草莓视频

This workshop is fun, engaging and interactive and will share a number of contemporary Indigenous children's songs that can be incorporated into your early learning settings. Through laughter and active participation, ECES will have an opportunity getting more comfortable with learning and sharing Indigenous songs and music. The workshop will end with a wonderful group activity and sharing where participants will leave with a number of new songs and resources for your program.

Presenter: Nadine Gagne

Come and learn techniques mindfulness breathing to let go of stress and anxiety, this workshop empowers educators to become strong and resilient to support children in building their self esteem by learning how to let go of stress through mindfulness breathing and reiki meditation. Stress relief techniques will be shared that can be shared with the children and families in your programs to assist in building up self esteem and self respect.

Presenter: Cress Spicer

This workshop will be an invitation for all participants to explore the role of student-educators in early childhood. This space will shape how emerging educators develop confidence, professional identity and deep commitment to their practice. This session equips participants with strategies to create uplifting, empowering experiences that honour both the mentor’s expertise and the student’s growth journey.

Presenter: Aryanna Chartrand

This interactive session explores what meaningful Truth and Reconciliation can look like in early childhood spaces through the lens of Indigenous relational leadership. Moving beyond symbolic gestures, participants will learn practical, culturally grounded strategies for fostering belonging, cultural safety, and kinship-centered care. Through storytelling, reflection, and scenario-based learning, the session offers concrete tools educators can use to strengthen relationships with children, families, and communities. In this session we will be uplifting Indigenous teachings and inspiring educators to lead with connection, curiosity, and relational accountability.

Presenter: Joyce Leppington

This workshop invites participants to critically examine dominant beliefs about professional development and the image of educators, challenging the Euro鈥慦estern positivist paradigm that positions learning as outcome鈥慸riven rather than relational, reflective, and transformative. Participants will explore how engaging with pedagogy opens possibilities for fulfillment, motivation, and deeper meaning in educators’ daily work. Through shared dialogue and collective inquiry, this session hopes to bring early years professionals together as a community committed to moving beyond colonial frameworks that limit educators’ identities and possibilities, while creating the time, space, and conditions needed for pedagogical thinking, renewed professionalism, and meaningful contributions to truth and reconciliation. Reimagining professional development in this way strengthens educator well鈥慴eing, retention, and recruitment by fostering environments where educators feel valued, intellectually engaged, and supported in their ongoing growth. In doing so, we can strengthen the image of educators and celebrate the collective wisdom that shapes ethical, intentional, and purposeful early learning communities.

Presenters: Sera Oh, Rachel Yu

The Pacific Immigrant Resources Society (PIRS) Trauma-Informed Practice workshop is designed to equip service providers with essential knowledge and practical skills for working with vulnerable populations across diverse community settings, including children and adults. This workshop will include knowledge and skills-building. It also includes mindfulness practices and additional resources for self-study and continuous learning.

Presenter: Anastasia Gaisenok

Join our 草莓视频Ambassadors for a walk along the trail, moving at a relaxed pace. The walk is an informal space for participants to engage in open conversations using prompts. After the walk we will gather back and have discussions about the prompts. 草莓视频is an organization that drives change in our sector. A large part of driving change is uplifing of educators wellness and this happens through connection.

Presenters: Zoe Linford, Carla Pasin

At this workshop you will be inspired to consider your own personal and cultural identity and inspire children to embrace their personal and cultural identity in our learning space. Educators are encouraged to consider what ways this can be explored: open ended materials, lived inquiries, materials, songs, stories. Learn about educators' stories of personal reflection and an offering that they bring into their learning space.

Presenter: Rahima Rajabali

The workshop will address respectful and respon-able (non-approriative) way) to attend to the BC Early Learning Framework's call for educators to engage with Indigenous worldviews in authentic, respectful and meaningful ways in conversation with Indigenous artists and knowledge holders. Manuela will speak to the relational practices and significance of stories for teaching and learning, alongside her visual artist practices.

Presenters: Manuela Salinas, Elaine Beltran-Sellitti

This workshop invites educators to explore how the ebb and flow of the day shapes both children’s and educators nervous systems. Through breath practices and reflection, participants will reimagine the use of time in learning environments and consider how temporal rhythms influence relationship-building and regulation. It offers an innovative approach to engaging with children and supporting their experiences in early childhood education.

Presenter: Carla Pasin

Running a childcare centre involves significant responsibility. When something goes wrong, the consequences can extend far beyond the initial incident, impacting licensing, reputation, families, staff, and the long-term stability of the organization. In this engaging session, participants will explore how directors, leadership teams, and supervisors play a critical role in building a transparent and defensible culture of safety within early learning organizations. Practical insights into how governance, leadership practices, supervision systems, and documentation influence both safety outcomes and organizational liability will be shared. Through real-world examples and discussion, participants will gain a high-level understanding of how incidents can escalate into complaints, investigations, or claims and how strong leadership, clear policies, and consistent reporting practices can help prevent and manage risk effectively.

Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of:

• The role of governance and leadership in fostering a strong culture of safety
• How incidents and concerns can escalate into complaints, investigations, or claims
• The importance of clear documentation and transparent reporting
• Practical strategies leaders can implement to strengthen safety, accountability, and defensibility within their organizations

Presenter: Lisa Vercillo

This workshop invites participants into an active, collective space for experimenting, puzzling, and thinking with traces—children’s drawings, gestures, constructions, creations, field notes, photographs, and audio or video recordings. Together, we will move beyond treating traces as static evidence or polished products and instead explore them as generative openings that spark dialogue, improvisation, and shared meaning-making. Through hands-on engagement, collaborative discussion, and situated reflection, participants will try out approaches we’ve been exploring in our own contexts—inviting documentation to shift from something we do about children to a relational, evolving process we engage in with them. This is not a “how-to” session; it is an invitation to slow down, notice differently, and co-create a dis-finished pedagogy—one that values process over product, noticing over knowing, and shared inquiry over closure.

Presenters: Kelly Pickford, Adrienne Argent, Nancy van Groll

This workshop is designed for anyone ready to step out of old cycles and into a more intentional, supported, and sustainable way of living. Together, we explore how unconscious habits form, why guilt keeps us stuck, and what it takes to create meaningful change that lasts. Participants learn how to identify the emotional and environmental triggers behind their habits, interrupt unhelpful patterns with compassion, and replace them with choices that support their well鈥慴eing. Through guided reflection and practical exercises, we shift from guilt-driven reactions to conscious decision-making rooted in self鈥慶are. We also focus on building attainable wellness habits—small, realistic actions that strengthen consistency and confidence over time. 

Presenter: Sheila Gelinas

This workshop explores how storytelling can be used to support emotional regulation in early childhood settings. Participants will learn simple, research-informed strategies for helping children identify emotions, build vocabulary, and practice calming techniques through story based activities. Using character cards, guided templates, and hands on creativity, educators will create their own emotional regulation stories that can be used immediately in their programs.

Presenters: Barbara Schneider, Taryn Grahm