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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.

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Teachers directly impact the lives of our 
students every day.

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So defining High Quality Teaching is crucial.

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

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

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

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

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Let's take a look...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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(Kathy) Thank you. Glad to be here.

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

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

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

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We used the guiding documents that are currently 
in place.

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For Profile of a Learner and Profile of a 
Leader.

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And we wanted to align it to that.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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What does that look like in a classroom?

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

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That is the foundation of everything.

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

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

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

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

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

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I feel like it went beyond the engagement 
piece.

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And really empowered their learning so they 
can own it.

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

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Or create student generated videos.

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

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

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

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

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Talk about a what that means.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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And that's where that student ownership comes 
in.

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

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

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

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So critical in a high quality teaching environment.

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(Karen) Absolutely. Yes.

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

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

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

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Because of the world that we've lived in.

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

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

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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.

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

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Whether it's their character piece or anything.

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

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

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

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We can look at quality and quantitative methods.

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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As being critical to all of this.

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

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

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

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...in Klein ISD in this guiding document.

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

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

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

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

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See you then!

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