Getting the school year off to a good start

1. Getting the school year off to a good start Chris Matsumoto Principal Experimental Education Unit

2. Mission Research Service Training Applied Research Unit Experimental Education Unit (EEU) Professional Development Unit

3. teaming

4. Teaming • Collaboration is a style for direct interaction between at least two equal parties voluntarily engaged in shared decision making as they work toward a common goal.

5. Barriers to Collaboration • Real or perceived differences in power • Mandating collaboration • Changing decision if collaboration produces undesired outcomes • No goal at all or a goal chosen by one party

6. NEEDED Mutual Respect Shared Philosophy Common Goals Shared Decision Making Support and Training ACTIVITIES Respect Activity Philosophy Activity Team Goal Activity Team Expectations Activity Training Activity What pieces do we need?

7. Mutual Respect ACtivity • I feel respected by my team members when… • Share your definition of respect • Listen to your team members’ perspective • As an individual your job is to focus on meeting the definition of other team members

8. Shared Philosophy • What do we expect/believe… • Develop a team philosophy that everyone can stand behind • Goal: Identify the beliefs that are shared • This does not mean that the team philosophy represents a comprehensive picture of an individual’s beliefs

9. Common Goals • Identify group goal • What questions will we ask during our debriefing time? • How will we collect data? • How will we celebrate the achievement of the goal?

10. Shared Decision Making • How will we share… • Information • Decision Making • How will we prioritize our collaborative efforts?

11. Training

12. Training and Support • What should every team member know? • Knowledge • Skills • Strategies • Prioritize • Most to least important

13. Training and Support • Assess • Identify Current Perfromance • Set goals (observable behavior) • Learning • Provide opportunities or instruction • Provide feedback • Evaluate Performance • Provide evaluation or review self evaluation

14. Goals • Team • Areas where majority of team members are learning • Individual • Areas where an individual is learning and the category is high priority

15. Staff Training Matrix • Develop a staff training Matrix to identify the strengths, goals and plans for improvement • Individual • Group

16. Group Staff Training Matrix

17. Individual Staff Training Plan

18. Charting • Focus is on what is happening instead of judging performance (less subjective) • Provide supporting evidence for the conclusions in the evaluation process • Increase professionals abilities to self evaluate and problem solve • Create a system that is easy to use both by supervisors and classroom staff • Create a system of evaluation that engages both parties in a discussion rather than evaluator reporting on findings

19. Procedure • Set up observation day with staff • Select an activity that you are going to observe • Set up a time to meet the same day • Select the child and staff behaviors you going to track

20. Procedure • Conduct the observation • Review the data prior to meeting with staff • Meet with staff member the same day to discuss observation • Identify next step • Follow up (based on this observation) • Next scheduled observation

21. Post Meeting • Meeting Procedure: • General positive comments on activity • “Do you feel you met your goals in relation to the activity?” • Look at data on chart and explain coding system • Staff member look at chart and tell about what they see/conclusion they make • Write ideas in the conclusion box

22. Post Meeting • Evaluator tells about their conclusions • SAME Conclusion • Affirm it when they bring it up • DIFFERENT Conclusion • Wait until they have finished and then explain how you have interpreted the data • Summary plus plan of action • Goal for staff member being observed • Suggested behaviors (kid and adult) to observe for next session • Suggested activity to observe for next session

23. Training resources

24. Resources

25. DEC Recommended Practices Purpose: Provide guidance on effective practices for improved development and learning outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families • Bridging the gap between research and practice • Based on research evidence and shared beliefs • User-friendly product

26. Audience • Educators • Practitioners • Families • Administration • Age Group: Birth to Five

27. Direct Services 5 Direct Services Strands: • Assessment • Child-Focused Practices • Family-Based Practices • Interdisciplinary Models • Technology Applications

28. RESOURCES: Assess and plan

29. DEC Recommended Practices Workbook • Audience: individuals working in a variety of early childhood settings that provide services to young children with disabilities and other special needs • Settings • Early Intervention Programs (Home and Center) • Preschool • Preschool Special Education Programs • Child Care Programs • Head Start • Public School • Hospital Based Programs • Other programs in which children receive educational and other services

30. Ways to use the workbook • Teams of Professionals and parents • determine the strengths and needs of their program • Make change to policy, classroom and home based service • Individuals • Determine strengths and needs as a professional • Improve professional skill • Entire Staff • Identify the professional development needs of the entire staff in a program

31. Ways to use the workbook • Research • Describing the context and the quality of classrooms as a setting variable • Program Evaluation • Summary information collected within the workbook to measure the impact on the quality of the program of professional development, technical assistance, and other interventions

32. Organization (Assessment) • Workbook Forms by Strand • Used to assess one or more entire strands of practices • Workbook Forms by Activity • Used to assess all strands cutting across a specific activity • Six different activities • Blank form to develop activity • Each set of forms can be used for two assessment periods

34. Organization (Summary) • Strand Summary Form • Summary of performance across strands • Only used with forms by strand • Total points and percentages for each strand • Graph for Percentage Scores across Strands • Visual representation of the data gathered on the summary form (percentage scores)

37. Organization (Planning) • Action Planning Form • Provides a place to record the next steps to be taken tom improve practice • Used to identify priority needs and targeted activities as well as the resources and supports required to accomplish the identified goals • Can be used with the workbook forms by strand or by activity

39. Scoring Assessment • 2 = Fully Implemented: The practice is implemented consistently across children, families, teachers, time and settings • 1 = Partially Implemented: The practices is not implemented consistently across children, families, teachers, time, and/or settings, or the practice is being implemented but needs improvement • 0 = Not Implemented: The practice is not being implemented • D/K = Don’t Know: Cannot confidently address the particular practice’s implementation • N/A = Not Applicable: Not included in the point total. The item is not relevant to the specific program (e.g., a classroom-based practice might not be relevant if the program is a home-based program).

40. Additional DEC Resources Interactive Tools to Improve Practices for Young Children with Special Needs and Their Families (CD) • Four Toolkits: • Embedded instruction • Systematic teaching strategies • Teaching early communication skills, • Monitoring children's learning • Self-paced tutorial • Video clips • Self-tests • Resources

41. Adult support

42. Schedules • Clear and consistent schedule • Display the schedule in a way that is appropriate for the children and follow it • Use staff schedules • Display and use a schedule for the adults that tells them where they should be and what they should be doing

43. Activities • Support participation • Have high expectations • Be consistent • Give good, clear directions • When children are participating, provide feedback on their performance

44. Transitions • Teach the expectations during transitions • Use pictures or salient cues • Begin the activity when a few children are ready • When in doubt, teach the routine

45. Visual Supports for Adults • Reminders about the purpose of activities • Make interactions more purposeful • Signs in each area

46. families

47. Family The way we view the family influences the way we work with families. • The family influences the growth and development of the child. • The family is the best determiner of its own needs. • Family support is a responsibility shared among family members, program staff, and community agencies. (Workman & Gage)

48. Why build relationships? • As families and professional work together and develop collaborative relationships, they can establish a new way of addressing academic problems. • The family and the professional can benefit from each others' knowledge, experience, and understanding of the student. • Working together, families and professionals increase each others' repertoire of tools to help the student. (Homan)

49. Barriers to a Full & Equal Partnership • Professionals may view parent participation as irrelevant to a child's success • Parents seen as spectators who appropriately seek out, understand, accept, and rigorously follow professional intervention plans • Parents in the role of information receivers and bystanders rather than partners • Parents support teacher practices, carry out the professional's requests (Winzer & Mazurek)

50. A Full & Equal Partnership • A family-school relationship becomes a full and equal partnership when the parties: • Truly believe each member brings something meaningful and valued to the relationship. • Share a common purpose - the welfare of the child. • Create a sense of shared responsibility around common goals. • Base the relationship on trust, understanding and respect. (Turnbull & Turnbull III)