To talk about CLASS, you have to start with kids. Beginning anywhere else just doesn’t capture what’s at the heart of CLASS: interactions that help children grow and improve their outcomes.
That’s why Teachstone’s newest teacher PD series in myTeachstone is organized around teacher’s real experiences with children. Created with the learning experts at Sesame Workshop, the non-profit that brought you Sesame Street, the courses open by asking teachers to think about a specific interaction with a child:
Coaches come from a wide variety of backgrounds, jobs, and educational experiences. You may have “coach” in your job title, use a specific coaching model, and have received formal coach-training; on the other hand, “coaching” may be a less official part of your role but you may often find yourself supporting teachers and colleagues.
Wherever you fall on the continuum of experiences, if you support teachers, then you could probably use a little support yourself as you strive to be the best mentor you can be.
If you’re anything like me, the first time you explored myTeachstone you were intrigued, excited... and, admittedly, overwhelmed. With all the ins and outs of the system, including a massive professional development library with over 500 resources, it’s easy to feel this way.
If you are responsible for supporting teacher growth, I can make an educated guess about you: you are super busy.
I can also guess that you are invested in helping teachers improve their interactions with children because you know how important these interactions are to the children in their care.
To honor that, you have important work to do and not enough time to do it, so let's get right to the point.
Teacher activation in myTeachstone is a critical first step in getting the most of out the system. There are many creative ways to encourage initial teacher login; however, I want to dig into one particular strategy that I’ve seen programs use to achieve 100% activation in myTeachstone: The Stand-By List. Here’s how it works.
Technology is pretty cool. Just think, we have the ability to instantly share photos with friends all over the world, order groceries with a single tap, and in the case of myTeachstone, engage in relevant, individualized professional development from the comfort of your classroom or home. But there are certainly some challenges that technology can’t solve.
