5 Types of Trainings That'll Make You a Better Preschool Teacher
/As educators and childcare professionals, continued education and professional development is vital to effectively serving the little ones in our care. In addition to licensing and renewals, as well as required credits, there are also enrichment trainings that elevate our work so that we can make a continuous lasting impact.
In this guide we’ll share five of the most impactful trainings you should take as a teacher (or, if you are an administrator: workshops you may want to consider joining and providing to your staff).
These trainings and workshop programs have proven to improve school performance, educator mindfulness practice, and student achievement.
5 Trainings That Will Improve Your Work as a Preschool Teacher
1. Stress Management Training for Educators
Learn the yoga of teaching! You will notice a huge difference in your approach to teaching and classroom leadership with a stress management training curated specifically for educators and our needs. You will learn how to build a mindfulness practice, techniques to foster self-care, and the physiology of stress (and its impact on our health).
Our recommendation: educators and childcare providers of all ages would benefit from this training. You’ll learn yoga-based movement (for all body types and abilities) and breathing exercises to relieve stress and anxiety.
2. Mindfulness and Effective Language Training For Classroom Communication
Learning to observe without judgement is an effective tool for a deeper impact in the classroom (and a crucial quality of a good educator). When you gain insight into unique and effective language strategies you are able to create meaningful communication in your own classrooms—including online schooling.
Our recommendation: If seeking a high quality classroom communication training, be sure to search for one that combines mindfulness practices, fact-based observations, classroom management and tools for self-awareness.
Tip: This is another workshop we recommend be split into two separate components for an enhanced training experience.
3. Vocal Technique Training (learn to lead without losing your voice!)
Vocal technique is often an afterthought for educator training. As a teacher, technique workshops can help you learn how to effectively use your voice without losing it.
“Call and Response”, improvisation, and basic vocal production are just some of the many tools you would learn in a vocal technique training for educators. If your workshop trainer is a music expert as well, you can also learn songs that encourage focus as part of the toolbox of “classroom hacks”.
Tip: Use this type of training as an opportunity to harness your own creativity, and develop new material for your lesson plans.
4. Music and Movement-Based Curriculum Enrichment
Incorporating music, movement and mindfulness into early education curriculum enrichment is quickly becoming recognized as an effective way to create a safe space for creativity, community building and classroom engagement.
Educators from preschool through fifth grade notice a difference in their students’ energy, focus and behavior when using music and movement to explore important components in required school curriculum (including Common Core). It is also an increasingly useful approach to working with children who have special needs.
Tip: Because of the extensive material in trainings like this, we recommend splitting it into a two-part workshop.
5. Children’s Yoga Training for Educators
There are tons of benefits of taking a kids yoga training — even if you don’t do yoga. But sometimes the immediate assumption when you hear “children’s yoga training” may be, “This isn’t a yoga school, this is a classroom.”
You’re right!
The academic classroom isn’t a yoga studio or school, but it is a place where children can benefit from many of the tools yoga and mindfulness teach.
Plus, with “Less than one-quarter (24%) of children 6 to 17 years of age [participating] in 60 minutes of physical activity every day”, movement is crucial to healthy physical development and child wellness. (Source: CDC)
Our recommendation: Seek an educator yoga training that can honor the classroom while teaching exercises that provide brain breaks, tools for social emotional learning, and breathing exercises that actually work for bringing kids calm and focus.
Tip: When choosing a children’s yoga teacher training be sure to check their credentials and available CE credits if necessary. Yo Re Mi, for instance, is a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP) which means our 30-hour kids yoga training can count toward your training hours.
How find early childhood educator development workshops
There are many ways you can kickstart your continuing education training to elevate your work as an educator. The journey is continuous so don’t feel like you have to jam it all into one workshop.
Our educator trainings and workshops can help you cultivate a positive learning environment and leave a lasting impact with Yo Re Mi’s proven techniques—and our senior staff of experienced educators is ready to help you grow!
View our course descriptions here to see which workshop is right for you and your team, and read what real educators think of our trainings. Contact us to get started.
Save this article for later and don’t forget to download the Yo Re Mi app for access to children’s mindfulness and musical yoga videos.
