Registration Now Open for Lehigh Valley Early Care & Education Professional Development Day for Early Childhood Educators

Registration is now open for early childhood educators from Northampton, Lehigh and Carbon counties who want to take part in the seventh annual Lehigh Valley Early Care & Education Professional Development Day being held on Monday, October 14, 2013 from 7:30 am-4:30 pm at Northampton County 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.”  

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 please go to http://www.cvent.com/events/lehigh-valley-early-care-and-education-professional-development-day-building-cultural-competence-our/event-summary-887864144b2c4d8c8cd244111d88e92c.aspx

The registration fee includes continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon refreshments, all sessions and hand-outs. 

The conference will focus on the concept of building an anti-bias learning community in early care and education programs.  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.

Catlett is a scientist at the University of North Carolina’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.  According to her website her work is “focused on developing intentional strategies that grow the capacity of early childhood and early intervention professionals to be comfortable, confident, and capable to support young children who are culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse and their families.”

 Early childhood educators can earn six Department of Public Welfare and Keystone STARS credit hours for attending the conference. 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.