3rd Annual
Growing Together Summer Summit 2025
(2026 Summer Summit will be the Play Pep Rally!)
Embedded Files
A Virtual Professional Learning Experience for Early Childhood Educators
A Virtual Professional Learning Experience for Early Childhood Educators
Promoting Joyful Literacy, Equity and Play in PreK through 2nd Grade Classrooms
July 22, 23, 24, 2025
1:00-3:30pm ET/10:00am-12:30pm PT on Zoom
Join us for presentations, workshops and gathering spaces focused on creating emotionally, culturally, and developmentally responsive teaching and learning experiences for young children.
We welcome new and returning Summer Summit participants.
There will be a variety of topics offered with new session titles for 2025!
School-based educators, including classroom teachers, leaders, specialists, authors, and consultants from a range of settings, will share current and powerful scholarship, strategies, and structures.
Gift yourself the opportunity to connect with other colleagues, learn together, recommit to your passion for teaching, and work to protect and promote your beliefs and practices as a joyful, creative, and responsive educator.
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A Sampling of Summit Topics
Cultivating Powerful Family-School Partnerships through Creative and Authentic Interactive Experiences
Nurturing Identities, Emotional Health, and Relationships through Curriculum and Community
Crafting Emotionally and Culturally Responsive Lessons - Read Aloud, Storytelling, Writing, and More
Embracing Nature-Based Experiences as Pathways to Academic Growth, Emotional Health, and Environment Awareness
Practical and Powerful Ways to Incorporate Playful and Joyful Learning into Your Daily Schedule
Leveraging the Benefits of Play and Experiential Learning to Support Pro-Social Learning and Curriculum-Specific Outcomes
Leading School-Wide Initiatives to Foster a More Inclusive, Emotionally-Centered Community
Advocacy at the Classroom, School, and Community Level for Emotionally, Developmentally, and Culturally Responsive Practices
Reviews from Past Summit Participants
"A powerful injection of playful inspiration. Being surrounded by thoughtful educators committed to playful learning, within an easy-to-navigate and welcoming online space was a treat. Thank you for organizing this learning opportunity!" -Megina Baker, Project Zero at Harvard University and Boston Public Schools
"The workshops were very insightful. I walked away from this 3 day summit eager to share my learning with colleagues and begin to implement these practices in my own classroom." -Ashley, NYC educator
"Truly an inspirational experience!" Colleen Flaherty, First Grade Teacher, Red Bank, NJ
"I am thankful to have these workshops to teach into literacy, play, and family engagement which I can use immediately in September to enhance my classroom for myself, students, and their families! As a first time Kindergarten teacher, I collected so many strategies that will be useful to take with me in this new experience!" -Kelvin Sage, NYC educator
"The Growing Together Summit was a phenomenal learning experience from start to finish. The summit was thoughtfully prepared and leveraged ECE expert voices as well as participant knowledge. It was a pleasure to learn from and with the summit participants!" -Maura Shetty, Assistant Professor
The Growing Together 2024 Summit filled me with inspiration, knowledge, and joy to kickstart the new school year! I can't wait for the next gathering of this collaborative group! -Cynthia Williams, educational coach/consultant
"The Growing Together Summer Summit is the perfect mix of inspiration, practical ideas, and collaboration. The presenters offer inspiring but still practical ideas. It feels like a true community of like-minded educators, which is so needed today."
"A wonderful experience with knowledgable presenters! An experience that all educators should participate in."
Meet Our 2025 Opening Speakers!
Meet Our 2025 Opening Speakers!
We are honored to have the co-authors of The Gift of Playful Learning, a resource for educators that highlights culturally relevant approaches to support play-based learning in the early years, opening the Summit this year!
Angelique Thompson
Angelique Thompson
Angelique is a Reading and Kindergarten Specialist who has many years of experience teaching in Primary, Junior and Intermediate Divisions, in the Toronto District School Board. She is currently a Kindergarten educator and former Learning Network School Improvement Process Coach and Early Reading Coach. Angelique is passionate about infusing issues of Equity and Social Justice into Early Years classrooms using play-based approaches to learning. She graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Education and a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Psychology. She has been a curriculum writer and substantive editor for many documents for the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. Angelique is the recipient of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto Excellence in Teaching Equity Award, 2009 and The Toronto District School Board’s Celebrating Excellence in the TDSB Award for Program/Project Excellence, 2010 along with a team of educators. She is also the recipient of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario Writer’s Award for Women’s Programs for 2019 for her article, "Sisters in the Struggle: Racialized Women and Microaggressions in the Workplace," published in ETFO Voice. Angelique is a dynamic facilitator and Educational Consultant for the Coaches Corner EY. Follow Angelique on Twitter @a_thompsonclass
N. Kenisha Bynoe
N. Kenisha Bynoe
Nadia Kenisha Bynoe has been teaching for several years in the Toronto District School Board as a French Immersion Kindergarten educator and is presently a seconded to the Faculty of Education at York University as a Course Director and Practicum Facilitator. Kenisha currently instructs the Kindergarten and Reading Additional Qualification course at York University and the Elementary Teacher Federation of Ontario. She has published a few children's books and is the author of Shades of Me, Shade of Happiness and The Right Shade for Me. These books address issues of social justice and unearth the complexities of skin complexion and shadeism. Kenisha has a Master’s of Education (M.Ed.) from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education in the department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education and graduated from Windsor University where she earned her Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) with a focus on Urban Education and Native studies. She is passionate about fostering equity, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Anti-Bias approaches to teaching and learning that foster play in the Early Years. Kenisha is an Educational Consultant for Coaches Corner EY. Follow Kenisha on twitter @booklamations.
Rachel Tidd
Rachel Tidd
Rachel Tidd is passionate about using outdoor and place-based learning to enhance literacy and math instruction. She is the author of the book Wild Learning: Practical Ideas to Bring Teaching Outdoors and the Wild Math® and Wild Reading® Curricula series. Rachel is a former elementary special education teacher with an M.S.Ed. in Elementary and Special Education from Bank Street College of Education. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where her research is focused on building sustainability literacy within the language arts curriculum. You can find her at discoverwildlearning.com.
Meet Our 2025 Session Presenters and Facilitators!
Meet Our 2025 Session Presenters and Facilitators!
Alison Porcelli
District Staff Developer, Katonah-Lewisboro School District, NY
Co-Author of Purposeful Play:A Teacher’s Guide to Igniting Deep and Joyful Learning Across the Day
Camille Sieunarine
New York City Lead Elementary Teacher
Instructional Leadership Team Member and Community Liaison, New Bridges Elementary School
Courtney Crenshaw
New York City Elementary and Early Childhood Teacher
New Bridges Elementary, Brooklyn and PS 11, Manhattan
Jody Langan
3rd Grade Teacher in Minnesota and former English Language Development specialist in grades PK-12
previous Director for ESL & Bilingual Programming for the district of Minneapolis.
Kris McPherson
New York City Model Educator, Waterside Children's Studio School, Queens, NY
Equity Team Leader, Integrated Co-Teacher and Coach specializing in teaching autistic students
Liz Franchi
Transitional Kindergarten Teacher, Santa Monica, CA
Math PD Facilitator and Labsite Coach for Cotsen and UCLA v
Nature-Based Learning Educator and Advocate
Olatinuke Forsythe
Kindergarten Teacher, New Bridges Elementary School, New York City
Instructional Leadership Team Member
Shan White
NYC Lead Elementary Teacher and Leaders in Education Apprenticeship Program (LEAP) Apprentice
Fundations Facilitator, New Teacher Mentor, and Equity Team Member
Educational Expedition Leader who guides students through immersive experiences that transcend traditional classroom boundaries
Kindergarten Teacher
Katonah-Lewisboro School District, NY
Some of Our Past Presenters Have Inlcuded...
Some of Our Past Presenters Have Inlcuded...
Arlène Elizabeth Casimir
Arlène Elizabeth Casimir
Founder of Reveye, an educational consultancy and awakening collaborative
Arlène's is a teacher, herbalist, healer, and writer.
Her wisdom and light shines in her publications, Trauma-Responsive Pedagogy and her new picture book, Back Home: Story Time with My Father.
Haeny Yoon
Haeny Yoon
Associate Professor and Program Director of Early Childhood at Teachers College, Columbia University
Haeny's work explores the ways teachers and children negotiate spaces of play as pedagogical, curricular, and intellectual practice. She is co-author of Rethinking Early Literacies: Reading and Rewriting Worlds and editor of the Literacy and Play volume of Literacy Today.
She is co-host of a Digital Futures produced podcast, Pop and Play, holding serious and playful conversations with researchers, educators, designers, children, and media-makers about the role of play and creativity in their personal and professional lives.
Nawal Qarooni
Founder & Lead Consultant, NQC Literacy
Author of a forthcoming Book on Caregiver Collaboration: Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations: Elevating Home Experiences and Classroom Practices for Collective Care
Aeriale Johnson
Reggio-Inspired, Abolitionist Educator
Consultant and Owner of Kinder Bender Consulting
Author of a forthcoming professional text, Possibilities of Poetry
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