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Children are motivated to learn when their interests, preferences, families, home language, culture, and race are reflected in their learning environments. In this course, you will learn to help children appreciate their gender, temperament, strengths, and approaches to learning and support them in valuing who they are as members of families, cultural groups, communities, and society as a whole.

Course Information:

• Start Date: Available on-demand
• Course Level: Beginner
• Target Audience: Instruction and Effective Practice, Leadership and Management, Parents and Families, Program Operations, Support Services
• Course Requirements/Prerequisites: Only for staff who have not completed the CDA course with The Academy
• Course Meeting Times: None
• Completion Timeline/Duration: One month

Topics:

• Creating a Sense of Self

Learning Objectives:

• Support children using self-descriptive words.
• Understand how your verbal and physical reactions affect the development of “self” in children.

Alignment with Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF):

This course for teachers aligns closely with Head Start Early Learning Outcome Framework (ELOF). It provides strategies for promoting language development, social-emotional learning, and cognitive growth in the classroom. Educators gain tools for fostering literacy, empathy, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills among students. We also emphasize the importance of family engagement in the learning process. By addressing these key areas, our course equips educators to meet Head Start standards effectively, nurturing the holistic development of their students.

Course Author

Zuly Vazquez

Zuly Vazquez is the senior manager of Early Head Start Professional Development. She has worked with Head Start and Early Head Start programs for over a decade, specializing in training, mentoring, coaching, facilitation, curriculum implementation, and management. She worked for several years in the classroom, providing high-quality education to children from different cultures, traditions, and ethnicities. She is a former Head Start parent and has vast experience supporting and providing technical assistance to teachers, family child care providers, education specialists, and families in large programs in Florida and Georgia. Over her career, she designed a supplemental Christian early childhood curriculum, bilingual online lessons, and classroom observation tools and has facilitated early childhood education courses in English and Spanish at the college level. As an active early childhood advocate, she is part of the advisory committee of her local NAEYC affiliate, the Family Child Care Home Alliance of Georgia, and Latinas United for the Children of America.