(En inglés)
NCQTL Resources for Early Learning Professional Development
Vanessa Maanao-French: Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome. Today, what we wanted to do was run through the NCQTL resources to be sure you had a good understanding of the tools that are available to you, especially during this time of the year. There's so much planning that is happening, getting ready for staff to return, getting ready for new kids coming in the fall. So, let's get started.
If this is your first webinar, welcome. If you've been on several, you probably have heard my voice more than once or twice. My name is Vanessa Maanao-French, and I work here in Seattle for the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning. And I work on a special project serving AIAN grantees. So, I'm so excited to be with you all.
This is actually our last webinar of our series, before we take a break for the summer, so I'm glad you made it. This is going to be the best one. [Laughs] Oh, and I do see my friend Marita from Tanana just joined. Hello, Marita, glad to have you on.
There are two other members of our webinar team, and I will introduce them to you. They are behind the scenes and ready to help you. If you have questions, any technical difficulties, just type it in general chat and they'll take great care of you. We have Dawn Williams, who is a curriculum specialist here at the National Center, but she also helps manage a gazillion webinars. I pretend that it's just my webinars, but there are really many more webinars happening that she helps to manage. And Susan Stewart, who is our consultant around using all this technology, like this AdobeConnect platform that we're using today. They both help everything go so smoothly on the technical side. If I could just tell you the stories what we were doing just five minutes ago. [Dawn and Vanessa laugh] Making sure that everything as far as sound and the visuals look good to you. So, I really appreciate having them. They've been with me since the beginning. Couldn't imagine doing this with anybody else. They're here for you, not just me; so if you need help or have questions along the way, please feel free to type in and ask.
You guys know who we are, right? We're the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning, and we are focused on improving teaching practices within Head Start. And we have the same goal that you do, which is to ensure that your children in your classrooms in your programs make the greatest gains they can so that they are prepared for success in school. This is what we do every day; this drives our work, the framework for effective practice.
And you should be pretty familiar with "the house." We just call it "the house" now for short; it's a great nickname. But what we really want to emphasize is that what we do is all around promoting engaging interactions and environments, as the foundation for everything else. And then we have the two pillars on each side which hold up the roof, and the pillars are research-based curriculum and teaching practices, ongoing assessment, and highly individualized teaching and learning. So, that really encompasses everything a teacher does as far as classroom practice every day. And within this, we want to be sure to emphasize that our mission is to really be sure that teachers and program managers like yourself are really grounded in the fact that quality teaching -- teacher-child interactions are essential, and without them, no matter what we buy in terms of curriculum, what assessments we use, it doesn't matter, because it all comes down to how teachers interact with children.
And that all of that takes place, all of the learning that takes place, is in the context of a supportive relationship. And this happens from birth all the way through the rest of your life, really, right? So, that's what grounds us. So, let's put things into context. If this feels like your life as an education manager, that makes sense. All these puzzle pieces that need to somehow get put together. This kind of -- pieces of your work: supervision, planning for pre-service, maybe doing some ongoing coaching with your staff along the way. There's so much more to it, though, right?
I was just at a site yesterday, and they had a couple teachers out, and so, you're also juggling staffing every day. But, in terms of thinking about professional development, these are some of the key pieces. Your job as education manager is to put those pieces together in a way that makes sense for your program and that builds teachers' awareness, knowledge, skills, and their use of effective teaching practices. Because when they're put all together, that's when you really get the biggest bang for your buck. You get the magic that comes from teachers being able to transform their practice. And once you've put those pieces together, it becomes part of a process that's ongoing and cyclical. And this changes every year, because, unfortunately, we know that there is staff turnover, but there's also new children every single year.
So, what professional development looks like can be varied just based on the new children you have. So, taking those puzzle pieces again, what you're trying to do is encourage teachers to use those effective teaching practices, or the house. You're also considering what are those learning goals, what are those outcomes you're hoping that children will have once they leave your program.
And, as we come around the big circle, it's the needs of the children and the goals at the program and individual level, along with what teachers need to build their skills as teachers, that really does drive and inform your professional development. So, again, this would change every year. So, if it feels like you're always working on this, that's just about right. The good news is that we have resources to support you, and we'll walk through all of these different resources pretty quickly today. We have resources to support your beginning teachers, your veteran teachers, but also program-wide professional development. And I'm going to group these in a way that I think makes sense and will help us kind of go through all of the resources in chunks. So, we have resources to improve teaching, to develop your teacher skills; we have resources around transition to kindergarten, and higher education resources.
And those are the newer ones that we'll have coming out soon. And this is what kind of grounds all of the resources that we have.
We have a belief that teachers need to learn about the content; they need to continue to build their knowledge base; they need to know more and more, because it changes every year, right, as we learn more about how children learn. So, the content knowledge is what teachers need. They also need to know what skills work best for children. They need to be able to then also see what effective teaching looks like across different classrooms. To get outside of their own classroom is really helpful, right, to be able to see other teachers in action.
And then, finally, teachers need to do it. They need to practice what they've just seen and what they've just learned in order for that new knowledge to stick. And that's how all of our resources have been designed, with that know, see, do, so that we can improve approach.
So, in terms of effective teaching resources, I want to share a little bit of information about our in- service suites, some new curricula tools and resources, CSEFEL resources, support for children with disabilities and the Head Start Center for Inclusion. Hopefully, you've heard of some of these, and some of these may be new to you as well.
The in-service suites: We have the 15-minute in-service suites, which are available online, but we also have the trainer version, also available online. You should all have one of those 50-pound binders. I exaggerate only a little bit. They're probably about 10 pounds, those white binders that include all of the in-service suites for the foundation of the house. If you don't have your box set, let us know in general chat, and also let us know what program you're from; if you do not have one, it's really important that you do.
And then also let us know if you have not yet received a DVD that has in-service suites that were designed specifically for AIAN. And there are 12 of them. Content is very much the same, but we've changed the video and photos to be more reflective of region 11. So, again, if you do not have your AIAN in-service suite DVD, let us know. Make sure we know what program you're from, so we can connect with you as well. Now, the content for the suites really does cover the foundation, or the engaging interactions and environments. It covers ongoing assessment.
And finally, we have suites that cover highly individualized teaching and learning. And we have some there now available online, but we have more coming, and I'll talk about that in just a little bit. So, in terms of the 15-minute in-service suites that are available online, these were specifically designed for teachers, and it really is designed to be 15 minutes long. So, they have a highlight video that's about four to five minutes long, along with learning activities that teachers can download to be able to practice what they've just seen on the video, as well as tips or tools for teachers. So, again, these were designed to be done while teachers are on planning time, maybe if they have to, during their lunch time or while kids are napping. It's designed to be really quick, give good information in a really concrete and concise way. And they map onto our framework.
So, you'll see that there are 15-minute in-service suites for those areas I just described. If you have teachers just using the 15-minute version, again there's that PowerPoint, the learning activities, and the Tips for Teachers, and this is kind of what they look like. So, again, they can be done pretty quickly. A teaching team can do this just as a team by themselves as well. And we also include some additional resources. So, in case there's an interest in reading more related articles. Sometimes there's books that are related. And sometimes what I like is you'll find extra videos from other websites as well.
The trainer version, which is something you may be more interested in, is also available online. There's a little button that you can click to get the trainer version. And we'll send you information about how to get to the trainer version, if you need to. And we do have those available, again, on the foundation, on assessments, and highly individualized teaching and learning. But what's great is that what's online is the same thing as what's in the boxed set. Now, the boxed set focuses just on the foundation, so engaging environments and interactions, or in CLASS language, emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support.
Those are the types of suites that you will find in the big binder. The AIAN DVD -- and I'm glad people are letting us know that you haven't gotten some of these things yet -- again, these are from the foundation, and there are only 12 of the 20 or so that are available in the full binder. But you would have received this from your ECE specialist or from your tribal liaison if you have one. But what I did want to let you know is what's inside and what's in common for the online version, the big binder boxed set, and the AIAN DVD. So, regardless of which format you receive it, this is similar.
So, for each of the suites that's available, you get a table of contents. Good to know, so you know what to expect when you open the box. You have a PowerPoint, which is adaptable. And by "adaptable," I mean that you can actually go in there and change the language on the slides if you want to; you can add your own notes, and we do embed video from our video library; but if you have videos you'd like to add, you certainly can add your own video as well. It's intended to be customizable, so that you can do what you need to do to make these in-service suites more meaningful to your staff. You can even change the photos if you want.
So, also included are presenter's notes; so that for each slide -- for each presentation, you know what materials you're going to need; you get an overview of what the suite is about, so you can familiarize yourself with what you're going to be talking about with your team. And what I love is that for every single slide, it tells you basically what to say and what's the key message for the slide. So it can become for you your own. So we'll tell you what the main points are. You can feel free to elaborate, add your own stories and examples. Again, this is just to guide your conversation.
There are also the learning activities that are within the presenter's notes, and I'll give you the instructions that'll tell you which handout to grab, which also comes in your suites, and if there's video or special notes or ways to lead the discussion. You may also decide to use optional slides. Those are also included in the DVD or in the binder. And then, again, the learning activities. So, if you have the binder, you have a hard copy of those learning activities, so you can just make copies of them as you need. The DVD will have them, so that you can download and make copies. So, either way, pretty quick and easy.
The tips for teachers, so handouts for teachers to take back, put in their planning binders, post in their classrooms -- such as this tool here, which is kind of a reminder poster about having conversations with children. So, those quick messaging to keep teachers thinking about: How do I really expand conversation and model quality language for children? And this is what I really appreciate about each of the suites. They have tools for supervisors that are related to the suites. So this is just one example.
And this example is an observation tool. So, it's a way for you to, using the key concepts from the suites, go in and do a classroom observation and then be able to debrief with your teacher and provide recommendations for next steps to refine his or her practice. And again, these are in each of the suites. And just like the 15-minute version available online, we do also include those helpful resources, so that if this is a topic of specific interest for your team, you really can go out, download more articles, read them yourself, give them to teachers. There are videos here. Other times there are even other links to other websites that have additional presentations. So, again, this is to help you customize your presentations and how you share this information with your staff. And I just mentioned this; there are articles, books, and videos.
We're going to take time in just a second to watch a quick clip of this video. It's actually 20 minutes long, but we're not going to watch 20 minutes' worth. We're only going to watch like a minute or so. But this is the video that we developed to help explain the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework. It talks about all of the domains and the domain elements within the framework. It's about 20 minutes long, as I mentioned. It is available for you to download on ECLKC. So, let's go ahead and show just a quick minute or so, so you can get a sense of how it works.
[Music plays]
Narrator: Children and families in Head Start have a big job. They need to get ready for kindergarten. We have a big job, too. For these young children, how do we promote all aspects of their development and learning? We can look to the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework. Children in Head Start are expected to progress in all of these domains: Physical development and health, social and emotional development, creative arts expression, approaches to learning, language development, literacy knowledge and skills, logic and reasoning, mathematics knowledge and skills, science knowledge and skills, and social studies knowledge and skills.
The English language development domain applies to children who are dual language learners. Dual language learners are learning more than one language at the same time, or they're beginning to learn English, as they continue to develop their first language. During the early childhood years, development and learning...
[Video ends]
Vanessa: Dawn and I are in the same room, so we were having a conversation about how it might be used as well, and talking about sending it to our friends who don't know what we do. Which is so true, for those who think that Head Start is kids just coming to one place to play together for three and a half hours and then they go home; there's so much more that happens. So, I love your ideas about using this in pre-service to get your Head Start brains back in gear. It's so hard when you're gone for a couple of months to get back into the flow of Head Start. To use for new teachers, absolutely, absolutely.
And the other thing I thought about, too, while sitting here with Dawn is how great would this be for policy council, right? For parent orientation. If you have -- if you're doing some collaboration with neighborhood schools around transition, this would be one way to show what you do in Head Start that gets kids ready for school.
So, I would offer to you to expand your thoughts on how this video could be useful to you. Parents would certainly be an amazing audience. They understand as they're developing goals for their child, all of the domains. And for your partners in the community to understand more deeply what we do in Head Start, which is a lot. It's a lot of hard work, right? So, I'm glad you all know about this. It's available for you. We'll be sure to send you a quick -- an extra little handout that helps you find all of these things we talk about today.
Effective teaching: Again, that we're all focused right now just on effective teaching. But again, using the know, see, do approach, we are coming out very soon with math and science toolkits. How exciting is that? So, it'll help your teachers dive more deeply into these two subject areas, which, you know, majority of teachers out there that I've heard from, talked with, these are the two areas they're least comfortable with. When it comes to creative arts, when it comes to language, much more comfortable. Math and science, ehhh... But these toolkits will certainly help. These should be coming out and be available. I want to say this summer.
So, our timeline is they're ready; it's a matter of how quickly we can get them on ECLKC for you. But be on the lookout for them. We also have nature-based curriculum. There's a lot of stuff that's already available online. Sorry about that, didn't mean to do that so quickly. And there are things available online, and we'll show you again with the handout we'll send following this webinar, ways to find specifically nature-based curriculum stuff.
There's -- I'm thinking about the science stuff, too. There's the messy curriculum. We do have lots of things about how to turn your classroom inside-out, basically go outside and create some learning opportunities for kids outdoors, but also ways to bring the outdoors inside, so that kids continue that learning and exploration. Around the area of assessment, within your curriculum, there are some tools available to you as education managers. We have a review tool to make sure your curriculum and your assessment go well together, that they align -- always important. If you haven't chosen a curriculum or you're thinking about changing a curriculum, some ideas about some key things you want to keep in mind when you're choosing your curriculum.
And then, this is something that's new and coming out also in the next couple months, are curriculum consumer reports. Now, what these are is a review of 14 multi-domain curricula; a lot of them you've heard of before. I will guarantee you Creative Curriculum is on there, and probably one that you are using yourself. And they have ratings based on 11 key components around what makes a curriculum effective. So, you'll see how we rate those curricula.
Another thing I want to be sure to give you a heads up about if you don't know where to find it already, this is a snapshot of our website, where you can find information on disabilities and resources to support children. So, within our page, under "Disabilities," we have two featured searches that I want to be sure to tell you about today.
First, is the Disabilities Newsletter, and the other is the Head Start Center for Inclusion. And in trainings I have done recently, folks haven't heard of the Head Start Center for Inclusion, and there's so much great information there for you and so many great resources for your teachers. So, let's quickly walk through them. The Head Start -- our Head Start Disabilities Services Team has a newsletter that comes out monthly, and it's distributed if you register for it on ECLKC. So, you can certainly add this. I'm sure you guys are out there already registered subscribers, but you can add this as something that you receive monthly from us. If you don't already receive it, there's certainly a link to find it, and every newsletter that's come out -- there's like 20 of them or so already archived there for you.
So, you can also go back and see issues that go back for the last two years. The Head Start Center for Inclusion was actually started by the same two amazing women who started this national center. And this -- the website is still active and is part of our National Center for Quality Teaching and Learning website, but it focuses on inclusion and supporting those children with disabilities and challenging behaviors.
And there's a quick link to find it through our website. What's important for you to know is that there are resources there for teachers and classroom staff, disabilities coordinators, yourself, for family service providers, and for families. So, this is really a place to get resources to cover everybody involved with that child.
Here's another quick view of what the website looks like. But there are also 15-minute in-service videos here, specifically around serving children with disabilities. There are exemplar video clips. You'll see teachers demonstrating some really effective strategies for working with children. Teachers love this. There are print-and-go resources here; so, if you wanted to create a picture schedule, for example, there are picture schedules ready to go, which is so wonderful. Makes things so much easier. And there are even more helpful resources included, such as letters to go out to families. You can cut and paste those, put them into your newsletters, et cetera, et cetera. But they're on a variety of topics. The one I used most recently was around kids with challenging behaviors. And so, you'll have information there to really help guide how you talk with parents, but information you can send to them as well.
So, the suites we currently have available -- these are the ones you can find online in the roof of the house, are curriculum modifications, embedding teaching -- as far as breaking down goals -- and the activity matrix for organizing learning. And, again, this is how you support children in the classroom. But there are more suites around this area coming soon, and over the summer, you'll see more and more added. So, it'll be worth your time to go back and check, look on that roof of the house and see what's been added. There will be eight more suites around curriculum modification, and then also some suites on embedding teaching and learning.
So, I'm going to switch gears a little bit, going pretty quickly, but I do want to talk to you about the resources that are available to promote ongoing teacher development. The beginning teacher series, CLASS resources -- both of which folks have already been using -- webinars that we offer, and practice- based coaching.
So, this looks familiar for those that have used this already, but we do have the Beginning Teacher Series DVD. And also, this is one of those that if you have not received it, let us know.
We'll coordinate with your early childhood specialist to be sure that you get one. And we may be able to just mail it directly to you. So, it's a self-guided learning program for new teachers, and maybe you want to use this with your teachers that have been around for a couple of years as well. Because what it does do is it walks through the key components of being a Head Start teacher, from setting up your classroom to home visits, how you interact with children, the Head Start framework, and so much more. And the way that these are designed is that teachers can do this self-paced, so when they have time to do it.
But there's also away for you as a supervisor to be able to follow up and to ensure that teachers are moving through those units. These two resources should be fairly familiar to you. They are available online for you. But we do have the CLASS crosswalk, which tells you which of our in-service suites match up to each of the dimensions of CLASS. I'm sure you've seen that before. It is available online for you. As well as this other booklet that we've put together. I want to say it's like 40 pages long. Anyway, it's worth a read, whether downloaded or just read online, about how you can use the CLASS to inform your professional development planning for teachers to improve their teacher-child interactions.
We have materials that have been translated, but right now we've only translated things into Spanish. So there are several things that have been translated, and more to come. Just as an FYI. And we do do webinars monthly. There's the Front Porch series, Teacher Time, the webinar you're on right now, and we just wrapped up last week our Teacher Webinar series for region 11. The Front Porch calls are the 4th Monday of every month, and we are taking a break from those too, aren't we, after this month? So, the last one is in just about a week or so. So, try to catch it if you can. They're facilitated broadcast calls, with really these leaders in research across the country to talk about things that matter most right now for kids, and they're fabulous. They're only 45 minutes, but they are all archived as well. So, if you've missed any of them, you can certainly go back and review and listen to the ones that are of most interest to you. They'd be great to share during a teacher meeting as well.
We also have Teacher Time, which is a new thing for us this year, just started in 2014.And it really does focus on teaching strategies that are based on research, but also ways for teachers to directly apply it tomorrow. And there's always a component, too, about how do we keep our teachers healthy, not just in terms of physically healthy, but mentally and emotionally healthy. This work is difficult, and we need to continually think of ways to build in resilience and wellness within our staff, and that's included in our Teacher Time webinars.
Again, these are our webinars that we've been doing over the course of the past year and a half. And we do have a calendar of when they happen. So, we actually do some work with the ECE specialists as well; so, we usually talk with them in the first week of the month. We have our AIAN webinars the second and third week. And Teacher Time is also in the third week.
And then finally, Front Porch is at the end of the month. So you can see now how busy Dawn is.
[Dawn and Vanessa laugh]
It's always happening; there's always a webinar happening. And again, we've made a real strong effort to be sure that we archive these, because we know everyone is busy; it's hard to gather your teachers together for webinars. But they're there for you when you need them as well. And we'll be able to show you where to find those.
Specifically, to find these webinars, the Education Manager webinars -- because we've been doing these since November 2012 -- they're now beginning to be online for you. But they're in a different place; they're not on our NCQTL page. So, you find them on the States page. So, go to States when you're on ECLKC, click on the AIAN tab, and then under Resources, if you were to click that, that's where you would find the AIAN Education Manager webinar series. And the page that comes up will look like this. And right now I think we have five or six of those webinars. And so you can certainly be able to download and see those as well.
So, one more quick note, too, about the webinars. We are taking a break over the summer, so during the months of June, July, and August as well, those webinars that we put on that calendar won't be happening. But you'll be able to find information about the archived versions and the schedule once we get started again in September on our website. Because we all need a break. [Laughs]
So, another teacher development: We also have information on coaching. We call it practice-based coaching. And it's very similar to many models you've seen out there, where there's a component of goal setting, observation, and reflection. And we offer different formats for that, including self, peer, and expert. Proximity: Our model can be used at a distance or in person. And it can be done one-on- one, just one person, or as a group. We have begun having conversations about how to bring this information out, because it does begin with a plan that starts at the regional level.
So, the folks in D.C. along with your TA system come up with a plan about how they'd like to bring this practice-based coaching information out. We plan at the regional level. And then once we have that plan in place, we provide what we call practice-based coaching leadership academies. And this is really a place not necessarily for teachers, but for you as leaders to come together to learn more about the model and determine how it fits within your own program and how to set up the infrastructure to ensure success. Following that, we offer coach training and then also training in what we call Teachers Learning and Collaborating, which is our group coaching model. It's a lot of information to take in at once, but just to know that we're in conversations now, so that you'll have more information about this coming in the next year.
Transition resources is great to have, and we're building on this. Right now, what you find online will be a couple of videos that are super cute about transition and also planning resources for you, if you wanted to have folks in your community come together to talk about how can we make transition work best for our kids. So, again, what's available right now is a PowerPoint. So, if you wanted to talk about transitions within your staffing team, with families, you'll be able to use our PowerPoint to kind of guide that conversation. We also have a transition plan template to help you think through all of those big pieces of a transition plan to be sure that you've got everything covered.
And again, we do have these videos on transition. I would really recommend going onto our website to find these videos. I did have a short clip for us, but I think what I'll do is keep us moving along to be sure that we cover all of the resources, before the end of our time together. So, in addition -- well, actually, I think we will play our little video. It's only a minute and a half.
[Video begins]
Girl: On my first day, I thought, like, I wouldn't make any friends. And then I did.
Boy: I was nervous that the other kids would be mean to me.
Girl: I was scared to have a new teacher.
Girl: But I was scared.
Girl: I didn't know where everything was and stuff.
Boy: My mom helped me find my seat.
Girl: And I was sad, too, because my mom was gonna leave, but until I saw my mom in the hallway. She gave me a hug.
Boy: My teacher said, "All the parents have to leave." I, like, gave my mom a hug.
Girl: We sing our morning song. And then we go to our journals and then put them in our folders.
Girl: We listen to the teachers. We read with our friends.
Girl: We learn math.
Girl: Sometimes we wrote stories together.
Girl: We learn the schedule.
Girl: And we go to gym.
Boy: And do music.
Girl: But you have to...I don't know how to snap.
Girl: Shaking the maracas.
Boy: We do journal.
Girl: What did you write about in your journal today?
Girl: Um...
Boy: We write how we're feeling, like if we're scared, sad, mad, happy. And I forgot what we were talking about... No, when we're feeling safe.
[Video ends]
Vanessa: I'm actually glad we shared that video. That little guy at the very end always just makes me smile. So, this video is actually six minutes long, and this is just a quick minute just focusing on the perspective of what being in kindergarten is like. And it's just a great way, if you are doing a kindergarten meeting about transition or if you're talking about transition with parents to be able to share this and to keep the kids in the right -- what is it about?
It's about how are we feeling when we get there. Are we feeling happy; are we feeling frustrated? The bottom line: Do kids feel safe when they are making that transition? Because that can make or break their first few days or weeks in kindergarten, right? So, again, there's also a video there for you to be able to download and use: A community's perspective on transition. Visit this page often over the summer, because it will shift and change. There will be more things added, and I'll talk about those in a quick minute.
So, when you go on our web page, this is what our web page looks like. This is where you'd find the framework and the framework video. This is where you would find those 15-minute in-service suites. We do have some frequently asked questions about preschool Head Start in general, but also the framework, et cetera, et cetera. Learn from others' questions. If you want to find those broadcast calls that have been archived, this is the quick way to find it. Look for the little chair on the porch. Here's the framework. So, we found the outcomes video, which is wonderful. And if you want to know where we are going to be, in terms of events that are happening, our conferences and our webinars, this is were you would find a calendar of events for our work here at NCQTL. If you wanted to find us on the road, now you know where to find us.
So, the transition resources I just talked about you would find by clicking on the tab on top here. Information about coaching and Teacher Time you would find on that Teacher Development link right there. So, please go back and just kind of explore around our website. It really is, as Diane just said, so huge. We do have this as a handout, Diane, so I can send you this handout which tells you the quick way to find these links for you.
All right, but wait, there's so much more, more coming. I love my ShamWow guy. There's more beyond just the big box. We work closely with Vanderbilt and CSEFEL, or the Center for Social Emotional Foundations in Early Learning. It's a lot to say, which is why we just call it CSEFEL. But a lot of their resources, the really big ones are going to be moved over to NCQTL's website, so you'll be able to find those ways to really support children's social-emotional development for infants, toddlers, and also preschoolers. And these are amazing resources.
For those familiar with the pyramid, you'll be so happy to know that they're there along with all of the PowerPoint presentations that are available and resources for teachers to use in classrooms. Also coming soon, we have what we call our Coaching Companion. And it's a nice pairing with our practice- based coaching model, but it's a way for you to capture those action plans you make with teachers to be able to document your observations as well as your reflections. So, you can go back throughout the entire year and be able to really reflect on what changes have happened. In addition to that, you can upload your video of teachers that you take in classroom, in action, as well as the videos from our video library. Sounds awesome, and it's coming.
And I did tell you that there's more coming under "Transition." And more and more programs and communities are having transition summits. And so we pool together resources to really help programs out there do this at the local level. So you have a guide to help you do that along with some other important information. So there's a brief on why transition is important, why we do it, what it is, and how to make it successful.
And we also have a calendar for teachers. So, thinking not just at the end of the year but throughout the entire year, how do we get kids ready for kindergarten? That's coming soon and will be available online. Also coming soon...[Laughs] are our higher education courses. Now, these courses are being developed here at NCQTL. It will come with a Coaching Companion Campus Edition, and what these are are courses that can be taken and used by local universities and colleges to offer credit. We, NCQTL, will not be offering the courses directly, but we're offering this as a resource to colleges and educations around the country to be able to deepen what they offer to teachers, in terms of real quality early learning coursework that's related to the Framework for Effective Practice, that's related to Head Start outcomes, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know that these courses will really teach them what they need to know to be a strong Head Start teacher. Again, these are coming soon.
Right now, we have instructors and professors around the country really using these right now in their classrooms, field testing it to make sure that these work. They're a package including syllabi, handouts, videos, et cetera. Everything you would need to provide a course would be included in each of these course units. I think about some programs we have out there where the grantee actually is a college.
This might be something that'd be very interesting to them. You may have partnerships with colleges now. So, this would be something to kind of keep on your radar. More information is coming out soon. To put this all into one hour is really hard to do, but I did want to give you guys the spread of what's out there, and take in what makes sense to take in a little bit at a time. The website's always there for you. And I'll pull together something that can really share this information with you in a way that you can kind of pick and choose and take your time and explore each of the resources. But I'm happy to hear that folks are excited about different resources, but also equally pleased that we were able to find out that you don't have some things that could be really helpful to you. So, this gives us a chance to go back and make sure that you have what you need. So, whether it's the Beginning Teacher Series or the in- service suites, we want to be sure you have all of these tools.
So, as we wrap up -- we only have a couple more minutes left -- it'll be helpful for us, and especially for those who were missing some resources, that you register, so we have your contact information, because otherwise all we have is your name. And then please do give us feedback about this webinar and let us know what worked well for you and what we could do a little bit differently next time. We always want to be sure to keep improving. But that's it for our time with you today. Thank you, again, for joining us. This time of year is always so busy. So, enjoy the rest of your day and summer, and, yeah, we'll see you later. Thanks. Bye.
Vanessa Maanao-French, NCQTL
Explore este webinario para tener una visión general de los recursos de NCQTL (sigla en inglés). Está diseñado para ayudar al personal de Head Start con su formación y desarrollo profesional docente. Infórmese sobre la preparación para la escuela, CLASS®, desarrollo docente y la transición al kínder (video en inglés).