In today’s episode of Impacting the Classroom, you’ll hear about exciting news coming to the world of quality assessment and improvement. Earlier this year, Teachstone announced an enhancement to its tool, the CLASS® assessment tool— CLASS 2nd Edition, which will be available starting this next school year.
Today’s guests are two members of the team that helped bring the vision of CLASS 2nd Edition come to life, Grace Funk, Teachstone’s Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, and Katie Twilley, Director of Product Management: Assessment and CQI. Listen to the episode to learn about CLASS 2nd edition and how it will make a difference for children and educators.
What would the perfect day look like in your classroom? When was the last time you spent time thinking about that? When was the last time you talked with your teaching team about creating a shared classroom vision? Those are big questions, and you may be wondering how to answer them. Today’s guest may be able to help.
Today, you’ll hear from Deidre Harris. Deidre serves as an educational coach for the Pyramid Model Consortium. Deidre’s worked in the early childhood field for over 25 years and has a special focus on teaching teams. Listen in to hear what she has to say about how she began to focus on teaching teams, what to do when conflict happens, and why you should write down team agreements.
Our hosts shared how Teachstone’s CLASS Environment™ can be used as a means of supporting meaningful teacher-child interactions, which are strong predictors of future learning and development.
Chazz Lewis is an educational specialist who “teaches teachers to teach” in a chain of child development centers. He works closely with schools, teachers, and children. He earned his master’s in executive leadership at American University. Mr. Chazz envisions a world where most people wake up every day, enjoying the process of becoming the best versions of themselves. He’s also well known on TikTok, Instagram, and his own podcast.
In today’s episode, Mr. Chazz explains how he got into teaching, why he decided to teach young children, and what kept him teaching. He also talks about building a community in the classroom and being the community you want to build.
Again we face a morning heartbroken. The killing of young children and educators in Uvalde, Texas adds to the long list of senseless acts of murder that we have experienced, as individuals, as a community and as a nation. We send our love and compassion to the families of those lost and injured and the Robb Elementary School and Uvalde communities.
New research from the nonprofit, LENA, suggests that babies born since the pandemic started are talking less and experiencing fewer conversational turns than babies born before COVID. This supports other studies that show that COVID-era babies are experiencing developmental delays and may impact their school readiness as as they get older. So, what does this mean for educators? And, how can we support these infants and toddlers with their language development?
Teachstone recently hosted the What Is “Quality” Teaching Anyway? webinar with Laura Iannazzo, Professional Services Manager at Teachstone, and Gena Puckett, Education and Training Specialist from the University of Mississippi School of Education. Together, they talked about the significance of quality interactions between early childhood educators and infants or toddlers in their care.
We are invested in making myTeachstone your one-stop-shop for continuous quality improvement (CQI). Most recently, we’ve made enhancements that will help you collect CLASS® observational data from your classrooms, receive reports that help you better understand your organization’s needs, and facilitate professional development that creates lasting impact. And, we are committed to do this all within one platform.
Teachstone is excited to join community organizations across the country in observing Child Care Provider Appreciation Day® on May 6 to celebrate the efforts of child care providers across the nation.
In our recent webinar, Making the Move to CLASS® 2nd Edition, we shared how programs and individuals can begin to experience and use the enhanced Pre-K–3rd CLASS® tool. And, in this recent blog post we took a closer look at what these enhancements mean for certified observers.
To engage in continuous quality improvement, effective coaching is key. With effective coaching structures and programs in place, organizations can drive quality improvements that support children's development and learning. And, with CLASS® and CLASS coaching certifications, organizations can focus their improvements on research-proven educator-child interactions.
