Educator Symposium Watch Party

We just held our seventh Educator Symposium Watch Party at GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster and we are celebrating the growth! Over the past four years, twice per year, we have invited representatives from all 16 school districts in Lancaster County, 12 local private schools or outpatient therapy centers, our local IU13 Early Intervention & School-Age programs, four local colleges/universities, and two adult service-providers. They’re asked to come to their local Playhouse to watch a live stream of the National Educator’s Symposium to learn how people with Down syndrome learn best and some of the best strategies to teach them. We hosted six people at our first watch party in September 2022. We have welcomed a total of 26 different attendees in total at our past watch parties, and we are thoroughly pleased with the impact it made for each of them. However, we felt like we were still just scratching the surface within our schools and communities. We continued inviting attendees on social media, emailing flyers, asking families and educators to post flyers, and sending printed flyers to districts. 

We are excited to share that this past Educator Symposium Watch party was our largest yet! GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster is definitely starting to make a difference in our community, one educator and one school at a time. On Saturday, September 21st, we welcomed 18 attendees from six different school districts and organizations across Lancaster county. Attendees included parents, grandparents, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, teachers, special education teachers, paraprofessionals, GiGi’s volunteers, GiGi’s tutors, and college students studying in the field. It was beneficial to have everyone in the same room, hearing the same information and experiencing it together. Coming together in person provided us with time to meet each other and network.

We set up the watch party similar to a teacher inservice day, with coffee, drinks, breakfast foods, lunch, and snacks. We all sat together at tables, and had handouts, folders, and pens for attendees. We also had a resource table to display some of the curriculum, visuals, and materials referenced in the symposium and used at GiGi’s for 1:1 math and literacy tutoring, GiGiFIT, Amina Grace Speech and Language, and group programming.

The topics of the symposium were:

• Welcome from our Chief Belief Officer, Nancy Gianni and “The” Gigi herself!
• Down Syndrome 101
• How I Learn
• Strategies for Teaching Math and Literacy
• Supporting Speech and Motor Skills for Students with Down syndrome in the Classroom
• Promoting Positive Behavior

During the presentation, we tried to involve attendees, using hands-on materials to encourage participation. We passed around a sensory bin with letters in it and had Brain Break cards on a ring for educators to take back to their school with them. We also provided oven mitts to do the oven mitt challenge together, to simulate what it feels like to have hypotonia, low muscle tone.

We encouraged all attendees to get up and do the GiGiFIT movement breaks to improve gross motor skills.

We also used our pencils to practice the pencil exercises presented to increase fine motor control.

One unique collaboration this year at our watch party was that a special education teacher, regular education teacher, and paraprofessional from one school district came to the symposium together because they have two new students with Down syndrome in their kindergarten class this year. The students both participate at GiGi’s Playhouse Lancaster. One of the students in their class also had his mom and his GiGi’s literacy tutor attend the symposium. It was a great moment to see them all meeting one another and brainstorming how they can  collaborate to support and motivate the student, as well as all of their students moving forward, based on the information they received that day.

At the end of the symposium, we also opened it up for attendees to share anything they learned or the impact it made. Here are some of the quotes that we heard:

“Amazing apps were suggested that I was unaware of.”

“I do tons of cooking activities for my kids and I was not familiar with Accessible Chef and I looked at it- amazing! I don’t have to create grids or charts that I normally do. It’s right there, so I will use that on Monday.”

“Something else that was impactful about it; It wasn’t data driven, it was functionally driven; they told us what we could use tomorrow; not that you have to collect data and then you can do it. I just want to get to do it now. It was easy to understand; very easy information to take into action immediately.”

Overall, the group shared how the Educator Symposium is something they would love to be able to bring into schools as professional development for all educators, therapists, and administrators. We would love to explore this further as an option in the future. Here is what they shared on this topic: 

“I feel like it should be incorporated into functional PD days at a school or all schools at any level.”

“I think it could be really beneficial to have this education for all educators.”

After the Educator Symposium, we received an email from a parent who brings her two sons with Down syndrome to GiGi’s. She shared this with us:

“I was just having lunch and an OT here at our school district told me she attended the Educator Symposium this past weekend. She told me she got lots of good information and plans to share some videos with teachers on IEP teams she is part of. She shared that there were lots of easy ideas and insights that could be used for many kids she works with. She also told me she is very impressed with GiGi’s Playhouse.

I just wanted to pass that along. As a parent, it is great to know these things are reaching professionals and those that work with my kid and kids I know. I feel like the reach is expanding and hopefully more and more schools will become more aware of the best way to include our kids (and all kids).

I just wanted to share that so that you know that all the hard work you put in is making a difference. It takes time, but I feel like schools are more aware of GiGi’s and the resources they provide which is a wonderful gift.” -GiGi’s Playhouse Parent

Overall, we feel that the information provided at the Educator Symposium is so important. Every educator should have the opportunity to hear it and experience it with their full attention on it, free from distractions that may be present when you are watching virtually. That is one of the reasons why we create the watch party. At our first few watch parties, the attendance was less than we hoped for each time. However, we told ourselves that if it helps one more educator it improve the education and experience for one of our participants, we have made a difference. We encourage other Playhouses to offer a watch party and not to get discouraged if attendance is small at first; keep inviting and keep striving towards our mission of changing the way the world views Down syndrome.

Thank you to everyone who has attended our Educator Symposium Watch Party or viewed it virtually! Thank you for the impact you are making on your students with unique learning needs. We encourage you to share what you’ve learned and invite others to attend in the future. We hope to see you and more educators in our community and school districts attend across the county and the country. This is how we truly can be Better Together and see the GiGi’s Ripple Effect in action.

Check out more information about the Educator Symposium here: https://gigisplayhouse.org/educator-symposium/. We hope you can plan to join us for our next Educator Symposium Watch Party in March 2026!