Building Connections - How to use Learning Stories to build connections and strengthen relationships
Presented by Joan Ryan & Annalie Sherman
AM Workshop: 10:30–11:45 AM PT
This workshop explores how Learning Stories can strengthen meaningful connections between school, children, and families, building the trusting relationships that are essential to a child’s healthy emotional development.
Through presentation, examples, group discussion, and Q&A, participants will discover practical ways to use Learning Stories throughout a child’s journey—from the very first connection with a family to the child’s transition or farewell.
Participants will explore approaches including home visits and orientations, name origin stories, welcome stories, family culture-sharing stories, group stories, farewell stories and “love letters” to children. The session will also consider meaningful ways to invite and encourage family responses to Learning Stories and how story writing can be used to deepen relationships among peers and colleagues.
Attendees will leave with practical ideas for using storytelling as a bridge between home and school—honoring children, elevating family voices, and strengthening a shared sense of belonging.
Audience: Infant/Toddlers; 3-6 years; Inclusion; Family Childcare; Administrators; Parents
Joan Ryan
Great Pacific Child Development Center
Joan Ryan is the Infant Toddler Classroom Manager at Patagonia's Great Pacific Child Development Center. I live and work in Ventura County, CA and have been supporting children's learning and family connections through Learning Stories for nearly ten years. I have been married for 43 wonderful years, have 2 adult children and a beautiful 10 month old grandson. I enjoy reading, travel, and spending quiet and not-so-quiet moments with family and friends.
Annalie Sherman
Great Pacific Child Development Center
Annalie Sherman is an Infant Toddler Classroom Teacher at Patagonia's Great Pacific Child Development Center. Raised in Ventura, California, I am grounded by a love for the ocean and outdoors, spending my time surfing, camping, hiking, and beachcombing, as well as writing and playing music! I recently completed my first year of teaching at GPCDC and hold a bachelor's degree in psychology from California State University Channel Islands, where I graduated with magna cum laude. I am passionate about creating learning environments where children can explore freely, build confidence, and develop a deep sense of wonder for the world around them!