Imagine sitting down beside a music student as he practices a new song. As a mentor, your role is to provide feedback to the student on how well he’s interpreted the piece, translated the notations into an audible melody, and literally used his fingers to create music as dictated by the sheet music.
Now consider this: How successful would you be as a mentor if you did not know how to read music?
It seems like an absurd proposition, but we hear about it everyday: coaches mentoring teachers on the CLASS that do not have formal training on using the observation tool. How often is this happening? Our State of CLASS report has good news and bad news on that front:
The Good News: 74% of coach respondents reported receiving CLASS Observation Training. This is more than we thought, and it shows the investment the field is willing to make in developing competent coaches.
The Bad News: 84% of teachers receive feedback after their classroom is observed with CLASS. To be fair, this isn’t really bad news—CLASS was developed as a professional development tool, and in an ideal world, 100% of teachers would receive feedback. The concern here is related to the unknown quality of feedback teachers receive—especially when we know that many teachers are given CLASS-based feedback on their scores by people who aren't trained to understand what those scores really mean.
Feedback, especially on something as personal as the way you interact with children, is usually challenging to receive; but without proper context, it can be detrimental.
If you’ve ever wondered whether sending coaches to CLASS Observation Training (even if they are not responsible for conducting formal observations) is “worth it,” you can stop wondering. Here are just a few competencies coaches develop when they become Certified CLASS Observers:
I don’t know about you, but if I were receiving mentorship, I’d expect my coach to deeply understand the complexities of my craft and be able to recognize and objectively assess my progress.
What’s your stance on coaches becoming CLASS reliable observers? Tell us in the comments below!
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Teachstone hosted the How to Support Your Teachers by Improving Your Culture webinar on June 16, 2022. Led by Erin Sabina, CLASS® Consultant at Teachstone, and Keiyonna Dubashi, Executive Director at Profound Ladies and DEI Program Manager for Teachstone, this webinar focused on building a strong culture in early childhood programs.
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.
Since our last update on myTeachstone, we’ve made great progress that we are excited to share.
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.
It’s no secret that teacher burnout has become a massive issue in the education industry today. At a time when education and childcare services have been hard hit by the pandemic, teachers have already endured a long struggle to cope with an increase in workload, understaffing, and shifting pandemic challenges that make it difficult to teach effectively.