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GAYC CONFERENCE 2011
Tuesday - November 15, 2011
The Georgia Association on Young Children has closed the books on its 45th statewide conference, but some PACE hub participants are still raving about their experiences.
Daneea Badio says the annual event is a must-attend for her and the Parent Educators she supervises at the Franklin Road Weed and Seed hub site. “It’s knowledge building,” Badio says of the GAYC conference.“It helps to renew my passion for the work we do and to remind me that the work we do is constantly changing.”
GAYC Executive Director Pat Minish reports the 2011 conference drew about 2,700 attendees who partook in dozens of workshop and research presentations, as well as an exhibit hall comprised of 80 exhibitors. “There were 150 different presentations, so that allowed us to offer a lot of expertise on different levels and different topics,” Minish says.
GAYC staff member Linda Travers cites the growing diversity of sessions as one of the reasons the conference attracts so many attendees from the early education arena. “It’s not just serving the traditional babies and young children’s audience,” she says. “We’re reaching a broader range of children these days.”
Even so, Medalit Dean of the Franklin Road Weed and Seed program found the sessions targeting children under 36 months of age to be most helpful to her job as a Parent Educator. One of the presentations focused on language development for infants and toddlers. “I love it; it’s like a shot of energy,” Dean says of the GAYC event.
Fellow Parent Educator Alisha Smith agrees. Smith attended a research session that explored the impact of various dialects on a child’s acquisition of reading skills. “That was really big for me, because so many people speak so differently,” she says. “I really enjoyed that one.”
Another big highlight for the conference included an announcement from Bright from the Start Commissioner Bobby Cagle who unveiled Georgia’s new and voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement System which starts in January 2012.
Next year’s GAYC conference is scheduled for September 28-29, only a couple of weeks before the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center.