As a Product Manager at Teachstone, it’s important for me to get out of the office and connect with educators in the field. That might mean attending a conference, visiting a center, or sitting in on a training. Last week, I was lucky enough to attend Teachstone’s regional training event in Atlanta, where I met dozens of participants, “fighting the good fight” to improve outcomes for young children. Throughout the week, Teachstone hosted several events including CLASS Observation Trainings, Train-the-Trainer programs, CLASS Feedback Strategies trainings, and Instructional Support Strategies trainings. Whew! In addition to the trainings, we also held other informal events, including an opening reception and a demo featuring Teachstone’s newest product, an online subscription service called myTeachtstone.
I could write a novel detailing how much fun I had (and how much I learned!)—but instead, I’ll leave you with a few stand-out highlights:
- Meeting exemplary coaches: In addition to all the great coaches I encountered, I had the pleasure of meeting one of the coaches we recently filmed for new video series we’re developing to capture exemplary coaching moments. It’s always fun when I get to meet people I’ve only seen on video—kind of like meeting a celebrity (I know them, but they don’t know me!)
- Escaping a fire! Okay, this one is a bit of an exaggeration, but when smoke started emerging from the recessed lighting fixtures in one of our training rooms, it was pretty exciting! Luckily, everyone “escaped” (by going to lunch early) and the conference center quickly mitigated the problem and provided an alternate, and smoke-free, training room.
- Reconnecting with colleagues: One awesome thing about Teachstone is that we have staff from all over the country. The not-so-awesome aspect of this is that I don’t often get to spend time with these colleagues. In Atlanta, I was able to reconnect with our intrepid trainers, thoughtful professional development team, and energetic regional directors—all of whom, I rarely get to see!
From left: Melissa Kelley-Knutsen, Sedra Spano, Lisa Criss, me, Sheri Crump, Jeannine Ernst, and Nikki Croasdale- Getting feedback on myTeachstone: What really made this trip worthwhile was getting the chance to provide a myTeachstone demo to our training participants! Without their feedback, it would be impossible to build effective products like this one. With their help, I learned more about what content resources they would like to see, the challenges they face when acting as both a supervisor and a coach, and the growing trend of teachers coaching other teachers.
I’d love to connect with you at our next regional training event! Check out our growing training schedule on our website to find your next CLASS training destination.
