Lehigh Valley Early Care & Education Will Host 7th Annual Conference

Early childhood educators from Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties will be able to earn professional development hours when they join their peers and attend the 7th annual Lehigh Valley Early Care & Education Professional Development Day on Monday, October 14, 2013 at Northampton Community College, Bethlehem, PA.

The theme of this year’s one day conference is “Building Cultural Competence . . . Our Children, Ourselves” based on the book, Anti-bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, by authors Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards. 

 According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s website, this book gives educators “…practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers of prejudice, misinformation, and bias about specific aspects of personal and social identity; most importantly, find tips for helping staff and children respect each other, themselves, and all people.”  

 From the morning keynote by Camille Catlett through the afternoon concurrent sessions, participants will explore their own cultural backgrounds, examine their personal biases, and become more aware of how various aspects of a child’s self are impacted by bias.

To attend the conference you must pre-register and pay the conference fee of $40.00.  No walk-ins accepted the day of the conference.   To register visit http://extension.psu.edu/events. The registration fee includes continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon refreshments, admission to all sessions and hand-outs. 

This professional development day for early childhood educators was started seven years ago through a collaboration with Penn State Cooperative Extension, The Northeast Key, and child care center directors, who wanted to be able to provide the professional development hours required of early childhood educators during a daylong conference.

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