- Hello, hello, hello.

We are so glad you are here today for the Impact Early Childhood Education Summit.

The title of our session is Beyond the Checklist: Building Belonging.

Are you ready?

'Cause we are.

So we're gonna do some quick introductions to let you know who's in the room today.

And we ask that you give us grace, patience, and flexibility.

As early care and education professionals, we know how to pivot, right?

- Hello, my name is Danielle Caldwell.

I am a home-based early educator.

- Hi, I'm Kelly Green.

I work with Kindermusik International.

- Hello, hello again.

I am Margo Ford Crosby.

I am director of pre-K and before and after school with a school district within North Carolina and an adjunct instructor at Alamance Community College.

- Hello, I am Tammy Sneed, and I'm the director of The Goddard School in Durham.

- And we are all NCAEYC Equity Circle leaders, and that's how we connected.

- All right.

We just wanna take time just to acknowledge and show tribute and respect for our ancestral land that we are currently standing on today, the ancestral land of the Cherokee Nation here in Asheville.

Building belonging includes paying tribute to them and also acknowledging that this land that we stand on is land that they have called home and have held near and dear to their hearts.

And we just want to acknowledge them at this point.

- If you click on this link right here, it'll take you to a page that will show you, if you use your phone, and it'll take you to a page that will show you what land you are on right now as well.

- Absolutely.

We also want to pay a tribute and just take time to acknowledge our amazing, amazing black body labor that has contributed to the spaces that we dwell, that we learn in, grow in, and are in awe of.

These bodies, these black bodies, have given their hands and their skill to erect these amazing structures and these amazing pathways that we call homes and learning institutions.

Here in these pictures is the Biltmore Estate, the Smith-McDowell House, the Montford Area Historic District, beautiful homes there, as well as St. Matthias Episcopal Church.

These black bodies gave of their skill and their talents and were not recognized at the time that they did, but we recognize you now, and we pay tribute to you.

Thank you.

- Wow, that's powerful.

Thank you for sharing, Tammy.

- The previous two slides that we shared with you are exercises that we do at the beginning of each of our equity circle meetings that we've been holding together for the past three years almost now.

And we'd like to recognize and pay tribute to the three women that you see on your screen: Dr. Brenda K. Williamson, Dr. Valerie Jarvis McMillan, and Angela Wilson.

These three women founded the NCAEYC Equity Circle for which the four of us have been facilitators together for the past couple of years, and they helped build a safe, brave space where North Carolina early childhood educators can come together and talk about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

And their why was that racism exists in early childhood education.

And we wanna honor their inspiration and founding of this group.

Without them, we wouldn't be here today talking about this important topic with you.

Margo.

- Yep.

Are we ready?

Let's define belonging.

So at this time, we'll ask that you pause.

We recommend that you might pause the video to think about what is belonging.

Just create your own definition.

We all have our own definitions based off of our experiences in life and in our workplace and different things.

So a few that have just come out from within us talking and researching is: I found my community.

Honor me and my beliefs.

What does connectedness look like?

And thinking about access, opportunity, partnership, support.

And just that feeling free to be authentically me without fear of judgment.

Belonging means being a part of the decision making process.

So those are a few.

So we ask that right now you just pause the video.

We recommend that you pause the video and think about what belonging is to you.

Today's session, we are going to share with you what belonging definition we are utilizing, okay?

So the National Association for the Education of Young Children, NAEYC, defines belonging as a sense of connectedness to others, an individual's experience of being valued and accepted as part of a group, and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities needed for membership in a community.

This definition emphasizes the importance of relationships, connection, and a sense of community in promoting children's sense of belonging.

NAEYC recognizes that a strong sense of belonging is a foundational aspect of children's social and emotional development and contributes to their overall wellbeing.

By creating a sense of belonging in the classroom, educators and caregivers can help children feel safe, secure, and supported, which can promote positive relationships, self-esteem, and a love of learning.

So I want you to look at the words that are in bold print.

And think about what they mean to you.

Connectedness to others.

Valued and accepted.

A tongue twister.

Reciprocal rights and responsibilities needed for membership.

Relationships, connection, and a sense of community.

I love the word "community" because it has U-N-I-T-Y in it, unity.

So let's think about that.

And let's think about just the connectedness of others, okay?

- So you may be asking yourself, why is belonging an equity issue?

Well, let's talk about that.

Equity can create a sense of belonging for children.

And when that experience of equity, they feel that they are valued and included in the community, and that they have access to the same opportunities and resources as others.

That's what belonging has to do with equity.

- And when we think about belonging, we look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who studied positive human qualities in the lives in the exemplary people.

In 1954, Maslow created the hierarchy of human needs and expressed these theories in his book, "Motivation and Personality."

So when we look at his hierarchy of needs, at the very bottom are the physiological needs of a person, right?

We need food, we need love, we need shelter and safety.

And if you noticed, in the middle is love and belonging.

And so you can't feel love or belonging unless your physical needs are met, right?

So we breathe.

We need food, water, sex, sleep.

Yes, touch.

You know, all of our physical attributes that we need to live.

And then we need to feel safe.

We need to have a sense of security, right?

In order to belong, we need to feel secure.

That might mean that we have the resources that we need, that there's a sense of morality and fairness.

We have family who love us, and we are safe.

And we have a house to live in and all of our needs are met.

And not until those two things are met can we feel love, friendship, family, intimacy, the sense of belonging.

And we need all of these things before we can actually reach self-actualization, which is at the very top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

So consider these things when you are working with children, all of the things that they need to feel safe and secure before they can reach their highest self.

- We must remember all children- - All children.

- Go ahead.

- All children belong.

- All right.

So at this time, we want you to kind of, we recommend that you take a pause and that you, in a few minutes, we're going to read through a vignette of each one of these beautiful children that you see pictured on this screen.

And we ask that after each vignette that we read that you kind of pause.

We recommend that you pause and reflect.

Utilize the resources that were given within your handout within this recording.

And think of ways that we can ensure that we're building belonging for each one of these children, right?

So that's what we're gonna do.

So after each vignette, take a pause, and kind of reflect, and utilize the resources that are provided, okay?

So Mia.

so Mia's story is she's a four-year-old who enjoys socializing with her peers in her learning environment.

Dramatic play and art are her favorite areas in the classroom.

She comes to school with a smile on Monday mornings because she has been refueled by her family all weekend with affirming words and actions.

She often experiences direct and indirect microaggressions during rest time or while transitioning.

When walking in the hall, the teacher was speaking to another teacher and said, "I'm going to take those beads out of her head.

I wish her mom would not put those things in her head.

They are such a distraction, every move she makes."

And another time during rest time, one of her teachers said, "Mia, be still.

Your beads are going to wake the entire class up.

Stop wearing them to school if you can't be still."

So experiencing those negative comments from classroom staff, let's take a moment and pause and reflect how we can provide mirror, window, and sliding glass door experiences in this learning environment.

And one way is by reading books.

This book, "My Beads and Me," that is pictured on this slide may help.

- The next child that you had in your handout we will call James.

And James has difficulty making eye contact, both with the teacher in his classroom and with his fellow students.

He's easily overstimulated.

He's upset by changes in routine.

He doesn't enjoy pretend play in the dramatic play center.

He has difficulty interpreting nonverbal cues, and he loves repetition in the toys he plays with and in the foods he eats.

He likes to focus on certain things and really repeat them over and over again.

As you pause and consider James using your handouts and thinking about what can make him feel more included in the classroom.

'Cause going back to Maslow's hierarchy, right, you wanna find the things that would make him feel like part of community because he can't get to his learning part or his best self until he feels like he belongs.

And one of the suggestions we might have is reading the book "This Is Me."

But pause the video and go over your handouts and think of some ways that you might include James to feel more like he is part of the community in his classroom.

- All right.

And then we have amazing little Mateo.

Mateo has a wonderful story about him and his family.

With using the handouts and your conversations and just talking amongst yourselves and even talking to yourself, being reflective, you'll come to some conclusions with Mateo about belonging.

One thing that I will... Caldo, caldo, caldo.

And it's a wonderful, funny family story that really could connect and be something that provides a sense of belonging with Mateo.

Let me tell you about him.

Mateo was born in the United States to second-generation immigrant parents.

He lives with his parents, his birth parents, and his grandmother, and his grandfather, and his father's sister.

Mateo is very well cared for and loved by his family.

He enjoys spending time with them.

And Mateo's family speaks Spanish almost all the time.

And so he rarely hears any English.

On his first day of school, he knew nobody.

He spoke no English.

And that was a great experience for Mateo.

Neither of Mateo's teachers spoke Spanish as well, and nobody in his classroom spoke Spanish.

And so just think about that experience for him and what that would be like if you were Mateo.

And what could you do as an early educator to provide Mateo with a sense of belonging?

How could you bridge that gap with him with his language barrier?

All right, pause the video and take your time.

Think of some great things for him.

- This beautiful little girl is named Emma.

Emma is being raised by her single grandmother.

She has experienced a lot of change in her life.

She misses her mother very much.

She has experienced living in a lot of different places, and right now, she and her grandmother are experiencing housing insecurity.

Because of this, Emma does not feel safe, and whenever her grandmother leaves her, she remembers the last time that she saw her mother.

So she's afraid that whenever her grandmother leaves her that she will not return the same way that her mother did.

You know, she is experiencing poverty.

A lot of times, she comes to school with clothing that are too small or too big.

She is very possessive over the toys in her classroom because she remembers the toys that she used to have, and she thinks that if she leaves those toys, they will disappear the same where her belongings did.

She's very hesitant in joining in people during playtime because she remembers making friends and then suddenly not seeing them again.

So she is living in transition.

She does not trust her environment because of all the changes that she's gone through in her short life.

Pause the video right now and reflect on how you can build a sense of belonging and security for little Miss Emma.

- So before Tammy gets started on this slide, I just wanna reflect on the four, or say one thing about the four vignettes.

The names below that were chosen, they were chosen from most popular names from 2019, okay?

They're four-year-olds.

And these pictures were pictures that, you know, have been approved for virtual usage, but the names that we chose were the most popular names from 2019.

I just wanted to put that out there.

- Mm-hmm.

Thanks, Margot.

- I think it would be helpful, since we're not in person, for each of us to also share one suggestion that we might have if we had been workshopping this in person with something that we think would help the child that we presented.

And so, Margot, did you wanna suggest one for yours?

- Other than the book reading in the class, I would definitely think of making some noise with the baby.

Mia, I have on some noise makers.

And for some people in this session, that may have irritated them, right?

But providing that sense of belonging within this environment.

I need my beads.

They're comforting for me.

- Sure.

And I would say for James, one of the things that I learned is providing an opportunity when he's focused on something.

Like, he focuses on something.

Can that be something that the class focuses on one day or one week that helps James feel like other children might be interested in the things that he is focused in on?

Tammy.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And I like those ideas.

For Mateo, I would encourage the educators to just take some time.

Talk to the family.

Learn some vocabulary.

Just learn some simple things to say to Mateo.

Greet him in Spanish every single day.

Learn what you can and study hard.

This is part of what we do.

And I know that it can be successful for little Mateo, as well as any other child that enters your room with English or any other language or multi-language learners.

- And for Emma, I would want you to consider that there are so many different family types.

You know, we have grandmothers who are raising children, adopted parents.

And so in your correspondence, I would leave out parents and just say families because we know there are so many different family types.

And so if we refer to guardians and parents or grandmothers as families, no one will be left out.

- That's powerful.

- That is.

that's powerful.

I love it.

I love it.

So now you're at this point.

And so you've heard the stories, you've read through, you've taken some time.

I hope you've paused long enough to get some real good ideas and things.

Now you're at the point where you're feeling a little inspired.

So just be thinking about that.

Look, take a little second to think what really inspired you?

And what made you feel inspired?

What changes have you been inspired to adapt at this point?

There's always the possibilities of having more, but maybe you wanna be inspired to welcome everyone at the table.

You want everyone to have a seat there.

Maybe you'll be inspired to find a little room for differences in celebrations and how it happens in your spaces.

And perhaps you've even began to become thinking about being more inclusive with your interactions with children with disabilities and delays and even something as simple as glasses.

Welcoming and providing spaces and grounds for belonging is so powerful and it's so meaningful to these little children.

You have set the tone and the pace for them to become acceptant and adapting to providing belonging.

It creates a space that is contagious.

And you want it to be a wildfire of belonging for all people.

- Yes.

- Pause here and reflect again on what you've heard, what you considered, what actions you can take, what things.

Make a long list.

I mean, don't stop.

Keep it going.

Share those ideas with your colleagues.

Share them with your families.

Bring them to your meetings so that you can create that belonging throughout this space.

There is a link in your handouts that you can use to kind of share some more ideas and to get more resources if you need to.

- If you want- - Are you passionate?

- Yeah, go ahead.

No, go ahead, Danielle.

Sorry.

- Are you passionate about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging?

Please join us for our monthly meetings, where we continue our learning and development in a safe and brave space.

We are the NCAYEC Equity Circle leaders, and we invite you to join us in our monthly meeting.

- All right, thank you, thank you, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

We look forward to hopefully seeing you one day soon.

And bring a child that you wanna help with belonging, and we'll talk it out in our monthly sessions.

- Most definitely.

I love that idea, Kelly.

We want you to reflect on these four beautiful children and the stories, vignettes that we share with you.

Share them, like Tammy said, with your coworkers and with your family and expound and share and encourage everyone to have that sense of belonging.

- Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

- Now, we know you wanna connect with us, right?

So we are all on LinkedIn.

As Danielle shared, don't forget to click on that link, well, not click, but use your phone, and connect with us through that link so that you can join us and learn about our monthly sessions, where we discuss any and everything in a safe, brave space, right?

We give each other the opportunity to show up authentic and to have those critical conversations.

And we leave better than we came.

Danielle, Kelly, Tammy, and myself, you can all find us on LinkedIn by our names.

We ask that you connect with us if you would like to, but we definitely hope to see you in our monthly sessions, where we can continue on our journey of building belonging.

All right.

- Absolutely.

- Thank you, everybody.

We hope to see you soon.

- Thank you.

- Have a great day.

- Be well.