Stories, Songs, and Stretches! Online Certification Launching Spring 2019

June 21, 2018 by RoryLitwin

Press Release from Connected Communities and Library Juice Academy

June 21, 2018
Lexington KY
Media contact: Katie Scherrer, www.katiescherreryoga.com

Katie Scherrer of Connected Communities and Library Juice Academy are teaming up to release Stories, Songs, and Stretches! This online version of Katie’s certification of the same name trains participants to enhance preschool early learning with yoga-inspired movement and embodied play. Whether you’ve spent a career in the classroom or are brand new to working with kids 3-6, are an experienced yoga teacher or have never taken a yoga class in your life, Stories, Songs, and Stretches! will meet you where you are. This training is designed to respond to the unique needs—and share the diverse perspectives of—library staff, early childhood educators, and yoga teachers. It provides professional continuing education credits recognized by Yoga Alliance, most state libraries, and several state governing bodies of early childhood education.

Online training entails the completion of three, asynchronous, four-week classes:

Part One: Science and Standards
Take a deep dive into the science of yoga, national preschool standards in three distinct areas of early learning (physical literacy, early literacy, and social-emotional learning), and how they work together.

Part Two: Stretches and Stillness
Learn specific yoga-inspired mindful movement poses, sequences, and activities appropriate for preschool age children.

Part Three: Stories and Songs
Learn how to combine movement and play to create engaging, intentional, and fun programs and classes for preschool children and their adult caregivers.

Upon completion of all three modules, participants can complete a three-hour distance learning component and become certified Stories, Songs, and Stretches! program facilitators. Certified facilitators gain access to a private library of video demonstrations; branded, customizable marketing materials; and an online community of practice.

Workshops cost $175 each; all three training modules can be bundled together for $450. A diversity scholarship open to any interested person of color is available for every training session, which includes full tuition and a package of starter materials valued over $100. More information and application are available at www.katiescherreryoga.com. The first scheduled session of training will run March-May, 2019.

Katie Scherrer, MLIS, RYT is a library consultant and writer who worked for many years serving predominantly Latino communities as a bilingual children’s librarian. She has been teaching yoga to children and providing training to librarians and early childhood educators since 2012. The combination of these skills and passions led to the creation of Stories, Songs, and Stretches!, first as a book published by the American Library Association in 2017 and then as a certification program in 2018. Katie is also the coauthor of Once Upon a Cuento: Bilingual Storytimes in English and Spanish and one of the cofounders of the Be Project, a trauma-informed mindfulness education curriculum. More information about her work is available at www.connectedcommunitiesconsulting.com and www.katiescherreryoga.com.

Library Juice Academy offers a range of online professional development workshops for librarians and other library staff, focusing on practical topics to build new skills. Emphasis is on student interaction with instructors and with each other, supported by a variety of class assignments and reading materials. The instructors are librarians and LIS faculty who have developed specialized knowledge in the subjects they teach. Students come from all types of libraries and library positions. Bringing online continuing education to a new level since 2012. http://libraryjuiceacademy.com/