Annual Conference Keynoter:

Diane Trister Dodge

Bio: Diane Trister Dodge, M.S., is the founder and president of Teaching Strategies, Inc., a company that seeks to improve the quality of early childhood programs by developing and providing training on comprehensive curriculum and assessment systems for children under 5. She has been a preschool and kindergarten teacher; served as the education coordinator for Head Start and child care programs in Mississippi and Washington, D.C.; and directed national projects in education and human services. Ms. Dodge is the lead author of The Creative Curriculum^® and is a well-known speaker. She served on the Governing Board of NAEYC (1990–1994) and the Center for the Child Care Workforce (1995–2002), and she was a member of the D.C. Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development (1984–2009). For the 2002–2003 academic year, Diane was the Barbara E. (Mound) Hansen Early Childhood Lecturer at Iowa State University. In October 2004, she received the Bank Street College Alumni Association Recognition Award for outstanding accomplishments in the field of education.

Keynote title: Intentional Teaching: What It Looks Like and What It Takes

Keynote description: The early childhood years, from birth to early elementary school, are a time to build a strong foundation for lifelong learning. Teachers must be intentional about their practices. Intentional teaching has four components: teachers are purposeful because they know what to teach; they know how to make learning experiences meaningful for children; they use all settings and times of the day as opportunities for learning; and they use five teaching strategies to support and promote learning.

Session title: The Creative Curriculum Approach to Studies

Session description: Intentional teachers use studies to help children learn science and social studies content while developing skills in literacy, math, the arts, and technology.  Studies support children’s wonderful ability to become totally engaged in topics and activities that interest them, and they challenge children to extend their thinking to higher levels.  In this workshop, we will explore the steps in planning a study that enables children to gain information through direct observations and experimentation and then to link new ideas to what children already know.