WEBVTT

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In order to bring about change

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to support our staff and the strategies and skills they may need to bring to their program,

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we really recognize the importance of establishing a three- year plan-a minimum

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of a three-year plan of professional development so that we're able to begin with them

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at the level they're at and support them,

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and scaffold their learning and instruction over time.

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Teachers come in at various stages of their understanding.

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A newer teacher may really be actively engaged in monthly professional development,

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paired with their coach and mentor for specific strategies,

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and looking at where's the basic foundation of skills that they need to begin to focus on.

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And then the second-year plan-looking at upping the ante, so to speak, in terms of, then,

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how they can raise the bar for their own learning.

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You have to have a knowledgeable coach.

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You have to have someone who is knowledgeable about the content and is a people person,

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is able to relate to people because that's 90 percent of the job.

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To be able to relate to people and go into their classroom and develop that comfort level

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and that rapport that's needed for people to truly talk about the things they want

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to grow in, that they don't feel strong in.

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Because that's a big deal in teaching to be able to say,

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"You know, I really need help with this."

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Because you don't want to feel that you can't do your job.

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You need to give coaches a length of time to build that rapport.

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It's not going to happen overnight.

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But I think if you've given time and things just aren't working between two people,

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I think you don't beat a dead horse.

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That if the relationship just isn't going to work and you have the luxury

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of maybe another coach, that you just make it an okay thing.

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That you can switch coaches and change things.

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You don't want to overload the coach because you want them to be able to feel

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like they can really stay with somebody and give them that time that they need.

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And some people will need a lot of time, and some people will need very little.

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So they need to be able to set up flexible schedules.

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They definitely need to have a schedule, but they need to have flexibility within it so that

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if someone is coming up on something that they really need to be there two

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or three days a week, that they can do that.

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Another critical area I would want to emphasize is the need to provide adequate time

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for teachers, coach, and mentors to come together.

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And that's very challenging.

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I think when teachers are in the classroom committed to the work they're doing

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with their children, to go and visit other classrooms,

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spend time having that reflective conversation with their coach or peer,

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to go out for conferences, to be out of the classroom monthly for professional development,

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is challenging to them and difficult with all of the work

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that they have to do within the classroom.

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So a clear plan should be put into place to support those efforts.

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One of the teacher's first month of this whole implementation, I sat down with her

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in a one-to-one conference to kind of try to do that assessment and evaluation of where she was

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in terms of her understanding of the content of what we were trying to change,

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and so her affect, if you will, her ability to change.

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And she sat with me and her face got very red and she was very near tears, and she said,

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"I can't do this and I won't do this."

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And so I remember saying to her, "You know, we're going to work together to kind of let go

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of some of the things that are bothering us.

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And we're just going to, one day at a time, take this change and start implementing

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where you feel you can take a small bite out of it."

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Well, that was the first month and she took that bite.

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And then she eventually became one of our national presenters and I worked

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with her during a staff development where we were disseminating to the rest of pre-k.

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I really didn't need to be in the room because she was presenting the materials

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to her colleagues and she was able to respond to their fears and their feelings about the change.

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And to really give the information that her colleagues would need to think

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about so they could change as well.