Professional Development Series · 2026–2027
Live virtual sessions delivered by Teachstone, designed specifically for Illinois Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
CLASS, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, is the federally required observation tool used across all Head Start and Early Head Start programs. These sessions are designed to help your staff get more out of the CLASS framework, whether they are classroom teachers working on interaction quality, coaches supporting teacher growth, or observers sharpening their skills.
All sessions are delivered live and virtually by Teachstone trainers. Space is limited to 300 participants per session.
Interested in bundle registration? Contact Cathy Welsh at cwelsh@ilheadstart.org.
Effective educators can appear to be one step ahead of problems in the classroom. This session highlights situational awareness, careful preparation, and classroom scanning to help prevent behavioral issues from arising.
One of the simplest yet most important elements of effective classroom management is to set clear expectations. This session gives tips and tactics for establishing behavioral expectations for your students.
When the flow of activities is frequently interrupted, opportunities for meaningful interactions are lost. Effective classroom organization ensures that interactive time is maximized, creating more chances for students and educators to engage. This session drills into commonly misunderstood indicators to emphasize the importance of Classroom Organization in facilitating meaningful interactions.
Learn how to streamline your note-taking process, ensuring accuracy and efficiency, and elevate the quality of your CLASS observations. This session will equip you with strategies for capturing precise and detailed observations quickly.
Focusing on Educator Sensitivity, this session uses Center Time as an opportunity to discuss and explore the importance of consistent awareness of when children need support, assistance, or attention.
We've all had students who push limits, struggle to manage their feelings, or constantly demand attention. This session provides a variety of tools and strategies for proactive responses, misbehavior prevention, and modeling desired behaviors.
Children are naturally curious and thrive in environments where they feel safe actively exploring, seeking connections, asking questions, and making mistakes. This session focuses on supporting educators in cultivating children's curiosity and ensuring every child has the opportunity to think critically while engaging in intentional educator-child interactions.
As we consider the importance of interactions, we also focus on the quality of those interactions. This session offers coaches and leaders data-informed methods for developing continuous quality improvement for the classrooms they support.