C5 Instructional Staff Takes World Famous Course

World Famous Training

All of our instructional staff took the comprehensive 18 week online course offered by world famous Program for Infant-Toddler Care (PITC). It is a collaboration of WestEd and the California Department of Education. It includes extensive online interactions and discussions, in-depth reading, embedded practice in classrooms, and video conferencing.

One half of our 32 member teaching staff was in the cohort taking the 2015 fall session. The other half joined the cohort taking the course in the winter session. As new staff members come on board, they schedule to take the very special course.

Course topics include an exploration of the different temperament types; stages of social-emotional development; development of self-esteem, security, and social competence; socialization and guidance; program policies that best support healthy social-emotional development; learning, culture, and families; early brain development and learning; discoveries of infancy; culture; partnerships with families; and, working with children with special needs.

Our Center Directors and Site Supervisor have taken  PITC’s world famous Train the Trainer courses in Berkeley and San Diego. They are conducted onsite with approximately 12 trainers and 150 professionals at a time and comprising Modules 1-4 and lasting 18 weeks. Two of our directors have also completed additional training at PITC Directors Academy conferences and conducted in-house PITC-related training for our entire C5 Children’s School staff. Our Director of Learning has also taken the basic and advanced training on programming for and work with Special Needs children and families. The basic part of that training is considered Module Five of the PITC series.

PITC Directors Academies are offered every year and involve the very latest in their world famous research and practices relating to early childhood learning and development. Ongoing topics cover Brain Development, Multi-Cultural Influences, The Importance of Open-Ended and Risk-Taking Play, Engaging and Supporting Families, Promoting Equity Balance: Black Boys in Early Learning Programs, Immigrant Families and Belonging: Building a Sense of Home, Family Partnerships and Culture, and Transformational Family Engagement: Families Strengthening Families.

Visit the Program for Infant-Toddler Care (PITC) website: https://www.pitc.org/pub/pitc_docs/home.csp

Our infants are building a strong foundation for early literacy skills at a young age.  The very basics are being practiced throughout the day: holding a book, turning its pages, and watching their teachers reading from left-to-right.  They are beginning to understand how books “work,” how they connect the reader, and how they relate to the listener when read out loud.  When a book is read to them, the infants are developing the cognitive skills required to connect sounds into words and words into meaning.  When they listen to the reader’s changing tone, rhythm patterns, voice inflection, and repeating phrasing, they are learning how language is formed and an essential element of communication.  Infants who are exposed to books, reading, and story-telling at an early age are more likely to develop strong communication skills and a love of books as they get older.  Learn more about our Infant Program.