In this 30 minute interview Constant Hine discusses her new book Transformational Coaching for Early Childhood Educators now available through Redleaf Press. She will describe her GROOMER Framework for Change, the coaching model to foster 'sticky' change and the role of coaches as agents of change.  More information about her book and her Transformational Coaching Courses is available at www.ConstantHine.com or Redleafpress.com

Barbara Blender, is currently a master coach from San Francisco, has had years of experience coaching early childhood professional and supervising coaches in the field. She is an independent coach working with First 5 of San Francisco. She will share her current experience of what is currently working for and supports coaches, the challenges coaches face, and what she sees as the necessary shifts in perspective, and the additional support needed at the front line.  She shares the power of using 'learning stories' as a way to support reflective practices with early childhood providers and how to collect meaningful qualitative evidence of quality care and education.  She will also discuss ways coaching practices have modified and adapted over the years and mentions the challenges during this turbulent landscape of COVID 19.

Barbra was the Coaching Manager at San Francisco State's Gateway to Quality for 10 years and and before that held jobs directly in the field as a preschool director, teacher and within various social service agencies. a particular passion for striving towards equity so that all children, and particularly those furthest from opportunity, get the education they justly deserve. In service of this, Barbra believes that ECE educators, when given meaningful support, can evaluate their teaching and identify ways to strengthen their practice.  

Bob & Megan Tschannen-Moran, founders of the Center for School Transformation, discuss how they train coaches, teachers, school leaders, mentors, program directors, and other educators using their approach from their book Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation At A Time. They discuss Evocative Coaching as a person-centered, no-fault, strengths-based model for supporting educator's professional learning through a four step model:1) Story Listening, 2) Expressing Empathy, 3) Appreciative Inquiry, 4) Design Thinking

They share the unique aspect of Evocative Coaching which is their very concrete and intentional strategy for teaching coaches to expand their empathy skills and how to respectfully embrace the feelings and underlying needs of the coachee in the learning process.

Margie Carter, Wendy Cividanes and Debbie Lebo, of Harvest Resources Associates share their passion and experiences of fostering critical reflection through coaching to shift the focus of professional development from WHAT teachers know to HOW teachers think, learn and grow.  They share their approach using protocols , a set of questions, or "Thinking Lens" for reflection and inquiry that help teachers, coaches and organizational leaders uncover and deepen their thinking, values and professional practices.

They discuss the importance of trainers/coaches being a "Critical Friend" using protocols not to 'fix' people but to help them think through their thoughts, practices and the work they do, in the spirit of exploring opportunities and possibilities for making intentional decisions and next steps.

They pose many provocotive questions and conversations such as: "What do teachers and children deserve?" and "How do we ensure that current educational standards and expectations aren't disconnected from the core values, beliefs and meaningful practices of coaches, teachers and children.

NOTE: Their are a few technological problems in this recording, one disturbance happens 15 minutes into the call but only lasts about 2 minutes.  The recording continues. Thanks for your patience. 

Deb Mathias, Director of the QRIS National Learning Network of the BUILD Initiative, discusses the relationship between Quality Rating Improvement Systems and Continuous Quality Improvement. She discusses what's needed to focus on creating cultures of quality in early childhood programs.  She also shares her perspective on the importance about focusing coaching on sustainable quality - really improving programmatic quality care and being in it for the long haul - continuous quality improvement and avoiding using a “quality for a day” and “get those scores up” approach.

 

Alicia Cuello of Underlying Communications will share her expertise on how to use body language to foster more insightful, respectful and effective coaching relationships.

She will discuss some of the following topics;

The Power of First Impressions and Body Language

How to Increase Integrity in the Classroom

Body Language Interpretation for Coaches

Zeroing in on the Truth:  How to Obtain the Information You Seek thru Body Language Observation and Interpretation

Susan Steele is the Executive Director of the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation. Since 1993 she has helped support the development of a comprehensive early childhood system in CO.

As a funder, Susan has much to offer about the importance of data driven reflection of early childhood leaders, coaches and practitioners. 

Susan talks about the importance of measuring and documenting progress and using this data to inform our decisions and actions to promote improvement in quality. She encourages us to ask, "How do we know whether what we are doing is making a difference?"

Susan advises us to educate funders of what are meaningful and authentic tools for measuring success and how to look at trends and progress over time as indicators beyond the one time, snap shot view some measurement tools offer.

She encourages us in the field to collect information, document our progress, successes and what didn't work and then use that information to inform our intentional practices and plans for improvement. Understanding, reflecting on and documenting our own effective practices and results will help us be able to share the  subtleties of results and successes with funders, the business community and the public at large about the difference we are making.

Louise Stoney, the co-founder of  Alliance for Early Childhood Finance discusses the connection between quality early childhood programs and the financial health of a program.

She emphasizes how coaching needs to be provided for administrators and the business leadership to impact higher quality services.  She discusses the importance of having coaches who are qualified and able to support administrators and their unique needs.

She recommends that coaches be mindful and aware about the Iron Triangle indicators that ensure financial stability of a program so they can provide business leadership support and/or make referrals to community resources to strengthen the stability of the program.

She also shares an innovative collaborative Shared Services business model for early childhood programs to restructure the approach to delivering quality services and strengthens both business and pedagogical leadership. More information and resources about Shared Services is available through www.opportunities-exchange.org 

 For further information contact Louise Stoney at

Billlie Young, Senior Advisor with NAEYC's Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative shares some of the recommendations in the recent NAEYC Public Policy Report "Strategic Directions: Technical Assistance Professionals in State Early Childhood Professional Development Systems" which she authored.

Billie shares her perspective on:

Muriel Wong has developed “The Art and Science of Technical Assistance for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)” a professional development series,  as she shares her experiences in the state of PA, providing facilitation and training to Regional Keystone Star leadership and a cross-sector of technical assistants, coaches working with early learning, family child care and school-age programs, using the The Art and Science of Technical Assistance for Continuous Quality Improvement.