Current role and special title? preschool teacher and now coaching role to support early childhood educators and 2020 national teacher of the year.

what is your personal definition of assessment? gives me an accurate picture of where my students are, both academically and to the social and emotional realm.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? My IGD's- assessment tool to give an idea of where the students are at compared to any student on this street. Dial 4 and AEPS.

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? all in the systems. Think about your day in a linear day even if it's not wat you would typically do or used to. think piece by piece. routines within routines.

Share a story where how and what you assess had an incredible impact on either a student, you, or even your classroom? spend time intentionally looking at their skills. One time, she assessed a student who she only worked with a few times. A lot of people didn't think he could move into GenEd setting. But her worked showed he was ready for it.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? Lean on the support in your community.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by: Dr. Becky Bailey

What is your story and how you became an educator? Always wanted to help people, been working with kids from a young age. Junior in high school, this had her go down to preschoolers and teach them Spanish. Big witness in education and realized the work of art that teaching is.

Why teach? there are so many other jobs you could, make more money, and work less. But there is no job out there that you will do that will compare to the joy and compassion you get while teaching. You get to make a difference in this job and be the purpose in student's lives.

Current role and special title? math coordinator in Olathe public schools

what is your personal definition of assessment? assessment is simply a procedure for making inferences, ask you to do something, you do it, then I make an inference on that.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? The whiteboards as a teacher.

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? Understanding what inference, I am trying to make based on assessment. If I'm working strategically, then I can be more officiant. We just assume all kids should have good scores on their assessments, which is not always the case. So, understanding that all assessments have different purposes is a way to work smarter not harder.

Share a story where how and what you assess had an incredible impact on either a student, you, or even your classroom? When he was assessed as a student, he had to learn the distance formula and he thought it was stupid because it was so long. He told the teacher he wasn't going to learn it. His teacher was patient with him and allowed him to do it his way, which was actually the "stupid" way all along.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? Teach to the test.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? The Teacher Clarity Playbook

What is your story and how you became an educator? He became an educator so that he could coach football. Then during his first year of teaching, he went back to see his college football coach. The coach made him realize he needed to focus on being a good teacher, in order to be a good coach as well.

Why should we teach? You won't know until you meet your kids, and then you will know why.

Current role and special title? 3rd grade teacher

what is your personal definition of assessment? getting to know what the kids know and how I am going to use that information.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? her biggest ones are exit tickets on EVERYTHING.

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? make the kids do everything. the more they do, the less you have to do. white boards and sticky notes are your friends.

Share a story where how and what you assess had an incredible impact on either a student, you, or even your classroom? She taught at summer school; they had an assessment ticket every single day. That had the most impact on her, when they did it every single day, she learned so much about her students and where they are at.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? relationships.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? "Stuff you Should Know"

What is your story and how you became an educator? She randomly got an invitation to teach in China while she was working in an office. She had no curriculum, and she just went and figured it out. And through this experience, and the kids, she fell in love with teaching.

Why teach? those smiles. "Thank you for teaching me things that I have never thought about"

what is your personal definition of assessment? where are we going? where do we want to go? how did we grow this year?

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? white boards

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? COLLABORATE

Share a story where how and what you assess had an incredible impact on either a student, you, or even your classroom? Small groups have shaped her entire classroom. It helps the kids that are more ahead and realize they get that extra time.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? Don't walk alone.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? How Do You Hug A Porcupine?

What is your story and how you became an educator? She always wanted to be a teacher, she never wanted to be anything else since she was younger. She always wanted to be around kids, kids are awesome!

Why teach? You can't imagine any other job where you come home and have the stories you have from your day of work. The impact.

what is your personal definition of assessment? assessments are very informal, something you can do off of watching, and can be something much more formal.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? tallies and checkmarks off of concrete data in the classroom.

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? use your resources around you.

Share a story where how and what you assess had an incredible impact on either a student, you, or even your classroom? someone didn't expect a lot from their known background. Once he got comfortable, they then realized how smart he was.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? be careful with who you surround yourself with.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? it's not as much about the resources and more about the filtering out the bad.

What is your story and how you became an educator? originally a nursing major, wasn't her perfect fit. took an intro into teaching and SPED and it stole her heart.

Why teach? you will remember these students for the rest of your life because they were MEANT for you.

what is your personal definition of assessment? assessment is in any time of your life when you have a goal or objective you want to meet and look back to see if you have completed that goal.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? educator rubrics

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? rubrics: no guessing games with this

Share a story where how and what you assess had an incredible impact on either a student, you, or even your classroom? she made sure to give the kids rubrics in advance, and it made a huge impact on students and made it possible for them to self-assess.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? have procedures and routines.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? "Learning By Doing"

What is your story and how you became an educator? she would watch all her teachers growing up, and she could tell who the strong teachers were, and she planned to be an elementary teacher. then changed to secondary.

Why teach? teach for the kids.

what is your personal definition of assessment? it's necessary, it is a toll that she determines what her students know, and what they need to know next.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? fast and easy; hands on, use the tool kit and have them show her a certain type of assessment.

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? keep a good work life balance. set boundaries for yourself. sets a planning day for the next week, working ahead.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? be extra nice to the secretary and the custodian. listen to your team and your coworkers. leave your home problems at the door.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? Out of My Mind (fantastic book)

What is your story and how you became an educator? She was not going to be a teacher, wasn't typical in her family. met her husband in her transfer college.

Why teach? teaching is not for everyone; you can have fun and be funny at this job.

what is your personal definition of assessment? can students apply the knowledge, can they show that they understand what he teaches.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? break down the assessment to make sense and make sure the students know that break down.

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? try and go low even with the workload you are given.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? relationships are SO important, especially with parents.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? Culture Code

What is your story and how you became an educator? his father was a teacher, his dad always found he underdog and found ways for them to grow. This inspired him a lot.

Why teach? watching your students grow into an "actual person" is the greatest reward.

what is your personal definition of assessment? Make observations.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? Reading groups.

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? Be a team.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? Make relationships with students, parents, and the staff. Build the confidence with them.

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? The gift of dyslexia.

What is your story and how you became an educator? She started in interior design, didn't feel fulfilled. She went back to school and got an elementary education degree, and realized her passion was in teaching.

Why teach? The impact that you have on children's lives.

what is your personal definition of assessment? assessment is an estimation, a snapshot of a kid on that day in that particular state.

what are some of your go-to assessments that guide your teaching? big standardized assessments, MTSS assessments, day to day assessments

As an educator, how do you work smarter not harder? have a process that all your teammates are on that same page about and have a framework.

Greatest advice to a new teacher? respect your impact

What is the hot topic book that supports you currently as a teacher? thinking fast and slow

What is your story and how you became an educator? Growing up he likes working with kids, thought he would be an optometrist, realized school psychology is his path, then worked into schools.

Why teach? kids need you and instant impact.

They all seemed that when giving advice is to not do it alone. Work with your team and get the help you need because it is a tough job, especially in the beginning.

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

The strategies I heard the most often are the work with the everyday assessment the most. Those are the assessment that will give you a really good grasp on how the students are taking in the information, because every day for a kid is different, so one day should not determine their overall knowledge of content.

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

Growing up I didn't do a lot of small group work. But I noticed how important it is with these guest mentors. So, I plan to make sure that I use smart small group work throughout all subjects in my lesson plans in the future.

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

Marsha Reeves. She was very hands on and go go go, which is exactly how I am. I also liked that she reminded us of the work life balance, because even now just in school, it is difficult to keep that balance in place.

5. What surprised you about any of the Mentors?

What surprised me about a decent amount of them is that they did not all start off on the education path. It is crazy to think that after school you think you are really going to know what you are doing for your career path, but these mentors showed that anything could happen you could still change your path fi you would like to.

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

Culture code- Culture is HUGE in the classroom and I want to learn more about how to make MY class's class culture strong.

The gift of dyslexia- I used to tutor a kid with dyslexia, and I would like to learn more about it for my future students.

Learning by doing- sometimes I forget that you can't learn everything just by studying and class, sometimes you need to learn from experience and failure.

Stuff you should know- I mean the title speaks for itself, you want to be as prepared as you can, and I think that is what this book is about.

How do you hug a porcupine- I have heard so many great things about this book, and it is something that you could read to the kids, which is different from most of the books the other guest mentors suggested.

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

What was the most difficult part for you as a first-year teacher?

Why did you end up in the position and school you are currently at?