• 3rd grade teacher and it's her 6th year teaching

What is your definition of assessment?

• Getting to know what the kids have learned and how I can use that information in any way to know whether you need to reteach something or not the next day.

What are your go-to assessments that guide your teaching?

• exit tickets, having a lesson, and then after having something, students can do to share and show what they learned. " A quick assessment is the best assessment."

How do you work smarter, not harder?

• Make the kids do everything they can; the less the teacher has to do, the easier and faster. Have friends grade and use dry-erase boards.

Share a story of how you assessed someone and had an impact on you or the student?

• taught at a summer school, and she said using sticky notes and having the students write down things about them helped the teacher learn more and more about every student

What is the greatest advice to give a new teacher?

• Relationships are important, and you want to be able to joke around with them in a good way; it's important to get to know their families. While in the classroom, move around. Get things the students want and are interested in. Start the year slow, don't just jump right into lessons. Set clear expectations for your students in your class.

What is a must-read book?

• stuff you should know - podcast.

How did she become an educator

• Traveling, she got selected to go teach in China, and she took the job and had nothing given to her; she found a way of what to teach, and this experience made her want to become a teacher.

• In elementary school, kids are being assessed all the time, always watching them, even just showing an answer on a whiteboard. See where the students grow; it is important to make sure they are learning and showing improvement.

What are your go-to assessments that guide your teaching?

• Love to group students by what areas they are strong in. She loves using small groups and teaching each group the way they need to be taught and catering to each student.

How do you work smarter not harder?

• Collaboration, its about my team, learning from every other teacher you have worked with. People work better together.

Share a story about how you assessed someone and it had an impact on either you or the student?

• Loves small groups and the high-level students continue to grow and learn new things, and the lower-level students can ask more questions and be surrounded by other students who are also struggling.

Best advice as a new teacher?

• Don't walk alone, all the teachers can be there for each other and need help.

What is a must-read book and resource?

• On Twitter, she loves to see what teachers are posting about their classroom to get more ideas, on Pinterest, or on any social media platform to get ideas. The book is How Do You Hug a Porcupine.

What is your story, and how did you become an educator?

• She said that at a young age, she wanted to be a teacher, always loved being around kids, watching how the kids grow, and you gets to watch the impact you have on students.

Why should we teach?

• The stories you get to hear, and students coming back telling you stories, and you get to hear from your students when you get to be there for them.

• A wide range of assessments that can be done just by observing. You can use notes later when coming back and seeing if students have improved.

What are your go-to assessments that guide your teaching?

• FMP, this is a benchmark assessment that she can see how the students are learning.

How do you work smarter, not harder?

• She is the only resource teacher, so she is very strategic because she knows each session is about 30 minutes.

Share a story about how you assessed someone and how it had an impact on you or the student.

• This kid has been through a lot, and people didn't expect much from this student, but they realized his IQ scores were way above what was expected.

Best advice for a new teacher?

• Be careful with who you surround yourself with and make sure you're surrounded by positive people.

What are the must-read books and resources?

• Lots of leadership books. goes on the Olathe Twitter page.

Why should we teach?

• wanted to be a nurse and didn't enjoy it, and became a teacher after taking one teaching class. SPED helped her enjoy it a lot more.

• Teaching instruction coordinator

Personal definition of assessment?

• She sees assessments all the time, which can be formative or other kinds

Go to assessments?

• We have an educator rubric, and we see how much they are learning.

How do you work smarter, not harder?

• The rubric helps you work smarter, not harder, because it shows the exact expectations set; another piece is that you don't need massive amounts of homework.

Share a story on something that had a big impact.

• The rubric was because of how they knew exactly what they needed to use and how they needed to get good grades and be successful.

Best advice?

• have procedures and routines.

• Kindergarten teacher, she has been working for 27 years.

What is your definition of assessment?

• It is necessary; it's a tool to see what the students are ready to learn next.

What are your go-to assessments?

• something quick and easy but also hands-on. She looks at standards and finds out can be hands-on. Having things close to your desk. Having a routine is the best way to have a good day. Keep practicing.

How do you work smarter, not harder?

• You learn over time that you need to balance school and home life. Plan everything a day ahead.

Best advice for a new teacher?

• Be extra nice to the secretary and custodian, listen to your team and co-workers, and stay off your phone. Laugh with your students if you mess up, leave home problems at the door, and greet students at the door

What are some good books or podcasts?

• Out of my mind

How did you become an educator?

• She was not planning on being a teacher; she was going to be an accountant, decided as a junior, and transferred schools to be a teacher.

• 3rd grade teacher

What is your definition of assessment?

• Making observations, what they are mastering, where they are struggling.

What are your go-to assessments?

• In small groups, you need to give one, and you always need to assess. Also, it's important to challenge the students.

How do you work smarter, not harder?

• Be a team, any team building is good, you should be working together, divide and conquer. Give strong compliments. Find leaders in your classroom and use them.

What's a strong impact you've had on someone?

• You want to make an impact on everyone. Two students she had both had dyslexia, and she wanted to learn more about how to help these students. She realized that they could read the words but couldn't comprehend them. She got resources for them that helped.

Best advice for a new teacher?

• You want to make relationships, make an effort to see people outside of school.

What are some good books or podcasts?

• Gifts of dyslexia, the morning meeting.

• Assessment is an estimation and the nature of nothing.

What are your go-to assessments?

• Standardized assessments, such as MTSS assessments, exit tickets, and cognitive assessments.

How do you work smarter, not harder?

• Be with your team, everyone needs to be on the same page, and have a framework.

How and what you assessed had a big impact on you or a student?

• A rough student who was very behind in learning and now, with a new foster family, has a new learning environment.

Best advice for a new teacher?

• Respect your impact; students want to form a relationship.

What are some good books or podcasts?

• thinking fast and slow.

How did you become an educator?

• grew up working with kids, got a psych degree.

• teaching for 12 years

What is your definition of assessment?

• can give a good idea of where the students are

What are your go-to assessments?

• an assessment tool, to see where the grades are.

How do you work smarter, not harder?

• have expectations and routines

Best advice for a new teacher?

• Lean on the support, take all the help you can get

• Math coordinator in Olathe

What is your definition of assessment?

• making inferences

What are your go-to assessments?

• whiteboards, it's important for students to be able to share/tell their answer in a quick and easy way

Share a story about something you assessed that had an impact

• knowing real-life situations

• I noticed a lot of their advice is very similar

2. What are the strategies that you hear most often?

• Use the resources you provided and rely on your teaching team.

3. What lessons will you add to your toolbox from listening to these mentors? 

• Make sure I provide the needs for

4. Which Mentor did you connect with? Explain why!

• I connected most with Christinia Williams, she had really in-depth answers and i could tell she was very passionate about what she does.

5. What surprised you about any of the Mentors?

• Something that surprised me is how many of them didn't want to be teachers at first.

6. What are 5 of the suggested books/podcasts you are drawn to? Why?

• out of my mind - because I've read it and I know its a very good and powerful book

7. What are one or two questions you would like to pose to a Mentor Educator?

• What are the biggest challenges you have faced when it comes to assessments?

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