PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: AN INVESTMENT IN OUR TEACHERS
As a former teacher and teacher educator, I deeply understand the tremendous impact that a high-quality teacher can have on the lives of children and their families. But I also understand how difficult the job of teaching can be every hour of every day of every week of every year. So many teachers enter and stay in the classroom without the ongoing professional development they need to stay current with research and strategies that can help them perform their craft to its fullest potential. Even those who are provided professional development by their school district or program often experience stale, “one and done” workshops that are not integrated into a larger learning curriculum and that are, at best, dry and uninspiring.
Classroom video is at the heart of Teachstone’s products. We certify observers by asking them to reliably code video segments. Our Video Libraries, myTeachstone video resources, and interactive courses use authentic classroom moments to model exemplary CLASS practices and support teacher professional development. Since we are constantly adding new resources to myTeachstone and creating new videos for our six reliability tests, we have consistent need to collect new classroom footage.
From phone calls to meetings to conferences to trainings to social media—I spent A LOT of time discussing the CLASS. And one thing people constantly ask me is, “How can I take the next step in boosting my CLASS knowledge?”
About four months ago, my husband and I welcomed our second child, Maddy, into the world. Unlike 20 months earlier, when Oliver was born, we weren’t worried about having all the right baby gear. I wasn’t waking with nightmares about the birth. Quite frankly, our hands were so full juggling full time jobs and a toddler that child #2 was more of an afterthought. It would be simple—I knew exactly what I was doing.
When I was a teacher, improving classroom interactions meant changing my behavior. While this wasn’t always easy, I always felt like I had direct control. I could drive the change.
Most people think about CLASS as a classroom observation measure—and it is—but maybe we’ve been looking at the tool in the wrong way. Let's take a closer look at where CLASS started and why.
After the summer break, I was always filled with good ideas and good intentions. Inspired by workshops and readings about teaching language arts, I was ready to try new strategies. I’d set goals like:
Send positive communications on postcards to my 125 students
In our earliest implementations, when Teachstone was just being formed, we often heard that teachers were caught off guard by CLASS-based professional development. Trainers were hearing questions like “What am I doing here?” “Why was I asked to attend?” and “How does this relate to my other professional growth activities?” We quickly learned that teachers and professional development providers need to be on the same page about goals. Sometimes goals for teacher-child interactions are set at the program level; sometimes they are set for individual teachers. Either way, everyone needs to be clear on what they are reaching for.
As a product developer, I’m always on the lookout for effective tips and strategies to infuse into our professional development resources. To that end, my team interviewed Amy Stephens Cubbage, who at one point served as Teachstone's MTP Coaching Program Manager.
