Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Infant CLASS Tool?

Teachers everywhere have yet another new challenge⁠—supporting students and their families from home. We know that high-quality interactions, including interesting, hands-on experiences that are facilitated and supported with feedback, scaffolding, and higher-order thinking questions, best support young students' learning. So how do you help your students' caregivers offer the same high-quality interactions while at home? Well, Rachel Giannini has some super fun ideas to share! The following are ideas she shared during her session at our recent InterAct CLASS Summit. 

When schools abruptly closed due to Covid-19, teachers everywhere were given a new challenge—supporting students from home. This Teacher Appreciation Week, we at Teachstone want to celebrate the teachers impacting families and say thank you to teachers everywhere.

Here are a few thoughts from some of our team on the impact teachers are having on their families' lives.

As an infant classroom teacher, you know that talking to babies is important.  For instance, you tell the infants in your care what they are looking at (“You see the new block basket on the shelf!”). You label objects (“You have the red ball!”). And you describe events that take place in the classroom (“The tray just fell off the table! That scared you.”). These are all examples of talking with babies. Why, then, can it be so challenging to do this consistently in the classroom?

Before the 2019 InterAct Class Summit in Nashville was even over, we were already excitedly planning 2020! But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's take a quick look back at the incredible presenters, attendees, and staff that made 2019 possible. We had nearly 400 participants from all backgrounds—teachers, caregivers, mentors, coaches, trainers, implementation leaders, administrators, assessors, researchers, and more. However, their common passion for improving classroom interactions and empowering life-changing teachers was evident.