Making It Work Training Guide and Ongoing Implementation Support

A Training Guide for Implementing 'Making It Work' in Tribal Early

Learning Settings and Ongoing Implementation Supports Deborah Mazzeo: Hello and welcome, everyone. We are so glad to have you on today for our presentation of, "A Training Guide for Implementing 'Making It Work' in Tribal Early Learning Settings and Ongoing Implementation Supports."

It is so wonderful to see all of the group chat and everyone who chimed in from all parts of the country. We are so excited to have you with us. So, I just want to start out by saying, for those who may not quite be familiar with "Making It Work," I want to give you a quick little description here, and as we go through the content for today, you'll have a better understanding.

So, "Making It Work" is a tool and a process that tribal and Native communities can use to connect research-based guidelines with their own unique traditional cultural skills, values, beliefs, and lifeways all in support of school readiness. And what you'll come to learn, in a few slides coming up, is that "Making It Work" is a three-step process, and it supports users to connect and integrate cultural practices into their current curriculum by planning and implementing cultural learning experiences for young children.

And so, "Making It Work" thereby supports school readiness in five major areas of child development, and those are ... The first one being approaches to learning. The second is social and emotional development. The third is language and literacy. The fourth is cognition, and the fifth is perceptual, motor, and physical development. So, if you're working in a Head Start program, you're probably very familiar with those areas, and if you're not, those key areas of child development will align to your state or your tribal early learning guidelines. And so, the focus of this webinar is going to be the "Making It Work" Training Guide that gives trainers the tools that they need to make sure participants understand how to use and implement "Making It Work."

And the—the trainer might be either a local trainer who speaks themselves into the "Making It Work" content, or the trainer might be a reg—a regional training and technical assistance staff person who may have been trained by the National Center. So, I just wanted to preface the webinar with all of that information. So, before we begin, I'd like to just go over some important information regarding the webinar. We'll be using some of the features of this webinar platform to help us interact, and at the bottom of your screen, you'll notice these little widgets. If you have any questions during the webcast, you can submit them through the purple Q&A widget. We'll try to answer these during the webcast, and please know that we do capture all questions. If you have any technical questions, please enter them there, as well.

A copy of today's slide deck and any additional resources are available in the resources list, which is the green widget, so be sure to check that out. We encourage you to download any resources or links that you may find useful from there. Throughout the session, we'll be using the blue group chat widget to engage with each other, and many of you have already been typing on there, so thank you for letting us know where you're from. And I just want to be certain that I make the distinction between the questions widget and that group chat widget. There are two different functions.

So, just want to bring that to your attention so that you can feel free to, you know, if there's technical things, definitely include them in the questions box, or questions that you would like us, as presenters, to be able to address. You can feel free to, you know, place them in either the group chat or the questions. Either one will be sure to make sure that we answer those for you. You can find any additional answers to some common technical issues located in the yellow help widget at the bottom of your screen as well.

And then each of these widgets are resizable and movable for a customized experience, so you just simply click on the widget and move it by dragging and dropping and resizing using the arrows in the top corners.

And finally, if you have any trouble, just try refreshing your browser by pressing F5, and be sure to log off your VPN and exit out of any browsers. So, with that, we'll go ahead and do some introductions. So, my name is Deborah Mazzeo, and I'm the cultural and linguistics practices coordinator at the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning. And so, that's what that acronym stands for. We say DTL for short. And there are several of us here to present today's information to you and speak about the different aspects of the work, so I'll turn it over to my colleague, Renetta, first to just say hello, and then, we'll each take a turn to say our roles, so you'll be able to get to know our voices. So, Renetta, would you like to say hello first?

Renetta Goeson: Hi. [Speaks native language] My name is Pte Duta Win. That means Red Buffalo Woman in Dakota. I'm a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota. I am a Region 11 employee from AIAN, and I work for ICF as an early childhood specialist, and I work with grantees in South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Wisconsin. And so, it's an honor to be here and an honor to serve Region XI. Thank you. Oh, and I'll turn it over to Melody.

Melody Redbird-Post: [Speaks native language] This is Melody Redbird-Post. I'm a director of the National Center on Tribal Early Childhood Development. We go by Tribal Center for short. I'm here in Anadarko, OK, and really excited to see everyone here on this webinar, and we ... Our national center works with all of the other National Centers to support tribes that receive the Child Care and Development Fund grants from the Office of Child Care. We provide training and technical assistance, and we collaborate with all of the partners that you see here on this screen—and many others. So, very excited to be here today. I'll turn it over to Roselia.

Roselia Ramirez: Hey. Good afternoon everybody, and welcome. I did say good afternoon, but I realize we're all on different parts of time here. My name is Roselia Ramirez, and I am also with the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning, where I serve as a senior training and technical assistance specialist in the area of pre-K, but in other areas, as well. Happy to be a part of this team to present on this wonderful resource for y'all. And, again, welcome, and just really happy to see folks from all across the United States, and I'll turn it over to—to Deb.

Deb Shuey: Good morning. I'm actually in Alaska, and so it's morning here in Alaska. I am a contractor, and I work with Deb at the DTL National Center, and I've been involved with "Making It Work" almost since its inception, and I am so excited to be here today to share the latest part of this tool that has been developed, the "Training Guide for Implementation of 'Making It Work.' " Thank you.

Deborah: Thanks so much, Deb. Alright. So next, we are just so honored to have staff from the Administration for Children and Families here with us to support the work of tribal programs and communities and really honoring the language and the culture. And so, first, we'll hear from Jennifer Amaya, and so, Jennifer? I invite you to ...

Jennifer Amaya: Hi, good afternoon. Thank you, Deb. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining this webinar. It's wonderful to be with you today. There are over 207 registered participants, which is extremely exciting for us. My name is Jennifer Amaya. I am the content lead on Culture and Language at the Office of Head Start, in the division of Comprehensive Services and Training and Technical Assistance within the Administration of Children and Families.

I've had the honor to work with multiple national, state, and local partners who are highly committed to ensure that the Office of Head Start continues to honor the rich cultural heritage of our American Indian/Alaskan Native children, families in their communities.

I would like to thank all of our colleagues in the National Center for Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning, the National Center on Tribal Early Childhood Development, the Equity and Inclusiveness and Cultural and Linguistically Responsive Practices Tribal subcommittee, and our OHS Region XI T/TA Network, and its staff, and many others who have worked with us in putting together today's webinar. For background purposes, in 2018, the Office of Head Start, in partnership with the National Center on DTL and other key partners, conducted a national webinar that represented the current updates and revisions of "Making It Work."

The revised "Making It Work" continues to emphasize the tribal culture and skills, the values, beliefs, and the lifeways through their research-based practices. "Making It Work" is also aligned with the state and tribal early learning guidelines and the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework. Today we are so excited to introduce, as many of you have mentioned, the "Training Guide for Implementing the 'Making It Work' in Tribal Early Learning Settings." This Training and Implementation Guide supports program leaders and early childhood staff, working with children ages birth to 5 in tribal and early learning settings that implement "Making It Work."

I remember, about three years ago, in the first edition of "Making It Work," I had the opportunity to participate in a Tribal Language Summit in Seattle, WA. During this summit, tribal grantees reflected on their experience of implementing "Making It Work" and shared with us the importance of using this resource to connect children to their culture, to their language, their traditions, while also preparing them for school success. As a key message, we've heard from some of the participants that the benefit of creating a how-to guide with hands-on activities and implementing "Making It Work" on a daily basis was a priority. Since then, we have worked very hard on developing and finalizing the training guide for “Making It Work,” with Deb—which Deb will be explaining to you and provide you additional details.

So today, as we said, you will learn a little bit more about the training guide. You will hear about successful implementation stories from the field, and we will share with you the AIAN 15- Minutes In-Service Suites to support your professional development.

So, before I end my remarks, I need to introduce you to my colleague, Todd, who is our Office of Head Start regional program manager for Region XI. I would like to take a moment and thank you for participating in today's webinar, for your ongoing efforts, your daily commitments, and your passion to provide high-quality services to our tribal children, families, and their communities. Todd, we are excited that you are joining the call today, so why don't you share with us a little bit about yourself and some insights of “Making It Work?”

Todd Lertjuntharangool: Thank you so much, Jennifer. And, again, good afternoon and good morning to some of the folks we have, I believe, in Alaska who may be calling in. I want to thank you, Jennifer, for including Region XI and making sure that we have representation on this webinar. I think, well, a lot of our colleagues around the country who know me, you guys know that I am originally from the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico. And since taking on the role of RPM back in April of this year, I've been to several conferences, and, at those conferences, I've kind of spoke on my—my passion for including language and culture in our programs and the fact that I really do feel that, you know, further including language and culture and the immersion in language is kind of the next step in the progression to making those programs our own.

And so, I think any time we get a chance to talk about materials, resources, guides that support that, I really want to make sure it's a priority for myself and for the region to get a chance to push those out to the field and make them available to you guys and support the rollout of those. I know that I've attended several sessions on “Making It Work” in the past about year, year and a half, and I think programs have really, really found it useful in terms of, again, integrating it into the curriculum. I know one thing that I did want to share, and this is really more targeted at some of the programs who may be at the earlier stages of implementing language and culture, or maybe the infancy stages, some of the questions that I heard back from participants in these sessions was: In regards to just getting started and setting up a framework, what would that look like, and how can programs get started at implementing language and culture in their classrooms?

And one thing that I've shared at past sessions and conferences around the country was just something that programs have educated me on because I myself had to go back out to the field and kind of ask programs who have been successful at language immersion how they got started. And one thing that I heard that really, you know, once I did hear it, that kind of a light bulb went off because it made so much sense, was to consider the calendar in your community. So, using myself, for example, as I stated, I'm from the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico, and in our community and for our tribe, there is a calendar that isn't necessarily written, but we know that, at certain parts of the year, there are certain activities going on in the community.

So, what one of my programs encouraged me to do was to look at our calendars in the community and focus on the activities that are happening throughout the year and identify, even if it's two or three different activities. And during those times when they're relevant in the community, focus on implementing those in the lesson plan and creating activities around those. That way, I think it makes it more relevant to kids. They retain that information because not only are they learning it there in the classrooms, but they're also learning it in the communities because it's what's happening and it's what's relevant at that time. And so, when I heard that, it just made so much sense to me, and I think it's just something that I wanted to share, again, mainly for those folks who may be at the infancy stages of implementing language and culture in their classroom, so that some of what you'll hear after me, hopefully, it can be more useful to you guys.

But, again, thank you so much, Jennifer, and thank you, everybody else, for facilitating this call.

Jennifer: Thank you, Todd, for joining the call. Deb, we'll pass it back to you.

Deborah: Alright. Thank you both for those lovely remarks. And so, I think I will advance the slide, and we'll get into the agenda for today. So, we're going to be providing an overview of the “Making It Work” training materials. We'll be sharing some successful implementation stories from the field. We appreciate Todd's story that he just shared with us, and we will absolutely continue to build on that, and we'll be discussing the AIAN 15-Minute In-Service Suites, so be sure to stick around until the very end.

We've got some good information here for you. Our session objectives are very much aligned with those agenda items, so we hope that, by the end, you'll be able to use the materials available to begin planning to train staff on the “Making It Work” three-step process in your program. We hope you'll be able to identify some of your next steps for implementing “Making It Work,” and we hope that you'll also be able to understand how the AIAN specific 15-Minute In-Service Suites can support your ongoing “Making It Work” implementation. So, here we have the front covers of two "Making It Work" guides, and the first one is an introductory guide, the one on the left, that explains the “Making It Work” three-step process, and that was released in 2017. And I mentioned earlier, we'll briefly mention those three steps in the process in the upcoming slides. We also had the opportunity, at that time when it was released, to conduct a webinar on it, and that webinar was recorded and is available on the ECLKC, the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center.

We say ECLKC for short. And the second image on the screen, on the right-hand side, will be the focus of this presentation, and it's on the use of the new training guide to support implementation, and so that guide helps leaders and Training and Technical Assistance staff engage programs in a multi-year effort because this is definitely a process that will take time, and it will help to embrace, adopt, and implement those cultural learning experiences. It will also help facilitate a deep understanding of the “Making It Work” process with all folks in your program, and it'll help programs develop implementation plans. The training guide includes agendas, the PowerPoint, templates, different tips that you'll want to use to engage programs and communities in the “Making It Work” process.

So, I want to bring your attention to the fact that, in the resources list, you'll find the new training guide along with the link to the “Making It Work” home page on ECLKC, the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center, where you can find the introductory guide, as well and other resources, like the “Making It Work” webinar that was conducted about a year and a half ago that I had just mentioned. So, with that, I think we'd like to gain a sense of how familiar those of you on the call are with “Making It Work,” and we wanted to launch this poll, so if you would take the next 30 seconds or so and respond to this question here: Have you heard of “Making It Work” or used it in the past?

And so, you can feel free to just answer directly on the screen. Just hit the little radio button, and then you would hit submit, so the options are, "I have not heard of this resource." "I have heard of it, but I have not used it." Or, "I have used this resource." And I see several respondents typing in their answers here, and I'll give it another few seconds, and then I'll share it out with the audience. Thank you for those who are responding. Alright. We've got about half of the attendees so far who have responded to the question. Give it a few more seconds, and then I'll push the results out to the audience here.

Alright. Let me go out—go ahead and share out the results, and so here you can see there's about 41.4 percent who have not heard of the resource, so we are so glad you're here so you can learn about it, and 37.9 percent have heard of it but haven't used it, and so we're really excited you're here too because I feel like having this new training guide now will really help you with the implementation and how to go about it, taking your first steps, and 20.7 have used this resource. And so, we're glad you're here, too. And hopefully, you know, we invite you to type in the chat and share some of the ways that you've gotten started with—with maybe using it, and, hopefully, you'll pick up something new in the course of the webinar, as well.

So next, I am going to turn it over to my colleague, Deb Shuey, who has, like she said earlier in her introduction, she's been involved with the development of both of the guides and has worked with programs on implementation, and so with that, Deb Shuey, I'll turn it over to you.

Deb: Well, thank you, Deb. Really, really excited to see everybody online and very excited to be able to have this webinar. It seems like it's very timely, as the poll shows, that we have quite a few participants that have not known about it or have heard and haven't used it, so hopefully we can help to give you more information so you can look at using this tool. This particular picture is the picture on the front cover of the Guide for Implementing Cultural Learning Experiences in AIAN Early Learning Settings. And it came out, like Deb said, in 2017. It was revising the materials that were previously written. The previous versions of “Making It Work” did not have birth to 3 and did not extend to early learning programs.

So, now we do have birth to 3 and early learning programs covered. “Making It Work” is a tool and planning process used to connect your program's unique tribal traditional skills, values, beliefs, and lifeways to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework, which we call the ELOF, and to other early learning guidelines for children birth to 5. We're going to begin the webinar with a brief overview of “Making It Work.”

So, this slide is showing the three-step process of “Making It Work.” The first step is Making the Connection. Making the connection helps programs identify traditional cultural skills, values, beliefs, and lifeways. The skills that the children learn by participating in these lifeways are identified and lead to developmentally appropriate domains. We use the ELOF for this linkage. Making It Happen helps programs create cultural lessons. By using the skills that are identified in Step One, activities are created using the cultural lifeways and language, so lessons are also connected to the program's assessment indicators plus strategies or outlines on how to engage elders, families, and the community.

So, that is Making It Happen, Step Two. Step Three is Making It Real, and that is where the programs use their assessment data to individualize and create targeted lessons for children to achieve. The Office of Head Start in the field know cultural and linguistic responsive practices are so important, yet curriculum developers and others can't have the insight to do this well for each and every tribe or community. “Making It Work” helps programs ensure this happens. When children can see reflections of human diversity, they not only learn to appreciate and respect their own identity, but they are also learning things different from their own. “Making It Work” helps AIAN staff in early learning programs use their stories, cultural activities, language, dance, and family experiences to develop school-readiness skills and learn and develop a sense of pride in their culture and language. And, as we said before, this tool is using the five ELOF domains: approaches to learning; social/emotional development; language and literacy; cognition; and perceptual, motor, and physical development. It can, though, also be adapted to use tribal learning readiness skills, and also other different developmental domains. So, why is this important? It provides a deep understanding of the “Making It Work” process. It helps to outline how to connect traditional cultural skills, values, beliefs, and lifeways to early learning outcome, and it exists to create cultural lessons that are tied to the ELOF domain or the state early learning and development standards. Implementing “Making It Work” is a multi-year journey, which we've talked about earlier, and requires program and tribal leadership to be actively involved and supportive of this activity and mission.

To understand the purpose of each step, leaders and staff need thorough training. This guide gives trainers the tools they need to make sure participants understand how to use and implement “Making It Work.” And again, in “Making It Work,” we look at the intentionality of teaching, really look closely at the difference between skills and goals, and we also identify steps on how we can include the families, elders, and community in language and cultural tradition. Coming up in the next few slides, we're going to learn more about the road map for implementing “Making It Work.” So today, we're really excited to present on the new training guide, and this is the cover of the new training guide.

It is to be used hand in hand with the materials on the website, which you'll see on the next slide. This guide gives trainers the tools they need to make participants understand how to use and implement “Making It Work.” We've organized this guide so that you have all the training materials and information in one place. This is a snapshot of the page on ECLKC that you can now access. There are note tabs that will provide the presentation material, sample agenda, activities, and handouts. And we'll go ahead and put the link to this page in the chat box now. So once again, everything is lined out so that you have everything you need for the training right there in the training guide and access to it.

So, who is this for? Early childhood leaders and managers can use this guide to integrate their tribal language and cultural activities throughout their early learning programs and in their work with families and communities. As we saw in the earlier slides, “Making It Work” supports school readiness and the five Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework for birth to 5. Program coordinators, coaches, trainers, and other professional development staff can use this guide to train leaders as they use and implement “Making It Work” into their early childhood program, and this also includes home visiting.

Trainers will need to be thoroughly familiar with the “Making It Work” introduction and steps to put "Making It Work" into practice for children ages birth to 5. Programs can call on their regional training and technical assistance staff for support, or they may use someone in their program and allow them the opportunity to learn “Making It Work” so that they can facilitate the implementation process. So, in the training manual we have pretraining preparation, delivery of the training, and post-training activities. Once again, we tried to have everything outlined in the guide so that it's there for you when you have the training. Ideally, the training is a two-day, eight-hour day face-to-face event. We look at seven hours of training and one hour of lunch, with a couple of breaks.

The TNT staff or the individual that's then identified the program and has had experience in "Making It Work" helps bring the participants through the different activities and, in the end, have developed lesson plans. There are options for three half-days, which are four-hour days, in the training manual, as well. All of the materials, though, are based on a full-day training but can be adjusted. So now, let's hear from Renetta about a program that has implemented culture and language into their everyday programming. Renetta?

Renetta: Thank you, Deb. I'm going to talk a little bit about how “Making It Work” has been implemented in the field and some of the things that I've seen as a trainee in technical assistance, early childhood specialist. And going out into the field in Region XI, I've seen and had the opportunity to be part of some of the brainstorming as program staff think about what lifeways they want to study and implement further. And one of the things that Todd said about the calendar, I've seen that happen. Our calendars are typically circular, and I've seen this happen numerous times where programs will take their calendar for their community and build off of that, so we know what happens in each season and culturally what happens throughout the community.

And so, really thinking about and being intentional about what they plan for children's experiences and tying, it's really great opportunity to make culture and language the center of the curriculum and build upon what's already happening. So, one of the things I've seen is taking, for example, harvesting different roots, maybe whether it's onions. They provide that activity, and they explore it further, so that becomes something that everybody is involved in. And also, it also gives that opportunity to reach out to the community and the parents because we want to see parents involved, and I know a lot of programs struggle with that, and “Making It Work” really gives that opportunity for families to become part of the curriculum and have that input. They may have some skills that are very essential to the community. For example, maybe they're really good at beading, or somebody may know a lot of the songs and have family members that are drummers. So, those pieces become the highlight, and they also get to see how it connects to the early learning outcomes framework which is also helpful for families as well as the teaching staff. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Deb.

Deb: Thanks, Renetta.

So, on this slide, you can see a sample handout that is from the introduction and steps to putting "Making It Work" into practice guide, and this is the "Making It Work" cycle. And this particular guide does have examples in it of using the "Making It Work" process for fishing and drumming, and, again, it is for birth to 5 across all early learning programs. This new resource that we're talking about today, the training guide, uses materials from this introduction and steps guide and ties them together. This slide is showing an activity from the training guide with the pictures that are there to help the trainer. So, this was—this particular training was done in 2018, and we took pictures of the different activities and used those as examples. And, as you see on the slide, we also refer it to the PowerPoint.

So, we're trying really hard so that everything is there for you as you're doing the training. There are also numerous learning activities in the training guide. These are just a few of the learning activity samples. The learning activity on the far left is, "Language and Culture Matter." The middle is, "Definitions of Scope and Sequence," and to the far right is the "Goal and Activities" lesson. As we talked about before, this is a multi-year journey. It requires a sustained, program-wide commitment with an extended training cycle. It will take several years to fully integrate “Making It Work” into the fiber of instruction into your program. It's important to develop a deep understanding of the "Making It Work" process, connect the traditional cultural skills, values, beliefs, and lifeways to your early learning outcome, and create those cultural lessons that are based on the ELOF domains or your state's early learning and development standards that are supporting school readiness. All of this is outlined in the guide. I'm going to turn it over to Renetta again to give us some more examples of how this is done.

Renetta: So, I have the great opportunity, like I said, to go out to the—to see Region XI programs in their work, and one of the things that I feel like as a Region XI Training and Technical Assistance early childhood specialist is that I think that I'm there to, in this instance, plant a seed. So, I'm there to support you, but really, I'm helping you as you, the grantees, are the experts about your communities, and you have the awesome responsibility to take care of the seed that's planted, in which would be making work in this instance, and ensure that that culture and the language grows and flourishes in your communities.

And it really gives me joy when I see so many great ideas come forth and lesson plans being written around the cultural lifeways and including the language which we know is so critical to the communities that we serve. And so, much like this picture which was drawn at the Pueblo of Acoma at an event that they held there, the participants envisioned their program growing strong culturally and linguistically, and being responsive to who they are in their community. And so, this picture just illustrates that, and it's a beautiful way to draw and express that artistically, and I just really enjoyed viewing this picture and also working with programs in this very exciting endeavor with “Making It Work.” And I'll turn it back over.

Deb: Thanks, Renetta. So this ... The “Making It Work,” has been a journey that started in 2011 and through continuous feedback from tribal leaders, Head Start leaders, early childhood teachers, cultural and language staff, it evolved over the following four years. This slide lists the eight programs that made a tremendous contribution by participating in the pilot study, and it's part of that study there were examples of traditional lifeways that were posted on ECLKC, and they are still available if you go and look on ECLKC for those. They do not contain ... It doesn't reach to the birth to 3 or to other learning programs, but they do give you an idea.

And also, in the "Guide for Implementing Cultural Learning Experiences," in order to show how to use the "Making It Work" process, we utilize drumming and fishing, but that is not the only lifeways that can be used. They're just samples. So, as programs take this and develop their own lifeways, it can look a lot different, and that is what is so unique about “Making It Work” is that this is around your own cultural lifeways, your language, your activities that you have in your own communities. And we are so thankful to these programs that helped to pilot and get this, “Making It Work,” off the ground.

We have also been continuing to update and create a new guide such as this training guide, and recently in 2018 at the Northwest Indian Head Start Coalition's 28th Annual Conference, participants that were in the “Making It Work” session allowed us to take pictures, and some of these are used throughout the guide, and we really appreciated the contributions that Mike and Betsy gave during that training. So, I'd like to go ahead and turn it over to Melody now, and she's going to be sharing some more implementations stories.

Melody: Thank you so much, Deb. This is Melody again, and I wanted to take a little bit of time to share about a collaborative training opportunity that our National Center was involved in developing and delivering earlier this year. So, I'm going to go ahead and share a little bit about that experience.

So basically, this opportunity was part of an on-site TA consultation visit that was requested by—and graciously hosted by—the Pueblo of Acoma. The specific topics that were requested included implementing tribal language and culture in Head Start and child care programs, as well as expanding their current efforts in language revitalization to include younger age groups including infants and toddlers. So, our National Center on Tribal Early Childhood Development collaborated with our colleagues from the Office of Child Care and the Office of Head Start in order to design this training, and we gathered a planning team, and this team included staff from our National Center, staff from the DTL Center, the Infant/Toddler Specialist Network, and, of course, the Region XI Head Start TA team.

We started by first pulling from the “Making It Work” Implementation Training Guide to really think about how this training would be designed. And the training guide really serves to inform the types of activities and the layout of how the training was delivered when we were on-site at the Pueblo of Acoma. And so, we were very excited. And it was such an honor to be a part of the training team that was there on-site. There ended up being representation from 15 different pueblos in New Mexico, and also, there were a total of 66 participants. And how the training was designed was first, we had the first day which was a lot of consideration about current language revitalization efforts in early learning settings, so what the pueblos and the programs were currently doing, and then also thinking about brainstorming where they want to go next. And so, that foundational information really served to lead into the working day on how they would actually implement these language and cultural learning activities and experiences with the children and their families in their programs.

So, we did that with the second day with a full day specifically on learning about what the “Making It Work” tools are and also getting participants to really think about ways that they can incorporate this tool, if they choose to, into their programs in order to really support their implementation of language and culture. And so, like I said, we were very excited, and it was an honor to be a part of the training team. So, here's just a couple quotes from participants that were there on-site. This happened this April of 2019, and some of the comments also included that some programs would like to use “Making It Work” in the family homes with family home child care and with their relative child care providers.

We actually had some teams represented from the programs that were there that were actually in the beginning stages of implementing language immersion programming with their family child care, and so we were too excited to be able to hear from really inspiring examples, specifically with the Pueblo of San Felipe and the Pueblo of Zuni who were really interested in expanding and using the “Making It Work” tools to really support their language immersion efforts in their family child care home settings.

We were also very excited to hear about all of the participants and the pueblos that were represented when they shared what their next steps and their goals would be as far as “Making It Work” and continuing to carry forward their language and culture. I also just wanted to share that there's some really exciting things happening. I see here in the chat box that there's some of you from the Pueblo of Laguna and just wanted to share that Pueblo of Laguna shared that they are currently working on an 11-month set of plans that focus on their specific lifeways, their people, and that they are really working with their Department of Education to revitalize their language and culture not only in early childhood but also into the—the kindergarten through 8th grade, and working closely with the superintendents to build additional collaborative partnerships. And look forward to ... I look forward to hearing more about all of your amazing work that's going on out there.

So, I just wanted to share those couple highlights and just wanted to give a shout-out. The pictures that you see here on the screen, this is part of the team—the teaching team—with the Pueblo of Acoma. As Renetta had shared a little bit ago, we had the participants in the April training. They basically shared their vision and their goals for their programs—the early childhood programs—and they all got to present to each other. And so, this is a picture of the Pueblo of Acoma's team presenting, and you can see that poster that we had up close a little bit ago.

So, that was just very exciting. So, I just wanted to share that with you and also just say how grateful ... On behalf of my center and all of our partners, we're so grateful to Pueblo of Acoma for hosting this opportunity, and we are here to support you. So, please just reach out. Let us know how we can support you in meeting your goals. And with that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it back over to my colleagues.

Deb: Great. Thank you so much, Renetta, for sharing all of those wonderful actions that have happened out in the field. You know, we did have a question that came up, and the question was whether or not there was training in South Dakota. Were you aware of any training that occurred out in South Dakota?

Melody: So, this is Melody, and I don't know if Renetta maybe has a more specific, but I can speak from the CPBS, from the child care side. We actually just got back, in August, from a onsite visit with the South Dakota tribes. They have requested some support with completing the CPBS plan, their funding application but also learning more about curriculum and assessment, specifically how to incorporate language and culture. So, that was a huge success and generated a lot of discussion, and so there's definitely potential for us to continue to replicate these collaborative learning opportunities and bring this on-site near your communities. So, reach out to your Regional TA specialist. Let us know how we could support you, because that's what we're here for. We can continue to build on the successes so far and continue to implement the materials that we're talking about today using the training guide and bring this closer to your communities to support you in meeting your goals. And I'll turn it over to Renetta to see if Renetta has any additional information.

Renetta: Hi, and I would like to add, too. Our early childhood specialist at Region XI ICF, if you fill out our TA request, we're always happy to support you with anything that you need assistance with, and we can also help you with “Making It Work.” So, if that's something you would like, I would encourage you to reach out and fill out a TA request and that we would be happy to—to support you in the effort. Thank you.

Roselia: Great. Thank you, ladies. So, this is Roselia. We're going to move onto the next portion of our presentation today. And so, before we do that though, let's pause for a moment and just digest all of this great information that we've just taken in. As you can see, the “Making It Work” resource was designed with intentional practices to support programs in accomplishing educational experiences that are not only connected to research-based guidelines such as the ELOF but that are also grounded in the community's own unique traditional cultural skills, values, beliefs, and lifeways. You know, it's great to hear from Renetta sharing some of those experiences that are happening in communities out there.

So, in this next segment of our presentation, we want to share some additional ongoing support resources that are available to support professional development. Before we do that, I wanted to take a quick pulse of our participants and just kind of gauge your knowledge before we begin. And so, how many of you have heard or perhaps stepped further? Have any of you used the AIAN 15-Minute In-Service Suite? So, let's take a minute and see what folks have to say about this. And so, some of our potential responses there is that, "I have not heard of this resource," "I have heard of it, but I have not used it," and then, "I have used this resource." So, just take a couple of seconds there and let us know what is happening with you in terms of AIAN, a 15-Minute In-Service Suite.

We'll wait just a couple of minutes here, or seconds rather, and see what our responses are. Let me go back here. OK. So, we have about 50/50. So, we have about 50 percent that have not heard of this resource. And then, we have about 50 percent that has used the resource. So, we're kind of a 50/50 there. So, that's kind of good. So, we're just going to do just a quick— quick overview of these 15-Minute In-Service Suites. The 15-Minute In-Service Suites, they are located on the ECLKC or the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center. These are 15- Minute professional development opportunities that are designed with the busy, active early childhood staff personnel in mind. They are organized around one topic idea, and they present effective teaching and assessment practices for that particular topic. So, if you have not had an opportunity, again, they are located on the ECLKC.

There's a variety of topics to choose from, and when you click on the explore resources card, it navigates you to a page where you can find several hot links to resources that are available for that specific topic. The resources are marked with an asterisk, and those ones that are marked have specifically been designed with the American Indian/Alaskan Native population in mind, so those are marked with an asterisk, again, when you view those lists there. The materials that are included are a short video. There's presentation materials. There's presenter notes. There's accompanying learning activities. There's some tip sheets for teachers, as well as families and supervisors. These resources can provide that ongoing implementation support for the “Making It Work.” So, for example, in designing the learning environment fostering children's thinking and engaging children in conversations can be utilized to support implementation of cultural lessons.

So, coming soon we are super excited to announce that under construction and coming soon are three In-Service Suites focused on STEAM, writing, and math that will be specific to the AIAN communities. The “Making It Work” resource has been paired to create suites to help support programs in these specific topic areas. So, in STEAM, participants can learn how children, birth to 5, naturally engage in inquiry, reasoning and problem-solving every day. The Suite is designed to explore ways in helping to develop science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

We know that sometimes our teachers can struggle with these concepts and implementing them throughout the day, not just in, like, a science center or a math center, but really honing in on how children are naturally engaging in that inquiry, reasoning and problem-solving throughout the day. So, the STEAM In-Service Suite is currently located on the ECLKC. And then coming in the fall, that particular suite has been redesigned.

There's a redesigned version specifically for the AIAN communities. And then, that will be the same thing for a writing suite as well as math, so be on the lookout for those. They will be found under the Implementing Research-Based Curriculum and Teaching Practices Resource Card. So, we're super excited to announce that those are being ... They have been developed. They're in process of review and will be pushed out for that ongoing support here in the near future. We want to keep in mind, too, that it's important to recognize that culture has an influence on beliefs and behaviors of everyone.

And so, in terms of the time frame, so just kind of ... There is a question in terms of when the three suites for the AIAN population will be available. We're hoping in the fall. I don't know that we have an exact time at this moment. They have been redesigned. In fact, myself and Deb Shuey did some work on those, and they've been submitted for review, and so we're just kind of waiting on seeing if there's any edits that need to be made, but the anticipated timeline is for those to be released here in the fall. So, I know we're in September already, and so we're hoping October, November time frame, and so we'll—we'll see what is anticipated in terms of release date for that. So again, it's important to recognize that culture has an influence on the belief and the behaviors of everyone, in the AIAN programs. The foundation of learning is the child's culture and language, and the involvement of the families and community.

So, effective teaching practices that incorporate culture and language into everyday activities and the program environment will have a positive impact on the children's development. So here, what is culture? And then really looking at the multicultural principles were utilized as the “Making It Work” resource was put together, as well as the three In-Service Suites that were mentioned. There are great connections to the multicultural principles, citing specific principles and using one of the learning extensions and then again making those connections with the “Making It Work.”

So, the “Making It Work” Guide for Implementing Cultural Learning Experiences in American Indian and Alaskan Native Early Learning Studies is really built around this notion of culturally and linguistically responsive environments can only be created by engaging and partnering with families, elders and the community. So, establishing a partnership with families in the community is crucial for children's learning and later success in life. What I'd like to do now is I'd like to turn it over to Renetta and just have her share some experiences from the field in terms of the In-Service needs and how they may have been utilized or how she has seen them utilized in that implementation process, so Renetta, I'll turn it back to you.

Renetta: Thank you, and I've really enjoyed the In-Service, specifically the ones that are specific to Region XI. So, it's great to see pictures that show how beautiful and unique each tribal program is, and there are programs that have videos, and you can see how intentional they are in creating their spaces. So, it's important to us to see that these spaces have been created that honor children, their families and the community, and it's not just anywhere. You can really see that they've taken the time to really create special places that reflect each community. And so, there's ... I just can't say enough good things about, you know, really seeing tribal programs in these In-Service Suites that are highlighted here that reflect our communities, and so if you have not checked these In-Service Suites out, I encourage you to just take a look at how grantees that are highlighted in these suites depict them and the many ways that culture and language are the focus of their program, and the videos that highlight the—our Region XI grantees. It's great to see. Thank you so much. And I'll turn it back over to Deb.

Deborah: Yes, thank you so much, Renetta. Alright. Well, there are some loose ends I want to tie up here as we kind of start wrapping the webinar up, and first of all, there is this lovely platform that is called MyPeers, and hopefully, in the resource list, you will have seen the handout to be able to join MyPeers. It's a free online community, and what you see on the screen are the images for two different groups. The hands around the globe is the CLRP, and that stands for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Practices Group on MyPeers. And the other image with the beautiful feather there is the AIAN Language and Culture Community, and so we encourage you all to join these two communities on the platform. Again, look for the handout in the resource list. It'll give you the directions and the link on how to join, but this is the perfect place for us to, you know, continue the conversations after this webinar ends, and so, you know, sharing ideas about how you're getting started with the use of “Making It Work,” you know, brainstorming any issues that might arise for you and sharing just wonderful resources that are authentic to the tribal communities.

This is the perfect platform for that. What happens often on the CLRP platform is I serve as the administrator, and I work very closely with the administrator for the AIAN Language and Culture Community, and what we do is we are constantly posting when materials become available for your use in the field, and so the talk about the 15-Minute In-Service Suites, we're, you know, not quite sure exactly the date that it will become available, but you can guarantee that as soon as it is available, it gets announced on these platforms. So, definitely encourage you to join that. In addition, for example, the recording for our webinar today, it will also be posted on this platform. We'll provide you with the link so that you can access this recording before it gets up on ECLKC.

Sometimes, there is a lag time between, you know, the completion of the delivery of a webinar and then the time it takes to get posted onto the official Early Childhood Language and Knowledge Center, the ECLKC website. So, just want you to be aware of that. Let's see. Next here, we have the questions slide, and so there were many questions that have come in, and we thank you for asking them, and we hope that we've been able to address some of them.

There's one point that I would like to be sure I mentioned is in the “Making It Work” Introduction and Steps Guide, you're going to see examples of the forms for all three steps You know, Deb Shuey had talked about Step One: Making the Connections. Step Two: Making It Happen. And Step Three: Making It Real. And there are different forms for each of those different steps, and what the guide provides are just two examples through the fishing and the drumming lifeway, and now I want to just clarify that those are just examples, and there are so many other traditional activities that are used by tribal programs.

So, you know, again, that's just to kind of get you started and brainstorming. And, you know, we encourage you, and it's part of the training guide that when you are meeting with your education staff and starting with step one, you brainstorm what are, you know, the traditional beliefs and values that are important to your culture and your community? So, I just wanted to clarify that and also to let you know that there are examples for the whole age span of infants and toddlers and then for preschool, so the appendices of that document is quite comprehensive, and it's because there are examples for both age groups, and it goes through every domain of development just for you to be able to gain a sense of how the cultural experience will promote growth in all of the areas. And so, I just wanted to make that clear to everyone.

As far as some of the other questions that we're getting that are coming into the questions box. Will this webinar count as any formal hours of training? I was going to get to that in just a few more slides, but after you complete the evaluation, and I'll be getting to that slide soon, we're going to ask you to complete the evaluation, and then you'll be able to download a Certificate of Completion for your participation in this webinar. So hopefully, you'll be able to submit that as proof of your formal hours of training.

So, I hope that answers that question. And then, another question came in about, how can we get copies of “Making It Work.” And so, I encourage you to take another peek at the resources list, and you can actually download the resource—for free—online. And so, I encourage everyone to do that. And, you know, it can be quite expensive. So, I know, you know, various programs have limits on maybe the number of copies that they're able to make, and so what I might recommend is with, for example, the Introduction and Steps Guide, you might want to copy maybe the first 25 pages, which is the essence of the material. All the rest is really appendices. It's all those examples of all the forms, but copy the first 25 pages for folks, and provide them with that.

That, I think, would be a good way to start. And then, provide them with the link so that they can review it online. Or, you know, if you're able to, provide, the, you know, just maybe a handful, like two or three copies of the entire document if you have, you know, a little staff development area in your program where folks can go and look at professional resources. So, that might be an idea, as well. In terms of some of the resources that were mentioned, again, because, you know, later, this will be posted on the ECLKC website. We've provided this resources slide, but all of these links are, again, in that resources list.

So, the training guide itself, the link to the AIAN 15-Minute In-Service Suites. I just love the really handy-dandy app now that is available with the ELOF, the Early Learning Outcomes Framework. I recommend folks just go ahead, and it's a free application that you can download from, you know, the Google Store or the Apple Store, and it has all the domains of development, so, you know, as you're planning together in teams, as you're delivering a training, it's great. You know, people will have their phones out. They can be looking at the different domains of development, and it's all right there for you.

So, you can avoid photocopies altogether, right? And so, yeah. So, definitely check that out, and I think ... Let's see if there's any more questions that have come in. And I'll just ask my colleagues if there are any last-minute remarks that they would like to say. And if not, I'll just remind folks that if you're interested in, you know, “Making It Work,” please do reach out to your Training and Technical Assistance staff. So, if you're not sure who that person is, make sure that you reach out to one of your program leaders, and I'm sure that they can point you in the right direction. And so with that, I think, you know, we'll give you the next 15 minutes here to complete the online evaluation. I'm going to go ahead and ...

Jennifer: Hey, Debbie, this is Jennifer. During the time that the participants are completing the evaluation, I saw this really good quote in the training guide that I just wanted to briefly read, but it says, "We were always trying to integrate culture into the curriculum, the science domain, the math domain, et cetera, and then we realized that culture should be at the base, serving as the foundation, the building block for curriculum development. It was an amazing paradigm shift. We are now making a huge gain in integrating language and culture into our early childhood programming." And this is a quote from the Red Cliff Early Childhood Center. I think it's just a nice way to end this conversation today.

So, thank you for letting me share this quote.

Deborah: Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you, Jennifer, yes. That is just lovely. So, we'll look forward to everyone joining MyPeers and sharing their feedback with us.

Close