DAY 4 Special Education

Topeka Public Schools is the recipient of many awards:

• Dr. Anderson was named the 2023 Woman Superintendent in School Leadership award from the American Association of School Administrators

• 2023 Region 2 Kansas Teacher of the Year & Finalist, Cherryl Delacruz

• 2023 Horizon Award winner, Megan Maness, French Middle School Special Education Teacher.

• 2023 Best Communities for Music Education

• 2022 Region 2 Kansas Teacher of the Year & Finalist, Pam Muñoz

• Thirteen (13) students in the Teaching Profession Pathway qualified for the national Educators Rising competition

• TPS opened a 2 Year-Old Childcare Program at Shaner Early Learning Academy

• TPS Parents as Teachers is a Blue Ribbon Award winner

• 2022 Grand Magna Award for the Pk-12 Dual Language Program

• TPS welcomed 40+ Ukrainian Students

• 2022 Whelan Leadership for Learning Award for the continued work in implementing Ci3T

Implicit Bias and Race

Identify two ways you can address implicit bias in your classroom for all students.

How can your classroom be a welcoming environment for students of diverse backgrounds?

What are some strategies you will employ when discussing controversial topics?

Day 1 Take Aways

Curriculum

How will you build formative assessment into each lesson? How will you use the data from these assessments to guide your teaching?

How will you ensure your lessons are relevant for all students?

How will you support students of all abilities in accessing the curriculum?

Teacher Clarity

How can I design and communicate clear learning goals and success criteria (e.g., written, posted, or verbal, etc.) that are reflective of what I want my students to know and do?

Day 2 Take Aways

Classroom Management

What routines will you implement on the first day of class to ensure there is structure?

Student Engagement

Students learn through active engagement and play. What are two ways you will engage all students in learning?

Explain two routines you will use to build relationships with students within the first two weeks of the school year. Please include how you will address overcoming bias.

What are two ways you will work to engage students on the first day of school?

Ci3T- Comprehensive, Integrated Three-Tiered Model of Prevention

Share some examples of how your students can meet classroom expectations by giving them specific behavior praise?

How will taking an instructive, positive approach to address students not meeting expectations increase the likelihood that students meet the expectations in the future?

Trauma Informed Care

How will you get to know the needs of families assigned to your classroom at the start of school?

How can I scaffold learning goals to measure progression of learning among achievement levels of students?

Give an example of how you will check that students have a clear understanding of new content?

What data would you collect to determine if an accommodation or modification on an IEP is being used and is effective?

As a service provider, how will you determine what the Least Restrictive Environment is for the students on your caseload? Who participates in this discussion? What data should it be based on? What placement is considered the starting point for the continuum of services? (related services staff)

What is specially designed instruction and where is it provided?

Day 4 Take Aways

Brainstorm possible routines and procedures for the following areas of classroom management:

Entering the room

Leaving the room as a class and individually (e.g., using the restroom, going to the nurse, going to an assembly, lunch, or recess)

Beginning the school day and/or class (e.g., What will students do when they arrive? How will you take attendance, etc.?)

Obtaining help with assignments (e.g., How do students get help? How will students be allowed to help each other?)

Getting up from seat, throwing away trash/sharpening pencil, kleenex, etc.

Taking out/putting away/caring for supplies

Attention signal

When creating your routines and procedures, consider the following: When will students be allowed to talk? When engaged in an activity or a transition, how do students get help? When engaged in an activity or a transition, will movement be involved? What does appropriate participation look like/sound like?

What students do when the teacher is called away (e.g., phone call, step into hallways)

What are your expectations for in-class transitions? (e.g.,Whole group to small group; assemblies; direct instruction to cooperative work)

What are some of the core activities and what are your expectations for what you will do and what students will do? (e.g., picking up resources before class, whole group instruction, small group instruction, solo work, cooperative learning)

Handing in finished work/homework

What to do when students finish early or have free time

Ending the day and/or class

When creating your routines and procedures, consider the following: When will students be allowed to talk? When engaged in an activity or a transition, how do students get help? When engaged in an activity or a transition, will movement be involved? What does appropriate participation look like/sound like?