This cohort consists of a 4 part series: PK Guidelines, PK High Quality Classrooms, CIRCLE Progress Monitoring, and Foundations of Family Engagement.

Session 1-PK Guidelines: The session delineates the skills and end of the year outcomes that students are to achieve in prekindergarten, as well as research-based instructional strategies for early childhood teachers. It provides a means to align high-quality prekindergarten programs with Kindergarten Readiness.

Session 2-High-Quality Early Childhood Classrooms: Participants will review the essential components for creating an early childhood environment conducive to learning. Topics covered in this session: high-quality settings with a focus on literacy (reading/writing), classroom set up, learning centers, classroom management, and supportive and responsive Interactions between students and educators. This professional development session is aligned to the updated Texas Pre-Kindergarten Guidelines.

Session 3- CIRCLE Progress Monitoring Training: In this 3-hour session, participants will learn how to administer the CIRCLE Progress Monitoring (C-PM) assessment. C-PM is a user-friendly, online tool that allows the teacher to assess a child’s progress for a particular skill. This reliable, yet simplistic data collection, prompts teachers to focus on lessons that target students’ least developed skill areas. Specific activities for targeting tier 2 students are linked to the CIRCLE activity collection. This hands-on training includes opportunities to practice administering the assessment.

Session 4- Foundations of Family Engagement: This session will introduce you to research from the past 20 years as well as the US Department of Education’s Dual Capacity–Building Framework for Effective Family-School Partnerships, which explores the family engagement efforts that contribute to student learning. We’ll break down the conditions that must be present in your school to provide a solid foundation for providing effective family outreach.

Prekindergarten teachers

Early Childhood
RECESS