As an educator, you’ve seen how big feelings show up in young children—during transitions, peer conflicts, and moments of frustration or excitement. Because children don’t fully understand their emotions, they need caring adults to guide them—and that’s not always easy, especially in a new role or setting.

How can we support emotional regulation when there are so many emotions happening at once? The answer lies in understanding emotional development, attachment, and our own self-awareness.

Join Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant Molly Pope for four, 1-hour virtual conversations across the school year. This small group series is rooted in deepening your self-awareness, which will support how you show up with children, families and colleagues. Molly will offer trauma-sensitive strategies, space to reflect, and support for navigating the emotional ups and downs of classroom life. 

Session 1: Being a Self-Aware Educator

Before we can support children’s big emotions, we need to tune into our own. This session invites you to practice self-awareness—not as an inner critic, but as a compassionate observer of your thoughts, feelings, and reactions in the classroom. Together, we’ll explore how our emotional state, history, and stress responses shape how we show up with children and families. Through reflective exercises and conversation, you’ll deepen your ability to notice what’s happening inside yourself, and use that awareness to make thoughtful, intentional choices in your work.

Registration for this professional development is open to educators in all Alliance-member schools. Please sign up using the link in your 2026-2027 Member School Educator Program Guide. Contact us if you need a Program Guide or have questions about individual or school Alliance memberships.