by Vicki Parker, Early Childhood Consultant
Great Prairie AEA staff and area Preschool teachers presented 3 sessions at the annual IAEYC conference held in Altoona.
Dawn Johnson (Kids World Day Care and Preschool in Centerville) teamed with Early Childhood Consultants, Anne Michel and Vickie Parker, to present a 90 minute session entitled, “Got Dirt?: Gardening across the Curriculum” The session, which was attended by 40 participants, highlighted Inquiry Based learning using the Project Approach to enhance learning and meet Iowa Early Learning Standards. Participants had the opportunity to observe worms and received instructions on how to make a compost bin.
Making the Shift-A Panel of Teachers Using the Project Approach Along the Continuum from Novice to Experienced
Panel members shared their experience in moving from teaching using themes to The Project Approach. Panel members also fielded a variety of questions from an enthusiastic audience.
Panel members included:
- Becca Braster – 2 year old teacher
- Karrie Ingram – 3 year old teacher
- Dawn Johnson – 4 year old teacher all from Kids World Day Care and Preschool in Centerville and
- Lora Condra – 4 year old teacher from Appanoose Head Start and Jaime Hutcheson 4 year old teacher from Burlington Community Schools .
Panel Facilitators:
- Anne Michel and Vickie Parker – Early Childhood Consultants at GPAEA
The Courtship of Early Childhood and School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
Susan Bruce from the Iowa Department of Education and Vickie Parker Early Childhood Consultant teamed to share the work the state PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports)teams are doing to move toward a blended system for supporting PBIS implementation preschool thru 12th grade. The early morning session was attended by approximately 50 people.
