DESCRIPTION: Spend two full days learning, sharing and thinking critically about your practices to support children as thinkers and learners.  A focus will be on how to balance what you know about how young children learn best and the expectations of the world of education today, including state and local requirements. You will work on building relationships and collaborating with other early learning professionals in your region to foster a strong network of colleagues who can support each other in providing child-centered, play-based, engaging and rigorous experiences for young children. You will spend time together learning, discussing, laughing, playing, pondering, reflecting, sharing and engaging in a variety of interactive experiences to help solidify your understanding of child development and current brain research.  You will reflect on how these understandings impact your instructional practices and the learning environment you provide for young children. Be prepared to walk away with new strategies for supporting the development of learning standards through a variety of contexts, including play-based and appropriately challenging learning center experiences and how to articulate what is best for Pre-K and Kindergarten learners.