After the summer break, I was always filled with good ideas and good intentions. Inspired by workshops and readings about teaching language arts, I ...
Posts by Kathryn Surchek
kathryn.surchek[at]teachstone.com
Kathryn stays busy, whether at work, where she keeps a close eye on Teachstone materials, or at home, where she manages a full household (two children, two dogs, one cat, one husband, and four schedules). Passionate about education and interactions, she spent her teaching career supporting students—from those at risk of failure and dropping out, to pregnant teens, to honors students—as they used reading and writing to deepen their self-understanding. She left the bricks-and-mortar classroom for online education, creating multi-media courses for teachers and administrators, before finding her way to Teachstone, where she’s been involved with the development of every program we offer! With her great respect for educators and their daily challenges, she gets fueled by talking with teachers and coaches and the children they support. With two daughters of her own, she sees even more the importance of high-quality education.
We all know people are naturally social beings—we need interactions to survive. But just because we’re naturally social doesn’t mean we know how to ...
Children love playing shadow tag, catching and stepping on each other’s shadows. We teachers need to keep an eye on our shadows too ... ...
It’s such a delicate balance: you want to support children’s independence and show genuine regard for their perspectives, but you’re afraid that if ...
At a CLASS Group Coaching (MMCI) Training in Florida, an instructor told a story about finding a coconut on the beach with her granddaughter. She ...
My children were lucky enough to have schoolteachers who, among many things, managed their classroom beautifully. Donna and Deanna were an amazing ...
My friend Laura and I started teaching at the same time. She chose to work with a very difficult group of kids. Our department chair described the ...
Whether building relationships, supporting language development, or pushing learning, conversations with children are important. (And fun! And ...
I’ll admit it: CLASS terms can be a little confusing. For example, problem solving in Concept Development sounds a lot like resolving problems in ...
Unfortunately, I notice when I’m with children that while I tend to ask a lot of questions, they’re not always open-ended. I really have to work to ...