Best Practices of Family Engagement

Family Service Workers and Home Visitors are the first point of contact for our families. The way that they approach and build relationships with parents as well as how they engage them in the goal setting process is critical. It sets the tone for the rest of the school year. High quality family engagement includes several key elements.

  • Build the relationship. Engage and build connection with families by allowing adequate time for conversation and listening with an open mind. Hearing what families are saying is vital. It is important that staff spend time getting to know each family member as an individual and work to establish a comfort level with each one. Initiate “rich” conversations with parents that get to the heart of where parents are and where they want to be. Create a safe environment for them to share their strengths and open up about areas of challenge. The key is to begin this relationship at application and enrollment, building it consistently and authentically.
  • Partner for goal setting. Individualized Family Partnership Agreements are living documents and must be reflective of the people involved in setting the goals. Family Partnership Agreements are intentional, purposeful and based on the strengths and needs of each family. As staff invite each family to participate in the goal setting process, they should work in partnership with parents to determine realistic, specific and realistic goals. Partner with each parent to ensure that they see the benefit of goal setting as well as identify goals that will be helpful to the family. Work with parents to create goals that are broken down into specific steps that can be attained.
  • Empower for the future. Creating capacity is a key component in empowering families and setting them up for success during their time in Head Start as well as after their time in Head Start. Recognize the importance of their role as their child’s first and most important teacher. Work closely with parents to ensure that they are fully engaged in their child’s education. Assist them in building partnerships as they enter the educational process and advocate for their child.  Create a strong partnership with each parent in order to guide and support them on the road to self-sufficiency.

The “Best Practices of Family Engagement” training includes topics such as:

  • Building successful relationships with families
  • Having hard conversations with parents
  • Moving from Helper to Partner
  • Adult education techniques
  • Implementing the PFCE Framework
  • Engaging fathers
  • Family Partnership Agreements
  • Establishing boundaries
  • Working with challenging families
  • Caring for yourself in order to care for families

Are you looking for on-site, highly interactive & practice-based training on “Best Practices of Family Engagement”? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Working Together to Promote Nutrition & Physical Activities in the Classroom & at Home

Teaching staff play an important role in establishing the foundation of wellness for young children and their families. Since teaching staff collect data on children’s progress and make decisions based on that data, it’s important to look at the nutrition, health and safety needs of our children.

It’s essential to examine the challenges that teachers face regarding wellness and learning… and to discover creative & exciting ways of implementing good health practices that support our children’s path to school readiness. As we know, children’s basic health and nutrition needs must be met before they can begin learning.  Building a foundation of wellness (health, nutrition & physical activity) is one of the critical elements of school readiness.

This highly interactive training will provide teaching staff with a strong understanding of wellness concepts as well as fun ways of implementing each of these concepts in their classroom.

This hands-on training will include:

  • Understanding the important contributions of health, nutrition and safety to children’s learning and well-being;
  • Implementing and modeling appropriate health & nutrition wellness practices;
  • Fostering interactive play to support learning as it pertains to nutrition and physical activities in the classroom;
  • Strategies to partner with children and families to promote wellness in young children.

We invite you for a fun-filled interactive day as we explore one or more of the following:

  • Chef Kid: Cooking with Children to Encourage Positive Food Choices;
  • Healthy Hearts for Head Start: Developing Healthy Hearts and Minds Through Movement;
  • Mouthwatering Morsels in Books: Connecting Literacy and Nutrition.

Are you looking for on-site, custom designed training on Working Together to Promote Nutrition & Physical Activities in the Classroom & at Home? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

CLASS Training: How to Naturally Implement Instructional Support throughout the Head Start Day

As we all know, it’s essential to have high CLASS scores. High scoring classrooms are a great indicator of positive teacher/child interactions that effectively support children’s learning and development. This leads to successful CLASS Reviews as well as best practices in the classroom. Most Head Start programs score lowest in the Instructional Support domain. This is understandable as some of the indicators within Concept Development, Quality of Feedback and Language Modeling are complex.

This hands-on training will address the indicators & behavioral markers under each of the dimensions within Instructional Support. Utilizing the teachers’ daily schedule, we will provide concrete strategies on how to attain high CLASS scores in Instructional Support. This targeted training will focus on ways to implement Instructional Support throughout the day. We will demonstrate how to naturally incorporate high scoring Instructional Support during large group activities, small group activities, center time, transitions & routines, meals… every part of the Head Start day!

This custom designed training will include items such as:

  • Analysis and Reasoning: Learn how to integrate the “how” and “why” of children’s learning.
  • Integration: Learn how to effectively make meaningful connections from new to prior learning.
  • Scaffolding: Learn how to provide assistance, feedback and questioning to assist children in continuing to learn and work at a higher level.
  • Feedback Loops: Learn how to increase language through sustained conversations, comments and follow-up questions in supporting a higher level of insight and comprehension.
  • Repetition & Extension: Learn how to acknowledge and build on each child’s unique ideas and contributions to a lesson or conversation.
  • Self- & Parallel Talk: Learn how to best map both your actions & the children’s actions as a means for language modeling.

The entirety of the training will be framed in terms of the Head Start classroom – including what a “7” looks like for each of the indicators and behavioral markers under Instructional Support. We will offer practice-based strategies to increase CLASS scores in each of these indicators and behavioral markers. We will address best practices as it pertains to teaching behaviors and interactions.

If your program’s scores are lowest in Emotional Support or Classroom Organization, we can focus on that domain instead.

A variety of learning styles will be explored such as videos, role plays, small group activities, pair and share, question and answer sessions, and other interactive exercises. The participants in this training will have many hands-on opportunities to see what high-scoring Instructional Support looks like – as adult learning is best when the participants can see, feel and experience the information that is being presented.

Are you looking for highly interactive CLASS Training: How to Naturally Implement Instructional Support throughout the Head Start Day? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Energizing Keynotes: Building Consistency, Capacity & Commitment

Are you looking for an energizing keynote to kick off your Pre-service? It’s a great opportunity to bring your Head Start and Early Head Start staff together and ensure that everyone is on the same page. It’s a good time to set the tone for the new school year. . .to set the expectation of excellence in your program – excellence for the children, for the families and for the staff. Let’s share the message that the expectation is to go above and beyond for our children and families in order to create school-ready children and families that are fully engaged in their child’s education and on the road to self-sufficiency.

We provide inspiring keynotes that get your staff energized for the new school year. An engaging keynote is a great platform for a successful school year. The staff spend a lot of time giving to children & families and it’s important for the staff to get replenished. Our keynotes are designed to promote Consistency in the level of excellence across your program; to build your staff’s Capacity to provide the highest level of services to children and families; and to motivate your staff to renew their Commitment to guide children to school readiness and families to self-sufficiency.

Examples of our keynote topics include:

  • Reflect, Renew & Re-energize: Why We Work with Head Start Children & Families
  • Creating School-Ready Children & Self-Sufficient Families
  • Establishing an Expectation of Excellence
  • Building Strong Leaders to Serve Our Children & Families
  • Taking Care of Yourself in Order to Serve Children & Families

We can provide a keynote or make it a full-day training. The keynote or training will be custom designed to meet the specific needs of your program.

Are you looking for an Energizing Keynote or Training for Pre-Service? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Creating Realistic, Specific & Measurable Goals with Families

Family Service Workers and Home Visitors are the first point of contact for our families. Establishing a good working relationship with each family is the foundation for effective & comprehensive work with families. Have a good working relationship with families is key in a successful goal setting process. As staff invite each family to participate in the goal setting process, having a partnership in place with each family is essential.

We believe that individualized Family Partnership Agreements are living documents and must be reflective of the people involved in setting the goals. It is important that Family Partnership Agreements are intentional, purposeful and based on the strengths and needs of each family. Family Partnership Agreements are about the relationship with the family – not the form it is written on.

This highly interactive training is an opportunity for your Family Service Workers and Home Visitors to learn new strategies as it pertains to effective goal setting with families – and practice those skills during the training.

This practice-based training will address how to set realistic, meaningful & measurable goals as well as create individualized Family Partnership Agreements. The training includes addressing topics such as:

  • Build the relationship first. Engage and build connection with families by allowing adequate time for conversation and listening with an open mind. Hearing what families are saying is vital. It is important that staff spend time getting to know each family member as an individual and work to establish a comfort level with each one. This time allows staff to discover what the family is all about and what is important to them. The key is to begin this relationship at application and enrollment, building it consistently and authentically.
  • Initiate “rich” conversations with families. This training teaches the participants the stages of a helping relationship. Initiate “rich” conversations with families that get to the heart of where families are and where they want to be. This includes the family’s own timeline for goals and needs. Create a safe environment for parents to share their strengths and open up about areas of challenge. Know what questions to ask families in order to gain critical information to set goals.
  • Create goals that are specific, realistic and measurable. We believe that Family Partnership Agreements are not just something to complete in order to check it off of your to-do list. Family Partnership Agreements are living documents that must be intentional and individualized for each family. As this process is often something that is uncomfortable for staff, this training includes suggested language to use when setting goals with families as well as a hands-on demonstration of the process. Staff should work in partnership with parents to create goals that are realistic and measurable – and broken down into specific steps that can be attained. This training includes implementing this through the SMART goal setting process.

Work with parents to set them up for success throughout the goal setting process. Recognize parents’ role as their child’s first and most important teacher.

Are you looking for on-site, custom designed training on Creating Realistic, Specific & Measurable Goals with Families? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

CLASS Training Specifically Designed for Head Start Teaching Staff

High CLASS scores in each of the domains are essential in Head Start. High scoring classrooms are a great indicator of positive teacher/child interactions as well as effectively supporting children’s learning and development. This leads to successful CLASS Reviews as well as best practices in the classroom.

Our custom designed CLASS training includes specific examples and strategies in terms of the Head Start classroom. We will address best practices as it pertains to teaching behaviors and interactions. This training will address what high scoring domains and dimensions look like and what they don’t look like. It includes a description of the dimensions, indicators and behavioral markers in terms of the Head Start classroom – including what a “7” looks like in each domain.

We offer highly interactive, practice-based CLASS training that includes items such as:

  • How to be responsive to children & encourage child-directed activities;
  • Strategies to maximize learning time & foster children’s problem solving skills;
  • Lessons to expand children’s language;
  • Strategies to manage children’s challenging behaviors;
  • Specific examples of what to say to children to help them think critically.

Effective CLASS training consists of keeping the Head Start teaching staff highly engaged by utilizing a “learning by doing” approach. It’s based on the principles of adult learning which results in high impact learning. This hands-on strategy allows the teachers to take back the information that they learn in the training and implement it in their classrooms. Adult learning is most effective when the participants can see, feel and experience the information that is being presented.

Are you looking for highly interactive & practice-based CLASS training designed specifically for Head Start teaching staff? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Creating Your Program or Agency’s Community Assessment

Program planning is an important piece of a successful Head Start or Early Head Start program.  A current & comprehensive Community Assessment is one of the key documents to have for effective program planning. A comprehensive Community Assessment is also needed to write your Refunding Application, your Recompetition Grant Application and to maintain programmatic compliance. Your Community Assessment is a key document that drives decision-making in your program.

We create comprehensive & custom designed Community Assessments for Head Start programs, Early Head Start programs and agencies (including Community Action Agencies).  Our Community Assessments will meet the requirements of the Head Start Program Performance Standards (and of your CAP or other program regulations). Since all of our services are custom designed to meet the specific needs of your program or agency, we will include any additional data that you request.

Our Community Assessments include:

  • Aggregating and analyzing a multitude of data sources;
  • Comparing current data with past years’ data;
  • Colorful graphs and charts illustrating the data;
  • Key findings for each piece of data;
  • Highlights & considerations for each major section;
  • Survey results of your Parents, Staff, Board of Directors and Community Partners.

Our user-friendly Community Assessments include an Analysis of the data, Methodology, an Executive Summary & much more. Call or email us for a free sample!

Are you looking for a Community Assessment for your program or agency? Give us a call today at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Training for Teaching Staff: Engaging Learners through Intentional Teaching

Effective learning is achieved when children are fully engaged. This occurs when children are actively involved and energized by what is being presented. The classroom environment should be one that captures children’s inquiry, promotes creativity and encourages problem-solving skills. Equally important is the intention on the part of the teacher.  Together, these strategies hold the key to successful learning for children.

Intentional teaching is always thinking about what you are doing and how it will foster children’s development.  In everything that teachers plan and implement in the Head Start and Early Head Start classroom, it’s essential that they are highly intentional. That is, they need to work with children’s outcomes in mind and seek out every opportunity to help children progress on their road to school readiness. This is accomplished through the learning experiences that teachers plan, the ways they interact with children and how teachers individualize for all children.

We believe that children need playful learning and meaningful play. It’s important that teachers intentionally integrate learning opportunities throughout the daily schedule. Intentional planning is the cornerstone to engaging interactions.

This highly interactive training will address how to teach with intentionality, including strategies to:

  • Be highly responsive to children and intentionally build relationships;
  • Integrate instructional interactions throughout the classroom centers and routines;
  • Match content with children’s developmental levels and emerging abilities;
  • Organize the classroom environment and closely monitor children’s experiences;
  • Maximize learning time through carefully planned transitions and routines; and
  • Use effective teaching strategies throughout the school day that keep the children fully engaged.

Are you looking for practice-based, on-site training on Engaging Learners through Intentional Teaching? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Successfully Managing Children’s Challenging Behaviors: Becoming Trauma Informed

Head Start classrooms today contain more & more children with extreme behavior issues as well as children with diagnosed and undiagnosed special needs. Teachers often report that despite trying many different things to manage children’s challenging behaviors, nothing has been effective. We have found that the origin of many children’s challenging behaviors is rooted in developmental trauma.

Many of our children come from hard places and have experienced trauma. Early experiences adversely impacts brain development. Developmental trauma impacts children’s attachment system and their ability to self-regulate. This often results in children acting out through a multitude of challenging behaviors. Becoming trauma informed (learning strategies and language that increases safety while promoting optimal brain development) is a key piece of successfully addressing children’s challenging behaviors.

Behaviorally challenging children are also relationship-resistant children. Instead of spending precious time trying to get challenging children under control, we can instead create a compassionate school culture. This strategy employs the natural power of connection between all members as a means of co-regulating behavior and teaching children to self-regulate.

We believe that successful behavior management training is based on shifting teachers’ daily practice from reward and punishment — to teaching, modeling and nurturing relationships within a positive school climate. This highly interactive training includes:

  • Understanding how developmental trauma impacts children’s attachment and their ability to self-regulate;
  • Defining teaching behaviors & interventions that improve children’s ability to pay attention and impulse control;
  • Learning to “meet children where they are” including specific strategies to reach challenging children in a way that builds trust and connection;
  • Exploring how these connections directly increase the ability to problem-solve, engaging students in interactions that facilitate effective learning;
  • Discovering how to connect with relationship-resistant children, reduce oppositional defiant behavior and increase cooperation and compliance.

Are you looking for highly interactive & practice-based Training on “Successfully Managing Children’s Challenging Behaviors: Becoming Trauma Informed”? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Effective Case Management: Training for Family Service Workers & Home Visitors

Family Service Workers and Home Visitors play an essential role in your program, especially in the area of case management. They begin by establishing a good working relationship with each parent. Effective work with families starts with an understanding of where parents are and where they want to go. Build connection with families by allowing adequate time for conversation and listening with an open mind. Create a safe environment for parents to share their strengths and open up about areas of challenge. It’s important that there is a system in place to link families to needed services and resources.

We see case management as a process that includes:

  • Establishing a good working relationship with the family
  • Implementing a goal setting process with the family
  • Linking the family to needed services and resources
  • Following up with the family regularly and maintaining good documentation and
  • “Closing the loop” to ensure that the family receives all needed services.

Closing the loop” is a follow-up system that confirms that each family is linked to all needed services. The Family Service Worker or Home Visitor checks in with the family on a regular basis.  They assist the family in accessing services, follows up to ensure that the parent is satisfied with the services and provides guidance and support until all services are received.

Another key piece of case management is documentation. As we say, “if it’s not written down, it didn’t happen”. It’s vital that all interactions with the families and service providers are documented. Case notes must tell a story – from the initial referral… to all follow-up efforts… to delivery of services.

We utilize a strengths-based model, using each family’s individual strengths to assist them in achieving their goals. Families are the first and most important teachers of their children. They are our partners and play a critical role in their family’s development. Families have expertise about their child and their family.

This highly interactive & practice-based training will include:

  • Key concepts & strategies in case management
  • Successfully managing your caseload
  • Follow-up & connecting families to services
  • Documentation
  • Time management
  • Organizational skills

Looking for training on “Effective Case Management” for your Family Service Workers & Home Visitors?  Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.