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                Another Chapter
Reading Success by 4th Grade Convenes Educators for Conference
Reading Success by 4th Grade, Springfield’s community- wide early-literacy program,
recently convened 539 Springfield early educators for the second annu- al Building Bridges Conference, the only city-wide professional-develop- ment conference for early educators working with children birth to kin- dergarten.
The full-day event featured a key- note by Junlei Li, Saul Zaentz senior lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Edu- cation. The conference featured more than 34 different presenters in the field of early education.
Conference attendees were from all different areas of early education, including Springfield Public Schools, Head Start, Square One, Springfield Partners/New Beginnings, indepen- dently owned family childcare centers, early interventionists, the Boys & Girls Club, the YMCA of Greater Springfield, and more.
The conference allowed the more than 500 participants to join in more than 32 breakout sessions throughout the day on a variety of topics, includ- ing “5 Roles Families Play in Family- School Partnership,” led by Gretchen Osodipe, founder of Co-Teach, LLC; “The Whole Book Approach,” led by Courtney Waring, director of Education at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art; “Astronomy for Children,” led by Jenny Powers, director of the Springfield Science Museum; and “We Have Stories to Tell: Making Stories and Texts with Young Children,” with Maria José Botelho, Gretchen Hohmeyer, and Meghan Whitfield from the UMass Amherst College of Education, to name afew.
The closing plenary was given by Francia Wisnewski, director of the National Early Educator Training Cen- ter of the SEIU-ESF, an organization that focuses on providing education and training programs that empower workers, raise standards, and promote high-quality jobs in the family child- care sector.
“It is amazing to see our Springfield community rally to support the early- childhood field and give them space to come together around the very com- pelling content offered throughout the day,” said Chrissy Howard, manager
of Reading Success by 4th Grade and organizer of the event. “We are happy to see so many early educators learning more to educate and honor the whole child and family. We celebrate our early educators and are inspired by how
they collaborate to move our children forward in early language and literacy development, which is imperative
for our long-term goal of all children learning to read proficiently.”
When asked for feedback, one attendee said, “there were things said in this conference that I will definitely remember and believe will make an influence and difference in my life.” Another said, “the interactive questions and leaderboard activities helped me
to feel connected to the virtual confer- ence versus just watching some Zoom classes.”
The Conference was supported by a number of community organizations and companies, with the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation and Peo- plesBank as lead ‘architect sponsors.’
Reading Success by 4th Grade is a
broad coalition of leaders in educa- tion, child development, business, philanthropy, and government working toward the goal of all of Springfield’s children reading proficiently by the end of third grade. u
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