Build staff enthusiasm and capacity for LENA Grow during a launch or expansion
As you launch or expand your LENA Grow program, aim to cultivate awareness and enthusiasm within your own team early on. By nurturing your staff's commitment and confidence, you empower them to pass on that positive energy during recruitment, orientation, and coaching.
Team Meeting (recommended)
Consider introducing LENA Grow in a team meeting where you can:
- Communicate your vision, plans, and goals.
- Introduce team members to their potential roles.
- Address any concerns up front.
Some resources to share in a meeting:
-
LENA Grow — Make every interaction count in early childhood education (video)
- All About LENA Grow (video) English | Spanish
- Bringing LENA Grow to Your Site (presentation, tailored for center directors but gives good context for coaching staff) English | Spanish
- Sample materials such as Coach Guide, Teacher Guide, device, vest, Our LENA Day storybook, etc.
- Your program's general timeline
If a meeting is not possible, an email can be an effective starting point, too.
Sample email language - adjust to fit your team:
Dear Team,
I'm excited to share that we have a new tool to enhance children's language, literacy, and social emotional development while boosting teacher satisfaction: LENA Grow!
LENA Grow is a 5-week, job-embedded professional development program for early childhood educators. It uses objective feedback and strengths-based coaching to increase teacher-child interaction during everyday routines and activities. What sets it apart is its use of a “talk pedometer” tool to gather objective data about the classroom language environment. Coaches and teachers then use weekly reports to identify patterns, goals, and strategies to ensure that each child's day is rich in interactive talk. The program provides practical "Talking Tip" techniques and examples of how to use them with different developmental ages.
This focus on talk is especially important to us as we’ve been following the research on how early interactions influence brain development. Check out a quick video about the impact here. Our goal with LENA Grow is to [Ex: use this tool in every Infant/Toddler room by the end of next year... use this tool to support every early childhood educator with fewer than 3 years experience in our district ... enhance our existing coaching processes with this language-intensive tool... build mentoring capacity among the teaching staff in the sites we support... empower teachers to raise CLASS scores related to language... etc.]
We are still finalizing details, but you will be a part of this effort either as a coach or through some other capacity. Look for an invitation to begin training for LENA Grow in the coming weeks.
If you have questions as more information comes out, please don’t hesitate to contact:
[Insert Program Manager info.]
This is an exciting opportunity to elevate (and celebrate!) the experiences of the teachers and kids in our programs. Thank you in advance for your partnership in this innovative work!
Questions?
Your team is likely to have many questions! The most common questions are answered in the online training courses, so it will help if you have already reviewed those. It's also ok to say you're not sure but will find out! You can always reach out to your LENA Partner Success Manager for answers.