We're excited to share a sneak peek of just a few things you'll see at the 2019 InterAct CLASS Summit coming to Nashville April 15-16. In addition to everything you've come to expect (engaging sessions, interactive learning opportunities, delicious food, opportunities to network with other educators and thought leaders, and more), this year we're hosting a special free, pre-summit event! We're screening the film No Small Matter, the first feature documentary to explore the most overlooked, underestimated, and powerful force for good in America today: early childhood education.
When I first heard that I was going to have to be observed and coached for my job, I was not thrilled by any means. I immediately thought, Great, someone is going to watch me and tell me how terrible I am. I sincerely thought it was going to be nothing but a negative experience.
We’ve been talking about the achievement gap for an awfully long time. We’re all familiar with the term; it’s the disparity in academic achievement between different groups of students. We tend to hear about in relation to white students and students of color, but it can also be used to describe the difference between low-income students and their more advantaged peers.
We recently talked about why annual recertification is important (bottom line: it’s your yearly chance to test yourself against master-coded videos). But what about between recertifications? How do your observers ensure that they stay reliable throughout the year?
Since I joined Teachstone as Chief Impact Officer a few months ago, I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about opportunity gaps in education. In a great op-ed from 2013, Prudence Carter and Kevin Welner, co-editors of Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America Must Do to Give Every Child an Even Chance, wrote:
Back in July, Mary-Margaret Gardiner and Sarah Hadden presented a webinar with Kaplan about how teachers can use classroom setups to create teachable moments. If you missed it the first time around, I'd recommend giving the webinar a watch. It provides classroom organization tips that are helpful all year round.
In this vlog, you'll hear an overview of Teacher Sensitivity and Facilitated Exploration at the Infant level. Mary-Margaret introduces Responsive Caregiving and how to improve interactions by looking at an infant's cues that the child may be trying to communicate a need as well as ways to support an infant's exploration.
As a teacher, sometimes you learn the most from the teacher across the hall. You share materials, discuss ways to handle that tricky student, come up with new lessons together, analyze data, or just commiserate about a hard day.
The violence of the past days has reminded us all that we must be vigilant in denouncing hate and speaking out against it. I encourage everyone who cares about our courageous country and experiment in democracy to get out and vote on November 6th! Paraphrasing from an editorial in the Hartford Courant today, the strength of our united character is being put to the test. We must speak up, and no better way to do so than voting or encouraging others to do so. Truly great educators are those who never give up. I am not ready to give up on our country as a land that holds such great promise of freedom and justice for all, beginning with our youngest ones who cannot vote but will live in the world we are creating with every action or inaction.
