This page lists the Teacher Program ITSN trainings, their descriptions, and the core competency areas for each of the trainings. The list below will be updated as more trainings become available.
Texas Infant, Toddler, and Three-Year-Old Early Learning Guidelines (ITELGs)Providing Developmentally Appropriate Activities Supporting Language and Communication Supporting Social and Emotional Development Supporting Early Literacy Development Supporting Early Cognitive Development Supporting Early Physical Development and Health Supporting Development Supporting Family Engagement Classroom Environment and Teacher Competencies Texas Core Competencies for Practitioners Circle Infant & Toddler Foundations Training
ITELG Social Emotional
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper dive into ITELG: Early Social and Emotional Development, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. Key components: Trust and Emotional Security, Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, and Relationships with Others.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
ITELG Physical
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper dive into ITELG: Physical Health and Motor Development, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. Key Components: Health and Well-being, Gross Motor Skills, and Fine Motor Skills.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
ITELG Cognitive
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper dive into ITELG: Early Cognitive Development, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. Key Components: Exploration and Discovery, Problem Solving, Memory, and Imitation & Make Believe.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
ITELG Language
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper dive into ITELG: Early Language and Communication, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. Key Components: Listening and Understanding, Communication and Speaking, and Emergent Literacy.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Circle Activity Collection: Infant and Toddler
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the Circle Activity Collection by exploring fundamental knowledge and teaching strategies to support children’s development from birth through 36 months.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development, Observation and Assessment
Talk with Me: Part 1
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of Talk with Me: Promoting Early Language Development- Part 1, exploring fundamental knowledge and instructional strategies, including labeling, describing, comparing, and explaining.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Talk with Me: Part 2
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Talk with Me: Promoting Early Language Development- Part 2, exploring fundamental knowledge and instructional strategies, including linking, narrating, thinking aloud, rephrasing, and extending.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Talk with Me: Part 3
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of Talk with Me: Promoting Early Language Development- Part 3, exploring fundamental knowledge and instructional strategies, including asking questions, pacing, encouraging conversation, inviting participation, and scaffolding.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Connect With Me: Part 1
Designed for teachers to better understand Connect with Me: Promoting Social and Emotional Development- Part 1, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. The strategies included in this session are Express Warmth & Affection, Comfort Children in Distress, Label Feelings, Back and Forth Play, and Use Praise to Encourage Cooperation.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Connect With Me: Part 2
Designed for teachers to better understand Connect with Me: Promoting Social and Emotional Development- Part 2, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. The strategies included in this session are Be Predictable, Redirect Undesired Behaviors, Follow Consistent Daily Schedules & Routines, Help Children Share Space, and Support Turn-Taking.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
Connect With Me: Part 3
Designed for teachers to better understand Connect with Me: Promoting Social and Emotional Development – Part 3, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. The strategies included in this session are Talk about Connections between Feelings, Actions, and Events, Encourage Children to Talk about Feelings, Engage Children in Activities to Promote Positive Interactions, Engage Children in Activities to Build Emotional Understanding, and Offer Prompts for Peer Interaction.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Connect with Me: Part 4
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Connect with Me: Promoting Social and Emotional Development – Part 4, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. The strategies included in the session are Model Prosocial Behaviors, Provide Verbal and Physical Cues for Self-Control, Offer Opportunities for Children to Make Choices, Explain What Comes Next, and Help Resolve Peer Conflicts.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Connect With Me: Part 5A
Challenging Behaviors Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Connect with Me: Preventing and Responding to Challenging Behaviors- Part 5, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, covering five of the challenging behaviors presented in the course (Infant Distress, Separation Anxiety, Stranger Anxiety, Tantrums, and Saying No).
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
Connect With Me: Part 5B
Challenging Behaviors Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Connect with Me: Preventing and Responding to Challenging Behaviors- Part 5, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, covering three of the challenging behaviors presented in the course (Hitting, Kicking, Pinching or Pushing Others; Biting; and Not Sharing Toys).
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
Read with Me: Part 1
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Read with Me: Promoting Early Literacy Development – Part 1, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including reading with enthusiasm, sharing control, inviting interest, talking about pictures, and encouraging participation.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
Read with Me: Part 2
This session is designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Read with Me: Promoting Early Literacy Development – Part 2, exploring critical knowledge and professional strategies, practicing fine motor, rhythm, and rhyme, linking to experiences, pointing out print, model writing, and use props and extenders.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
Learn with Me: Part 1
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Learn with Me: Promoting Early Cognitive Development – Part 1, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including promoting sensory exploration, encouraging observation, encouraging effort and persistence, maintaining children’s attention, and encouraging imitation.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Learn with Me: Part 2
This session is designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Learn with Me: Promoting Early Cognitive Development-Part 2, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, explaining and demonstrating how things work, talking about sequence, engaging children in math activities, and model and join in pretend play.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Learn with Me: Part 3
This session is designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Learn with Me: Promoting Early Cognitive Development – Part 3, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, promoting flexibility in thinking, modeling problem solving aloud, scaffolding children’s learning by simplifying and scaffold children’s learning by adding challenge.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Move with Me: Part 1
Designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Move with Me: Promoting Early Physical Development and Health – Part 1, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including engaging infants in tummy time, providing supported sitting, promoting gross motor skills, and fine motor skills.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Move with Me: Part 2
This session is designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Move with Me: Promoting Early Physical Development and Health – Part 2, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, responding to physical needs, talking about nutritious foods, teaching safety words and actions, teaching body parts and their functions, modeling and encouraging expression of internal states, and modeling and encourage self-care skills.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development
Grow with Me
This session is designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the topic Grow with Me: Understanding and Using Developmental Assessments, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Observation and Assessment
Family Engagement: Part 1-Partnering with Families
This session is designed for teachers to understand Family Engagement-Partnering with Families better, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including establishing positive communication with families, building relationships, and overcoming barriers to family engagement.
Core Competency Areas: Family and Community Relationships, Instituting Family and Community-Centered Programming
Family Engagement: Part 2-Play-Based learning
This session is designed for teachers to understand Family Engagement in play-based learning better, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies. It focuses on research-driven strategies to encourage play-based learning and responsive interactions at home.
Core Competency Areas: Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development, Family and Community Relationships, Instituting Family and Community-Centered Programming
Circle Infant and Toddler Classroom Environment Checklist
This session is designed for teachers better to understand the Circle Infant & Toddler Classroom Environment Checklist, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development, Observation and Assessment
Circle Infant and Toddler Teacher Competencies
This session is designed for teachers better to understand the Circle Infant & Toddler Teacher Competencies tools, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development, Observation and Assessment
Area 1: Child Growth and Development
This session is designed for teachers to understand Texas Core Competencies Area 1: Child Growth and Development, explore fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, and identify critical factors influencing child growth and development.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
Area 2: Responsive Interactions and Guidance
This session is designed for teachers to understand better the Texas Core Competencies Area 2: Responsive Interactions and Guidance, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including rephrasing behavioral expectations and demonstrating responsive interactions and guidance in the classroom.
Core Competency Areas: Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
Area 3: Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards
This session is designed for teachers to understand Texas Core Competencies Area 3: Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum, and Standards, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including ways to arrange the learning environment and establish and follow consistent daily schedules.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development
Area 4: Supporting Skill Development
This session is designed for teachers to understand Texas Core Competencies Area 4: Supporting Skill Development, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including competencies that support infant and toddler social and emotional development and language and communication development.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development, Observation and Assessment
Area 5: Observation and Assessment
This session is designed for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of the Texas Core Competencies Area 5: Observation and Assessment, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including ways to document child observations and how to communicate assessment results in an accurate, positive, and non-judgmental way.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Supporting Skill Development, Observation and Assessment
Area 6: Diversity and Dual Language Learners
This session is designed for teachers to understand better Texas Core Competencies Area 6: Diversity and Dual Language Learners, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including recognizing the importance of a family’s culture as an influence on a child’s development.
Core Competency Areas: Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development, Diversity and Dual Language Learners
Area 7: Family and Community Relationships
This session is designed for teachers to understand Texas Core Competencies Area 7: Family and Community Relationships, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies, including establishing and maintaining healthy working relationships with families.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development, Diversity and Dual Language Learners, Family, and Community Relationships
Area 8: Health, Safety, and Nutrition
This session is designed for teachers to understand better Texas Core Competencies for Practitioners Area 8: Health, Safety, and Nutrition by exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Health, Safety and Nutrition
Area 9: Professionalism and Ethics
This session is designed for Teachers to better understand Texas Core Competencies for Practitioners Area 9: Professionalism and Ethics, exploring fundamental knowledge and professional strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Family and Community Relationships, Professionalism and Ethics
Circle Infant & Toddler Foundations Training: Best Practices
In this training, teachers will increase knowledge and skills about best practices to support infants’ and toddlers’ development. Teachers will also explore their role in responsive caregiving and fostering an environment that encourages inclusion, culturally appropriate methods, and healthy social-emotional development.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development Child Development: Domains, Stages, and Milestone, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development, Observation and Assessment, Supporting Children with Special Needs, Diversity and Dual Language Learners, Cultural Diversity and Equity
Circle Infant & Toddler Foundations Training: Social and Emotional
Teachers will increase knowledge and skills in this training to support children’s social-emotional development. Teachers will also explore their role in fostering an environment that promotes social-emotional skills and practice teaching strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Learning Environment, Planning Framework, Curriculum and Standards, Supporting Skill Development, Social and Emotional Development: Self-Concept, Behavior Regulation, Emotional Control, Attention, and Social Skills, Family and Community Relationships
Circle Infant & Toddler Foundations Training: Language and Communication
In this training, teachers will increase their knowledge and skills to support infants’ and toddlers’ language development. Teachers will also explore their role in providing responsive caregiving, fostering an environment promoting language and communication skills, and practicing teaching strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development, Language and Communication: Listening, Speaking, and Vocabulary, Family and Community Relationships
Circle Infant & Toddler Foundations Training: Cognitive
In this training, teachers will increase their knowledge and skills to support infants’ and toddlers’ cognitive development. Teachers will also explore their role in providing responsive caregiving, fostering an environment promoting cognitive skills, and practicing teaching strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Scaffolding and Communication-Based Strategies: Supporting Cognitive and Language Development, Supporting Skill Development, Mathematics, Science
Circle Infant & Toddler Foundations Training: Physical Health and Motor
In this training, teachers will increase knowledge and skills to support infants’ and toddlers’ physical development. Teachers will also explore their role in fostering an environment that promotes safety, physical health, and motor skills and practice teaching strategies.
Core Competency Areas: Child Growth and Development, Responsive Interactions and Guidance, Supporting Skill Development, Physical Development, Health, Safety and Nutrition