Maine DOE Early Learning Team Support and Professional Development Offerings

The Maine Department of Education’s Early Learning Team, in the Office of Teaching and Learning, supports educators (teachers, administrators, and community providers) across the birth through early elementary years, with technical assistance, online tools, and professional learning opportunities.

During the 2024-25 school year, in addition to ongoing technical assistance, the team will be offering online professional development opportunities, a monthly newsletter, and monthly office hours. See below for details:

Challenging Behavior and Early Childhood Environments Learning Modules: Utilizing the IRIS Center Early Childhood Environments and Early Childhood Behavior Management Modules, the Early Learning Team is offering the field a learning opportunity through the Maine Department of Education’s EnGine platform. This 6-week module will take a deeper dive into Early Childhood Environments and Early Childhood Behavior Management: Developing and Teaching Rules offered by the IRIS Center. The sessions will meet in person on 10/29/2024 and again for the final session on 12/10/2024 at 3:30-4:30pm via zoom. There will be weekly asynchronous learning activities in-between the week 1 and week 6 in-person sessions. A limited number of participants will be allowed in each session with hopes of offering the learning opportunity again in Winter 2024. – Register for this opportunity here.

Monthly Virtual Newsletters: Delivered to your inbox each month, the World of Early Learning newsletter will spotlight topics in early childhood education to support your work through a birth to third grade focus. The newsletter highlights communities, schools, and partnerships, and shares an ongoing list of upcoming events and professional development opportunities across our state. Subscribe to the World of Early Learning Newsletter and/or update your Maine DOE subscriptions here.

Early Learning Team Office Hours: Online office hours will be held on the second Thursday of each month. Each monthly topic will correspond to the prior month’s newsletter (see schedule below). Attendees are also encouraged to bring questions and needs for discussion and guidance. Save this zoom link – it will be used each month (Meeting ID: 851 6655 0471).

Office Hour Date 3:30-4:30pm	Topics for Focus	Newsletter
10/10/24	Classroom Environment	September
11/14/2024	Challenging behaviors	October
12/12/2024	Inclusion in Early Learning	November
01/09/2025	Kindergarten Entry Inventory	December
02/13/25	Maine Instructional Programs/Purposeful play	January
03/13/25	Data and Assessment	February
04/10/25	Supporting Allied Arts	March
05/08/25	Transitions through grades	April
06/12/2025	First 10/community schools	May

We are looking forward to supporting the field with these offerings and other future professional development opportunities.

For more information and questions, please reach out to Nicole Madore, Early Childhood Specialist, at nicole.madore@maine.gov or Marcy Whitcomb, Public Pre-K Consultant at marcy.r.whitcomb@maine.gov

Maine Kicks Off Kindergarten Entry Inventory Project

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) kicked off Maine’s Kindergarten Entry Inventory (KEI) pilot project this summer. The project is a manageable, strength-based, formative tool that aligns with the Pre-K Maine Early Learning Developmental Standards (P MELDS). It is designed to provide educators, families, and caregivers with insights about the whole child’s development to inform instructional planning and decision-making at the beginning of kindergarten.

Kindergarten teachers, administrators, and consultants from the Maine DOE, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Child and Family Services, and the Governor’s Office of Innovation, Policy, and the Future gathered in Augusta during July and August for in-depth overviews of the 3-year project.

Kindergarten Entry Inventory Project kick off - teachers collaborating

This fall, over 30 kindergarten teachers will participate in professional development training to pilot various tasks within their classrooms. Feedback from their experiences will be used to decide the project’s development. Data aggregated from the project will also help strengthen Maine’s early care and education system by identifying areas of steady growth and continuous improvement.

For questions or information, please reach out to Karen Mathieu, Maine DOE Kindergarten Entry Inventory Specialist, at karen.mathieu@maine.gov.

Transition to Kindergarten Planning and Mini-Grant Opportunity

Transitioning into kindergarten is a very exciting but often overwhelming time for young learners and their families. Building strong transition plans that include community partnerships enables schools and educators to be ready to meet children and families where they are in many aspects of this transition period. The opportunity described below will focus on working with school administrative units (SAUs) and community partners to build kindergarten transition teams and plans. Participants will engage in a technical assistance program that guides the strengthening of community partnerships, equitable practices for families, and a universal understanding of what it means to be ready for children and families to succeed in kindergarten. The goal of implementing kindergarten transition plans is to increase family engagement, encourage school attendance, and build strong partnerships to support kindergarten transitions for children, families, and school communities.

The Early Learning Team in the Office of Teaching and Learning at the Maine Department of Education (DOE), together with the Office of Child and Family Services at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, is pleased to extend this mini-grant opportunity to build high-quality transition to kindergarten teams and plans. This project will require SAUs to partner with their community early care and education providers. We encourage all providers who may be interested to reach to their local school administrative units to express interest in being part of their SAU’s (or school’s) transition team. This opportunity is funded by Maine’s Preschool Development Grant (PDG).

Participants will attend monthly technical assistance meetings and take advantage of focused individual sessions as needed. Participants will work to form a transition team for their SAU and will build out a year-long transition plan to support children and families before, during, and after the transition to kindergarten. Once the transition plans are finalized in February 2025, participants will be eligible for mini-grants to support the implementation of the plans leading up to and continuing into the 2025-2026 school year. To complete the series, there will also be follow-up technical assistance (TA) sessions, one in September 2025 and one in October 2025.

We invite all interested representatives from SAUs and community early care and education providers to join us for an informational and Q&A session to learn more about this opportunity on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, from 4:30-5:00 p.m., using the following session link:

Join Zoom Meeting here
Meeting ID: 830 9860 1555

Participants interested in the opportunity will complete a registration form. The registration form requires identification of preliminary team members (at a minimum, representation of one SAU or school leader, one school educator/staff member, and one community early childhood provider) and assurances for building community partnerships and engaging in the technical assistance meetings. If you need assistance in locating early care and education providers in your area, visit www.childcarechoices.me. The registration form should be completed by a representative of the SAU. The form will be open through October 25, 2024.

Initial TA meetings will be held on October 29, 2024, from 4:00-5:00 p.m., November 19, 2024, from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m., and December 17, 2024, from 3:30 -4:30 p.m. We will work together to schedule the remainder of the meetings at a mutually agreed-upon time and date.

Please reach out to Marcy Whitcomb, Public Pre-K Consultant with the Early Learning Team at the Maine DOE, at marcy.r.whitcomb@maine.gov , with any questions and for more information.

Selection of Fall & Winter Professional Learning Opportunities for Early Learning & Childcare Educators

The Maine Department of Education Office of Teaching and Learning, Early Learning Team, along with our partners at Maine’s Office of Child and Family Services and Maine Resilience Building Network (MRBN), are hosting several professional learning opportunities for childcare and public-school educators working with children this fall and winter. These opportunities are funded through Maine’s Preschool Development Renewal Grant.

Supporting Children, Families, and Communities to Thrive: Promoting Positive Childhood Experiences and Resilience – a series of free virtual (via ZOOM) professional development sessions for PK-3 public-school educators to learn about how childhood experiences impact children’s development, including strategies for supporting positive experiences, in addition to tools for educators in addressing self-resilience.
Empowering Early Childhood Educators to Foster Resilience and Positive Childhood Experiences: A Train the Trainer Opportunity—this program is designed to equip early childhood educators with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to promote Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) and resilience in your early care and education environment by facilitating workshops on these topics.

Find more information on each opportunity below.

Supporting Children, Families, and Communities to Thrive: Promoting Positive Childhood Experiences and Resilience

The Maine Resilience Building Network will be hosting a series of free virtual (via ZOOM) professional development sessions in partnership with Maine DOE and Maine’s Office of Child and Family Services throughout the fall and winter. These sessions will focus on:

how adverse and positive childhood experiences impact children’s development,
ideas for how to support a stronger focus on positive experiences and for building resilience for young children, and
strategies for how educators can address compassion fatigue and build their own resilience.

Descriptions of all 3 available offerings can be found here. Two contact hours are available for each session. Registration is required and links to each session are provided within the table below. There is no cost to attend sessions.

Date/Time	Program and Registration Link
Monday, September 9, 9-11 am	The Impact of Experience: How Adverse Childhood Experiences and Positive Childhood Experiences Impact Healthy Child Development (Part I) https://maineresilience.org/event-5813524
Monday, September 16, 9-11 am	A Framework for Implementing Positive Childhood Experiences to Support Healthy Child Development (Part II) https://maineresilience.org/event-5813527
Monday, September 23, 9-11 am	Addressing Compassion Fatigue and Resilience Strategies in Educators and Caregivers https://maineresilience.org/event-5813530
Tuesday, October 15, 6-8 pm	The Impact of Experience: How Adverse Childhood Experiences and Positive Childhood Experiences Impact Healthy Child Development (Part I) https://maineresilience.org/event-5813531
Tuesday, October 22, 6-8 pm	A Framework for Implementing Positive Childhood Experiences to Support Healthy Child Development (Part II) https://maineresilience.org/event-5813534
Tuesday, October 29, 6-8 pm	Addressing Compassion Fatigue and Resilience Strategies in Educators and Caregivers https://maineresilience.org/event-5813538
Wednesday, November 6, 3-5 pm	The Impact of Experience: How Adverse Childhood Experiences and Positive Childhood Experiences Impact Healthy Child Development (Part I) https://maineresilience.org/event-5813542
Wednesday, November 13, 3-5 pm	A Framework for Implementing Positive Childhood Experiences to Support Healthy Child Development (Part II) https://maineresilience.org/event-5813544
Wednesday, November 20, 3-5 pm	Addressing Compassion Fatigue and Resilience Strategies in Educators and Caregivers https://maineresilience.org/event-5813556
Thursday, January 9, 3-5 pm	The Impact of Experience: How Adverse Childhood Experiences and Positive Childhood Experiences Impact Healthy Child Development (Part I) https://maineresilience.org/event-5813557
Thursday, January 16, 3-5 pm	A Framework for Implementing Positive Childhood Experiences to Support Healthy Child Development (Part II) https://maineresilience.org/event-5813559
Thursday, January 23, 3-5 pm	Addressing Compassion Fatigue and Resilience Strategies in Educators and Caregivers https://maineresilience.org/event-5813561

Additional questions can be directed to the Maine Department of Education’s Early Childhood Specialist, nicole.madore@maine.gov.

Empowering Early Childhood Educators to Foster Resilience and Positive Childhood Experiences: A Train the Trainer Opportunity

The train-the-trainer program is designed to equip early childhood educators with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to promote Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) and resilience in your early care and education environment. This comprehensive program will empower you to lead training sessions within your own community, ensuring that more children and families across Maine benefit from these vital strategies.

Target Audience

This program is ideal for:

Early childhood educators
Pre-K providers
Public school professionals (serving children ages Pre-K to Grade 3)
Any stakeholders involved in supporting children ages 0-8 across Maine

Prerequisite

Participants should have experience in facilitating professional development sessions and a strong commitment to promoting PCEs and resilience.

Program Objectives

Understand the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and PCEs on healthy child development.
Learn evidence-based strategies to foster resilience in children, families, and communities.
Master the art of delivering effective training sessions to diverse audiences, including educators, caregivers, and community stakeholders.
Facilitate engaging discussions and activities that promote PCEs.
Provide ongoing support and resources to educators and caregivers in your community.

Program Content

Participants will:

Build an understanding of the impact of experience by:
- Exploring the effects of ACEs on early brain development and lifelong well-being.
- Discovering the latest research on PCEs and their role in fostering positive mental health in adulthood.
Strengthen the ability to foster Positive Childhood Experiences by:
- Learning practical strategies to promote PCEs through the Positive Resilience Development framework.
- Engaging in cognitive reframing techniques focused on protective factors and strengths.
- Applying the Positive Resilience Development framework to real-life scenarios through group activities and case studies.
Achieve certification as a PCE and resilience trainer:
- This certification will document your expertise and readiness to deliver impactful training sessions.

Program Duration

4 weeks with one virtual session per week (each session is approximately 2 hours).

Timeline and Session Topics

10/23 Week 1: Introduction and Overview
10/30 Week 2: Understanding the Impact of Experience (Part I)
11/6 Week 3: Implementing Positive Childhood Experiences (Part II)
11/13 Week 4: Application and Practice Session / Wrap-up and Certification

Total Contact Hours – 12 (8 hours for TTT Program + 4 hours prerequisite training)

Register today to transform your training approach and help children, families, and communities thrive across Maine.

For questions, please email MRBN’s Executive Director, Delvina Miremadi-Baldino at delvina@maineresilience.org

Cultivating Collaborative Relationships: Technical Assistance and Mini-Grant Opportunity for Early Care and Education Communities – Info Session 9/19

With the ever-growing understanding of and commitment to serving the whole child and family, the need for relationship building among early care and education providers within communities is even more important. When early care and education providers, such as child care, Head Start, schools, YMCAs, and libraries, get to know the work each does to support children and families during the early years, partnerships can emerge to achieve shared, positive outcomes.

These partnerships can vary in their design and in their intended purposes, depending on the context and needs of the community. Examples of early care and education community partnerships include providing public pre-k, supporting the transition of special education responsibilities for 3–5-year-olds to the public schools, strengthening kindergarten transitions and registration, and offering shared professional development among educators. But how do you start building relationships among community partners? Who do you contact? What are possible partnership opportunities in your community? The Maine Department of Education’s Pathways to Partnership series is designed to help communities answer these questions and build relationships among early care and education providers to benefit young children and their families.

Recognizing that every community’s needs are different, and each early care and education provider brings a variety of important perspectives to the work, the Early learning team is seeking communities open to exploring the benefits of relationship building and community partnerships. Community teams will need to have at least one leadership representative from a school administrative unit (SAU) or school (e.g., principal, assistant principal, superintendent, curriculum coordinator, etc.) as well as at least one licensed community-based provider (e.g., family childcare, center-based care, Head Start, YMCA, etc.) willing to attend a 4-part series to learn about the various partnerships that occur in Maine. Although only these two members are required, teams are strongly encouraged to have broader representation from their early care and education community.

The series will include facilitated and focused planning time for team members. Upon completion of the series, a mini-grant opportunity will be available for communities to secure additional facilitated support to continue the work started during the series. Each 90-minute session in the series will be held over zoom on the following dates. The exact time will be determined after registration information has been reviewed.:

Thursday, October 17^th
Thursday, November 7th
Thursday, December 5th
Thursday, January 16th

To register for the series, follow this link to the application.

For further questions, please reach out to Michelle Belanger, Pre-K partnership Specialist at Michelle.belanger@maine.gov

Inclusive Education Professional Growth Opportunities for Early Learning Educators

To support inclusion in Maine’s early childhood programs, the Maine Roads to Quality Professional Development Network (MRTQ PDN), in collaboration with the Maine Department of Education (DOE) and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Child and Family Services, is excited to share four professional growth opportunities. These opportunities, which are part of the statewide Inclusion Initiative for children birth to grade 3, and funded by the Maine’s Preschool Development Grant, are available at no cost to Maine’s early care and education professionals who work with children birth to grade 3.

Inclusion Book Club

This virtual book club is available at no cost to Maine early care and education professionals interested in creating more inclusive classrooms. Book club participants will read and reflect on Inclusion Includes Us: Building Bridges and Removing Barriers in Early Childhood Classrooms (Huber, 2023).

If you’re interested in participating in the Inclusion Book Club, please complete this form. For more information, please contact Shilo Goodhue at shilo.goodhue@maine.edu.

Due to high demand, MRTQ PDN will be adding Inclusion Book Club offerings at different times in addition to the ones currently scheduled. If you’re interested in future offerings of the Inclusion Book Club, you can indicate your interest on page 2 of the form above.

Inclusive Education PreK to 12

Developed by the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS) at the University of Maine, this 20-hour on-demand training provides the fundamentals for creating classrooms that are inclusive of all students. The on-demand format allows participants to proceed at their own pace and to engage in the training when their busy schedules allow. No-cost access to this training is limited to early care and education professionals who work with children from birth to 3rd grade.

To participate, please complete this form to receive a code for free registration.

Inclusion Micro-Credential

The Inclusion Micro-Credential, offered by the University of Maine System, includes the 20-hour on-demand Inclusive Education PreK to grade 12 training above and a one-day in-person session for an in-depth discussion on applying training content (dates to be determined). No-cost access to this training is limited to early care and education professionals who work with children ages birth to 3rd grade.

To participate, please complete this form to receive a code for free registration.

Maine Inclusion Credential

The Maine Inclusion Credential helps practitioners build the skills, knowledge, resources, and attitudes to offer care to ALL children in an inclusive environment. Accepted applicants will be part of a cohort of early care providers and public school staff that completes the training series as a group for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Join an information session on September 4 at 6:30 pm – Click this Zoom link or contact Shilo Goodhue at shilo.goodhue@maine.edu.

If you’re interested in participating in the Maine Inclusion Credential cohort, please complete this form .

Pre-K for ME, K for ME, and 1st Grade for ME Professional Learning Communities Offered

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) and teacher leaders from across the state are teaming up to offer monthly professional learning communities (PLCs) for educators implementing Pre-K for ME, K for ME, and 1st Grade for ME in their classrooms.

These PLCs are provided to promote understanding of program design and to support successful program implementation. Program components will be explored in greater depth, and teachers will be encouraged to share practice and student work examples. Teachers, ed techs, instructional coaches, and any other staff implementing the programs are strongly encouraged to attend, whether you are new to using the programs or have been using them for a while.

This year’s PLC opportunities will be held virtually from 3:30 – 4:30 pm on the first Tuesday of the month:

October 1
November 5
December 3
January 7
February 4
March 4
April 1

Although it is highly encouraged, teachers and ed techs do not have to commit to attending every session. Details about how to access the sessions will be provided after registration is completed. Registrations for the PLCs should be received by September 20, 2024.

Register here for Pre-K for ME

Register here for K for ME and 1st Grade for ME

For additional information contact Nicole.Madore@maine.gov, or Marcy.R.Whitcomb@maine.gov.

Leading Early Learning Fellowship—A Professional Learning Series for Elementary School Administrators

As Maine elementary schools have added preschool programming and are promoting whole student approaches across the Pre-K -Grade 3 span, elementary principals have requested professional learning to support their work as educational leaders. The Maine Department of Education and several Maine educational organizations (listed below) have collaborated to design an exciting professional learning series to address identified needs and support professional growth. To date, the Leading Early Learning Fellowship series has supported three cohorts, one each year since 2021-22. We are pleased to announce that applications for the fourth cohort, 2024-25 school year, are now being accepted.

The fellowship provides participants with opportunities to deepen their knowledge of early learning pedagogy and best practices related to supporting students and teachers across Pre-K-3. Participants engage in a variety of modes of learning, from asynchronous modules to facilitated online professional learning communities to in-person gatherings.

“I really enjoyed the variety of materials and activities in which we were engaged–videos, utilizing the observation and reflection tools, and the readings. Also, it was a great group of people to interact with both online and in person,” said a participant from Cohort 3.

“Participating in the series has helped me to look at the decisions we make about our instructional programming and school community through the lens of early learning and what is developmentally appropriate for our youngest learners,” said a participant from Cohort 1.

If this opportunity interests you, please review the fellowship details in the informational guide. A link to apply for the series is included in the informational guide. The series will support up to 30 participants. Applications will be received through July 14, 2024. Once spaces are filled, a waiting list will be generated.

For additional information, please contact Lee Anne Larsen, Director of Early Learning at Maine DOE, leeann.larsen@maine.gov.

Leading Early Learning Partner Organizations

Maine Department of Education
Maine Roads to Quality Professional Development Network
Maine Association for the Education of Young Children
UMaine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies

Exciting Early Childhood Summer Summit Opportunity

Are you interested in exploring critical issues impacting early care and education? Are you wondering how you could work more collaboratively within your community to connect early childhood partners (e.g., childcare, schools, community-based organizations, etc.)? Are you eager to connect with other early childhood educators and consider ways of strengthening the early care and education mixed-delivery system in your community?

Consider attending the Early Childhood Summer Summit on Thursday, July 11, 2024, at Keeley’s Banquet Center, 178 Warren Avenue, Portland, Maine. The summit will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided. Attending is no cost, and up to 60 individuals can be accommodated. CEUs will be made available to anyone attending the summit.

The goals of the Early Childhood Summit include:

To improve alignment and transitions for children and families, foster community-level coordination and collaboration across the mixed-delivery early care and education system, which includes childcare programs, Head Start, and elementary schools.
Strengthen understanding of evidence-based practices that are critical to leverage across the birth-grade 3 span to promote whole child development.
Supporting community-based planning and implementation efforts through mini-grants and ongoing technical assistance support.

What will the summit structure be like? 

The summit is funded through Maine’s Preschool Development Renewal Grant. It is jointly sponsored by the Maine Department of Education and the Office of Child and Family Services in Maine’s Department of Human Services. Individuals may register to attend independently but are encouraged to come with a colleague interested in building community collaborations. The summit’s content will include various keynote addresses and workshop sessions connected to the goals outlined previously. Topics will include promoting inclusionary practices, addressing challenging behaviors, promoting play as a foundational learning strategy, and promoting smooth transitions from early childhood education programs into public schools for children and families. Time will also be provided for attendees to work with each other and presenters to develop plans for building collaborative early childhood community teams.

What are the next steps for attendees after attending the Early Childhood Summer Summit?

Individual 2024 Early Childhood Summer Summit attendees will be encouraged to build a community team during the 2024-25 school year. They will be given preference for attending the 2025 ECE Summer Summit. Teams that attend the 2025 summit will receive $800 mini-grants to implement action plans. Details about team building will be shared at the summit.

To apply: Complete the application by June 14, 2024. Each individual who plans to attend should complete the registration form. A field is included in the application to note if you plan to attend with a colleague so that we can group you at the summit.

For additional information, please contact Renee Reilly, Maine DOE PDG Manager, at Renee.A.Reilly@maine.gov or Andrea Faurot, OCFS PDG Manager, at Andrea.Faurot@maine.gov.

Maine DOE Announces 9th Annual Read to Ride Summer Reading Challenge

(Pictured: Valerie, a student at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary, Brunswick School Department.)

Summer vacation is a welcome break from the daily school routine for children and parents alike, but the summer months can be detrimental to students’ learning if young minds are not kept active. Summer learning loss is a well-documented phenomenon, particularly for reading achievement. Students can lose up to three months of reading progress during the summer if they don’t keep reading. Combined across a child’s PK-8 school career, this can result in 1-2 years of lost reading progress.

Fortunately, the summer slide can be prevented or greatly reduced when students continue to read regularly. By encouraging children to read from a variety of resources for fun and to explore topics of interest, they continue to practice applying the skills they have learned, build their vocabulary, and widen their knowledge of the world. Reading to and with parents is equally beneficial for students who are not yet reading independently or just beginning to read.

Again, this year, the Maine Department of Education is collaborating with the Freemasons of Maine to sponsor the Read to Ride Summer Reading Challenge for students in grades PK-8. The Maine Freemasons have generously agreed to continue supporting the Read to Ride Challenge. In 2023, 36 students were awarded bikes and helmets; it is hoped that this number will grow even higher during the summer of 2024.

Louie from Laura E. Richards School

Clementine from Nobleboro Central School

Any school with students in the PK-8 grade span may register to participate. Participating schools will collect documentation from students who have completed the challenge. They will hold school-level drawings to select two students whose names will be entered into the state-level drawing held in October. Schools are encouraged to participate in this challenge, coordinate it with any other summer reading challenges/programs they offer, and consider soliciting local-level prizes for students who complete the challenge. Additional details, supporting documents, and a registration link are on the Maine Department of Education Read to Ride landing page.

Questions may be directed to Dee Saucier, danielle.m.saucier@maine.gov.