Archived Webinars

Dr. Christina Mirtes, Associate Professor and Dr. Jessica Grimone-Hopkins, Assistant Professor, Eastern Michigan University

This Early On Center Coursework Connections webinar will provide an overview of the new Early Childhood Standards of Quality for Birth through Kindergarten, what the standards are, how they are to be used to guide high-quality practices within programs and to support children’s development. Presenters will focus on how early childhood professionals can use these standards as a coaching and professional learning tool, a tool to share with families, and a guide and inform early childhood courses and programs within higher education.

Gina Garner, PhD, Michigan Department of Education

What do you know about the new Early Childhood General and Special Education (ZN) endorsement? This webinar provides information about the requirements for the new ZN and how the state will phase out the ZS.

Julie Ricks-Doneen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Oakland University

Learn how one professor develops assignments to incorporate shared instructor and student learning while using technology to expand student choice and voice across multiple courses and content areas. Examples will be provided of assignments from undergraduate and graduate courses in an early childhood program that was intended to increase students' connections to real-world and contextualized problems of practice with children, families, and early childhood providers by incorporating technology such as website design, podcasts, virtual family-child experiences, and survey development.

Tamesha Harewood, Michigan State University, Danielle Savory Seggerson, Lansing Community College, and Kalli Decker, Montana State University

Participants learned about a framework for enhancing knowledge, dispositions, and skills for preservice students who are preparing to work with infants and toddlers with delays and disabilities by implementing the KiDS-WITS Instructor Guide. This framework can be used to align course content to learning goals and student outcomes. Hear from faculty on how they used the KiDS-WITS Instructor Guide within their courses.

Michigan Persona Project Team

Faculty and presenters: Do you like the examples you use in your courses and presentations to be engaging, current, and relevant? Coaches, mentors, supervisors, and other leaders: Would you like some fresh and effective examples for supporting educators to learn about and implement evidence-based practices? Hear from Members of the Michigan Persona Project Team and other current users as they share their experience and examples of ways to incorporate the Michigan personas.

Audrey Farrugia, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Eastern Michigan University

Ready for an equitable change in your teaching and learning practices? Learn how one professor did away with traditional grading and focused on competency all the while involving community practitioners in early intervention higher education. This session will explore competency based course design, community involvement, and student perceptions.

Katie Emerson-Hoss, Ph.D, Higher Education Outreach and Implementation Manager, EarlyEDU Alliance

Learn about EarlyEDU Alliance's website, resources, and ideas for faculty to use in their early intervention/early childhood coursework.

Keri Davis, M.Ed., Assistant Professor at Grand Rapids Community College and Adjunct Professor at Grand Valley State University

This webinar explored the changes made to an Infant/Toddler course (CD 210 Infant and Toddler Development) through the collaboration with a higher education grant. This course now utilizes more inclusive terminology and practices and has new content specifically related to licensing rules and regulations. Discussions also include how this course transitioned the 2 hour a week in person lab to a virtual learning opportunity during COVID. 

Audrey Farrugia, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Eastern Michigan University

Description: Speech-language pathologists play a pivotal role in early intervention. However, due to the wide scope of practice, varying state mandates, and limited job positions, the work of early intervention speech-language pathologists remains a mystery to many. This presentation will explore themes from the reported roles and responsibilities of 13 early intervention speech-language pathologists throughout the state of Michigan and their suggestions to faculty for preparation to enter the field. Particular attention will be paid to discussions of initial eligibility/diagnosis of autism with families.

Hosted by: The Early On Center for Higher Education, Michigan Division of Early Childhood, Mi-ACCESS, Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children, and Great Start for Higher Education. Participants will get access to free, evidence-based resources for supporting each and every young child and their family.

Denise A. Ludwig, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, FNAP, Professor, Assistant Department Chair, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, GVSU

Leaders of early intervention programs are required to understand a complex set of legislative, curricular, personnel, and assessment regulatory and best practice content. An early intervention leadership training program developed for IHE educational leadership programs was developed to include modules aligned with requirements of IDEA Part C Programs. Administrators, service providers, parents, and community members may benefit from this presentation.

Camille Catlett, FPG Child Development Institute

Effective assignments need to provide learners with opportunities to both acquire and apply knowledge and practices. This webinar will share examples of tools for examining your assignments for these important dimensions and will feature multiple examples of assignment makeovers. Emphasis will be placed on preparing learners to support children of diverse cultures, languages, and abilities and their families AND on using evidence-based practices. 

Gina Garner, Higher Education Consultant, Education Preparation Unit, Office of Educator Excellence

Noel Kelty, Director for the Office of Early Childhood Development & Family Education

Presentation Includes: Revised Certification Structure; What is the Birth-Kindergarten (B-K) Grade Band?; Standards Overview; B-K Implementation Timeline; Program Application Process; and Supports Available

Tricia Foster, OTR/L, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Eastern Michigan University

This webinar presented a view into everyday practice based on findings from the 2018 Early On Faculty Grant research study of early intervention services in Michigan. Using wearable video cameras, service providers recorded their home visits; videos were then analyzed for the routines/contexts utilized throughout the visit, as well as parental role and engagement. Implications and opportunities for practice were discussed.

Julie Ricks-Doneen, Assistant Professor, Human Development and Child Studies, Oakland University

In this webinar, instructor and students together provided an overview of a project that students developed in the undergraduate Professionalism, Leadership and Advocacy course in the Early Childhood Program. Building on prior course experiences, the students developed a website focused on diversity that provided resources for families and teachers. Students worked in teams to develop sections of the website.

Kalli Decker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education & Child Services, Montana State University presented the Early On Center's Coursework Connections webinar on the topic of preparing undergraduate students to enter the field of home visiting. Kalli taught a semester-long course ‘Home Visiting for Families and Young Children’ in spring of 2020. She provided an overview of the course, including successes and lessons learned. The syllabi used to guide this course, resources, and other ideas will be shared for those interested in incorporating preservice home visiting preparation into a semester-long course or as part of portions of other courses.

Early On Center for Higher Education Web Event: Birth-Kindergarten Grade Band: Standards Deep Dive presented by Hope K. Gerde, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Human Development & Family Studies, Michigan State University Cheryl Priest, Ed.D., Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, Central Michigan University, Christina Mirtes, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Teacher Education, Eastern Michigan University, and Gina Garner, OEE, MDE.

Early On Center for Higher Education Web Event: Birth-Kindergarten Grade Band: Clinical Experiences Requirements with presenters:

Gina Garner – Office of Educator Excellence: Professional Preparation

Noel Kelty – Office of Great Start: Early Childhood Development & Family Education Pat Sargent– Office of Great Start: Preschool and Out-of-School Time Learning, Great Start Readiness Program

Rita Trinklein – Office of Great Start: Early Childhood Development & Family Education 

Lisa Wasacz – Office of Great Start: Preschool and Out-of-School Time Learning, Preschool Special Education

Danielle Savory Seggerson, Professor, Child Development and Early College, Lansing Community College

As courses shift to the online learning format, higher ed faculty are presented with a unique opportunity for fostering relationships and engaging students in ways that are different from those in the face-to-face classroom. This session will provide strategies to cultivate instructor-student and student-student relationships, as well as to plan with community-building in mind. Strategies suitable for both synchronous and asynchronous environments will be shared.

Claire Vallotton, Ph.D., Associate Professor Human Development and Family Studies, Michigan State University 

Participants will learn about a framework for preparing the early intervention workforce, including the knowledge, dispositions, and skills needed. This framework can be used to align course and training content to learning goals and student outcomes. Participants will also learn about a tool for assessing pre-service practitioners’ competencies (knowledge, dispositions, and skills) and evaluating learning outcomes. The session will be interactive, and participants will be invited to consider using these tools for their own goals for their students’ learning and their teaching.

Katie Strong, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Central Michigan University

This webinar showcased evidence-based teaching pedagogy as used in a graduate level speech-language pathology course titled: The Engaged Clinician: Our Behavior Matters.  Explore the behind the scenes experience of one faculty member who taught a 2-credit, 1-week intensive summer course.  First, visit the inspiration for course, Janice Fialka’s Parents and Professional Partnering for Children with Disabilities and peer-reviewed articles on clinical engagement. Then, explore active-learning activities embedded in the course such as creating a community, learning together, reflection, perspective taking, author guest lectures, class-based discussions. Finally, explore what this experience was like from both the student and faculty perspective. You’ll walk away with at least 2-take away ideas for your own classes. 

Kalli Decker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education & Child Services, Montana State University

Many of the preservice students in our courses will go on to do amazing work with children and families. But at the same time, they will be at risk for experiencing high levels of stress which can (and too often does) lead to burnout. This session focused on one way to support preservice students’ mental health and deepen their ability to practice reflection – through the use of mindfulness. In this interactive session Kalli discussed how mindfulness can be embedded into higher education early childhood courses or individual class sessions, especially those focused on social-emotional development. Resources and ideas were shared for in-class activities and brief assignments so that participants can identify aspects of mindfulness they want to try out with their students or incorporate into their coursework. 

Gina Garner, Higher Education Consultant, Education Preparation Unit, Office of Educator Excellence 

Noel Kelty, Early On Manager/Part C Coordinator, Office of Great Start  

Since 2015, the MDE has collaborated with stakeholders from across Michigan to build a students-first teacher preparation and certification system that prepares effective educators to use differentiated supports to meet the needs of the whole child. Central to this work has been the creation of a new certificate structure with narrower grade bands and deeper emphasis on preparation to teach literacy. In this session, presenters will provided an update on the progress of the development of the Early Childhood General and Special Education (B-K) endorsement. 

Barbara Fiechtl and Sue Olsen, M.Ed., Center for Persons with Disabilities, Utah State University

This webinar provided an overview of Tele-intervention - the communication conducted via technology that allows individuals and/or groups in two or more locations to communicate by simultaneous two-way video and audio transmissions.  The possibilities of virtual home visits in Michigan were highlighted for both faculty and service providers working in early interventions. 

Sarah Douglas, PhD., Associate Professor, Human Development & Family Studies, Michigan State University

Sarah Douglas, PhD., Michigan State University, shared her research findings from the 2016 Early On Faculty Grant.  Caregiver coaching is a recommended practice in early intervention.  This session highlighted a mixed-methods study to understand early interventionists' experiences and perceptions of coaching caregivers.  Survey, interview and coaching log data from her study of early interventionists in Michigan was presented.

Robin Zeiter, Professional Development Specialist in the Office of Great Start at MDE, presented the webinar Current State Level Workforce Initiatives.

Robin provided a quick look at current state level workforce initiatives including the Infant Toddler Career Pathway Project; the Early Childhood Personnel Center Intensive Technical Assistance Project; and the National Association of State Boards of Education Workforce Project.   She also shared information on the upcoming launch of the Michigan Professional Development Registry.

Dana Childress, Ph.D., Early Intervention Professional Development Consultant with the Partnership for People with Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Ever wished you had a place to go to find fully-developed activities to help your students learn key early intervention concepts? The Virginia Early Intervention Professional Development Center has recently added a new webpage with free activity-based resource entitled Learning Bytes. These brief activities are designed to help professional development specialists and faculty build the knowledge and skills of EI practitioners and students about topics such as assessment, developing IFSP outcomes, service delivery, interest-based learning, professional responsibilities and considerations, and service coordination. Join the webinar to learn about how you can use them to actively engage your learners!

Kelli Cassaday, Ed. Consultant, Office of Educator Excellence

Sarah-Kate LaVan, Asst. Director Office of Educator Excellence

On May 16, 2018, the Michigan Department of Education posted a press release titled “’Students-First’ System Created for Teacher Certification Focuses on the Whole Child.” This press release describes the culmination of three years of work among Michigan education stakeholders to prepare effective educators to use differentiated supports to meet the needs of the whole child and move Michigan forward to becoming a Top 10 education state in the next 10 years. 

Join Kelli Cassaday, Ed. Consultant & Sarah-Kate LaVan, Asst. Director Office of Educator Excellence describe the changes, implementation plan and timeline, and the impact on teachers and teacher preparation programs, particularly in birth-to-age 3 and/or special education settings.

Nancy Surbrook-Goins, EOT&TA Training and TA Manager & Michigan aRPy Ambassador

ECTA Center is in the process of developing products to promote the use of DEC's Recommended Practices or RP's.  These products are intended to illustrate different ways the RP's can be used by faculty, practitioners, and parents.  Michigan has its our aRPy Ambassador to promote these products and how they might be used for professional development and program improvement efforts.  

Join Nancy Surbrook-Goins, Michigan aRPy Ambassador, to learn about the different type of products already developed; from Performance Checklists to Illustrations to Practice Guides; and products that are on the horizon.

Webinar Note - after 38 minutes into the video, please use the forward arrows on the slide to advance to the next slide.  This feature will need to be used for the last 6 minutes of the recorded presentation.

Bite-Sized Learning Webinar recordings are one-hour professional development opportunities focused on important topics that are relevant for early intervention practitioners.