Using Professional Development to Support Transition to Kindergarten

Education Managers Series: Using Professional Development to Support Transition to Kindergarten

Roselia Ramirez: Hello, everyone, and welcome. Thank you for attending today's webinar. This session is a part of the Education Manager series and will be focused on using professional development to support transition to kindergarten. My name is Roselia Ramirez, and I will be your host and presenter for our session today. I am also joined by one of my colleagues, Lisa Woodruff, and we will be hearing from her a little bit later in our session today. Before we get started,

I just wanted to go over a couple of housekeeping items. For those of you that are familiar with our webinar platform, and for those of you who are not, just wanted to point out that there are a couple of widgets that are located on your screen right now, but they're actually on the bottom of your screen. And we will be utilizing a couple of these to help us interact. The purple Q&A widget -- if you have any questions, please enter your questions there. I know that some of you have already been entering some information there.

I would like to virtually introduce one of my colleagues, Stephenie Hickman, who will be monitoring and responding to your questions. There is also a green widget, which is your resource list. And today's slide deck, as well as additional resources, have been uploaded there for you. The blue widget is your group chat, and we will be utilizing this particular widget in order to communicate with one another. And then, also, the yellow one is your help widget. So, if you have any questions regarding the technology, please go ahead and enter those in that particular area.

So, here are the objectives for today's session. We are working towards wanting to build some successful transition experiences that are focused on the relationship-building approach between Head Start and the receiving schools. So, determine how strategies, such as shared professional development, can help build successful transition experiences across Head Start programs and receiving schools.

Utilize shared professional development between Head Start programs and receiving schools to support shared expectations about kindergarten readiness. And then, use of joint professional development efforts to build relationships between all receiving schools, including Head Start programs.

So, here's what the flow of our session will look like today. We're going to define what transition means for the purposes of this session, share recommended practices, discussing transition strategies, exploring elements for alignment, discussing shared professional development, and then sharing some resources.

To get us started today, we're gonna begin with a poll. So, before I show you what the question is, I just want to preface with asking you to, when you see what the question... When the question comes up on your screen, respond with the first thing that comes to your mind. So, don't give it much thought. We're not seeking any right or wrong answers. We just want to just kind of gauge what you think when you first see this question. Okay.

Okay, so, "Focus on transition begins when the child enters a preschool setting.” True or false? We've got some responses coming in. We've got right about... almost at 50/50 here. So, 56.3% of you say true, and 43 -- just about 43% are at false.

So, in our discussion today, we're going to be talking about transition, so I thought it would be helpful to hear from children. Before we share a quick little video, here is what we have in terms of your responses to the poll. So, "Focus on transition begins when the child enters a preschool setting.” So, 56.4% of you thought that this was true, and then 43.6% felt that it was false, so just about half-and-half is where we're at here. So, again, since we're going to be talking about transition, so let's hear from a child's perspective on what they feel transition is like.

[ Upbeat music playing ]

Boy 1: It's gonna be really fun when you move into kindergarten.

Girl 1: I can sing ABCs. You have to be quiet when the bell rings at circle. [ Children shouting playfully ]

Girl 2: When I see other kindergartners, I think about how I used to be in kindergarten. You had to line up from alphabetical order of your first or last name, and I lined up for, like, recess and lunch and going to the library and P.E. and music.

Woman: Why do you line up?

Teacher: I'm waiting until everyone is in a nice, straight line in the middle of the hallway.

Boy 2: Yeah, for leaving play court or leaving school or arriving, we have to walk in a straight line.

Boy 1: Get on the school bus and just drive to school. When I rode the bus for the first time, I felt nervous.

Driver: Welcome to the bus, to my bus.

Girl 3: iHola!

Boy 2: Actually, for three years of school, I went with my dad because I forgot about the bus.

Girl 4: It has yellow everywhere, and it has black windows.

Boy 2: It gets from home to here, then from here to home.

Girl 5: This is my class. But this is the lights. If you have a big problem or a small problem, Kelso will help you.

Boy 2: You have to bring a backpack and a coat. If you get a sack, pack some of your things in it for show-and-share.

Girl 2: I was wearing first-day-of-school clothes. On my first day, I thought, like, I wouldn't, like, make any friends, and then I did.

Boy: I was nervous that the other kids would be mean to me.

Girl 6: I was scared to have a new teacher.

Girl 5: But I was -- I was scared.

Girl: I didn't know where everything was and stuff.

Boy: My mom helped me find my seat.

Girl 5: And I was sad, too, because my mom was gonna leave. But until I saw my mom in the hallway... She gave me a hug.

Boy 1: My teacher said, "All the parents have to leave.” I, like, gave my mom a hug.

Girl 6: We sing our morning song, and then we go do our journals and then put them in our folders.

Girl 7: We listen to the teachers. We read with our friends. We learn math.

Girl 5: Sometimes, we wrote stories together. We learn the schedule.

Girl 4: And we go to gym.

Boy 2: And do music.

Girl 5: [ Clicks tongue ] But you have to... I don't know how to snap.

Girl 4: Shaking the maracas.

Boy 2: Well, we do journal.

Girl 7: What did you write about in your journal today?

Girl 6: Uhhhhhhhhhh...

Boy 2: And we write how we're feeling, like, if we're scared, sad, mad, happy. I forgot what we were talking about. No! When we're feeling safe.

Boy 1: You check out books on the day where you have library.

Girl 7: I learned how to do better at art. I learned how to draw regular people, like, aside of stick people.

Girl 5: We draw pictures, and in the hallway, we hang it up, and the parents come and look at them.

Girl: I learned how to, like, write my name and last name, how to, like, write "apple" and "flower.”

Boy 1: The popcorn words are "the," "was," "she," and "they.”

Girl 1: All the popcorn was pop, pop, pop.

Boy 2: [ Sighs ] We go on field trips, but not today. See those pumpkins over there? That one with the pointy stem is mine. We went to the pumpkin patch, and we learned all about pumpkins. That's a picture of it.

Boy 1: My favorite thing in kindergarten is lunch.

Boy 3: Lunchroom.

Boy 4: You need to eat, and that's all.

Boy 3: I'm eating.

Girl: In preschool, you didn't get to pick where you got to sit, and in regular school, I got to buy my lunch and pick where I sit. So it can be next to a friend.

Boy 1: What do you play with in school?

Girl 1: Ummm... I get to go outside, out...

Boy 4: Free choice!

Girl 7: Mine is, too.

Girl 2: At preschool, like, you got to, like, really play and you didn't, like, have to do anything. And at kindergarten, you kind of have to, like, learn the alphabet and, like, learn how to write and stuff.

Girl 4: I like to play with my friends. I like to play inside of classroom.

Boy: I wish we could play more in kindergarten.

Boy 4: Kindergarten's fun!

Both: Kindergarten rocks.

Girl 4: Goodbye, goodbye [ Claps hands ] Whoooa, we got to go

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Goodbye, goodbye [ Claps hands ] Whoooa, we got to go

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah [ Children shout, laugh ]

Girl 8: Fishie!

Roselia: Okay, so, utilizing your chat box, what are some of the key terminologies that was being used by the children that you picked up on in this video? And while we're waiting on some of those responses to come in... During the course of a child's life, they will experience change, and with change comes transition. So, think a little bit about your own personal experiences and how many transitions you have gone through and what are some of the emotions that kind of came as a result of that.

So, whether it was moving, starting a new job, getting married, or just all the different transitions that you experience throughout your day. So, perhaps, you know, having a chaotic morning, with getting children ready for school, dropping them off, getting to work -- just all the different transitions that you experience during your day. It can really be a challenge to kind of manage the transitions and how they impact your daily life, right?

So, up on your screen right now, you have a definition. And this particular definition makes reference of transition being movement from one program or setting to another -- so, specifically, preschool to kindergarten. For the purposes of this session, though, we want to broaden that lens and include children transitioning into preschool from settings such as early intervention, family childcare, or from a variety of other options. In addition, widen that lens a little bit further and think about how children are moving about through their day in each of these settings, so really looking at transition as all the different experiences and the things that children are doing throughout their day.

As we begin to think about how professional development can support an effective transition process, visualize transition as a continuum of early care and education. So, in our work, we're supporting children and families in Early Head Start, Head Start, family childcare, as well as home-based options. So, think of transition as a means of building resiliency and helping the children and the families develop the tools to help them adapt not only when they reach kindergarten, but as they are moving through different settings, different environments, and through their day.

So, what we're wanting to talk about a little bit is how professional development can be utilized as a means to build capacity as children and families are moving through this continuum, so beginning from birth to age 3, preschool, as well as kindergarten. So, as we know, the Head Start Program Performance Standards, they guide our work. I want to take notice to the particular language regarding practices for transitions from Early Head Start to Head Start, as well as Head Start to kindergarten.

And so, it really homes in on the continuum that we just discussed. And so, often when we talk about receiving schools, we tend to automatically think about the kindergarten setting. And so, keep in mind that the Head Start program can be a receiving school, as well, so we're receiving children from those early settings, from that birth to 3. And so, our Head Start Performance Standard outlines expectations for community collaborations for transitions, and part of that is joint training and professional development activities for Head Start and kindergarten teachers and staff. So, our Head Start Performance Standards provide us with the "what," so these are the required elements for transition. On this slide, we've included some of the "how.” So, what are the practices that Head Start programs can use to support these transitions?

So, preparing families for transition. Part of that is explaining to families and helping them to understand that transition won't be a single event -- rather, that it involves a process of preparation and planning and really developing a partnership with families during that process, and so there is that intentional planning that is happening as we're preparing families for transitions. We know that the child should be at the center of the planning and that we're supporting practices and skill development that will build a foundation for school readiness.

So, here are some additional ways that we can support successful transitions. So, providing resources for self-sufficiency and individual needs. So, an example of this would be providing resources to a family that may need housing or employment. And then at the community level, we're building awareness about our services and the integral part that we play in the early childhood system.

So, we're really looking at building partnerships to not only support our referral base, but as well as building opportunities for professional development. Overall, we're building that awareness and developing partnerships to create a mechanism for sharing that information and support for our community events. And then, developing and maintaining Interagency Agreements. So, these are a more formalized process that really outline that collaborative process to ensure that those smooth transitions are happening for children and families as they're moving primarily between early intervention to developmental preschools, and onward to special education services in our district preschools.

It is important to keep in mind that, as we're thinking about some of these practices, some of them may be very similar in the different settings and the program options that you might work with, and there may be also some differences pending on those program -- those program options. So, these type of practices speak to a comprehensive approach to transition, as well as transition being a process and not a single event.

So, in a video that is available on the ECLKC, Dr. Bergeron shared some key messages around transition, and so she communicates that school readiness is really receiving-school readiness. So, right now, we're really... we're shifting gears, and we're really looking at transition specifically from preschool to kindergarten. And so in her video, she shared five tips on receiving-school readiness, to get programs started on ramping up a relationship with the receiving schools.

And so, the first tip is identify your receiving schools. And so, as part of our process in building the effective transition process is really knowing the geography, and so knowing who our receiving schools are and keeping in mind that there's going to be instances in which there is more than one receiving school for each of your programs. And each of those schools are going to be at different levels, in terms of how accepting and where you are within that relationship process.

Finding out expectations, and so this includes getting to know what the system itself expects, what the administrators within those schools expect, as well as kindergarten teacher expectations. So, different kindergarten teams, they may have prioritized what they deem as important skills for children coming into their classrooms.

Also, informing yourself in terms of standard assessments that children will take before or when they arrive to those receiving schools, what are some of the behavioral expectations, as well as special education or accommodations that may be needed for children that are transitioning into those receiving schools. So, I wanted to share a couple of quotes by Alan Lakein, and he's a well-known author on personal time management.

So, the first one is, "Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now," and then, "Failing to plan is planning to fail.” And so, these quotes just kind of really speak to the next portion of our discussion, and when we talked a little bit about that intentional planning that happens in order for there to be those smooth transitions for the children and families. So, we know that transition is a really big topic.

We have challenged you to think about this process as not only a continuum, but to think about the day-to-day experiences that children have and how they move through their day, so really thinking about how programs are supporting a child's ability to adapt and move through their day. So, here are some examples of some common strategies that a program might have in place to help support effective transition for children and families. Families experience a transition along with their child, so developing those strong relationships that are positive and nurturing will help the families as they experience change, as well.

So, let's take a look at a little bit of each of these practices. Field trips. So, children visiting the kindergarten classrooms. So, this gives them the opportunity to see firsthand and familiarize themselves with not only the classroom environment, but as well as their new teachers.

Guest speakers. So, kindergarten teacher and/or principal visiting the preschool classroom. Again, this is another opportunity for the children to be able to start building that relationship and familiarizing themselves with, "I'm going to have another teacher when I go to kindergarten.” Head Start teachers doing home visits. So, this is that one-on-one opportunity to be able to share information with parents, answer some of their questions.

You know, you as the teachers have had that opportunity to build the relationship with their families, and so it could be an opportunity where they might share some of their fears and concerns about that transition to kindergarten. Having workshops and networking for parents of young children. This is another opportunity to help parents to make those connections and prepare for that transition that's getting ready to happen.

Attendance at schoolwide events for families and children. So, this is, again, another opportunity for families to be able to connect to that broader system and begin that networking process. Kindergarten orientation sessions before school starts. This provides an opportunity for expectations to be learned and kind of know what those next steps are to prepare the child as they are transitioning into kindergarten.

Parent-child learning programs held in receiving schools. So, again, it's just getting those parents ready for that change from the Head Start program, the preschool setting, over into that district preschool setting. So, these examples relate to strategies a program may have in place to support transition that are more at a program level.

So, use of common transition forms across multiple programs in schools. This makes it easier for sharing of data and information, as well as translated materials. Creation of transition teams and transition liaisons. So, in the district and schools... So, this really helps with that planning process and having someone who is there to help navigate through that process. And then, joint professional development for early education and early-grade teachers. So, this helps to promote shared school-readiness expectations and to promote effective teaching practices across settings.

Okay, so we have a survey up on your screen right now. You can enter more than one response. And so, what we're wanting to do is kind of take a look at, "The program that you support uses the following strategies to support effective transition.” And so, some of the options that you have available there is use of common transition forms across multiple programs and schools, creation of transition teams and transition liaisons in districts and schools, joint professional development for early education and early-grade teachers, shared data and common data points across systems, and then teacher-to-teacher conferences.

So, go ahead and mark off all the different options that perhaps the program that you support uses to support effective transitions. Okay, so here's some of the results that we got. So, use of common transition forms across multiple programs and schools -- so, a little over 26%. Creation of transition teams and transition liaisons in districts and schools, about 24%. Joint professional development for early education and early-grade teachers has a little over 9%. Shared data and common data points across systems, 24.8%, and then teacher-to-teacher conferences was at 15.5%. Okay.

So, actually, all of these are examples of program-level transition planning strategies that can be utilized to kind of help with that effective transition process, and it looks like... And we do apologize for the technical difficulties there. Okay. It looks like you were only able to respond to one item at a time, and so we do apologize for that, as well.

So, as previously mentioned, the joint professional development is a strategy that is specifically called out in the Head Start Program Performance Standards. So, let's take a moment and reflect on how joint professional development can support effective transitions. And so, if this is a strategy that has been successful in your program -- we did have a little over 9% that indicated that they are utilizing this as a strategy -- would you be willing to share in the chat box?

Or if you would like to unmute yourself and share with your colleagues how this has worked for you and what kind of outcomes it has for you, we would greatly appreciate that. Okay, so before we dive into sharing a little more about shared professional development and alignment, let's pause for a moment and reflect on what we have shared so far. And so, our main focus was to consider that there are activities that are related to the transition process that happen to support children and families, as well as activities that happen more at a program level.

So, now we're gonna shift gears and dive a little bit deeper into shared professional development and alignment. So, taking a look a little bit more in terms of professional development, we really want to talk about professional development as a means to build capacity. And so, professional development opportunities are geared towards increasing knowledge, which in turn will build skills and ultimately enhance practices. Let's take a look at this diagram that we have here. And so, at the foundation, at the base, is knowledge, and so knowledge is what professionals need to know.

And then we move into skills, and so this is what professionals need to be able to do. And then at the tip of our pyramid there, we have practices, and so this includes key examples of what they actually do. So, that's taking the knowledge and the skills and putting it into practices. And so, how professional development can be used as a strategy to help build successful transition practices. When we're just kind of reflecting back on what we've been talking about, in terms of moving children through a continuum and ultimately working towards school readiness, what are some of the different things that we can support our programs, in terms of building that knowledge base, which will then help them to implement those skills within their classrooms and build those practices that will help children to be successful as they're moving through all the different transitions that they'll experience.

So, many of the transition strategies that we've been sharing fall into four types of transition connections that should be fostered for successful transition planning. And so, looking at child and school... So, this is working towards increasing comfort, decreasing anxiety, and building those teacher-child relationships.

So, here are some examples of some things that Head Start education staff could do to kind of help support this particular connection. So, one example could be making a video for children about kindergarten, setting up a dramatic play area to resemble a kindergarten classroom so that children and teachers could practice what kindergarten would be like. Or it's taking that field trip to the kindergarten classroom and practicing going to the cafeteria, riding the school bus, and those sorts of things.

So, the family-school connection... So, this is sharing of information about individual children and familiarizing parents with school routines, And so, some examples of this could be sending home learning activities to prepare the children for kindergarten, having a kindergarten open house for the families, and then, of course, informing the parents and sharing transition information, inviting personnel from the receiving school to join into Head Start activities, visiting the classrooms throughout the preschool year.

So the four types of connections that we just talked about can help to ensure alignment across the Head Start program and elementary school settings, so we really want to look at how can shared professional development opportunities help to bring alignment between our receiving schools, as well as our Head Start and preschool programs.

School-readiness expectations. So, ultimately, we're working towards school readiness across all of our program option settings. And so, what are the receiving kindergarten school's expectations for our children? Are they aligned across your program and the receiving schools in your community? Connecting with receiving schools can help the education staff understand how to best support children to be successful in their kindergarten placements.

So, when we're thinking about school readiness and how professional development could be a strategy to help you with this process, it's really looking at teacher belief. So, what do preschool teachers, as well as kindergarten teachers, believe to be the most important to teach children to be ready for kindergarten? Where are the similarities? And where are the differences? And really looking at those expectations.

So, here are some examples of how you might maybe begin to look at this aspect. So, plan for joint professional learning collaborations throughout the school year, so having an opportunity to meet with the kindergarten teachers, perhaps sharing the ELOF on the school-readiness goals and asking them to share academic guidelines that they use. Hosting these joint training opportunities could really help to navigate through those expectations and teacher beliefs around what children are expected to know as they're entering kindergarten, and then also to help the kindergarten teachers understand what our children are learning in our Head Start programs. Also along with this is, at the end of the year, meeting to discuss child assessment data results. So, what are some other shared professional development opportunities that might support school readiness?

Okay, so let's talk a little bit about curriculum. So, connections between your program and your local elementary schools can help teachers in both of the settings understand the academic and the social content that is being delivered through the curriculum activities, as well as the learning experiences that are offered to children. Greater alignment between the Head Start curriculum and the curriculum delivered in the receiving schools will help with that process of a smoother transition and, again, teachers' beliefs.

So, here are some examples of how that might look. Providing opportunities for the teachers and administrators at all of the local schools in Head Start to participate in curriculum training. So, inviting the local receiving schools to help identify alignment to the state standards or early learning guidelines. So, providing shared opportunities for coach training to include ways to support instruction and teaching practices that are outlined in the curriculum.

So, let's think for a minute about what some kindergarten teachers have shared with you about what their curriculum focuses on. So, reflect on that for a little bit, in terms of what kindergarten teachers may have shared with you, in regards to what their curriculum focuses on. And then think about how shared learning around curriculum can help support your education staff in thinking about how their curriculum could be implemented to help scaffold some of those learning processes for children.

So, some of the opportunity for professional development in this area could really be at taking a look at what are some of the ways in which we might be able to scaffold learning when we have a better understanding as to what are the expectations in what children are learning in their kindergarten classrooms, and then taking a look at our own curriculums and ensuring that there's some alignment there.

So, taking a look at assessments, sharing ongoing child assessment data with receiving schools, as well as elementary schools. That sharing back and forth could really help in understanding what children are learning. So, for instance, the Head Start child assessment data could really help and bring a better understanding to our kindergarten teachers in terms of what our children are learning and what they know when they're coming into those kindergarten classrooms. And then, the local receiving schools sharing their child assessment data could really help our Head Start programs, in terms of taking a look at where some modifications or changes might be needed, in terms of ensuring that that school-readiness aspect is happening.

So, taking a look at how can we share some of that assessment data to give us a better picture as to what children are learning at Head Start, and then what they look like in terms of are they prepared when they come into those kindergarten classrooms. So, here's an example of what one Head Start program did to share assessment data. And so, they kind of did like a round-robin transition meeting, where they had five of the local elementary kindergarten teaching teams come to the Head Start program.

And so, each of the receiving schools, they had a table, and then the ed manager divided up the list of children planning to attend each of those schools. The Head Start teachers had the assessment data for each of these children. And then, within that round-robin style, they had like 10 minutes to chat with the kindergarten teachers about the assessment, how it aligned to the state standards, and where additional supports might be needed. So, there's an opportunity there where this particular program brought together the elementary and the kindergarten teaching team, and they were able to share this assessment data to give them a better picture as to the children that would be coming into those programs. And the kindergarten teachers were able, then, to get a better understanding as to those skills and things that were being taught in the preschool program. So, that's just one example of what one program did in this particular component of sharing and aligning assessment data.

So, family support and engagement. So, connecting to ensure that families are supported to actively engage with receiving-school personnel is a key role your Head Start program can play to ensure that alignment for families.

So, really looking at... The research tells us that parent participation in the transition process is strongly associated with children's self-confidence and school enjoyment when they arrive at kindergarten. And so, when they have that active participation, there's that stronger association to that positive outcome when they're entering kindergarten.

So, here's some examples of what this might look like. So, working with the district to create and use a transition plan, and so really having that partnership and developing an intentional and individualized transition plan, providing specific training on transitions for Head Start and kindergarten teachers, as well as the parents. And then, within this process of family engagement, I wanted to share an example of what a program did.

And so, what they did is that they held a kindergarten community panel. And so, this panel consisted of kindergarten teachers, principals, and special- education representatives from a few receiving schools. And so, then the parents were invited to learn about the transition, the school process, and then they were afforded that opportunity to be able to ask questions. From that, then they were able to schedule visits to the kindergarten classrooms and then complete registration paperwork for that school.

So, why is it so important to create alignment across your program and your local elementary schools? We're gonna talk a little bit about what the research is telling us, in terms of what happens when there's that misalignment. When we don't have that alignment there, it can really create a challenge for children and families that are leaving your program to start their educational careers in the public schools. And so, there was some research that was done on how preschool and kindergarten teachers rated the importance of children's skills in three areas. And so there were preschool teachers, as well as kindergarten teachers, that looked at academic skills, self-regulatory skills, and interpersonal competence.

And so what happened... what this research showed was that preschool and kindergarten teachers' beliefs were not aligned when they looked at these three areas. So, findings indicated that preschool and kindergarten teachers agreed on the order of prioritization of the areas of the early school competencies, and so both of the groups rated interpersonal and self-regulatory skills as more important than academic skills. Both sets of teachers also agreed that children's social and emotional development was critical.

Kindergarten teachers placed more of an emphasis on self-regulatory skills, like staying on task, following directions, while preschool teachers placed a greater emphasis on things like a child's ability to show empathy. So, overall, preschool teachers rated academic skills as more important than did the kindergarten teachers.

So, understanding and supporting children's social-emotional development would be a great topic for a shared professional development opportunity. And so, this could be an opportunity where your programs, you know, could share the pyramid model, the social-emotional Effective Practice Guides, as well as some of those 15-minute in-service suites on this particular topic.

And again, a great opportunity for that sharing to happen and looking at teachers' beliefs and then learning expectations from both ends, both from the preschool side as well as the receiving school. So, misalignment in beliefs in all three areas predicted poor ratings of children's approaches to learning, social skills, and a lower child achievement in math. And what this research really found was that children from low- socioeconomic-status families were disproportionately negatively affected by this misalignment in teacher's belief, and so it really... just really emphasized that teachers' beliefs are a key component in how children are being received as they're coming into the receiving schools. Alignment in teachers' beliefs could be an avenue through which to enhance school alignment for children and, more specifically, for children that are at risk for school failure.

So, let's take a little deeper dive and look at what the research is telling us about some alignment strategies. Children whose preschool teachers reported that they shared information on specific children or curricula with kindergarten teachers were perceived by their kindergarten teachers to have higher levels of social competence and lower levels of negative behavior problems. So, this is telling us that that information sharing could really be a strategy for helping teachers to be guided more by their knowledge of children's needs and less by their general belief or -- their general belief.

Over time, this type of sharing of information could help promote belief alignment by increasing preschool and kindergarten teachers' awareness of each other's instructional objectives, as well as strategies that are being utilized.

So, we're going to turn it over to Lisa Woodruff now. She is a senior program manager at DTL, and she's going to be sharing with us a couple of new resources that are being developed and in process to help support transition.

Lisa Woodruff: Thanks, Roselia. Yes, we are excited to talk just briefly about some of the transition resources that are currently under way, which really address a lot of the areas that you spoke to today, so that's exciting. One in particular resource that I think can be very valuable for Head Start programs and receiving schools is a resource called "Ready, Set, Go," which should be available later this month and will be posted on ECLKC.

This resource is a step-by-step guide on how to plan and implement a kindergarten registration event. The guide specifically talks about necessary personnel that should be available or attending the event, both from the Head Start perspective and the receiving school perspective, so that's really helpful, and then tips on how to engage families attending this event, and then, of course, registering children for kindergarten. So, that's super exciting.

And then we have also a video that we are working on called "Transitions That Work," and it focuses on Head Start programs and receiving schools, specifically in elementary school, who speak to best practices as it relates to effective and successful transition practices. It really speaks to the collaboration on both sides and the commitment to working together, not as an isolated event, as you spoke to, Roselia, but more specifically about what transitions look like from the beginning of our school years until the end.

So, that should be available in August 2019. And then, finally, we're excited to talk about the kindergarten summit materials that were developed back in 2014. Those are going to be revised and updated, and so they should also be available in the summer of 2019.

So, that's just a little peek as to what's to come, but there's more resources to accompany the work that we're doing on transition. So, thank you, Roselia.

Roselia: Okay. Thank you, Lisa. How exciting that there's some great new resources that'll be out there and available for staff to be able to utilize as they're supporting children, families, and their programs through these effective transition processes. Also, I wanted to just remind you that the Head Start Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center, so the ECLKC, or "e-click," as we sometimes call it...

There's several resources that are available there that are specific to, you know, to transition, and so I wanted to just remind folks that that is a wealth of resources that are out there for you. We have also added some resources to your green widget, and so feel free to download those particular resources that have been added there for you today. On the ECLKC, there are a couple of resources that we just kind of wanted to highlight and point out that are available specific to transition.

So, they're "Get Ready For Kindergarten," and there is an activity calendar for families, as well as an activity calendar for teachers. And so those are available to be utilized, as well as I wanted to point out that the 2018-2019 Ed Manager Planning Calendar is now available on the ECLKC. And so, if you've not had an opportunity to download and take a look at that, the purpose of the calendar is to provide suggested activities on a month-to-month basis to help you get organized, to lead others, to manage and monitor progress of activities as they're developed.

So, that is a resource that is out there for you, as well. Also, for those of you that are not familiar, I'd like to invite you and let you know about MyPeers. So, MyPeers is a virtual community that is available, and it's utilized to exchange ideas, to share resources, and to lend support to the early childhood community about a variety of topics, including what we shared today. There is numerous communities that are out there.

Two of them that I'd like to highlight right now is... One of them is the Education Managers community. And so, the purpose of that community is to connect with education managers and other leaders, including directors across the country, and so this is a place where Head Start, Early Head Start, and other program leaders can find peer support for early education, as well as sharing of effective practices and just a place to be able to come together and network and connect.

There's also the Head Start School Connections community. This is a new community that is just being launched, and it's intended to be a space for educators from Early Head Start, Head Start, and local education agencies to discuss and share ideas and practices on all things related to transition.

So, we welcome all members to share experiences and learn from one another. So, that is a new one that is out there if you're interested in engaging in that, because we know that transition is a hot topic, and so there is another platform to be able to come together and share and just have that networking opportunity.

Okay, so we're coming to the close of our session, and we've covered a lot of content over this past hour. We do recognize that transition is a big topic, with many moving parts. We have challenged you today to think about transition as a continuum and recognize that when we refer to a receiving school, sometimes that is referring to Head Start. You know, Head Start could be the receiving school from the birth-to-3 continuum.

And so, we have also expanded notions, again, of that Head Start program possibly being the receiving school, and we have challenged you to think about professional development as a strategy to support effective transitions. And so, we're really broadening that lens and thinking about transition from helping children to navigate through the day-to-day, and then working up to building, to preparing them for that effective transition when they leave our programs and then go into those kindergarten programs. As we're really building that foundation to prepare children, how can we utilize professional development as a vehicle to enhance and prepare children for those transition processes?

And so, moving forward, just kind of thinking about some next steps, what are some things that perhaps you might have learned today or can really help your work as you move forward in thinking about how you can support those effective transition practices within your programs?

So, hopefully all of the questions that kind of came in, Stephenie was able to answer those questions. We do invite you to continue the conversation on MyPeers as you're kind of working through and thinking about some next steps. The MyPeers is a perfect way to help one another and support one another as you're thinking about those next steps and reflecting on what are some different ways that you could support your programs.

Again, we do recognize and acknowledge that programs are going to be at different levels in how they're partnering with schools, and so utilizing your peers to help support, and not reinvent the wheel, but share some of those strategies that have been effective, we really invite you and encourage you to utilize MyPeers as a platform for that sharing.

We'd like to thank you for joining us today, and we hope that this discussion has provided you with some information to help you reflect on how you can utilize professional development to support those effective transition processes. We would also like to invite you and encourage you to complete our evaluation. These evaluations do help us to plan and prepare for other webinars to help you with the work that you do out there in the field.

And so the evaluation link is there on your screen now, and so if you would, please take a few moments to complete that evaluation, we would greatly appreciate it. And we do have a couple minutes, and so if there's any questions, if you'd like to share those in the group chat... If not, we thank you for your time today, and we look forward to having you for our next webinar for the Education Manager series, which is slated for June. So, more information will be coming out regarding that. So, thank you.