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Learning and understanding how to create powerful experiences inside a classroom can be an overwhelming task, but The Academy at NHSA is here to help. Whether you’re looking to understand the importance of interactions in early development, or learn how to support dual language learners, our Powerful Interactions with Preschoolers course is for you! In just one month, you will gain a 360-degree understanding of the value of impactful experiences for preschoolers and how to create them.

At its core, Head Start is all about nurturing healthy attachments between children and their caregivers. Our course covers everything you need to know about how to create powerful interactions for preschool, inside the classroom. It will provide you with the tools and knowledge you need to confidently support the children and families you serve.

Course Information

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

Alignment with Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF)

• Preschool Language and Communication Sub-Domains:
  • Language and Communication
    • Attending and Understanding
    • Communicating and Speaking
    • Vocabulary
  • Literacy
    • Phonological Awareness
    • Print and alphabet Knowledge
    • Comprehension and Text Structure
    • Writing

Module Topics: 

• Understanding the importance of being a teacher
• Interactions in the classroom
• Serve and return theory
• Promoting literacy in the classroom
• Promoting language development
• Planned language approach
• Phonological awareness
• Language-rich environments
• Supporting dual language learners

Learning Objective:

• Know the importance of interactions in early development.
• Learn how different materials and learning experiences provide opportunities to use verbal and nonverbal communication.
• Learn how to support Dual Language learners.

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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.