03/26/2024
Spotlight on Staff:
This week we want to spotlight 3 of our Lead staff who are participating in the Texas School Ready Comprehensive program.
What is Texas School Ready (TSR)?
Texas School Ready is an innovative, research‐proven early education approach that combines a research‐based, state‐adopted curriculum with professional development and coaching for preschool teachers. Throughout the year, TSR teachers will be provided tools to help them learn more about each child's specific instructional needs and how to support him or her using engaging lessons and activities. Through TSR, teachers improve their skills by getting feedback from our dedicated TSR coaches using video recordings of lessons and activities and receiving remote or face to face coaching. Multiple research studies have confirmed that Texas School Ready positively impacts teacher instructional practices in the classroom, regardless of setting (public school pre-K, Head Start, and private child care classrooms). Teachers participating in TSR Comprehensive are more responsive to the individual needs of the children in their classrooms. They show increases in their use of language-building strategies, including the quality of book reading, general conversations with children, and the use of oral language instruction to build these skills. Even greater gains have been found in emergent literacy instructional practices. Teachers also show better responsive teaching practices, organization of their centers, and the use of lesson plans. (https://texasschoolready.org/)
Ms. Jaleesa joined TSR in August 2023. Ms. Fran and Ms. Tia joined in January 2024. Because of the amount of time our staff dedicate to the additional training and meetings required of TSR participants, only a few can be enrolled simultaneously. When teachers join TSR, they are making a 3-year commitment to growing in their profession. Ms. Jaleesa, Ms. Fran, and Ms. Tia have varied degrees of experience, and all have found joining the TSR program to be beneficial to their unique professional goals.
We are so proud of Ms. Jaleesa, Ms. Fran, and Ms. Tia’s desire to enhance their own teaching skills and their dedication to bettering their classroom environments!