Recently, all of the employees at Teachstone completed a course on identifying implicit biases in our individual thinking and our collective work. After the course, we engaged in small group discussions on how our biases impact us and the teachers and children that we serve. As our core mission is understanding and improving interactions, our discussion focused a lot on what and how we observe in a classroom. Simply put, if you have an implicit bias against a particular culture, you may misinterpret a specific behavior which can then affect how you score a classroom. 

With the increased presence of virtual schooling, parents and educators of young children, including myself, are finding themselves stressed. Are children getting the content they need? How do I engage children in learning virtually? How do we help children develop essential skills such as curiosity, attention, and emotion regulation in a virtual setting? In a recent New York Times op-ed, entitled “Kids Can Learn to Love Learning, Even Over Zoom”, psychologist Adam Grant shared ways that teachers can promote curiosity in a virtual classroom. He discussed the importance of including “mystery, exploration, and meaning.”

Data. Data. Data.

We hear a lot about using data these days. We know it is important and useful, but honestly, it can be overwhelming. So, how do you get started?

Take a minute to think of your coaching toolbox. What are some of your go-to questions? Go ahead and list a few.  

Now reflect on those questions.

So far, we have looked at how the look-for text and the CLASS language charts can support teacher learning. For part 3 of this series, let’s examine how the reflective questions in myTeachstone can encourage teacher engagement and reflection.

Last time we looked at how coaches can use the look-for text to focus teacher attention on specific learning objectives. In this post, we’ll consider ways to use the charts in promoting teacher learning. 

We all know that coaches and teachers have many time constraints when working to provide high quality care for young children. We designed myTeachstone to help address time issues by providing numerous and varied resources on effective interactions that allow for meaningful professional development with less face-to-face time.

I have another rant.

Last time I focused on how adults underestimate children’s cognitive skills. This time, I'd like to talk about how adults tend to overestimate children’s social-emotional skills.

I confess.

I let my daughter watch TV. This is my 2-year old glued to (part of) an episode of Mr. Rogers (or as she calls him, Ra-Ra).

We’ve all been there—the spring semester is looming around the corner. Although you have the gist of the syllabus planned, the details still need to be worked out. Assignments need to be finalized and engaging classroom activities need to be developed.

Here are a few ideas that you might be able to adapt for your course.