Mentor Program

Program Overview

Traditional Professional Development alone does not provide the opportunities to learn through practice and to reflect on that learning. This is where real mastery occurs.  Educators need support in their learning process and they need to know that support comes from within their school community.  To that end begin to ECSEL’s training program includes Mentor training and support for school leaders and senior staff. Mentors in turn are provided with experienced begin to ECSEL Coaching and support. In addition, our unique online community provides space to share and exchange ideas and experiences with the begin to ECSEL community.  In order to ensure successful understanding and implementation, it is vital that educators have the help and guidance they need at every step, and the begin to ECSEL training program offers a strong system of reflective practice and support through mentoring and coaching.

Begin to ECSEL (Emotional, Cognitive, and Social Early Learning) promotes the building blocks of emotional intelligence for lifelong learning, mental health, well-being, and success. Begin to ECSEL is a program that integrates children’s emotional, cognitive, and social worlds to help them recognize, become aware of, and effectively and successfully manage their emotions in the heat of the moment. Children’s first language is that of emotion, but while all children are born with feelings, behaviors, and a readiness to learn, the skills for controlling impulses and maintaining focus are not innate.

Begin to ECSEL integrates the principles of promoting emotional competence, self-regulation, and prosocial skills into the development and learning process through our unique program. We provide training for educators, health, and mental health professionals to promote these building blocks of emotional intelligence in children from birth; when caregivers are attuned to children and help them feel known and understood, they develop a strong and positive sense of self.

Begin to ECSEL online training courses are designed for teachers and caregivers of children from birth to eight years of age. The courses focus on strengthening knowledge of begin to ECSEL and its implementation, and increasing understanding of the underlying constructs that support the growth of children’s emotional, cognitive, and social early learning and development.

Emotional competence, empathy, self-regulation, and other critical emotional, cognitive and social early learning skills and competencies are addressed in this twelve-course program spanning two years. Current literature on the growth and development of children is reviewed and analyzed, in congruence with both verbal and video presentations of children’s behavior and functioning as observed in the classroom.

Teachers’ and caregivers’ own emotional competence is simultaneously supported and fostered through online coursework.

Each begin to ECSEL course includes three 30-minute self-paced modules and a 45-minute webinar. The ideal schedule to maximize comprehension and retention encourages completing one course each six weeks, and 12 courses over the span of two school years.

Program Goals

At the end of this training, learners will have the skills to successfully promote the building blocks of emotional intelligence and other critical emotional, cognitive, and social early learning skills in the children they work with, and within themselves.

• Learners will gain a better understanding of how to use begin to ECSEL language, techniques, and tools in their classroom to promote emotional intelligence of children at different developmental stages.
• Learners will become more aware of their own emotions, enhancing their overall emotional well-being. Learners will gain an ease in discussing their feelings and those of others, and a stronger foundation of knowledge about emotional, cognitive, and social learning.
• Learners will identify strategies to help them communicate with children, families, and co-workers, and be able to demonstrate empathy, problem solving, and caring as they respond to children's emotional outbursts.
• Learners will use reflective practices in their daily work with children, colleagues, and families.

Course Outline

(in addition to Teacher Courses)

1. Introduction to Reflective Practice
2. A Deeper Dive into Reflective Practice in Action
3. Extending Reflective Practice to Communication with Co-Workers
4. Extending Reflective Practice to Communication with Families