To be an effective teacher and classroom presence, the adults have to work together as much as or more than the students do. Classrooms work best when co-teachers understand each other and work together. How can teachers ensure that they’re in sync with each other, and how can CLASS help?
Moving towards a post-pandemic world, early childhood education is still in a fractured state of recovery. Numerous headlines define the inequitable foundation early childhood system is built on that limits educators’ capacity to thrive and impact children’s lives. Yet demand for early learning remains steadfast as families get back to routines in communities everywhere. How do policymakers start to level the playing field for early childhood programs with equitable policies while increasing access for families in need of high-quality care?
As TikTok has exploded so has the presence of educator influencers. In today's episode, our host Marnetta takes a deep look at the role of influencers in education. Our guests Arielle, known as Mrs. Frazzled on social media, and Miss Redacted gained fame on TikTok where they've shared their humorous takes on what goes on in the classroom, as well as commentary on important issues. They have also started their own podcast, Teacher Quit Talk, centered on why teachers are leaving the classroom. In this conversation, they discuss what roles and responsibilities teacher influencers have to their audience, to equity, and to educators everywhere.
You can listen now and find the transcript below.
Marnetta: Hello, listeners. Welcome back to Impacting The Classroom, the podcast that talks about big topics that have an even bigger impact in early education. I'm your host, Marnetta Larrimer.
Regard for Student Perspectives as defined by CLASS® is“the degree to which the teacher’s interactions with students and classroom activities place an emphasis on students’ interests, motivations, and points of view and encourage student responsibility and autonomy.” This often looks like following children's lead so that you can anticipate their needs during an activity.
Understanding how to effectively employ CLASS's Regard for Student Perspectives while maintaining a constructive learning environment can be challenging. In the following paragraphs the fictional preschool professional, Mrs. Jones, will illustrate the indicators of Regard for Student Perspectives at circle time. I’ll then discuss her exemplary examples:
It’s not in question that educational efforts need more funding; the question is what to do with that
funding when it’s received. In today’s episode, Marnetta talks to one returning guest, Sarintha Stricklin,
director of the
Jefferson Early Childhood Network
in Louisiana, and Jen Roberts, CEO of
Agenda for Children. They’re going to talk about using funding, both how they’ve done it previously and what their
vision is for the future.
Listen to the episode to hear what Sarintha and Jen have to say about wh
at leaders should do when
they’re receiving education
-
specific funds, the successful investments they’ve seen and been part of,
and their ideas for issues like retention and compensating educators.
Strong social-emotional skills are critical for student success in school and later in life. To that end, schools across the United States are implementing universal school based social-emotional learning programs (USB SEL). A wealth of research has examined the impact of such programs on students. However, little is known about how these interventions affect racially minoritized students and students with disabilities, as they have often been excluded from analyses.
We were excited to come across this study that reviews the literature on this topic and even more excited when the lead author, Dr. Christine Cipriano from Yale Medical Center, agreed to answer some of our questions about her work!
Feel intimidated by the idea of advocacy? Many do. Our guest on today's episode of Teaching with CLASS, Jake Stewart, explains the importance of using your voice to make change & easy ways to take action. Whether you're talking to Members of Congress, creating a TikTok, or simply talking to a family member, your voice as an educator matters.
The CLASS® tool’s Instructional Learning Format (ILF) dimension refers to the ways educators enhance engagement. We all know students who are engaged in school regardless of who their teacher is just simply because that is who they are. But, this dimension examines the ways in which educators expand involvement by using a variety of modalities, strategies, and providing hands-on opportunities. This dimension is not about the actual learning that may or may not take place, but rather the “hooks” and methods an educator uses to “set the stage” for learning.
Educators learning about CLASS® are asked to narrate their actions and sportscast their children’s experiences in order to support and encourage healthy language development. Hearing this, many may wonder, “Will people think I’m weird if I start talking to myself in the classroom?”
The answer is no. Self- and parallel talk are beneficial strategies for educators to engage in because they strengthen language rich environments and enhance vocabulary development, all while supporting effective relationship building between teachers and children.
