Early childhood educators find inspiration at Power of Learning Stories Conference

On May 5, more than 550 Bay Area early childhood educators gathered for EDvance’s Power of Learning Stories Conference. Keynote speaker Wendy Lee from New Zealand’s Educational Leadership Project kicked off the day with an inspirational talk on the importance of embracing authentic, holistic and meaningful assessments of children’s learning.

Participants then had the opportunity to choose from more than 20 different sessions on learning stories from international and local practitioners on learning stories, ranging from policy talks to mapping learning stories to the DRDP. Five workshop sessions were facilitated by EDvance students who have embraced Learning Stories in their practice.

“The learning stories conference taught me that the small moments we find meaningful in our classroom create big opportunities to tell beautiful stories. Giving us a chance to see every child’s strengths.”

Participants left feeling inspired, motivated and connected to taking a strengths based approach to working with children’s and families. As student Noelle Owusu commented, “The learning stories conference taught me that the small moments we find meaningful in our classroom create big opportunities to tell beautiful stories. Giving us a chance to see every child’s strengths.”

EDvance gives a huge thank you to its community partners, San Francisco’s Office of Early Care and Education, First 5 San Francisco, San Francisco Providers Association, San Francisco Family Child Care Association and the SALSA Learning Story Group for making the event FREE to all of the participants.

Pictured above: EDvance staff with keynote speaker Wendy Lee