Sitar Arts Center: Second Early Childhood Professional Development Institute 2019

Sitar Arts Center Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, Meeting of Minds was held on February 1st – 3rd at the Sitar Arts Center.
 
This year’s program The Having of Wonderful Ideas, focused on the intersection of the science of brain development with best practices in early childhood education in the areas of visual arts, music, dance, theater, the humanities and mathematics. 
 
The presenters led to a deeper understanding of how children of all abilities and stages of development can best grow. The Institute was structured to provide experiential activities, interactive exercises and observation of a sample classroom in addition to informative presentations of up to date research that will help educators and parents better understand how to nurture creativity and growth in children.
 
The presenters of this year’s Meeting of Minds: The Having of Wonderful Ideas included: 
Eleanor Duckworth, Professor Emerita at Harvard and a student of Jean Piaget, whose work is grounded in learning about the nature of intelligence and understanding in children; Jessica Phillips-Silver, an international speaker and the founder of Growing Brains – a brain-based approach to raising children and communities; Diane Nutting, a nationally known performing arts educator who focuses her work on inclusion in the arts; Marcia Daft, founder of Moving Through Math and the Teaching of the Music of Language; Mary Hall Surface, a playwright and theater artist and teacher; Rosary Lalik, Associate Professor Emerita at Virginia Tech and master teacher who has focused her work on literacy and done research on issue related to social justice, equity and gender issues; Sara Pleydell, award-winning author and language arts professor who has focused her work on arts integration in childhood education; Susan Fleischmann, LICSW, Director of Mental Health at Mary’s Center and Sylvia Zwi, Dean and Director, Early Childhood Arts and Professional Development at Sitar Arts Center, founder of Coaching through Practice: Perfecting the Art of Teaching, LLC and Cultural Remittances Initiative, Master Teaching Artist with focus on early learning at Wolf Trap Institute, Inner-City Inner-Child and District of Columbia Public Schools.