If you’ve been following the news lately, a lot is going on in North Carolina for young children and families! Leaders across the state—from businesses to state government to county municipalities—are leveraging partnerships that use research-based assessment and professional development models (like CLASS) to guarantee more of the state’s youngest residents have access to the high quality care they need and deserve.
I have a confession to make—I'm a social media junkie. I had to go through a 12-step program to cure my Facebook habit. I had a short relapse, but I was able to kick it again. I tried Twitter years ago, but that just wasn't for me. Pinterest is just straight up evil. I've planned two weddings, a total remodel of a home, and a trip to Hawaii.None of these things is ever going to happen, but Pinterest has robbed me of about 400 hours of time that I put into these nonexistent projects.Instagram is one of those things that I can take or leave.
Education is certainly my calling. When choosing my path as a teacher, the Montessori philosophy captivated me more than most. It was peaceful, harmonious, respectful to the child, reflexive, and intentional.
Tweaking titles, choosing CLASS-themed swag, supporting presenters … it’s just another day at Teachstone with the 4th Annual InterAct CLASS Summit just six short weeks away!
We’ve written before about the discipline disparities between children of color and their white peers. (Since that post was published last year, the Department of Education has released updated - but not improved - statistics on the topic.) But discipline is not the only school arena where children from different backgrounds have different experiences. There’s also evidence that racial bias affects teachers’ academic and behavioral expectations, even in early childhood.
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.
Recently, Teachstone partnered with the National Head Start Association to talk about Why Coaching Matters in a one hour webinar. If you were not able to join us, here are some highlights.
A language-rich environment is vital to children’s early learning and social-emotional development. A language-rich environment isn’t just a room with books and a variety of print; it’s a room where children hear and participate in talking, singing, and reading.
Walking into your first live CLASS observation can be scary. It’s different from coding in a training session or on your own during the reliability test.
Empowering and equipping coaches with the information and resources they need to mentor also empowers the teachers they're coaching. Check out these coaching resources that discuss how to provide feedback based on CLASS data, how to prepare teachers for a CLASS observation, and much more.
