It's teacher appreciation week...and we want to thank all of our Klein ISD educators who work tirelessly to help our students reach their full potential.

Teachers directly impact the lives of our students every day.

So defining High Quality Teaching is crucial.

Everything we do is about every student in Klein ISD entering with a promise and exiting with a purpose.

To that end...we spent the last couple of weeks talking about the Profile of a Learner and Leader guiding documents.

Today, we will focus on our third guiding document...our definition of high quality teaching.

Our thanks to the many educators and community members who provided input on this shared definition.

Let's take a look...

High Quality Teaching supports the development of the Profile of a Learner by being relationship driven...

...results focused...intentionally personalized and student owned.

Each of these strands is further clarified, so I wanted you to hear from one of our educators...

...as we delve into the thoughtful details of this document.

Joining me now is Kathy Vergara, one of our amazing bilingual educators.

Welcome, Kathy. We're glad to have you today.

(Kathy) Thank you. Glad to be here.

(Bret) Now we're talking about this of High Quality teaching. And you were part of the design team for that, right?

(Kathy) Yes, that's correct. I was able collaborate with educators who are from across the disrict.

And we were able to design a document that describes what High Quality Teaching looks like.

We used the guiding documents that are currently in place.

For Profile of a Learner and Profile of a Leader.

And we wanted to align it to that.

We also looked at what High Quality Teaching looked like across the world and looked at research.

(Bret) Right. So research based from across the world and locally based in terms of local educators looking at the profile of a learner.

Because I know y'all are very careful to align with that profile of a learner. The whole idea is that you support the profile of a learner.

(Kathy)That's exactly right. We wanted it to be a cause and effect, if you will.

So we wanted to make sure that we fully aligned and we fully supported that role.

(Bret) Great! That's great. So I want to start with this idea of intentionally personalizing learning.

And tailoring it for every student's strengths, needs and passions.

What does that look like in a classroom?

(Kathy) Well in my classroom, for instance, I start with relationships.

That is the foundation of everything.

As you're building relationships, your students start to trust you. And they're willing to take more risks as they trust you.

And so you're really able to get to know them and also what motivates them.

And using that as a leverage for having a positive learning experience.

From getting to know my students, I also use learning experiences to motivate them.

And also to personalize learning and to make sure that I delve into their passions.

I feel like it went beyond the engagement piece.

And really empowered their learning so they can own it.

We did things like Minecraft and created dimensions so they can demonstrate mastery of land forms.

Or create student generated videos.

So we're really looking into other ways of exploring what they've learned.

(Bret) So what I hear you say is this personalized piece is what led students into owning their learning.

And that's part of the whole notion of student agency.

We had a conversation around...'do we include student agency or not?'

Talk about a what that means.

(Karen) Sure. Well student agency is basically building autonomy for students.

And as educators, or role is to give them those choices and the voice to actually explore that...

...in various ways with creativity, technology, etc.

But really, our job is to really find those passions for them.

I think back to when I was in college and I remember the latter part was where I was mostly engaged.

Because those were my major courses. I was really invested in that.

And that's where that student ownership comes in.

Is the investment of the learning. And if I'm owning it, I'm invested and I'm doing the best I can.

That's what we're really trying to strive for our students.

(Bret) That's great. So that notion, we talk about, "Voice and Choice."

So critical in a high quality teaching environment.

(Karen) Absolutely. Yes.

(Bret) Great! Well one of the things that I know there was a lot of conversation around was...

about being results driven. And that's...we'll be real careful to say it isn't just all about standardized testing.

(Karen) Absolutely. Results driven can sometimes have a negative conotation.

Because of the world that we've lived in.

But in reality, it's us using it as a guide or a map for us to grow our students.

For instance, I need to know where I take my student. Where he or she is.

And then how I'm going to get there. And that includes setting goals, action steps...and then having time to reflect on their learning.

And not just their learning, but just building the entire child.

Whether it's their character piece or anything.

(Bret) Sure. So if we're talking character and such...

That's not a standardized test. So we'd be results driven to high quality character.

(Kathy) Exactly. And really we can look at results driven in a various amount of ways.

We can look at quality and quantitative methods.

So we can look at digital portfolios that follow students from K through 12.

To look at thier growth. We can also look at conferencing. So it does not only have to mean a standardized test taken once a year.

(Bret) That's terrific. So Kathy, thanks so much for being here.

I so appreciate it. One of the things Kathy talked about is this notion of relationship buidling.

And what's incredible, each person I talked to about these guiding documents...you won't find this surprising...

...has talked about the power and importance of building relationships.

As being critical to all of this.

We know, James Comer says that "No signifigant learning can occur without a signifigant relationship."

Which is why relationship building is key to all of these things we're trying to do.

Thank you for your time and investing for all of us here...

...in Klein ISD in this guiding document.

And before we go, I want to take a moment to celebrate Klein's inclusion in the Holdsworth Center Leadership inaugural cohort.

We look forward to this partnership and developing even stronger Klein leaders.

Who ultimately will lead to even more success for our students.

That's Klein ISD for this week. Next week, we'll try to keep the topic to 90 seconds!

See you then!