Hi! Welcome to our online course Setting Kids Up For Success! In this course we will discuss 11 foundational elements of planning a strong start to the school year for early elementary, preschool, or childcare programs. We will outline why each component is significant and practical ways to apply them to your setting. 

Today we’ll be describing 4 ways to plan your physical environment with the goal of setting children up to be as capable and independent as possible. This will prevent struggles and optimize opportunities for the children to grow and learn together! Then we’ll discuss 3 critical routines to establish first thing with your class to reduce chaos and confusion and create reliable structure to keep everyone’s day running smoothly! Next we outline some pro tips for setting out the class rules and how to teach children about active listening for group learning. And finally we close with 2 key ways to build relationships with young children to better guarantee optimal learning, safety, and joy in school, and how best to support children during this pandemic.

We are thrilled to be offering you this course! Before we begin, let me tell you a tiny bit about who we are! At Intentional Early Learning Consulting, we provide professional development to early childhood programs and teaching teams and provide practical trainings to groups of caregivers of young children. We focus our consulting efforts on strengthening intentionality in all that we do with young children, by interacting with purpose to provide children with the utmost respect and care they deserve while elevating their relationships. We also have the unique ability to provide families with deeper understandings around human behavior: how it operates and how it can be guided in new directions. I am Sara Yessenow, currently a behavior analyst, early childhood education adjunct professor, and former kindergarten and first grade teacher of 9 years. 

Today we aim to provide you with thoughtful applications to the start of your year! My name is Zeba McGibbon and I taught kindergarten, first, and third grade for 7 years and currently teach 2nd grade due to district changes around COVID. I founded a curriculum resource company several years ago called Kindergarten Cafe and have led several teacher trainings for my district’s professional development series. So it was natural that Sara and I came together to found IELC! For the last two years we have presented for Boston University students, the Boston Public Library’s parent series, local school teaching teams and childcare staff, and virtual forums and conferences throughout Massachusetts.