On January 2nd, 2024, 215 educators from Jewish Early Childhood Centers in Denver attended the Annual Jewish ECE Conference hosted by The Efshar Project. The conference was held this year at Temple Sinai, which provided ample space for session presentations, and together with their dedicated staff, created an intentional day of learning for all.
This year’s conference title, “Rise Up: Transforming Our Field and Practice,” encapsulates the umbrella theme of elevating the field of early childhood education through advocacy, agency, and a deeper dive into teaching practices to empower educators as professionals. All 10 sessions were focused on either advocacy or deepening pedagogy so teachers feel more confident in their practice.
This year’s keynote speaker was Ash Beckham, renowned author of the book, Step Up: How to Live with Courage and Become an Everyday Leader. Her TED Talk has over 15 million views. Ash’s keynote session, “How to Find Authenticity in 3 Minutes,” was a wonderful way to frame our day and encouraged attendees to be intentional in their sharing and listening.
Our advocacy and policy trainings included “Advocacy 101: Teachers Shaping Early Childhood Education Public Policy,” facilitated by Lydia Waligorski from Clayton Early Learning, who led our in-person advocacy training in October 2023 and had rave reviews. Kelli Pfaff, The Efshar Project Executive Director, facilitated a session, “Elevating and Professionalizing Early Childhood Education: A Conversation with Colorado’s ECE Leaders,” which included an impressive panel of leaders – Dr. Rebecca Vlasin, Mary Alice Cohen, and Angela Ben-Zeckry – all leaders from Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood. A teacher from our feedback survey reported that they learned “to advocate by sharing their narrative” from this session and another reported that “there are people on our side in high-up places!”
Sessions that focused on teaching practice and pedagogy in the classroom included:
- “Taking The Challenge Out of Challenging Behaviors” with Tamar Andrews from American Jewish University
- “Math is Not a Four Letter Word to Be Afraid Of” with Natalie Boscoe from The Efshar Project
- “There’s More to Shabbat Than a Dinosaur Knocking at Your Door: Deepening Your Understanding to Elevate Your Practice” with Judi Morosohk from The Efshar Project
- “The Brains Blueprint: Translating Neuroscience into Effective Practices for Early Childhood Teachers” with Debbie Young from Empowering Communities Globally
- “The Amazing Learning Abilities of Infants and Toddlers: How They Teach Us What They Know” with Laurene Phillips and Susan Moore, Infant and Toddler Specialists and Coaching Consultants
Each of these sessions went deep into supporting our educators in their thinking and approaches to working with young children.
One marker of a successful conference is that our educators will leave feeling inspired to make positive changes in their classrooms. One teacher who took Tamar Andrew’s session on challenging behaviors in the classroom reported, “This was so empowering! I wish people who are not educators could hear this session!”, and another stated, “Every word, phrase, and example is something I can take with me, this session was amazing.”
Judi Morosohk’s session on deepening our understanding of Shabbat in order to elevate our practice with children offered educators a sacred space to slow down and harness the wisdom of Judaism to create intentional practices with young children. One teacher, new to the traditions of Judaism, stated, “I started to learn the purpose and reasons behind the rituals. I see now that the point is making the day different and special.” Another teacher, who observes Shabbat in their own personal life, stated, “Making Shabbat special in the classroom by doing something different is something I took away from this. Even if it is with a beautiful tablecloth or fresh flowers, make it special. I learned more things I can incorporate in my own home.” These two sentiments are a beautiful snapshot of the diversity in our network of educators. We are proud to see that everyone was able to gain something meaningful from the conference, even with diverse backgrounds.
In addition to sessions focused on early childhood pedagogical practices, we offered multiple sessions with experts across fields meant to impact and support educators. Ash Beckham presented “How to Have Hard Conversations,” a much-needed skill in all careers, but especially pertinent for educators. We were proud to partner with two occupational therapists, Sydney Schroeder and Maggie Fellabaum from HealthPro Pediatrics, whose session, “The Ins and Outs of Pediatric Occupational Therapy,” gave educators insight into the world of OT. One teacher said this session taught them “how to refer children for services, the red flags to look for, and that we have more senses than they realized.”
We also offered a session with licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Rachel Gall, titled “Self Care: Nurturing Ourselves in a Culture that Idolizes Burnout.” This was unsurprisingly one of our most popular and highly-rated sessions. One educator stated, “One thing I took away from this session is trying not to expect too much of myself, being able to put my pride aside and ask for help when needed. It showed me that I still have work to do with setting and sticking to boundaries.”
This year’s conference showcased sponsors for the first time. We had nine sponsor tables and three title sponsors including Zaidy’s Deli, Ibex Investments, and The Trotsky Family Foundation. Our educators assembled more than 70 service kits for children experiencing homelessness with the help of one sponsor organization, Repair the World.
We concluded the day with inspiring remarks from The Efshar Teacher Council, led by council member Stephanie Leen, Judaics Specialist at the Staenberg-Loup Early Learning School at the Denver JCC. Stephanie shared about the vision of the council to represent all educator voices across the network and the shared projects that connect our programs in the community. The Teacher Council meets monthly and is dedicated to impacting and protecting high-quality early childhood education through pedagogy and advocacy efforts. The Annual Conference was a perfect platform to make visible the mission of the council in its inaugural year. Stay tuned for more exciting updates and initiatives from The Efshar Teacher Council in the coming months!
Overall, feedback from the conference was highly positive and we are proud to continue to bring this day of connection and inspiration to an inspiring group of educators each year! With this focus on empowering early childhood educators, we cannot wait to see what the future holds.
