Inspired by Children: Using Observation to Design Meaningful Curriculum (Burlington Spoke)

Come and join with other VT Educators for an intermediate level training. Together, educators will explore how intentional observation serves as the foundation for meaningful and responsive teaching practices. Through discussion, reflection, and hands-on activities, participants will examine strategies for noticing, documenting, and interpreting children’s learning and development. The training will highlight how educators can use observation data to identify children’s interests, strengths, questions, and emerging skills, and then translate those insights into engaging learning experiences across a variety of ages and settings.

Participants will also have opportunities to reflect on the ongoing relationship between observation, planning, implementation, and reflection, considering how this continuous cycle supports responsive curriculum development and deepens children’s learning. By connecting observation to everyday practice, educators will strengthen their ability to design experiences that are inspired by children and grounded in their unique ways of learning and engaging with the world.

This training is offered through VTAEYC’s Hub and Spoke Model, a statewide hybrid professional development approach designed to increase access, connection, and shared learning. Participants will attend at their closest Spoke site while the main content is livestreamed from a central Hub simultaneously. Each Spoke site will also engage in facilitated discussion, hands-on activities, and peer collaboration, lead by local Quality Support Specialists and Assessors. Lunch will be provided at all sites.  Please select your preferred Spoke site during registration; space is limited to 20–25 participants per site.

Date & Time: August 29, 2026, 9:15AM-2:30PM

Trainers: Evelyn Efinger, Krysta Griffith, Anne Simonds

Location:  Burlington Spoke: Windjammer Inn, 1076 Williston Road, South Burlington, VT 05403

Click Here to Register