ESD 123 is proud to present the 6th Annual P-3 Institute and Full-Day Kindergarten Symposium, taking place August 4-6, 2014 at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, WA. The conference brings together early learning professionals and K-12 educators from across the state for a three-day event that focuses on P-3 alignment and implementation, including WaKIDS, the Early Learning Guidelines and Common Core, as well as sessions targeting community collaboration and the importance of connecting early learning providers to K-12 professionals.
In addition, OSPI and partners will be hosting a one-day, Full-Day Kindergarten Institute, featuring Dr. Vincent Costanza, Executive Director of Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge from the New Jersey Department of Education. This presentation will provide valuable information to teachers, elementary school principals, and school district staff on how to structure classroom environments and use what we currently know about child development to provide developmentally appropriate practices in full-day kindergarten classrooms.
This year’s 2014 Institute and Symposium also features keynotes by Dr. John Medina and Doug Clements. Dr. John Medina is a developmental molecular biologist focused on the genes involved in human brain development and the genetics of psychiatric disorders. He holds joint affiliate faculty appointments at the University of Washington School of Medicine in the Department of Bioengineering, and at Seattle Pacific University where he is the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research. Medina was the founding director of the Talaris Research Institute, a Seattle-based research center originally focused on how infants encode and process information at the cognitive, cellular, and molecular levels. Medina has been a consultant to the Education Commission of the States and a regular speaker on the relationship between neurology and education.
Doug Clements is a Kennedy Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning and Professor at the University of Denver’s Morgridge College of Education and is widely regarded as a major scholar in the field of early childhood mathematics education. His contributions have led to major impacts in both the classroom and educational policy arenas through numerous national appointments that have included serving on the U.S. President’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel and the Common Core State Standards Committee of the National Governor’s Association. Doug’s keynote address, “Starting Strong: The Building Blocks of Early Math” will focus on the mathematical and educational building blocks of early mathematics.
STARS hours, clock hours and continuing education units will be offered, as well as a vast selection of conference break-out sessions.
