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Background:
Been teaching for 6 years. She is a third grade teacher at Washington Elementary School.

Definition of Assessment:
“ Assessment for me would be getting to know what the students know and how I am going to use that information. It is knowing what they know.”

Notes/Takeaways:
Her go to assessments include exit tickets and she discusses how you can use this assessment for any subject or topic. She talks about how the quick assessment is the best assessment. In response to Professor Hillman’s question of how do you work smarter and not harder, Natasha discusses making the students do it. She believes that the more they can do the less you have to do. She will sometimes have her students work in partners and they will assess each other. You don’t want to grade for forever to see what your student knows. She talks about how sticky notes are something she uses frequently along with dry erase markers and white boards. Anything where I can see if the student is grasping the content or not is a great tool to use. Natasha talks about her own experiences of how the use of daily exit slips had a positive impact on her knowledge of her students and how she was able to see where each of them stood academically.
Good book resource- Culture Code, Ender’s Game.

Advice for new teachers:
“ Relationships are important. Reach out to families and get to know them more because they can become a huge source of support. Make those connections with each of your students even if it is a small connection, it will mean the world to your students. Those first few days, first week, first month of school you can never do too much procedure or routine. You don’t have to run a tight ship but you can run an orderly ship with expectation that are clear.”

Why Teach?:
“Those smiles.” She talked about an experience where at the ending of the year a student of hers left her a note that said “ Thank you for teaching me things I never thought about.” To bring in other things outside of the curriculum that kids never think about. It is giving them something else to think about and to open their mind to.”

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Background:
She has been teaching for 21 years. She teaches at Brome Elementary.

Definition of Assessment:
“ In elementary, our kids are assessed all the time. It might be through observations or might be through white boards with “show me what you know”. Usually my go to assessment is the show me what you know because it is constant and it allows me to see where they are at and where do we need to go. One of my main goals is every kid grows in my classroom, no matter where they started did they grow this year?

Notes/Key Takeaways:
In response to Professor’s question of how do you work smarter and not harder, Christina talks about the importance of collaboration. “ It is not about me. It is about my team and I just think back to how much I have learned from my team.” “We work better together.” Christina talks about the impact her small groups have had on her classroom. She talks about how all her students benefit from the small groups because her higher kids get to learn something new and her lower kids who might be struggling they get extra support and security in asking questions that they might not have wanted to ask in front of the class.
“ There is power in the mess.”
Good book resource- How do you hug a porcupine.

Advice for new teachers:
“ Don’t walk alone. Take everyone with you.” “ Go into other people’s classroom and walk around because you can learn things form their classrooms.”

Why Teach?:
“ I can’t imagine a single other job where you go home with the kind of stories that I go home with.” “That impact on kids lives that make them come back to you years from now and say, “oh yeah I remember you.” “You will have a bad year, you will have a year that it feels like the darkest and hardest year, but clinging to those moments of impacting kids is important. Always remember your why.”

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Background: He has been a Coordinator for Special Services at the Olathe District for 15 years. He was a school pyschologist for 10 years.

Definition of Assessment: Assessment is an estimation of the quality of something or the ability. It is the snapshot of a student on that particular day in that particular state or circumstance. His go to assessments include MTSS or RTIs. Formative assessments including exit slips or quizzes.

Notes/Key Takeaways: When talking about how to work smarter and not harder, Andy talks about how you have to have a process where all your team members are on the same page.
Book resource: Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Conoman.

Advice for new teachers: “ Respect your impact. Students are going to look to you for relationships. Your impact with those children is huge.”

Why Teach?: “You need to teach because kids need you. Instant impact, you will instantly change a kid’s life the second you walk into it. This is lasting work. You are investing in humanity, you are investing in our future. Personally, I think it is awesome that I get to shape our future. You are making an impact in this world. You might be that student’s person. You might be the only one that gets to have a positive impact on them.”

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Background: She teaches third grade at Ravenwood

Definiton of Assessment: The biggest thing a teacher can do with assessments is to make those observations in the classroom. It is the day to day of what you are noticing about your students. Her go to assessments include small group instruction.

Notes/Key Takeaways: When talking about how to work smarter and not harder, Dena talked about being a team. To be successful, you need to be a team. Divide and conquer.
Book Resource: The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis. Color strips for reading and comprehension. Assessing can also include assessing what your student needs socially or emotionally.

Advice for new teachers: “ You need to make relationships with your students, the parents, and the falculty. Your students are your family. Always take the time for your students. Find out what your students love. When having hard conversations with the parents, make the phone call or in person talk because that will be a mutual respect with them. You don’t have to love everyone on your staff but, you ahve to love something about each of your staff.”

Why Teach?: “ Impact. This job is important. You are responsible  for each one of your students in your classroom and to think about what they could do in their lives. You have the ability to have an impact on hundreds of thousands of kids and when they go on to do great things, you can think about how you played a small part in that person achieving their dreams.”

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Background: I have been teaching for 23 years. He was an assistant principal at Sante Fe Trail for 3 years. He helped orchastrate the online learning for the Olathe District during the pandemic.

Definition of Assessment: I am a very hollistic person and what I always think about is can the student shows me what they know? I don’t necessarily care how they show me, just that show me that they understand what I am trying to teach. Don’t just bottle the assessments into one area, try to do it so the information can transfer to other spaces and areas.

Notes/Key Takeaways: All your kids are going to learn differently and at different speeds. When asked how to work smarter and not harder, TJ talks about it is important to go slow at first. It is going to harder to take all the educational information in as a first year teacher so taking it piece by piece is crucial. Look at all the small pieces before looking at the big picture.
Book Resource: Cultural Code

Advice for new teachers: “Make sure you care and know about your students. Make sure you let the parents know that you know and care about their kids, build those relationships.”

Why Teach?: “In times like this when the education world is under attack, this is when we need teachers the most. People are scared and mental health issues are more prominanent now so having people that can make others feel loved and safe is crucial. We just got to hang on a little tighter and love a little harder.”

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Background: She has been teaching for 28 years and she has been a kindergarten teacher for 27 years. She has been with Olathe for 14 years.

Definition of Assessment: Assessment is necessary. It is a tool to determine what my students know and what they are ready to learn next.

Notes/Key Takeaways: Some go to assessments for Marsha include hands on and quick assessments. Having a tool kit is a good resource because each student has their materials right there and Marsha doesn’t have to get up and pass things out. Marsha talks about how she spends the first month of school with her students practicing their rules, routines, and procedures. Not gettingmad at the students when they don’t follow those procedures but instead saying, “Oh I must have not explained to you guys the correct expectations like try that again.” And in this way you are correcting the behavior is such a positive and respectful way. When answering the question of how to work smarter and not harder, Marsha talks about making sure you have a good balance between home life and work life. She talked about setting boundaries. Make sure you lean on your other teachers and your team.

Advice for new teachers: Be extra nice to the secretary and the custodian. They are the heads of the school. Listen to your team and your coworkers, they want to see you succeed. Take risks and try new things. Stay off your phone!!! Your students need to see you during the day! You can get on your social media and other things at home. Don’t take yourself too seriously, you are going to make mistakes and it is okay. Leave your home life problems at the door!!! It is not your students responsibility to know what is going on with your life. “My best day is when you are here!!!” “It is the power of your words.” “Represent all your students in every single thing you read all year round.”
Book resource: Out of my Mind by Sharron Draper

Why Teach?: “Teaching is not for everyone but I am impacting the future. Teaching is not for everyone but everyone needs a great teacher.”

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Background: She has been teaching since 1992 and she taught ELA for seven years in small rural distrcit. She is currently an instructional coach coordinator.

Definition of Assessment: I see assessment in any component of life really. So when you have a goal or objective that you want to meet and to assess whether or not you have completed that goal or what might you have to do to complete it is an assessment.

Notes/Key Takeaways: Her go to assessments for her coaches involve her deriving them from the educator’s rubric. It consists of six standards and each standard has multiple indicators. Kelly likes to use rubrics because she believes it keeps you more objective and ties you to what your actual standards are.  When answering the question of how to work smarter and not harder Kelly talks about using rubrics to work smarter and not harder. When you have arubric, you know exactly what your expectations are. Also use informal assessments to assess your students and to assess your instruction. This can also help prevent so much grading to be done at home.

Advice for New Teachers: “The number one thing I tell teachers is to have establish routines and procedures as soon as possible. Do not try to establish them 2 months into the school year. Also, do not be afraid to go over those procedures and routines when students don’t follow them.”
Book Resource: Learning by Doing

Why Teach?: “I teach for kids. I care deeply about kids and I care deeply that they have a connection with adults. I care deeply that kids are given an opportunity to share their gifts and their strengths.”

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Background: She has been teaching for 14 years as an elementary resource.

Definition of Assessment: As a special education teacher, I might look at assessments a little differently than a general education teacher but a lot of my assessments are informal and pure observations. Than there are standardized tests as well. I use both antecdotal and data driven assessments all the time. My go to assessments are running records and FMPs which is a benchmark assessment.

Notes/ Key Takeaways: To answer the question of working smarter not harder, Brandi talks about how using the resources around you has been beneficial to her. When talking about a time when assessing had an impact on either her or a student, Brandi talks about how there was a student who had been through a lot in his life and many people didn’t think to expect much out of him due to his daily skills. Brandi talks about how taking the time to get to know him and giving him some assessments was when they realized his IQ scores were quite high.

Advice for new teachers: “ Be very careful about who you surround yourself with. Always look for surrounding yourself with positivity and not the negativity.”
Resource: “ It’s not about the resources but filtering out the stuff. Having and making the time to yourself to remember why you are here as a teacher.”
Resource: Behavior Snap: Data app.

Why Teach?: “There are a handful of students that I have and I will remember them for the rest of my life. And I would guess that they will remember me because I believed in them when other didn’t or helped them achieve goals that they didn’t know they could do. Seeing them being successful and making an impact, and sometimes it’s beyond the classroom walls.

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Background:
Been teaching for about 10 years. He is the math coordinator at Olathe Public Schools.

Definition of Assessment:
“ Assessment is simply a procedure for making difference.” - Dylan Williams.

Notes/ Key Takeaways:
Spencer talks about how understanding the validity of my interpretation is one of the most important things you can do with assessments. His go to assessments include what is called “every pupil responses” in his Olathe school district. He brought up an example of the white boards and wanting to keep those opportunities for responding high. In response to Professor Hillman’s question of working smarter not harder, Spencer discusses once again the understanding of the inference that he is trying to make an interpretation on based on assessment. He talks about if he makes his assessments really strategically  than he can get the information that he is desiring in a more efficient way. Spencer talks about how understanding the purpose of the assessments being given can also help you as the educator work smarter and not harder. I loved the baseball analogy because I grew up around baseball because my older brother played it for 17 years of his life so it was the majority of my life. Even though I am not going to be a secondary educator, some people think you are just behind the plate calling balls and strikes while you watch the student( batter) use their skills. But in reality as a secondary educator, you are the third base coach who helps that student (batter) polish and correct their skills to ultimately get a hit on the ball that is education. I loved this analogy a lot!
Good book resource- The Teacher Clarity Playbook

Advice for new teachers:
“ Teach to the test, which most people  would say that’s a bad thing to do. Your instruction needs to have opportunities for flexible thinking.”

Why Teach?: “ You won’t know until you meet your kids and then you will. Once you meet those kids, you won’t ever ask that question again, the why is done. It is the opportunity to pour life into kids everyday and there is nothing better than that.”

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Background:
Teaching for 12 years. She is the 2020 national teacher of the year.

Definition of Assessment:
“Assessment can be a loaded word, but for me an assessment gives me a picture of where my students are not just academically but emotionally and socially.”

Notes/ Key Takeaways:
Tabatha’s key assessments that she frequently uses is called “my igds” and she explains that it is an assessment that give an idea of her student’s performance compared to other student’s their age.
Some other assessments that the Olathe district uses is the dial  4 assessment and the Aeps assessment.
As far as a technique for as Professor Hillman said “work smarter not harder” Tabatha explains that she had to learn to see her school day through a linear structure. She learned that she had to have expectations for her students at certain parts in the day and she even took it further with expectations for herself as well as the other staff that may be in her classroom.
“Routines within routines”
Classroom layout is a big component in working smarter not harder for Tabatha. She stresses the importance on students being able to work independently at some parts in the day so she has the ability to work with small groups.
Tabatha explains that it can be hard to get an accurate picture of what each student can do unless you take the time to “intentionally” look at their skills. She also discussed how it is important for the families to know these skills that their child has in the classroom.
Great book resource- Easy to Love Difficult to Discipline by Dr. Becky Bailey.

Why Teach?: “ There are so many different jobs that you can be doing, jobs that make you more money. But there is no job out there that will give you the joy, fulfillment, and the purpose that you will get out of being an educator. My husband tells me that I get to wake up each morning and know that you are making a difference.”

Tabatha’s advice to new teachers:
Lean on the support in your community and your fellow colleagues. You do not need to do it all by yourself. Take the help, take the resources, take the advice.