouliot-Cleare

With Alison Grbic

Leaders will learn practical steps to support their own mental and emotional health through focusing on 3 areas: Self Care, Emotional Balance, and Intuitive Knowledge. They will learn to:

• Go within, listen to themselves and their own needs by getting quiet, doing things they enjoy to do the inner reflective work, discover areas of healing, acceptance, and releasing past wounds, fears/doubts to live as their true authentic self.
• To see the value of self-care and its benefits as they fill their cup and to function at their optimum to best support others without self-sabotage.
• To gain insight, wisdom, and intuitive knowledge to guide them each day and “to tune in/tap in”.
• Use the “Intuitive Model” as a guide to recognize, honour, and access their intuition and take action based on their intuitive promptings, providing clarity to make difficult decisions or face conflict or stressful situations as self-reliant, confident, and empowered leaders.
• To balance empathy, accept others, set healthy boundaries, and use intuitive discernment with people/situations to support others in traumatic/adverse situations by being objective, grounded, and through intuitive interactions, creating deeper connections and understanding of self/others.
• To understand intuition works in tandem with emotional balance and through use of “Steps to Emotional Balance” to improve self-awareness, acceptance of self/others, and reflect on areas that require healing of triggers/wounds, old beliefs, biases, and assumptions or attachments. Building their own emotional/mental health, raise their vibration, and create more happiness, opportunities, and positivity in their own lives, having a ripple effect on teams and communities as they are better “equipped” to support others and share this knowledge in reciprocal ways.
• Emotionally healthy, intuitive leaders in our sector have a profound, positive impact on uplifting the emotional/mental well-being of children, families, staff, overall building sustainable systems, and communities to overcome adversity.

Part 1: Intuitive Knowledge Skill Development and Tuning and Tapping In
Tuning in and finding inner power to lead/interact intuitively building confidence, self-trust, and healthy ways to oversee/work in sync with organizations and teams. This enables professionals to make better decisions and see situations from a higher, more objective perspective, seeing the whole picture in any given situation to come out of stagnant situations and lead agencies/staff through change and adversity.
Thursday April 10, 2025
10:00 to 11:30 am EST

Part 2: Emotional Balance, Self Care, and Seeking Joy
Facing fears and healing past triggers/wounds to increase inner emotional stability and create emotionally intelligent/balanced teams and work environments. Through also practicing self-care and seeing it as a necessity, not a luxury, and learning to put ourselves first to operate at our optimum to better be able to support, serve, and uplift others. Participants will gain effective emotionally intelligent skills to best fulfill their own emotional balance as well as remain calm, balanced, and grounded in stressful, toxic, challenging, or adverse situations in communities and workplaces.
Thursday May 8, 2025
10:00 am to 11:30 am EST

Part 3: Resilience Reset and Making Effective Choices
Gaining self-awareness and removing personal biases/ assumptions to create neutrality towards people/situations, removing of old belief systems, and seeing what areas we are going to keep, remove, or adjust. Participants will look at practical ways of becoming resilient which they can implement in their programs/organizations through using systematic methods to break down each area of their responsibilities or goals, looking at the past and present ways of doing things, and how we want to rebuild or rethink the future.
Thursday June 12, 2025
10:00 am to 11:30 am EST

Rescheduled from January 25 2025

Book written by Diane Kashin and Launched in Niagara with the Loving Care of Cindy Green and Support from Diane’s Family

Adult professional friendships are integral to early childhood education, giving educators daily support and collaboration, nurturing their professional and pedagogical growth, and-not to be discounted-making the job fun. During this workshop, participants will explore what it means to be a friend, how to make friends and keep friends, and what happens when friendships end. All are invited to attend. Workshop participants will be invited to join a series of professional conversations following this launching session. Dates and times to be explored as a group.

Together with Dory Kashin, Cindy is excited to join you in Niagara and share reflections about the big ideas inherent in this book as well as Diane’s writing process.

In addition to being a daughter, wife, mother, bubbie, sister, friend, professor and mentor, Diane Kashin, EdD, RECE was an early learning educator who shared her research, wisdom and passion with so many. She was an author of many books pertaining to early learning and care and her blog tecribresearch.blog was followed by thousands. In her final book, Cultivating Professional Friendships in Early Childhood Education (2024), Diane invites educators to delve into the theory that professional friendship is a practice that enhances professional learning and growth. In her work with educators, it was her aim to embed opportunities for play. Playful adults are more inclined to invite young children to follow their curiosities through play and inquiry. Diane’s enthusiasm and knowledge about social constructivism and pedagogical practices invited, sustained and deepened the thinking of so many. Diane, we are your legacy.

In loving memory of Diane Kashin, author, colleague, friend.

Registration fee includes a copy of the book, Cultivating Professional Friendships.

Are you employed with one of Niagara’s home child care licensed agencies: Wee Watch or Niagara Region Home Child Care? If so, this Network is for you. Come to tour the ECCDC, borrow resources, problem solve with your peers and engage with others in similar positions.

Please note this network is only applicable to educators here in Niagara Region.

Join us for an engaging and informative series designed to inspire curiosity and foster a love of learning in young children. “Igniting Curiosity” will explore the concept of inquiry-based learning, delve into various types of inquiry, and demonstrate practical strategies for implementing these approaches in your program. Learn how to set up provocations and invitations to play and understand the differences between these concepts. Don’t miss this opportunity to equip yourself with the tools and techniques to create an inquiry-friendly environment that nurtures young minds. Register today and take the first step towards making learning an exciting adventure for children!

Inclusive Environments - Using the Niagara Inclusion Tool

Learn how to create inclusive preschool environments that celebrate diversity and support all children’s unique needs. This network will look at the Niagara Inclusion Tool through collaborative discussions for implementing the tool through supportive practices. Join us to promote a welcoming atmosphere where every child can thrive.

Please note this network is only applicable to educators here in Niagara Region.

With Dr. Dane Marco Di Cesare

Families with children with special needs face unique challenges navigating the early years, and even further challenges once they enter the school system. Having supportive, caring and knowledgeable educators supporting them in the early years can make all the difference to these families. This webinar will explore ways we can support families with children with special needs during the early years and how we can prepare them once their child is ready to enter school. Participants will explore common obstacles these families may endure and how to support them in the process.

Sponsored by Brock University – Faculty of Education

With Victoria Armstrong

Connecting with Nature: Outdoor Learning and Play for Infants and Toddlers

Connect with the great outdoors and uncover the benefits of nature-based learning. During this network, we will discuss outdoor play and exploration, providing practical ideas for integrating outdoor play into your practice. Come and be a part of this network to share how we create stimulating outdoor experiences that foster physical development, sensory exploration, and a lifelong love for nature.

Please note this network is only applicable to educators here in Niagara Region.

With Dana Sproule

This workshop helps Early Childhood Educators put emotional regulation front and center in their classrooms. Participants will learn a child-centered, trauma-informed framework for understanding and interpreting emotional outbursts. Using that framework, they will learn classroom strategies to use when children are in the green, yellow, and red zones of emotional regulation. Teachers particularly appreciate tools to “trick” the brain back online during an outburst, and strategies to include emotional regulation tools in the daily curriculum so children grow in their capacity to manage emotions. This workshop is best suited for educators but could easily be adapted for parents.

How are we able to ensure we are being responsive to the needs of the children and families in our program? During our time together we will look at how our continuous professional learning, reflection and questioning can support us in our Quality journey. We will discuss the Caregiver Interaction Scale as well as additional strategies that can assist us in our ongoing reflective practice. Time will also be allotted to discuss your additional QCCN related inquiries.

With Pierre Harrison, B.Sc., M.Sc. and B.Ed.

PLAYLearnThink has been promoting play based and inquiry-based learning for over 20 years.

Research around children’s development tells us that play is essential to a child’s physical health and emotional well-being. Play stimulates all aspects of a child’s development, i.e. the physical, social, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual aspects. Through play children, armed with curiosity and a spirit of inquiry, explore their environment and build knowledge about the world around them. In doing so they prepare the foundation on which they will build a life of resilience, creativity, self-confidence and life-long learning. Play is also essential for the continued growth of adults. That’s why PLAYLearnThink workshops incorporate playful ways of engaging participants. Whether working as a group on a challenging task or experimenting with various materials, the focus is always the use of play to nurture imagination and foster creativity which leads to great feats of problem solving and a heightened self-esteem.

1. Overview of the importance of play in the healthy development of children - This section is an engaging presentation on play and learning through play. It includes what we know from research and practice. It touches upon different topics such as the benefits of self-directed play, exploring risk, nature play, resilience and the adult’s role in supporting play. I also share videos and stories from personal experiences and touch upon what is happening in various parts of the world.
2. Loose parts play - Participants will play and create with a multitude of materials (loose parts) and tools. They will plunge into the joy of self-directed, spontaneous play and thus feel firsthand what children experience during free play.
3. Debrief

With Joel Seaman

An early learning community provides equal voice to all involved – teachers, students, families. Each member’s unique perspective is honoured, valued, celebrated, and reflected in the space. As a learning community, the focus is not on arbitrary rules and discipline, but on co-created expectations, self regulation, teamwork, mutual respect, and accountability. During this webinar, you will explore why building a community in your early learning environment is so important, how to go about building a community, and the different roles of the educators and children.

Supporting Smooth Transitions with Children in Before and After School Programs

This network will focus on supporting children during their initial first few months in before and after school programs. Discover practical strategies to ease children’s transitions, build rapport, and create a sense of belonging. Explore with us transition techniques and activities that promote positive relationships among children, families, and educators.

Please note this network is only applicable to educators here in Niagara Region.

Building relationships and connections in school age programs matters. Relationships underpin the work of educators, and both Ontario’s early years and middle years frameworks emphasize the importance of relationships, with research highlighting the beneficial impact that positive relationships have on children through their childhood and into adulthood. This 3-part series will explore how educators working in school aged programs can develop supportive, trusting relationships with children and their families, and intentionally build strong, supportive relationships with the multiple partners they engage with.

Series Objectives:

• Participants will identify how building and maintaining positive relationships within school age programs reflects Ontario’s early learning and middle years frameworks.
• Participants will select and implement age appropriate and culturally responsive strategies to integrate within their school age programs, to create welcoming environments that support positive relationship building.
• Participants will uncover the unique challenges of developing relationships within school age programs and strategize how to overcome them.

With Victoria Armstrong

EarlyON programs are bubbling with endless possibilities for curiosity, creativity, innovation and connection. Through intentional research questions, we can deepen our understanding of who children are, the competencies they hold, and the ideas they have as we listen and observe carefully, think with one another, and respond thoughtfully.

Outdoor Cooking and Nature Recipes

Exploring Culinary Delights in the Wild: Blend the excitement of outdoor activities with the joys of cooking in nature. This network will explore creative ways to incorporate cooking into outdoor activities. Join us to share recipes, plan outdoor cooking events, and discover how to turn nature’s offerings into delicious adventures. Please note this network is only for agencies/programs here in Niagara Region.

With Acclaimed Author Barbara Kaiser

We’ve all been there: a child is beginning to melt down or heat up! What do you do next? In the heat of the moment, has your response ever escalated a child’s challenging behaviour? Children’s behaviour can escalate quickly. Your feelings about that escalation can erupt just as quickly. De-escalation – helping children calm down – takes time and only happens intentionally. This webinar explores the stages of escalation and ways you can respond that will support and help children to be able to return safely to the group.

With DSBN and Niagara Catholic DSB Early Literacy Partners

Are you interested in learning more about the importance of playful, joyful practices that foster early literacy learning? Join us as we bring to life our favourite picture books, explore the power of mark making, and enjoy the fresh air while tapping into literacy experiences outdoors! Educators will experience ways in which literacy learning happens all around us and in many different playful, intentional contexts using a variety of materials. You will leave with practical tips and inspiring ideas to enhance your early years program, both inside and outside the classroom. These sessions are for educators of preschool and kindergarten age children.

Sponsored by District School Board of Niagara and Niagara Catholic District School Board

With Acclaimed Educator, Author and Researcher Susan Stacey

Morning: Emergent Curriculum – Debunking the Myths and Creating a Shared Understanding
This workshop will explore the common myths and misapplications around Emergent Curriculum: what it is, and is not, how it translates into daily practice, and the educator’s role in the process, including the Cyle of Inquiry. We will think through and practice the journey of Emergent Curriculum, from observations and reflective dialogue to thoughtful responses to children’s ideas, questions. and theories. Through investigation of examples from real classrooms, we will create a shared understanding of Emergent Curriculum that can be taken forward into your practice.

Afternoon: A Hands-on Exploration of Pedagogical Documentation
What is the difference between documentation and pedagogical documentation? What are the many ways in which Pedagogical Documentation might be used as a tool for understanding children’s theories and ideas, for creating questions for ourselves that lead to our own professional growth, and for communicating with families and society at large the brilliance of young children’s thinking? We will explore these questions as we move through the process of creating a rough piece of documentation and engaging in dialogue with each other about the thinking involved.

Please note: Event registration fee does not include book. Copies of Pedagogical Documentation in Early Childhood Education: Sharing Children’s Learning and Teachers’ Thinking may be purchased by May 8 2024 and Susan will happily sign the book during lunch time. Click here to order book (opens in a new webpage).

With ECCDC Training Team

This workshop will provide a hands-on opportunity to engage in a Makerspace in an outdoor environment, also known as a Natural Makerspace. Participants will explore what a Makerspace is and the common materials involved, the difference between an indoor and outdoor Makerspace, the benefits of a Natural Makerspace, and materials to consider in the outdoor environment. Educators will also have the opportunity to discuss barriers they may face in a Natural Makerspace and ways to overcome these barriers.

With Jacob Rodenburg

How do we activate, empower, and inspire children to adopt a sustainable future? We show them. Jacob Rodenburg has spent the past 30 years fostering environmental stewardship in children. During this time, Jacob has created over 90 curriculum linked outdoor and environmental programs. Join this session to explore how to enhance environmental awareness and learn ways you can provide students with practical, hands-on environmental activities from schoolyard naturalization to environmental science projects

In this café, we will consider our early learning environment and how to support the inclusion of all the children in our program. We will take a deeper dive into utilizing the Environmental Rating Scales, Environmental Reflection Form and Resource and Inventory Lists to assist us in providing environments rich with learning opportunities. Time will also be spent answering any of your QCCN related questions.