Thomas County and Thomasville City Schools recently collaborated to provide professional development for early learning teachers and community childcare providers. This literacy mini-conference was achievable after the two school systems received a three-year L4GA literacy grant.
The L4GA (Literacy for Learning, Living and Reading) grant is designed to provide resources and support to children and students from birth to grade 12. The conference featured presentations from professors of early learning, educational leaders, and the New York Times #1 best-selling and award-winning author, Eric Litwin. This is the second round of L4GA literacy grants for the two school systems.
“Learning to read not only provides enjoyment for children, but these early literacy skills prepare them for school readiness and long-term success,” said Dr. Bob Dechman, Thomas County Schools’ Assistant Superintendent for Federal Programs and Accountability. “Research has shown that early literacy plays a key role in academic achievement, higher graduation rates and increased productivity as an adult. We look forward to providing other similar events for additional support in the future.”
The conference ended with a Super Saturday event that provided continuing education to community childcare providers.
"By participating in this mini-conference, daycare providers earned professional learning credits necessary to maintain their centers' Quality Rating status," added Dr. Dechman. “We had a great turnout and a positive response from our community partners.”
Litwin presented an entertaining opening that encouraged everyone to transform classrooms into “reading playgrounds.” Litwin urged the participants to immerse their children in joyful and engaging shared reading experiences so they will learn to love books and identify themselves as readers.
“One critical area of early literacy is a child's development from birth to five years of age,” said Jennifer Turnbull, Thomasville City Schools’ Director of Federal Programs. “We realize the importance of engaging parents and local childcare providers with resources and best practices for early literacy development. Because of this partnership through our L4GA grant, our two school systems were excited to bring Eric Litwin, the original author of ‘Pete the Cat,’ to perform for our early learning students as well as provide professional learning to our teachers.”
The Saturday event rounded off with breakout sessions that included presentations from Jessica Barfield, Southwest Georgia Technical College Early Childhood Care, and Education Program Chair, Dee Gaines, Hand-In-Hand Principal, and Catherine Croley, Hand-In-Hand Kindergarten Teacher.
Barfield’s topic was titled "How to Manage Behaviors with Early Learners through Literacy." Her presentation engaged childcare providers by modeling the use of books when discussing self-esteem, confidence, individuality, bullying, adoption, and proper classroom behaviors.
Entitled “Six Steps to Fun and Effective Phonological Awareness Instruction,” Gaines’ presentation instructed the participants on ways to integrate fun phonological awareness lessons and activities to help emerging readers recognize, discriminate, blend, segment and manipulate sounds.
Croley led a hands-on session for the daycare providers in a session about learning through literacy bags.
“Encouraging children to engage in literacy learning at home with their families is an excellent way of reinforcing skills learned at school,” Croley said. “Researchers have shown the use of literacy bags to be highly successful, not just for academic gains, but to encourage families to be part of the child’s educational process.”
