Each October, Teachstone celebrates Head Start Awareness Month. This is a time to acknowledge and applaud the work done to ensure that every child, regardless of circumstances at birth, has the ability to reach their full potential.
We’re kicking off the month by launching several resources that will help you a webinar series for Head Start educators and leaders. We hope you’ll join us for each of these events happening this fall:
Throughout the month, we’ll also be sharing stories and celebrating the passion of Head Start educators. Do you want to share your story or nominate an outstanding teacher? Let us know by filling out this form. And, use the #myHeadStart hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to share your Head Start story and learn more about the heroes supporting our youngest learners.
And, in recognition and in celebration of all you do, we're offering a free, one-month subscription to the CLASS® Video Library. Within this library you'll find videos featuring real classrooms, real teachers, and real children and can see meaningful interactions in action. Get your free subscription.
Don’t miss out on our month-long celebration, and the special savings offered just for Head Start!
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Through the month of October, Teachstone recognized Head Start Awareness Month by celebrating Head Start educators and asking for your stories of how the program changed your life - either as a graduate or an educator. Your submissions did not disappoint. We were blown away by your testaments. To share your powerful stories, we compiled a short book full of your experiences and fun facts about the power of Head Start.
On Thursday, September 23, the Office of Head Start (OHS) announced it would not resume monitoring in January 2022 as it had previously stated. Dr. Bernadine Futrell, PhD, director of the Office of Head Start explained during a broadcast that, ”CLASS reviews will not be conducted during the fiscal year 2022 monitoring season...We are following the highest safety precautions possible as we enter in different programs to do the monitoring.”
There’s no sugar coating it - the 2020-21 school year was tough. Teachers, schools, and child care workers shouldered a massive burden, taking work that was already challenging and turning the difficulty up to 11. Well, maybe 12 or 13. Or 15. Who’s counting?
So, as you, educators, prepare for the upcoming school year, Teachstone wanted to recognize all the creativity, flexibility, and impact that teachers have demonstrated. We brought together Teachstone’s Kristin Valdes, Senior Instructional Designer, and Colleen Schmit, CDA Facilitator, in a recent webinar to celebrate the great and important work of teachers and to explore how the smallest moments make big impacts.
Here’s what our hosts shared with and heard from participants.
Knowing that approximately 25% of children under 5 come from homes where Spanish is the predominant language spoken, we were pleased that Lisa White, a researcher at American Institutes for Research, was willing to speak with us about her study that compared the CLASS with the CASEBA, a tool designed to assess quality in classrooms serving dual language learners. To learn more, read on!