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Special service coordinators, 10 years in school psychology and 5 years in current job.

Assessment: An estimation of the quality of something and nature of something. Snapshot of a student in a particular state

*There are no valid assessments, only valid interpretations

Go-To Assessments: MTSS assessments, good diagnostics, formative assessments, day-to-day exit tickets

Work Smarter not Harder: Have to have a process where all team members are on the same page. Have a framework for how to utilize assessment and how to look at the assessment data

Worked with a new adopted student and saw indication that he was not on his grade level. Further assessment and found that he had a big communication deficit. Average to above average on his non-verbal skills. Worked together as a team to better understand his needs. Communicate back and forth got the student way ahead of the game.

Advice: Respect your impact. Students will look to you to form a relationship so create those relationships and the impact you make on students will go a long way

Resources: Thinking Fast and Slow, Jack Fletcher, Child’s Right to Respect

Why Teach: Kids need you. You will instantly change a child's life the second they see you. Teachers are shaping the future of our world.

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Definition of Assessment: Make observations day to day whether what they’re mastering or what they're struggling with.

Go-To Assessments: Having small groups gives the opportunity to understand your students one-on-one and making connections. Students make more progress because they’re either one-on-one or with the teacher individually.

*They will take more risks when they’re in small groups with you*

Work Smarter not Harder: Be a team to be successful. One teacher might have strengths that another teacher may not have. Use the students in your classroom to help you whether it's a rough day or not.

A student told his classmates that he had dyslexia and he thanked his peers for being so patient with him. Then another student told the class that she had dyslexia. The student chose that moment to tell the class because everyone in class was so kind that he knew they would understand.

Greatest Advice: Make relationships with students, parents, and staff. Take the time to understand everything about your students. Make a phone call to parents when you have something important to say, you will gain the respect from those parents.

Started in interior design but did not feel fulfilled and wasn’t making an impact. She then moved to education where she felt fulfilled and was finally making an impact on the world. She is thinking that her calling is now teaching middle school.

Why Teach: It's the impact. It's the connections. You are responsible for helping students achieve their dreams in the future. Teachers support, love, and challenge kids. It's a career where you get the privilege to be apart of a story.

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Teaching for 23 Years in Olathe, Kansas

He has seen it all the way from Pre-K-12

Definition of Assessment: Can students apply the knowledge? Can they show me they understand what I am teaching? Give students different opportunities to show that they understand and are growing in the certain area.

Go-To Assessments: Open-ended tests. Break down the standards and understand what it actually means. How would I apply those standards?

Gave students opportunities to teach something to the class that they just learned themselves.

Work Smarter not Harder: Start with slow. Take small pieces at a time and ace it and keep doing that and then after a while it becomes a routine. What is the smallest thing I can do that makes the biggest impact?

*You don’t have to do it all at once*

Advice: Do you know and care about their kid? Learning and curriculum doesn’t matter, making connections and taking time to get to know them is what’s important.

Resources: "Culture Code” “Deeper Learning” “Small Bets"

Quotes: "Figure out their combination” Find your compass!"

Why Teach? The impact you have on your students. Hold on tighter and love a little bit more in todays world.

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Kindergarten teacher for 27 years.
1 year in fourth grade and preschool for a little
14 years in Olathe

Assessment: Very necessary, a tool that determines what students know and what they need to learn next. Helps guide the teacher what they’re to learn.

Go-To Assessments: Hands on activities/assessments that should be fast and easy to assess where they’re at.

*Spends a month practicing rules and routines.*

Work Smarter not Harder: Set boundaries between school and home life. Work ahead and prep ahead. Work a lot with your team. Lean on those teams.

Greatest Advice: 1. Be extra nice to secretary and custodian. 2. Listen to your team and co-workers. 3. Take a risk and try something. 4. Stay off your phone. 5. Don’t take yourself too seriously. 6. Leave your home problems at the home.

Resources: Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper

**Represent all your students in what you’re reading**

Her Story: No interest in being a teacher so she studied accounting. Her junior year of college, she switched her major to Elementary Education.

Why?? A fun job where you can be silly and funny but then also making an impact on their future.

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She wanted to be a teacher since she was 5 years old. She started in 1992. Taught 7 years teaching ELA. Came to Olathe to be a coordinator instructional coaching.

Assessment: Anytime in your life when you have a goal an objective you want to meet. Big believer in SMART goals.

Go-To Assessments: Educator Rubric which has six standards. Rubrics keeps you more objective where you can create your own rubric on what standards you want your students to master.

Work Smarter not Harder: Instead of giving out massive amounts of homework, look at how can educators use formative assessment to quickly identify areas of weaknesses.
White Boards, Exit Slips, Thumbs Up Thumbs Down

Greatest Advice: Have procedures and routines. Including: entering the classroom, quieting strategies, lining up, etc.

Must Read: "Learning by Doing" and "Excellence in Every Classroom”

**Be a life long learner**
**Go into classrooms of different levels**

Why Teach: For the kids. Kids should be given an opportunity to show their strengths and weaknesses.

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Been Teaching since 2007 and has been Elementary Resource her entire time. She is a SPED teacher.

Definition of Assessment: Assessment that are very informal such as peer observations. And then standardized assessments that are curriculum-based measurements.

Anecdotal Notes: Reflect and look back on behaviors and analyze it later on.
Data Drive: Checklists and concrete data to make decisions. It shows where improvement is shown or not shown.

Go-To Assessments
Reading: Running Records and FNPs (benchmark assessment)

Work Smarter not Harder: Using the resources around you.

**Data really helps the teachers understand and know where the kids are and what they’re shining on. Lean on those assessments and data.**

Advice: Be careful who you surround yourself with, be around positivity not negativity. Surround yourself with the good where you are encouraged and motivated to teach.

*Take care of yourself before you take care of your students so you can be your best around them.*

Brandi always wanted to help people so she was stuck between nursing and teaching. She ended up loved being around kids and watching them grow. Having the kids believe in themselves, finally gets them to grow.

Seeing them being successful and knowing you made an impact is what teaching is all about.

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KSU Guest Mentor Series Brandi England (SPED)

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12th Year Teacher and 2020 National Teacher of the Year who has always wanted to help people.

Definition of Assessment: Accurate picture of where students are academically and both socially/emotionally.

Go-To Assessments: Create yourself and sometimes, rely on other teachers. Norm-Referenced Assessments.

*Important to tailor instructions to best meet the needs of students.*

Work Smarter not Harder: Routines within routines, setting up environment, putting in little systems before students walk into the room.

Greatest Advice to New Teachers: Lean on the support in your community. Take the help, resources and advice.

Why Teach? Teaching gives you the joy and fulfillment and purpose. As a teacher, you wake up everyday knowing you’re going to make a difference and it’s not like that with every job.

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Guest Mentor #1 Tabatha Rosproy Early Childhood

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Teaching for 10 Years and is a Math Coordinator

Definition of Assessment: A procedure for making inferences based on asking questions.

Go-To Assessments: Give time to pause and have conversations with each other. Reteach and scaffolding.

How to Work Smarter not Harder: Designing assessments more strategically, then he can get more information he needs on his students in a more efficient way.

**Understanding assessments have different purposes!!

Validity: Is it valid for the students
Reliability: Is this a reliable piece?

Greatest Advice: Teach to the test. Instruction needs to have opportunity for flexible thinking.
*A good teacher is a good coach*

Why Teach?: You won’t know until you meet the kids.

Resources: Teacher Clarity Playbook, IES Practice Guides, Solo Taxonomy, How Learning Happens

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KSU Guest Mentor Spencer Brown Assessment

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3rd Grade Teacher and Sixth Year of Teaching

Assessment: Getting to know what the kids know and how to use that information.

Go-To Assessment: Exit tickets for any subject. Shows teacher they listened and understood concept. Quick assessment is the best assessment!!

Work Smarter not Harder: Make the kids do everything. Make them work together to assess each other.

**Empower the children to look within them to see where they are. **

Greatest Advice: 1. Create bonds and relationships (nicknames, (greet at door, go to football games), 2. You can never do too much procedure.

How she became an Educator: Taught in China with no curriculum and made quick connection with those kids and that's what made her become a teacher.

Why Teach? Knowing that these students need people, it’s worth it. It's fun teaching students things that they never thought they would learn.

Classroom Strategies: Layover activities, Get to Know Me Board, Racing to Success Multiplication, What Materials are Needed, Rate your own Writing, Class Rules Light, Cafe Style Chairs and Tables

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Guest Mentor KSU Assessment Natasha Roseberry Part 1

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Assessment: How are they feeling? Where are they at? Where did they end up? Figuring out the pre-assessments and formative assessments.

Goals: Every kid grows in her classroom no matter where they started.

Go-To Assessments: Learning continuum as a standardized tool. Small groups where she can see them working together.

Working Smarter not Harder: Collaborate with team!! Her team will help one another getting things done.

Small group instruction is so important where every kid can get help and talk with the teacher that they might not be able to do during whole group instruction.

Best Piece of Advice: Don’t walk alone. Leaning on coworkers is important. Go into other teachers classrooms to get help.

**Social media is a great tool to see other peoples classrooms.**

Her mom was a teacher and she’s always valued education which has made her want to be a teacher. She never wanted to be anything else but a teacher.

Why Teach? Being a role model to her students and making an impact on her students who reach out to her 20 years later.

Her Classroom: Class Goals, Anchor Charts, Everyone has Genius Wall, Flexible Seating, Student Voice Board, Readers Corner

Resources: Leader in Me: Franklin Covey
How Do You Hug A Porcupine: Laurie Isop