Along with our K – 12 track at this summer’s Gurian Training Institute, we are again offering our Early Childhood Track. These dynamic presenters and Gurian Certified Trainers have hands on experience in early childhood classrooms and services. Marion Hill, Program Coordinator at Head Start of Phoenix, and a GI Master Trainer, was the first to suggest we provide this ECE track and we have been honored to do so for the last four years.
If you haven’t signed up yet for our Virtual Summer Institute, check out the website: https://gurianinstitute.com/events/gurian-summer-institute-2023/. We have more than 20 dynamic presentations. Register on the website or email info@gurianinstitute.com to bring groups of five or more. If you would like to get certified as a GI trainer, you can do that at the SI as well. Now here’s more about our Early Childhood speakers and workshops.
When Head Start of Phoenix, beginning with Marion Hill, called Michael Gurian to discuss providing Pilots in preschools in Phoenix, an initiative was born. The Gurian Institute, Head Start of Phoenix, the Greater Phoenix Urban League, and Booker T. Washington Schools partnered to train staff, teachers, home visitors, and parents in the specific needs of boys and girls. Data from the Pilots was very strong, even after schools had to adapt to virtual classrooms for the pandemic.
Here are workshops created for the Summer Institute that have grown from the Pilots and the collaboration.
Bringing Families of Color into the Frame: Parent, Family, and Community Engagement in Early Childhood Environments, with Marion Hill, Program Coordinator for Head Start, Founder of M.A.N.C.A.V.E. and Gurian Master Trainer. As Program Coordinator for Head Start of Phoenix, Marion has supervised local efforts to bring parents on board with a child’s early education for more than two decades. Five years ago, he founded M.A.N.C.A.V.E, (Men All Need to be Caring Actively-Engaged, and Encouraged), a Nurturing Fathers program designed to encourage fathers/male role models to be actively engaged in their child’s growth and development. In this workshop, he will share practical strategies and anecdotes from his work in the community – a how-to of what works and what does not work with busy and distracted parents, including parents whose native language is not English and parents of color.
Teaching a Love of Words: Best Practices for Literacy Learning in Preschool Classrooms with Dr. Ariana Lopez, Education Director and Gurian Certified Trainer. As Education Director at the Greater Phoenix Urban League, Ariana leads educational innovations in early childhood literacy learning. She has worked with diverse populations, including ESL learners, for more than two decades. In the Greater Phoenix Urban League – Gurian Institute Pilots in Phoenix, Arizona, Ariana has made sure that literacy is a major classroom focus. In this workshop, Ariana will share and model programs and strategies that have worked to augment and improve early literacy at the Cartwright Child Care Center, a Gurian Model School. She will also discuss the differences in how boys and girls come to literacy and share strategies from coed and single gender classes.
Essential Early Childhood: Boys and Girls Learn Differently Strategies for Our Youngest Children, with Dr. Ariana Lopez, Education Director and Gurian Certified Trainer. This workshop grows from the Gurian Institute Pilot programs in the Head Start and the Greater Phoenix Urban League (GPUL) classrooms in the Cartwright School District, including at Cartwright Child Care Center, a Gurian Model School. Ariana is Education Coordinator with GPUL. Her session will feature more than a dozen strategies, including single sex groupings, that they have used successfully in early childhood environments for meeting the cognitive, social, and emotional needs of boys and girls. The chosen strategies successfully integrate into Teaching Strategies Gold, Creative Curriculum for Preschool, and CLASS.
The Power of Diversity: Teaching and Mentoring Latino and Dual Language Learners, with Marlene Ordaz and Shandeen Gomez, Directors and Gurian Certified Trainers. For over 40 years collectively, Marlene and Shandeen have worked in early childhood populations and built bridges into elementary and secondary education, focusing specifically on learning, literacy, and cultural climate strategies that work with Latino populations and dual language learners. Marlene is Associate Director of the Greater Phoenix Urban League’s Head Start programs and Shandeen is Director of the Urban Strategies Early Head Start Program. Their workshop explores barriers of language and culture on both the student and teacher and ways to address the needs of our Latino and dual language populations. Participants will learn techniques and strategies for engaging students in a culturally and linguistically diverse learning community.
For more information on the Summer Training Institute and to register, please visit: https://gurianinstitute.com/events/gurian-summer-institute-2023/.
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