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She is an early childhood specialist, special education teacher, and 2020 National Teacher of the Year.

1. Her personal definition of assessment was that assessments can give her an accurate picture of where her students are, both academically and socially and emotionally.

2. Some of her go-to assessments that guide her teaching include. She used IGDS, which gives preschool teachers an idea of where the students are compared to other students in the community. She likes it because it gives her an easy and quick way to show her how to create her instruction so that it meets the needs of her students. Another assessment she mentioned was Dial 4 and APES, which involve families and their perspective on their child.

3. As an educator, how do you work smarter, not harder? She spoke about creating routines in her school day that can help her take data quickly and get kids able to work independently so that she can work with small groups.

4. A story she shared where what she assessed had an incredible impact on the student was when she worked with a student whom other teachers thought couldn't be in a general education classroom, but once Tabatha worked with this student, she found that they could do the work and had the skills needed to be in a general education classroom with their peers.

5. Best advice for new teachers? Lean on the support of your community and fellow teachers, and support staff. Use the resources and advice they have for you that could help make you a more effective teacher.

6. Books she recommends- "Easy to Love Difficult to Discipline" by Dr. Becky Bailey, and how to build an equitable classroom.

7. How did she become an educator? She found an opportunity in high school Spanish class to teach Spanish to preschoolers, and she always had a love for helping and working with young kids.

8. An example of assessment I thought was interesting and one I would like to use in a future classroom was the different shapes on the way with students' names, and she would write positive things that happened or milestones of the kids that she could then celebrate and share with families.

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1. Taught for 10 years, currently the math coordinator in Olathe Public Schools. Became a teacher because he wanted to coach football. Became an HS math teacher and coach. "Good Teacher is a good coach"

2. Definition of assessment comes from Dylan Williams: "Assessment is a procedure for making inferences." "Whatever my inference is, it can only go as far as that assessment." Example: "If you make an inference about a kid who is struggling in math, but the assessment is a lot of reading and the kid isn't a good reader, then it wasn't a good inference."

3. Go to assessments: Teacher whiteboards every pupil's response. As adults in PD, he makes time for teachers to pause, have conversations, and learn from one another. "Scaffolding"

4. "Challenges not knowing the difference between the at-risk, assessment, and proficiency ones.

5. Learning one thing, then learning multiple things, then you get to a point where you have an understanding of it relationally. Driving a car, learning to turn the wheel, and what it does, then adding the pedals, then it becomes relational, and you could drive and talk on the phone because it becomes second nature, because you know how both those things work together.

6. Advice for a new teacher? Teach to the test. Not a popular opinion, but you want to take the assessment and decide what you want your students to know, and then create instruction where students will be able to take that test and understand how to answer it because the instruction was tailored to that assessment, and gave the students the tools needed to take the assessment.

7. Why should we teach?

"You won't know until you meet your kids. Opportunity to pour life into kids every day."

8. "Clarity Playbook"- Helping you understand the quality of your instruction is less about what you do and more about whether your kids are cognitively engaged. If the admin can have a kid tell them what they are learning and why, then the teacher is doing their job of relaying information to the kids of what they are studying and why.

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1. She teaches 3rd grade and has for 6 years.

2. Personal definition of Assessment: Getting to know what the kids learn and how she is going to use that information. "Show What You Know," looking at what you did that day and what the kids take away with them.

3. Go to assessment that guides her teaching: Exit Tickets on everything, something little that they can produce to show her that the students were paying attention and understood what was taught. Quick assessment is the best assessment

4. How do you work smarter, not harder?

5. Make the kids do things. The more they do, the less you have to do. Have students work together so they can assess each other. She could ask a student what their friend said, or knows, and then the student would explain to the teacher what their friend knows. Sticky notes, dry-erase markers, white boards. Knowing what they know will drive tomorrow's lesson.

6. Relationships and SEL are important to check in with students and see how they are doing.

7. Advice for new teachers: Relationships with students. Creating a connection with students and coming up with nicknames, greeting students at the door, and creating connections with families, because they are supportive of you. Doing work with students and not always at your desk, actually being in the mix of the classroom with them. Going above and beyond for connection would be to go to a student's football game or to get something small for a child that reminded you of them, and to build that connection. When students feel you care and are connected with them, then it makes the classroom run smoother, they trust you, and are comfortable and loved.

8. Never do too many procedures when students know exactly what you expect of them. They also feel more secure, and they feel they know what to do.

9. Must reads: Culture Code, leadership books, Ender's Game.

10. Her story of working in China as a teacher with no experience, but taking that leap of faith and finding her reason to go into teaching.

11. Why Teach? Natasha says the smiles. She says that students will thank her for teaching them something that they didn't know before they got there.

12. Room walk: All about me, what they do with their work, and the wondering wall. Students can put what they wonder about on a sticky note and put it on the wall. Layover activities are written on the wall so that students know what they can do if they are done with their work. Racing to success race track bulletin board for multiplication facts, Picture to show what kids need, such as pencils, markers, or crayons. Writing rubric for different writing prompts, like informative/explanatory or narrative. Writing portfolios, class rules, voice levels, and flexible seating give students a choice and freedom.

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Personal definition of assessment: Observing (whiteboard show me what you know), "Where are we going, where do we need to go. Where did you end up?"

Goals that every kid should grow in her classroom.

Assessing how a student is feeling that day.

What are your go-to assessments that guide your teaching: Learning continuum with a map as a standardized tool to group her kids and find out where they are. Small groups see the kids working.

How do you work smarter, not harder? Collaborate with the team rather than alone. Working as a grade-level team, learning from one another.

One thing that she assessed that had an incredible impact was when working in small groups, she had students who could ask questions that they couldn't ask before, because maybe they were shy or didn't have time. The small groups help the teacher see what her kids know on an individual level.

Advice for a new teacher: Don't walk alone. Find someone or a group to help you. An example could be if you had to write an email to a parent, before you send it, have a colleague read it to make sure it sounds good and to offer advice.

Resources: Social Media teacher influencers on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. Leader in Me: Franklin Covey "Lighthouse Status" Award. Book "How Do You HUG a Porcupine by Laurie Isop.

Why Teach? Stories you go home with will impact you. You can make an impact on children, and they are the ones you are doing this for. "Never Walk Alone"

From her room: Everyone has genius, Anchor charts, goals, 100 will grow in reading, good at/ challenges deltas, flexible seating, sticky notes, exit tickets, come up with their own fractions as an example, student voice board, Math and Reading anchor charts, Reading corner, Write compliments to one another sticky notes that make them happy.

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14 yrs. elementary resource sped teacher

Personal definition of assessment: A Special ed teacher sees assessments differently than a regular room teacher. She has assessments that she used that are informal, which are pure observation based on what she can see in the classroom or what the kids are doing. A student can take an achievement test standardized test, determining eligibility for an IEP.

Anecdotal vs data-driven, she says she uses both all the time. Behavior checklists for taking tallies and data concere data that can be put into graphs and can be used to make decisions. Where students have made improvements or lack improvements that can be shown to parents.

Go to assessments that guide teaching: reading, running records, and FMPS, which are benchmark assessments that decide what level kids are on and if they are making gains. Listening to a student read helps her determine what types of errors the kids are making and what kind of skills they're lacking. Comprehension, are they fluent but missing comprehension skills? Sitting down one-on-one.

Smarter not Harder: Groups in 30-minute increments, use different resources every 30 mins, doing this a long time helps because she knows the curriculum, using resources around you until you gain that experience, look at veteran teachers asking how to do it efficiently.

What you assessed had an impact? A student who had a rough background, and others didn't expect a lot from him. After assessing and getting to know him, she noticed his IQ was high, and others couldn't see it in his daily skills. The dada showed where he was shining.

New Teacher Advice: Careful who you surround yourself with. Want the positive, not negative, let your true north guide you. Filter out the bad stuff and reflect on why you are doing this. Work on your health and see the good social media from your school district that you guys are making a difference. Behavior Snap app.

She was a nursing major, decided it wasn't for her, so switched to education and SPED and fell in love. She always wanted to help people. She gets to be in different classrooms, get to work in small groups, and get to have the same kids for a couple of years, so she gets to know them better and their families, making those connections. Believing in the kids and seeing them grow in their education and confidence.

Why Teach? Kids, you will remember your whole life, and they will remember you because she believed in them when other people did not. She helped them achieve goals that they didn't think they could. Getting kids to believe in themselves. Get to know the kids, love them, and accept them for who they are.

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Books: Excellence in every classroom, Learning by doing, Think again. Podcasts: Brene Brown, Simon Sinek, Adam Grant, "cult of pedagogy"

Instructional Coaching Coordinator. Teaching since 1992. Thought English language arts. The job first secondary instructional coach was to mentor teachers in grades 7-12, new to the district, experienced or not, in all subject areas.

She supports the new teacher in the work they are doing. Provide professional learning, Big 3 PLCs, standards, and active engagement.

Personal definition of assessment: Have a goal or objective that you want to meet and you have to assess whether or not you have to assess whether or not you've been able to complete that goal. Could be formative or summative.

Go to Assessments: Rubrics. What are the standards I'm asking students to master, and are they mastering them? Keeping the end in mind.

Smarter, not harder: Rubric, no guessing, know exactly what the expectations are. How to use informative assessments to quickly identify what areas students are struggling with. Not a lot of homework or classwork, then you can adjust your instruction as needed. Thumbs up, thumbs down, whiteboards, exit slips. Gives feedback on how students are doing, but doesn't take time to grade at home.

Impact: She gave rubrics in advance, and she thinks it made an impact on students because they were able to self-assess. What did they know and not know? Peer conferencing to talk about things. Building a relationship. When students knew ahead of time what was expected and they could reach that goal, they felt more successful. Gave students better confidence.

Advice to a new teacher: Have procedures and routines from day one. Entering the classroom, how to use a quieting strategy, and what your quieting strategy is.

Why teach? For kids, create an opportunity for kids to show their strengths.

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27 years teaching

Personal definition of assessments: Assessment is a necessary tool that tells her what they know and what they are ready to learn next, a guide.

Go to Assessments: Look at the hands-on standard. Tool kid for kids has all their things, such as cubes for hands on learning.

Routines help students become independent, showing what they know, "show me"

Smarter not Harder: Have a good work-life balance, set boundaries. Plan once a week for the next week with coworkers. Working ahead, prep ahead, work with the team, each take a part that you are good at.

New Teacher Advice: Be super nice to the secretary and custodian, make them your friends. They can help you with what you need. Listen to your team and co-workers; they want to help you succeed. Stay off your phone; you are there to work and be present for your kids. Know you're gonna mess up, maybe spell something wrong, etc. Show kids you are human. Leave your home problems at home.

Quote " My best day if you are here"

Books: Find your voice out of my mind

Ideas and Quotes: Representation all year long. The power of the read-aloud. Practice and use your character voices for your read-aloud; don't be surprised.

Why Teach: Fun job, become funny, silly, laugh. Know that you are impacting the future.

Quote: "Teaching is not for everyone, but everyone needs a great teacher."

Writers' workshop color-coded. Table captains go get the write workshop supplies, take them to the table for the rest of the group.

Pictures for visuals for jobs.

Record directions in advance for independent work because it helps when kids say they don't remember what to do, she can say re-listen to the directions.

Kids can put their own tubs away because it is someone's job.

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Where you start may not be where you end.

Definition of assessment: Can students apply the knowledge? Can they show what you are trying to teach? Students are showing they understand in different ways. Having conversations to doing projects kept assessments open, applying is being able to show what they know.

Assessments are not final but allow students to show their growth. When you give them a grade, the learning stops. Give them opportunities to grow by giving something else for student to work on and grow to continue their learning.

Go to Assessments: Planning lessons with standards, break it apart, and what does it look like? If this were applied, what would this look like? break it into 5 essential questions or ideas, thoughts. Students knew what he was expecting them to know. Students had the 5 concepts, and they could write about it, tell him about it verbally, and projects kept assessments open. If they understand the topic, they could take one of the questions and teach the class what they learned. Gave students goals to keep working towards.

Smarter, not harder: Go slow and take your time. Take a little bit and do your best, and add to it until it becomes routine. Easier as a team than alone. Parents want to know if you know and care about their child. building relationships and finding out what makes them tick.

Books: The culture code, deeper learning, small bets.

Quotes: "Find your compass."

"Every student, Every Day!"

"Figure out their combination."

Find the underdog and give them opportunities to grow. It's the impact you get to have on students by loving them and guiding them a little bit more every day.

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Personal definition of assessment: Make observations of what they are mastering what they are still struggling with. day to day, what you notice.

What are you go to assessments? Small groups where every level of student gets your time. That builds connections and relationships. For reading, making sure the above readers are enriched and the below readers are on their correct level, or learning phonics. Made progress b/c they were in a small group or one on one. She was able to assess what they could do and what they needed to do. How can you challenge the high readers with vocabulary?

She showed a board with the books her students are reading, with vocabulary such as albino, heist.

Reading groups where you can learn more about students and the signals when they don't understand, body language when they may be frustrated, or don't know. They will take more risks when they are in a small group with you.

Smarter, not Harder: Be a team, divide and conquer. Different strengths than another co-worker play to your strengths, give compliments to your team. Use leaders in the class, and they could help another friend understand the material a little better.

How or what you assess had an impact on a student, you, classroom.

Hope you make an impact. The student had dyslexia, which came to her. She read the book "Gift of dyslexia" to understand it more. Had they been reading groups had words they couldn't comprehend what they read because their minds worked so hard to remember the words they couldn't comprehend.

Greatest advice for new teachers?

Make relationships with students, parents, and staff. show students they are worthy of your time. Try to go to students' activities outside of school, and for the parents, it shows how important their child is to you. Have the hard conversations with parents, not just by email, but make the phone call. Make relationships with staff, don't have to love everyone on the staff, but find something to love about them, their strengths.

Books: The morning meeting book, The Gift of dyslexia, Despite the best intentions.

Ideas and quotes: Connections and challenge! create an impact... It's up to you! Create stellar moments...., the courage to try, teaching matters, the best you can every day...for every child, the career that allows us to become part of their story. It is a gift.

Why teach?

Impact on students to think about what they can do in their lives. Played a little role in them achieving their dreams.

Teaching matters. Make a difference, driven to make that impact, and wanting to do the best they can for every kid in the classroom. Teachers who love kids support them and challenge them.

privilege of being part of a story.

In the room:

Constant gallery walk of student work.

different seating

Students work all over the room.

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Books: Thinking Fast and Slow, Learning Disabilities, When I am little again, and the child's right to Respect.

Ideas & Quotes!

Kids are people!

Respect goes both ways...

Impact!

15 years school psychologist and special services coordinators.

Personal Definition of Assessment:

Assessment is an estimation.

It is a snapshot of a kid on that day in that particular state.

Come to the assessment not as an end-all to be all, but as a piece of the pie, as a piece of information, as an estimation of something about a kid. A lot better predictor for the success of that.

Dylan William: "There are no valid assessments, only valid interpretations."

Go to Assessments that guide your work?

MTSS, RTI, Good Screener, having good diagnostics, and having good means of monitoring progress with interventions.

General education assessments, your formative assessments, your day-to-day exit tickets, quizzes. That lets you know how a child is doing. A snapshot of how they are taking in the information that you're responsible for imparting to them.

All students are gen ed students first, no matter the services.

As a school psychologist had cognitive assessments like the WISC or WJ to take a look at some underlying areas of potential cognitive deficit.

Cognitive assessment gives us a good idea of some of the underlying cognitive processes that might be deficient for a child.

Working with other professionals like speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and social workers to help take a further look at some areas of deficit, behavioral and motor, and speech and language.

Assessment starts where the learning happens, which is the Gen ED Classroom.

Work Smarter, not Harder?

A process that the whole team is okay with. Have a framework of how to utilize assessment and how to look at that data and what it means.

Kids are people of today and tomorrow. You may be that kid's persona and have that positive impact on them.

The story of how and what you assessed had an impact on you, a student, teacher, etc.

A kid who was 4-5 years behind surprised the team with his average-above-average non-verbal skills when he was placed in a different environment.

New Teacher Advice:

Respect your impact!

Assessments have their place, but all roads are going to ultimately lead back to intervention. It's what you do with it. Assessment has a lot to do with what you will do with it on the other end.

You need to teach because kids need you and an instant impact. You will instantly change your child's life the second you walk into it. This is lasting work you are investing in humanity, you are investing in our future. Pretty cool to get to shape the future.

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1. What did you notice about their ADVICE?

I noticed that a lot of the guest mentor advice was to build relationships. That could be with students, families, other teachers, and staff to help make you a more effective teacher. This could be collaborating with other teachers and working as a team, or using the resources and advice available to you. I also noticed that they all were so willing to advise a new teacher to help them hopefully to have a smooth transition from college to the classroom. They were excited to share what worked for them for a new teacher to maybe try out. Most of them made the connection that you, as a student's teacher, could be that positive impact on them that could make a difference in that child's life. Teaching is a way to invest in the children of tomorrow and in the future.

2. What are the strategies that you hear most often? The strategies that I heard most often from the mentors were finding assessments that helped to guide your teaching. This could be exiting tickets, whiteboard check-ins, and any assessments that will be quick and that will show what the students know, so you can gauge where your instruction needs to go. Do you need to pivot and re-teach some of the lesson so more of your students understand the lesson? I also heard a lot about routines and how they can help teachers take data quickly. This could look like getting kids comfortable working independently so that the teacher can do assessments with small groups.

3. What lessons will you add to your toolbox from listening to these mentors? I really liked the assessment from Tabatha Rosproy about using different shapes on a wall that relates to that month, and it was an easy way for her to write positive milestones or notes on there that she could share with families at a later time. It was easily available on the wall, and she didn’t have to get any supplies out to record that data. I also thought the wondering wall was interesting, where students could put what they wondered on a sticky note that the teacher could maybe use later in an activity from Natasha Roseberry. I liked what Tj Ulmer said that “Assessments are not final but allow students to show their growth. When you give them a grade, the learning stops. Give them opportunities to grow by giving something else for students to work on and grow to continue their learning.” I see this as always building on what you learned before, and never stop learning. I liked his statement about having assessments that were projects, keeping the assessment open, and having kids show what they know. Also, how he broke down the standards into five essential questions or ideas when creating lessons.

4. Which Mentor did you connect with? Explain why! I connected with Brandi England. I too was a nursing major when I was younger. I came back to college later in my life after having my own kids and decided nursing wasn’t for me. I always wanted to help people, too, and with my own kids having some learning difficulties and finding ways to help teach them topics at home when they didn’t understand, I found a love for teaching I didn’t know I had. I also work right now with a student who is having some challenges at school, and I have seen how, by me believing in him and helping him succeed and achieve goals, what a joy that has brought to him and me. Ms. England said, “Getting kids to believe in themselves. Getting to know the kids, love them, and accept them for who they are.” I really resonated with that quote from her, and that is where my heart is most of all. With the students who think they can’t, but they can with the right support and encouragement. I also loved this quote from Tj Ulmer: "Find the underdog and give them opportunities to grow. It's the impact you get to have on students by loving them and guiding them a little bit more every day."

7. What are one or two questions you would like to pose to a Mentor Educator? For Brandi England. Being a sped teacher, you said you see assessments differently than a regular room teacher, with more observational assessments. When assessing special education students, would having a checklist already made up with different topics/ tasks you are assessing and then checking them off as the student does them be an easy way to get data on the student? This way, every day you have a running record of the number of days the student performed certain tasks and when they didn’t, to be able to use that information to make decisions for their education. I would think if I were just observing, I would forget what happened with all the busyness of the school day.