Author: RWS Developer

CLASS Training to Increase Your Instructional Support Scores

As we all know, it’s essential to have high CLASS scores. High scoring classrooms are a great indicator of positive teacher/child interactions that effectively support children’s learning and development. This leads to successful CLASS Reviews as well as best practices in the classroom. Most Head Start programs score lowest in the Instructional Support domain. This is understandable as some of the indicators within Concept Development, Quality of Feedback and Language Modeling are complex.

This hands-on training will discuss and demonstrate specific strategies for each of the indicators and behavioral markers under each of the dimensions within Instructional Support.Utilizing the teachers’ daily schedule, we will provide concrete strategies on how to attain high CLASS scores in Instructional Support. This targeted training will focus on ways to implement Instructional Support throughout the day. We will demonstrate how to naturally incorporate high scoring Instructional Support during large group activities, small group activities, center time, transitions and routines, meals… every part of the Head Start day!

This custom designed training will include items such as:

  • Analysis and Reasoning: Learn how to integrate the “how” and “why” of children’s learning.
  • Integration: Learn how to effectively make meaningful connections from new to prior learning.
  • Scaffolding: Learn how to provide assistance, feedback and questioning to assist children in continuing to learn and work at a higher level.
  • Feedback Loops: Learn how to increase language through sustained conversations, comments and follow-up questions in supporting a higher level of insight and comprehension.
  • Repetition & Extension: Learn how to acknowledge and build on each child’s unique ideas and contributions to a lesson or conversation.
  • Self- & Parallel Talk: Learn how to best map both your actions & the children’s actions as a means for language modeling.

The entirety of the training will be framed in terms of the Head Start classroom – including what a “7” looks like for each of the indicators and behavioral markers under Instructional Support. We will offer practice-based strategies to increase CLASS scores in each of these indicators and behavioral markers. We will address best practices as it pertains to teaching behaviors and interactions.

If your program’s scores are lowest in Emotional Support or Classroom Organization, we can focus on that domain instead.

A variety of learning styles will be explored such as videos, role plays, small group activities, pair and share, question and answer sessions, and other interactive exercises. The participants in this training will have many hands-on opportunities to see what high-scoring Instructional Support looks like – as adult learning is best when the participants can see, feel and experience the information that is being presented.

Are you looking for highly interactive and custom designed “CLASS Training to Increase Your Instructional Support Scores”? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Highly Interactive and Custom Designed Pre-service Training

Are you looking for highly interactive and practice-based training for Pre-service? Are you looking for training that provides your staff with the knowledge and skills that they need to provide high quality services to the children and families that they serve?

We provide highly interactive and practice-based training for Teaching staff, Family Service Workers, Home Visitors, Center Directors and Management teams. After we have a conference call with you to find out the results that you’re looking for, we will custom design the training to meet your program’s specific needs.

We utilize a “learning by doing” training methodology. Our trainings consist of a lot of discussion and hands-on learning activities, including pair and share, small group activities, role pays, question and answer sessions, and interactive exercises. While our trainings also include a PowerPoint presentation, our focus is on engaging the participants. Our training methodology is based on the principles of adult learning. This results in high impact learning, in which the staff can take back the information that they learned and implement it immediately.

We provide custom designed training for Teaching staff, Family Service Workers, Home Visitors, Center Directors and Management teams. Examples of our training topics include:

Teaching Staff:

  • Increasing CLASS scores
  • Managing Children’s Challenging Behaviors: Becoming Trauma Informed
  • Engaging Learners through Intentional teaching
  • Health, Nutrition and Mental Health Activities in the Classroom
  • Positive Teacher/Child Interactions
  • Math in the Early Childhood Classroom
  • Interpreting Data to Drive Instruction
  • Preventing Power Struggles
  • Promoting Language and Learning
  • Writing In-Depth and Individualized Lesson Plans & Anecdotal Notes

Family Service Workers:

  • Building Strong Relationships with Families
  • Meaningful Family Engagement
  • Effective Goal Setting with Families using Motivational Interviewing
  • Case Management
  • ERSEA
  • How to Have Hard Conversations with Staff and Families
  • Implementing the Parent, Family and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework
  • Time management and Organizational skills
  • Working with Challenging Families
  • Taking Care of Yourself and Your Families

Home Visitors:

  • In the Door & On the Floor: Home Visits that Work
  • Home as a Child Development Environment
  • Successful Socializations
  • How to Conduct a Home Visit
  • Safety and Awareness
  • Establishing Boundaries
  • The Home Visitor as the Coach

Other:

  • Mentor Coaching training
  • Leadership Development
  • Supervising Your Staff
  • Early Head Start Training: Baby Steps to School Readiness
  • Working with Infants and Toddlers
  • Building Strong Leaders at Your Centers
  • Team Building
  • Reflective Supervision
  • Reflect, Renew & Re-energize: Why We Work with Head Start Children and Families

***For a full list of training topics, please email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com or view our website at www.hsessentials.com.

Are you looking for an energizing and inspiring keynote to kick off your Pre-service? It’s a great opportunity to bring your Head Start and Early Head Start staff together and get everyone on the same page. It’s a good time to set the tone for the new school year… to set the expectation of excellence in your program… excellence for the children, for the families and for the staff. A focus on going above and beyond for our children and families in order to create school-ready children and families that are fully engaged in their child’s education and on the road to self-sufficiency.

We will custom design a keynote that will meet the needs of your program. Examples of our keynote topics include:

  • Reflect, Renew & Re-energize: Why We Work with Head Start Children and Families
  • Creating School-Ready Children and Self-Sufficient Families
  • Establishing an Expectation of Excellence
  • Building Strong Leaders to Serve Our Children and Families
  • Taking Care of Yourself in order to Serve Children and Families

Are you looking for highly interactive and custom designed training or an inspiring and energizing keynote for your upcoming Pre-service? Book ASAP as dates go quickly! Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Developing a Successful Mentor Coaching Plan

What is your program’s plan for Mentor Coaching? The Head Start Program Performance Standards state that programs must implement a research-based, coordinated coaching strategy for education staff.

Mentor coaching is a great opportunity to provide teachers with guidance and support as it pertains to successful teaching strategies. It allows teachers to receive constructive feedback as well as to see effective teaching behaviors through modeling. The feedback and modeling of high quality teacher practices is directly related to the teacher’s mentor coaching goals – which is aligned with your program’s school readiness goals.

Our mentor coaching services are based on the principles of Practice-Based Coaching.  Our services will guide your Head Start Teachers toward improved implementation of best practices through observation, feedback, collaboration and goal-setting.  The components of our mentor coaching services include:

  • Planning goals and action steps;
  • Engaging in focused observations; and
  • Reflecting on and sharing feedback about teaching practices.

We provide on-site mentor coaching services for teaching staff utilizing the principles of Practice-Based Coaching.  We observe teaching interactions in the classrooms and provide strengths-based mentor coaching services.  We begin by developing trusting, collaborative relationships with each Teacher and we ask the Teachers complete a needs assessment.  We will then use that information to create individualized mentor coaching goals with each Teacher.

We will spend time observing in each of the identified classrooms and provide the Teachers with feedback from the observation.  We will provide each Teacher with the strengths (high-scoring behaviors) as well as opportunities for improvement (low-scoring behaviors) from the observations.  We will then spend time addressing, problem-solving and correcting the areas of concern (as it relates to CLASS).  We will model high scoring interactions and effective teaching practices.  We will also provide each Teacher with guidance, support and encouragement.  We provide content-specific feedback in order to build a strong partnership.  Our strengths-based approach to mentor coaching allows us to have “hard conversations” with Teachers on areas that need improvement.

Each of the mentor coaching services listed above includes guidance and support that is custom designed to meet the specific needs of your staff. It builds capacity and fosters continuous support. And, finally, it raises CLASS scores.

We also offer training for Mentor Coaches on how to implement a successful mentor coaching program.

Are you looking for on-site Mentor Coaching services or training on Mentor Coaching? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Interpreting Data to Drive Instruction: Data-Driven Decision Making for Teachers & Management Staff

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times…… data is the driving force of decision-making. Effective Head Start programs have a culture of data-driven decision making.  This is the process of making decisions based on the analysis of your programmatic information. As you consider multiple data sources (CLASS data, child assessment data, etc.) and analyze the results, you’re able to create changes that increase overall program quality and improve child outcomes.

Teachers play a critical role in the process through the use of ongoing assessment data to guide classroom instruction.  Observing and gathering assessment information for every child is the starting point for decision-making in the classroom. After observing, recording and reflecting, the data is used to drive instruction – and individualize for each child by creating learning goals.

This highly interactive and practice-based training:

  • Demonstrates the assessment-instruction cycle – focused observations, interpreting data, adapting and modifying instruction, and engaging families.
  • Shows Teachers how to be intentional with every step in the assessment-instructional cycle, increasing their interpretive skills in order to monitor and support children’s progress.
  • Provides Teachers with hands-on opportunities to make data-driven decisions for their classroom.

We also offer data training for Management staff that focuses on getting the most out of your program’s data… (1) strategies to interpret data, (2) how to effectively coach front-line staff as they collect and use data to drive instruction in the classrooms, and (3) how to tell the story of your program’s data.

Are you looking for highly interactive and custom designed training on “Interpreting Data to Drive Instruction: Data-Driven Decision Making for Teachers & Management Staff?” Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Becoming Trauma Informed: Successfully Managing Children’s Challenging Behaviors

Many of our children come from hard places and have experienced trauma. We know that early experiences adversely impacts brain development. Developmental trauma impacts children’s attachment system and their ability to self-regulate. This often results in children acting out through a multitude of challenging behaviors. Becoming trauma informed (learning strategies and language that increases safety while promoting optimal brain development) is a key piece of successfully addressing children’s challenging behaviors.

Head Start classrooms today contain more and more children with extreme behavior issues as well as children with diagnosed and undiagnosed special needs. Teachers often report that despite trying many different things to manage children’s challenging behaviors, nothing has been effective. We have found that the origin of many children’s challenging behaviors is rooted in developmental trauma.

Behaviorally challenging children are also relationship-resistant children. Instead of spending precious time trying to get challenging children under control, we can instead create a compassionate school culture. This strategy employs the natural power of connection between all members as a means of co-regulating behavior and teaching children to self-regulate.

Research shows that children who are connected to others in the early years of schooling are much more likely to develop socially, emotionally and academically. Children’s social and emotional functioning in the classroom is a primary indicator of school readiness.

We believe that successful behavior management training is based on shifting teachers’ daily practice from reward and punishment — to teaching, modeling and nurturing relationships within a positive school climate.

This highly interactive and custom designed training includes:

  • Understanding how developmental trauma impacts children’s attachment and their ability to self-regulate;
  • Defining teaching behaviors and interventions that improve children’s ability to pay attention and impulse control;
  • Learning to “meet children where they are” including specific strategies to reach challenging children in a way that builds trust and connection;
  • Exploring how these connections directly increase the ability to problem-solve, engaging students in interactions that facilitate effective learning;
  • Discovering how to connect with relationship-resistant children, reduce oppositional defiant behavior and increase cooperation and compliance.

Are you looking for highly interactive and practice-based Training on “Becoming Trauma Informed: Successfully Managing Children’s Challenging Behaviors”? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Hands-On CLASS Training

Are you looking for CLASS training that is relevant to your Head Start classrooms and that inspires your Head Start teaching staff to increase their CLASS scores? Are you looking for CLASS training that is highly interactive and fully engages your Head Start teaching staff in practice-based learning?

As you know, it’s important to have and maintain high CLASS scores. High scoring classrooms are a great indicator of positive teacher/child interactions that effectively support children’s learning and development. This leads to successful CLASS Reviews as well as best practices in the classroom.

Effective CLASS training consists of keeping the teachers highly engaged by utilizing a “learning by doing” approach. It’s based on the principles of adult learning, which results in high impact learning. This hands-on strategy allows the teachers to take back the information that they learn in the training and implement it in their classrooms. Adult learning is most effective when the participants can see, feel and experience the information that is being presented.

We offer highly interactive and practice-based CLASS training designed to increase CLASS scores. The training will be custom designed to meet the specific needs of your Head Start teaching staff. It can cover all of the domains and dimensions – or it can focus on specific domains or dimensions. This hands-on training will include specific examples and effective strategies in terms of the Head Start classroom.

Our CLASS trainings include showing video clips that demonstrate the interactions and teaching strategies that you want your teachers to display. We take each domain and dimension and show videos of what each dimension should look like and should not look like. We take time to discuss the video clips and talk about what the teaching staff saw and how they can score a “7” in their classroom. The training participants will have many opportunities to see what high-scoring domains and dimensions look like.  Additional hands-on activities may include small group activities; pair and share; role plays; question and answer sessions; and interactive exercises.

Are you looking for Hands-on CLASS training? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Conducting Your CLASS Observations: More than Just Scores

CLASS observations are an essential piece of data-driven decision making.  The data that comes from CLASS observations is invaluable… as long as the observations are conducted by objective observers and the CLASS tool is implemented with fidelity.

CLASS observations can provide you with a tremendous amount of data – data to prepare for a successful CLASS Review, data to improve teacher practices, data to make decisions about professional development as well as data to individualize mentor coaching services, just to name a few.

We conduct comprehensive CLASS observations that include the following items:

  • As outside observers, we have the objectivity needed to observe classrooms without the possibility of bias.  We have English-speaking and bilingual (English/Spanish) observers.
  • We will debrief with each teacher after the observation in order to give them immediate feedback (strengths and opportunities for improvement).
  • We offer the opportunity for your Education Coordinator or Mentor Coach to sit in on the debriefings that we do with teachers – for continuity purposes.
  • We will debrief with the Head Start Director (and your Management team if you wish) to discuss the results of the observations.
  • We will provide you with CLASS scores, a summary of each classroom observed and a list of program-wide issues that are causing lower CLASS scores as well as recommendations to address and correct those issues.
  • We offer highly interactive and custom designed CLASS training that targets the domains and dimensions that scored the lowest in the CLASS observations.

Are you looking for an outside observer to conduct your CLASS observations and provide you with valuable data? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Training for Home Visitors: The Role of the Home Visitor

Home Visitors have such a short period of time with families each week, yet such a big to-do list. In home-based programs, the Home Visitor is the person who brings all that Head Start or Early Head Start has to offer into the homes of our families. It’s important that Home Visitors are highly organized, focused and clear about their role.

Too often, Home Visitors take over the parents’ role of being their child’s first and most important teacher. They do this by planning the activities, bringing materials into the home, and working directly with the child at the home visit. Instead, the Home Visitor should act in the role of a Coach.

As a Coach, Home Visitors will be surprised at what happens when they step out of the spotlight and focus on what’s happening between family members. In the role as Coach, Home Visitors will learn to pivot to the parent-child relationship and the everyday interactions that support the child’s development. Coaches stay in the moment, use daily routines to help parents observe, reflect and adapt their behavior to meet their child’s needs. The role of the Home Visitor is to empower the parents to support the child’s growth and development. This approach looks for ways that parents can “get it right” so they have more confidence. This confidence will increase the parents’ skills and abilities – and support their child’s readiness for school.

We offer highly interactive and practice-based training that focuses on the Home Visitor’s role as the Coach. This custom designed Home Visitor training includes topics such as:

  • The Home Visitor as the Coach
  • Building strong relationships with families
  • Establishing boundaries
  • Safety and Awareness
  • Utilizing the Home as a learning environment
  • Successful socializations
  • Working with challenging families

Are you looking for on-site, hands-on Training for your Home Visitors on “The Role of the Home Visitor”? This training will be custom designed to meet the unique role of your Home Visitors. Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Training on: “Building Strong Leaders”

It’s important to have strong leaders in place across your program. We need Center Directors to provide leadership for their center…guiding their staff and taking full accountability for their center. We need Family Service Workers and Home Visitors to provide guidance and support to our families to be engaged in their child’s education and on the road to self-sufficiency. And we need Content Area Managers to ensure that high quality services are being provided effectively and efficiently… and that their content area stays in full compliance.

This custom designed training addresses the best practices of Leadership Development and supervision. We will address cultivating a program of excellence as well as the leadership and commitment that it takes to attain excellence. The training will focus on the elements of becoming a strong leader. Identifying your supervisory style is one of the key elements. Being knowledgeable about your supervisory style is essential in becoming an effective leader. This training will explore different supervisory styles and finding out which one is the best fit for you.

We offer on-site, highly interactive Leadership Development training that includes topics such as:

  • Leadership versus management;
  • What leadership looks like;
  • Identifying your supervisory style;
  • Your role and responsibilities as a leader;
  • Setting expectations and accountability;
  • Giving staff the tools to be successful;
  • A focus on compliance monitoring (always staying “Review-ready”);
  • Going above and beyond in attitude and action.

This hands-on training provides staff with an opportunity to learn about what it takes to be a leader – and it provides them with opportunities to “practice” being a strong leader.

Training on Leadership Development and how to successfully supervise staff is critical for your Center Directors, Content Area Managers and other supervisors. Managers need the skills to be an effective leader as well as the tools to guide and support their staff. It’s important that supervisors achieve buy-in with their employees. When staff feels that their supervisor is invested in them and their success, staff will give 100% to their job. This is especially important in this case as their job is to provide high quality services to the children and families.

Looking for training on “Building Strong Leaders” for your staff? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.

Supervising Your Brain and Other Helpful Habits

Serving Head Start and Early Head Start children and families is very important work. We work closely with our children in order prepare them for Kindergarten as well as a foundation of lifelong learning. We work closely with our families to ensure that they are fully engaged in their child’s education and on the road to self-sufficiency. This work is significant, demanding and strenuous.

If you work in Head Start or Early Head Start, you know certain things. You know that…

  • Change takes practice. Practice takes time. Extra time is something that you don’t have.
  • Working with challenging families can be draining and it takes a toll on you.
  • Taking care of yourself in order to serve children and families is critical.

Do you get to the end of the day and feel exhausted? When is the last time that you accomplished everything on your “to do” list? If someone else listened in on the things that you say to yourself, what would they hear? A friend encouraging you on? Or an overly critical version of yourself?

No matter what your role is, it’s essential to understand how “supervising your brain” is key to doing effective, rewarding work. This highly interactive training takes a hard look at what we need to be paying attention to in order to make a difference. A difference in your life… in the lives of those you work with and for… and a difference in the lives of the children and families that we serve.

This on-site, practice-based training will include:

  • Writing actionable steps toward your next goal;
  • Describing the complete picture of what’s keeping you stuck;
  • Identifying small habits that can change your life;
  • Practicing new ways of dealing with the everyday challenges of working in Head Start and Early Head Start.

Looking for training on “Supervising Your Brain and Other Helpful Habits” for your staff? Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.