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2024 Early Learning Back to School Summit: ECE Best Practices

Our 2024 Back to School Early Learning Summit was packed with three informative days of over 20 sessions presented by 15+ keynote speakers–all around early childhood education best practices, insights, and professional learning opportunities! Thousands of teachers, directors, and childcare professionals across North America joined us to gain insights from presenters that included leaders and professionals in the early learning space. Additionally, attendees were able to earn CEUs and learn more about how Lillio can manage and streamline their operations.

All recorded Early Learning Back to School Summit sessions are available to view here: 2024 Back to School Summit

Let’s take a peek into our early childhood education summit sessions:

Putting on Your Oxygen Mask First: The Importance of Self-Care for Educators

We kicked off the summit with Lillio CEO Kai-leé Berke sharing the importance of self-care for educators. Kai-leé talked about the science of the stress response as it relates to early childhood educators and shared some great self-care practices and initiatives to support a regulated nervous system.

Best of Times, Worst of Times: the US ECE field in 2024 and Beyond

We welcomed panelists Bela Moté, Miriam Calderon, and Shawneequa Blount to provide insight into the US ECE field in 2024 and beyond. The panel shared expertise around learnings from the unprecedented challenges brought on by the end of COVID-19 funding for early education. The panel touched on how important advocating for local communities can be and looked at practical options to affect change in school districts through local advocacy and efforts.

Building a Classroom Community: An Actionable Approach for Back to School

Teresa Narey spoke about an actionable approach for building a classroom community. Teresa emphasized the importance of a framework for our relationships and how to establish a blueprint for creating effective communities.

Marketing Your Center to Grow Enrollment and Engage your Center Community

Jackie Tom and Candice Jackson Long hosted a session on how to market your center to grow enrollment and engage your early education community, providing great insights into practical marketing methods for your business.

Inclusive Practices to Support Learning Engagement for All Children

Teresa Narey shared inclusive practices to support learning engagement for all young children. Teresa talked about early learning programs and practices that educators can use to support all learners with a focus on relationships with children and families.

Engaging Families and Partners in Learning & Development

Heather Wiederstein hosted panelists Thrush Dave, Dr. Kenneth Kunz, Evelyn Cabrera, and Allie Zambia, exploring how to engage families as partners in learning and child development. This candid conversation focused on best practices that demonstrate the value of high-quality care by helping families understand what’s happening in the pre-k classroom, why it’s important, and how they can support learning with simple steps at home.

A “Day in the Life” of a Lillio Customer

Kayla Warburton and Wendi Munhall explored a “day in the life” of a Lillio Customer, sharing insights from a Lillio power customer about how they save time, streamline operations, and make things easier with Lillio!

Science of Reading: An Introduction for Early Childhood Educators

Heather Wiederstein shared expertise around the science of reading, providing an introduction for early childhood educators and discussing the foundations of language and literacy as it develops in the early years.

Morning Mentorship

This morning mentorship session was hosted by Antoinette Dela Cruz, Nicole George, and Jessica Tremblett, where seasoned educators had the opportunity to connect with new educators to share stories and offer inspiration to build an impactful career in early education.

How to Create a Culture of Learning Among Center Staff

Teresa Narey presented on how to create a culture of learning among center staff, offering tools and practices that both improve learning transfer and foster a culture of reflective practice.

Recruiting and Retaining Qualified Staff Panel Discussion

This panel was all about recruiting and retaining qualified staff, hosted by Jackie Tom. Panelists Jessica Tremblett and Sarah Rhodebeck offered actionable strategies from the field to find, attract, engage, and keep talented staff.

Lillio Family Engagement Product Tours

These informative sessions were accompanied by a series of Lillio product tours. We had Ellen Hardy, Tess Millar, Debbie Kaiser, Laura Bridgewater, Ria Reive, Janielle Loken, and Amy Conner leading our product tours, as well as Kayla Warburton chatting about how to get the most out of Lillio and Heather Wiederstein providing a product roadmap update for customers.

IT Security Basics of Center Directors and Owners

We joined Masrur Mahmoud, Tyler Milford, and Steve Dumais to learn about IT and security basics for center directors and owners. This was a focus on the foundations of IT and data security requirements to know and consider in making technology decisions.

Lillio Billing & Payments Tour

Our billing and payments session, hosted by Janielle Loken and Robyn Cannon, demonstrated how Lillio helps centers be more profitable. It also provided a sneak peek of exciting new features coming soon.

Understanding and Addressing Child Behaviors that Challenge Us

To cap off the summit, we joined Kai-leé Berke and Ria Reive in their session about understanding and addressing child behaviors that challenge us, offering strategies that help educators respond rather than react, aiming to build a positive classroom learning community that reduces instances of challenging behaviors, supports children’s social and emotional development, and creates an enjoyable, effective, and nurturing learning environment.

Whether you’re looking to enrich your childcare program or find professional development opportunities, the 2024 Early Learning Back to School Summit provided valuable information, allowing participants to view all sessions for free.