Books & Resources
Every Child Ready for School
ALA Editions
The first guiding principle is that we each are responsible for our own learning. It is an underlying tenet of this book and of our training program. We want to pass along this principle to all those who train, teach, and mentor others who foster school readiness in young children. The second principle is that learning is reinforced when you teach others something that you have learned. The best way to learn something is by seeing or hearing about a concept, doing or practicing it, and finally teaching the concept to someone else. Parents and child care providers can learn more in the training program when they share and discuss their observations of their children’s learning and the success or failure of a specific activity.
Beginning a training workshop by establishing the mindset that we are each responsible for our own learning is a powerful asset for effective training. It fosters an open, collaborative environment that helps participants ask and answer questions, reflect on their practices in their own settings, and see how the content of the workshop could serve to impact those practices.
As the trainer, encourage participants to adapt a broad view of learning for themselves and for the children in their care. Learning activities can occur anywhere and under any circumstance to increase knowledge, enhance a skill, and adapt to change. Each person can strive to become a lifelong learner by consistently evaluating what worked well and what could have been done differently in a situation to produce better results.
You can develop a good rapport with your workshop audience by knowing your material, presenting clearly and simply and using humor and conviction. A strong beginning demonstrating enthusiasm, appreciation and respect for the participants will set the right tone for the training. In school readiness trainings you’ll want participants to think in a different way, that is, to think from a child’s point of view. Encourage your audience to anticipate questions that children may ask and how they might answer those questions. Note: the goal is to ask participants to become child-like in their engagement, not childish. You’ll want to create active learning opportunities in the training by using hands-on activities and role-playing.
You can increase the learning success rate by following some simple guidelines –
- Use a one-on-one conversation style by looking at one person at a time for each thought or sentence
- Strive to connect with everyone in the training
- Put your best voice forward
- Don’t take yourself too seriously
- Start and finish on time
- Don't overuse “I.”
Excerpt adaptation from pages 37 - 44 of Every Child Ready for School: Helping Adults Inspire Young Children to Learn by Dorothy Stoltz, Elaine Czarnecki, and Connie Wilson. (Chicago: American Library Association Copyright 2013 by Dorothy Stoltz, Elaine Czarnecki, and Connie Wilson. All Rights Reserved.)
