Today was the annual Focus on Children conference for early educators. This is always a good conference.
This year, the keynote speaker was Bette Hyde, director of the Department of Early Learning for Washington. Her talk was about all that is happening to improve early learning in the state, and how much of it is interrelated.
Early Achievers, which starts in earnest in July, is working on improving environments through training, coaching and grants through the federal Race to the Top campaign. Washington placed third in the initial round of funding. The P-3 alignment in literacy is working on early literacy starting in preschool with David Matteson's program, and continuing that same program, with increasing fluency and independence, through third grade. My school and the elementary we feed to are forerunners in this program, being the only private preschool to receive a visit from David Matteson himself last summer (the other schools he visited were publicly funded schools, I believe. I had just started working here when he came). It was an honor to see him interact with the children!
The breakout sessions I went to were: an intro to the WaKIDS Early Achievers program; an overview of what a P-3 aligned preschool and elementary school looks like; and using technology in early learning environments, which NAEYC has issued a position statement about in conjunction with the Fred Rogers Foundation. This is a hot topic.
I also convinced my director that we needed a liquid watercolor set. I bought a "new" rhythm stick CD (it was originally released in 1976, and I used it 12 years ago on *vinyl* in my first class) and a new matching game for my kiddos. We have lots to do next week!
