Events
2024 Partner Powered Conference - Social Emotional Learning
When: 4/25/2024
Conference Details
Smart Start of Mecklenburg County is a partner-powered organization.
When we are connected, we build a stronger web of resilience for those we serve: families with young children.
We invite you to join us for a full day of relationship-building and development that will allow our community to thrive for years.
This full day of in-person training will feature multiple tracks focusing on Social and Emotional Development in Children.
Location
UNC Charlotte Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
9041 Robert D. Snyder Rd, Charlotte, NC 28262
Time
8:30 am - 9:00 am | Doors Open, Check-in, Light Breakfast, Networking | |
9:00 am - 12:00 pm | Session 1 | |
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm | Lunch Provided, Plenary Speaker - Dr. Craig Bailey | |
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm | Session 2 | |
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm | Community Conversation - Social and Emotional Development in Children | |
Community Conversation Panelists
Dr. Craig Bailey | Moderator | |
Teressa Beam | Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools | |
Smokie Brawley | Child Care Resources Inc. | |
Liz Fleury | Children's Development Services Agency | |
Dr. Devonya Govan-Hunt | Black Child Development Institute, Carolinas | |
Dr. Mary-Margaret Kantor | Smart Smart of Mecklenburg County | |
Tiffani McCleave | Mecklenburg County DSS |
Tracks
Sarah Sexton, Ed.D * Ideal for professionals who work with families |
Capacity-Building Family Support Practices (6 hours) |
Caregiver coaching is a capacity-building interaction style that can help build sustainable change. Learn how to apply evidence-based coaching to family support interactions to increase focus on family-identified priorities, prioritize the family's role in the help-giving process, and improve family outcomes and well-being. The session includes a wealth of resources to support capacity-building conversations around high-frequency topics. | |
Kris Everhart, M.S., CCC-SLP * Ideal for early care educators, directors, coaches and TAs |
Hot Topics |
AM: Receiving Early Intervention Services in Childcare Setting (3 hours) | |
Childcare providers are experienced at individualizing interactions with infants and toddlers of all abilities. When a child has an Individualized Family Service Plan, the childcare provider and early intervention provider must work together to support the child's participation in the childcare setting. This session helps childcare providers organize their thoughts and ideas about their classroom values and priorities and communicate them to the early intervention provider in a way that builds collaboration and support the child's participation throughout the classroom routines. | |
PM: Promoting Child Learning Through Everyday Activities & Routines in Childcare (3 hours) | |
Skilled early childhood educators create learning activities for young children, but might overlook the value of using classroom routines as opportunities to promote child learning and development. This session helps participants rethink the structured and unstructured routines within the childcare day to focus on child interests and caregiver responsiveness throughout the day. | |
Laura Phipps |
Staying Power (6 Hours) |
This session will provide training focused on leadership skills and tools to help you create a program that recruits and retains the right staff. The morning will focus on the building blocks of effective leadership and how to use these strategies to address some common challenges. The afternoon will build on the morning learning, with a specific focus on HR recruitment and retention strategies and applying the learning from the whole day to realistic workplace scenarios. | |
*Must select preferred speaker during the registration process
Craig S. Bailey, Ph.D. is the Director of Early Childhood Initiatives at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Assistant Professor at the Child Study Center in the Yale School of Medicine, and co-developer of RULER. RULER is an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has reached over 2 million students and 195,000 educators in 4,500 schools nationally and internationally. Dr. Bailey's research explores how children learn about emotion in early childhood classrooms with an emphasis on how educators support, promote, and teach children social and emotional skills. Before academia, Dr. Bailey was a preschool teacher, and currently, he's a proud father of three children.
Sarah Sexton, Ed.D. is the Director at the Family, Infant and Preschool Program (FIPP) in Morganton, North Carolina. Dr. Sexton has served in the field of early childhood education for almost 30 years as an early childhood teacher, preschool director, an Early Head Start director, and an early intervention administrator. Dr. Sexton teaches child development at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, and early childhood coaching at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. Her expertise lies in professional development coaching, personnel induction, and developing implementation and fidelity tools and measures. Dr. Sexton coordinates research and dissemination activities at FIPP and has published numerous articles on strategies and products for helping practitioners reach fidelity to evidence-based practices. She serves on the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Personnel Preparation Committee and consults with programs and states here and abroad on capacity-building family support practice, and evidence-based professional development coaching.
Kris Everhart, M.S., CCC-SLP, served as a musician in the United States Marine Corps for four years before entering the field of early childhood intervention. Ms. Everhart is currently pursuing an EdD in Educational Leadership with a concentration in Early Literacy. Ms. Everhart is a licensed speech-language pathologist who has served in a variety of early childhood settings and has worked with the Family, Infant and Preschool Program in Morganton, NC for more than ten years and currently serves as the Associate Director. Ms. Everhart conducts research and dissemination activities, oversees the model demonstration early intervention program, is an early intervention fidelity coach instructor, and contributes to the development of implementation tools and guides and publications. Ms. Everhart provides national and international professional development on natural learning environment practices, early intervention and childcare partnerships, caregiver coaching, and interest-based learning at conferences and in-depth training events. Ms. Everhart coordinates and facilitates the early intervention mentor coach network in North Carolina.