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.
But when I left my classroom last summer, after watching my former middle schoolers graduate high school, I felt like I was turning in my keys. I was aware that I was giving up the honor, responsibility, and control that come with teaching.
I was left with a fear that I might not be able to impact children’s development upon leaving the classroom.
As an instructional designer for Teachstone, this fear has evolved into a constant standard by which I evaluate my work. Our team’s stance is simple. If the learning experience isn’t going to positively impact children: fix it or scrap it. It’s not worth our learner’s time.
To ensure our content positively impacts kiddos, we:
You can see how all of these efforts help us get feedback more often, from the right people (our learners), and about the right things (actual v. desired results). This feedback helps us improve the content we’re currently developing and informs our future designs.
Did you know that you can help us improve? Let me know what you think about one of your Teachstone learning experiences. Or join us at the first ever CLASS Summit where we’ll discuss in greater detail how Teachstone creates content in ways that leads to positive results for kids.
In today’s world, there isn’t much technology can’t do. It can help you stay connected to family and friends, keep you on track to achieving your fitness goals, and can even adjust your thermostat while you’re away from home.
And now, with myTeachstone, it can promote positive child-outcomes through facilitating on-going, meaningful, and continuous improvement efforts.
Practice and feedback is the key to CLASS® success. Even the most experienced certified CLASS Observers need practice and feedback to make sure their classroom observations remain fair and accurate. The best way to provide this is to use our Calibration product. Calibration protects your investment in reliable data collection.
Online Calibrations are available for Certified CLASS observers at all 6 CLASS levels. When you purchase an individual calibration, you’ll receive a video to watch and code on your myTeachstone dashboard. After submitting your codes, you’ll get an automated score report and a prerecorded webinar discussing the master codes.
When I first learned about CLASS Group Coaching—a training for early childhood professionals about building relationships with children—I was more than a little interested. This, I thought. This is what teaching is all about. It seems to be an obvious concept, but once we dig deeper, we are able to identify the whys and hows of our interactions. CLASS Group Coaching allows us to identify the benefits of our classroom relationships with our students and helps us be intentional in our daily practices. It allows us to utilize each moment we have with our students to deepen our understanding of their perspectives and genuinely connect with them as people. It helps us see the world from their view and guide their learning in a way that is relevant to them.
Teachstone is excited to announce that 2020 Academic Calendar for CDA with CLASS® is now available! We will have 8 cohorts next year. Below are those start dates along with their registration deadlines: