Professional Development Secret Weapons – Early Childhood Language and Cultural Diversity

Professional Development Secret Weapons – Early Childhood Language and Cultural Diversity

By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M.

These professional development resources are so useful – I’m starting to feel a little guilty about keeping them to myself!  If you’ve attended my workshops, you’ve seen how I use them.  Anyone who does presentations about early childhood education focusing on diversity in language and culture will find lots of ways to use these.  Please come back and share your success stories here or on my facebook page: Karen Nemeth at Language Castle LLC.  I’m a firm believer in paying it forward!

Just in – a NEW Secret:  A collection of 20 free videos to illustrate best practices in teaching young dual language learners from Teaching at the Beginning now available on Youtube.

Secret #1 Change the First Five Years and You Change Everything video from  the Ounce of Prevention Fund at www.ounceofprevention.org  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbSp88PBe9E

(In five minutes, it will make almost anyone cry, then fill them with hope about the value of high quality early learning experiences – and when those emotions open up, a trainer can make magic happen!)

Secret #2 The trailer of the documentary Babies which was in theaters in April and is now available for purchase – I got mine downloaded from  iTunes.  The movie is about 85 minutes long, but the trailer here is only about 3 minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vupEpNjCuY

(These adorable, thriving babies from four completely different cultures  can start any number of discussions about differences and similarities in the way children grow up and are parented and educated)

Secret #3 WherethehellisMatt.com –  Matt does the same silly dance to great music in 42 different countries – and scene after fantastic scene, more and more people join in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

(I have not actually used this in a workshop yet but I don’t see how it can fail to get participants talking about all the diverse locations, sights, and people that appear – smiles and dancing seem universal even though each group is very different from the next)

Secret #4   My recent webinar, sponsored by Robert-Leslie Publishing, called Supervising and Supporting Preschool Programs with Two or More Languages 

(You can listen to the webinar and download the materials for free at the InvestiGator Club website and use them on your own or in a group to enhance any professional development you have planned)

Secret #5  Children’s books by Ann Morris.  She’s a wonderful photographer who captures beautiful images of common things in different countries.  She reveals what makes cultures different yet shows the things we all have in common.  Look for Bread, Bread, Bread or Shoes, Shoes, Shoes or Hats, Hats, Hats or Houses and Homes.  There are many more – great for workshop discussions – great for the classroom.

Well.  I hope I didn’t just put myself out of a job!