West Tennessee Fall Conference.

The West Tennessee ACEI Branch held the WTACEI Fall 2005 Conference at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, on September 25, 2005. More than 150 early childhood educators gathered to seek out new ideas at the conference, "Going the Extra Mile--Making the Hard Stuff Easy."

The format of the conference included a walkthrough Hall of Excellence, two large group sessions, a morning brunch and business meeting, and keynote speaker Sharon MacDonald.

The conference began with the Hall of Excellence, which recognized and honored outstanding classroom teachers (PreK-5) from across the area. This was followed by the morning presenters, Will Beyer and Deborah S. Neill. Will Beyer holds dual licensure as a Senior Psychological Examiner-HSP and Licensed Professional Counselor-MHSP. He is the Chairman of the Walton Harrison Council for Children and was named the 2001 Child Advocate of the Year. His challenging words documented research and included classroom strategies to use with children diagnosed with ADHD and ADD, while going the extra mile and making the hard stuff easy. Deborah Neill is the Director of the Adult, Child Care and Community Program for Tennessee Department of Human Services. She is a licensed Psychological Examiner and has worked almost exclusively in the area of child-related services for the past 31 years. She has worked in the areas of mental health, school psychology, special education, developmental disabilities, juvenile justice, child welfare, and child care. Neill has been instrumental in taking Tennessee to the top in developing policies and procedures to implement Tennessee's Star Rating system. As part of this process, Tennessee has increased licensing staff so that more monitoring and consultation visits are made to licensed agencies. Neill presented an in-depth overview of Tennessee's progress and advancement in protecting the children of Tennessee.

The participants adjourned for a mid-morning brunch and the WTACEI business meeting. The current Executive Board members were recognized and thanked by the members and the 2006 Board was presented and elected by the attending members. Next, the 2005-2006 recipients of the Shirley Raines Scholarship were announced and recognized. The Branch established the Shirley Raines Scholarship in 2000 as an academic scholarship for early childhood educators. Applicants must have completed TECTA Orientation and be enrolled in TECTA coursework or be enrolled in either a graduate or an undergraduate program of study in early childhood education. Each applicant must be actively involved in early childhood education and hold ACEI membership, The recipients are expected to highlight activities in the Hall of Excellence with a presentation during the WTACEI Fall Conference. This year's recipients were Lydia Rosario, Starla Mansfield, Tammy Brewer, and Brenda Harvill.

Following the brunch and business meeting, the participants gathered and were greeted by Sharon MacDonald, keynote speaker. Sharon has been training teachers for over 19 years throughout the United States on a variety of early childhood topics. Her training is based on her unique perspective from 28 years as an early childhood teacher. She began by thanking the participants for being early childhood educators, a most important task! Her practical ideas, down-to-earth approaches, and enthusiastic presentation style energized and delighted the participants. Her know-how captivated the early childhood educators early on and she guided them through a variety of interactive developmentally appropriate activities that could be easily implemented into the classroom.

Sharon concluded, "Through these activities, you will be applying what has been learned from brain research with young children over the past decade. Using this approach improves children's learning retention. The approach emphasizes interaction and involvement by the children."

Participants left the full-day event refreshed, with smiles on their faces, a boost to their self-esteem as early childhood professionals, and their pockets filled with new ideas and activities for teaching!

To learn more about West Tennessee ACEI, visit the Branch's Web site at www.uu.edu/wtacei/.

Anna Clifford, WTACEI Executive Board Jessica Beaver, WTACEI President