Kindergarten teacher, Sarah Reagan, from Pasco School District, has come up with a brilliant way to promote play among her remote students. “I think the hardest part of distance learning, as a kindergarten teacher, was seeing our students miss out on all the social components of kindergarten.” Sarah wanted to promote more social interaction and build relationships among her students during synchronous Zoom sessions. “I tried to think of ways that I could use the technology we had to simulate a ‘play time’ experience.”
Sarah came up with Kindergarten Play Time! After their “Zoom specials” in the afternoon, students are invited to choose an optional virtual play time from a menu of choices: Art Play, Building Play, Character Play, or Car Play. Students simply click on the option that they want to participate in to join. Each Zoom breakout room has a teacher and a para-educator as a co-host. With para-educators sharing the hosting duties, Sarah can “bounce” between play sessions in each room to observe students, including to gather information for WaKIDS.
In the play session, students talk with their friends while playing with the toys they have. “The rooms and toys that I picked were intentional to allow for students to feel comfortable participating, even if they didn’t have access to toys.” Sarah explained, “Because we sent supplies home at the beginning of the year, we knew that students would have access to creative supplies such as crayons, paper, and even modeling clay, so every student would be able to attend the ‘art play’ room at the very least.” Through her synchronous interactions with students, Sarah learned the other types of toys her students had and preferred, which helped her set the other themes she chose.
Initially, Sarah was worried that her students wouldn’t play for 45 minutes on Zoom but this didn’t seem to be a problem. “Kids can be shy but once they are comfortable, they can talk and play online, as well.” During this period, the adult in the “room” keeps their camera and microphone off, chiming in to help support positive social interactions, as needed. “I’m amazed at how children are such creative problem solvers when adults are not there to problem solve with them. During play time yesterday a student said ‘let’s play hide and seek’ and another student replied with, ‘but we’re on Zoom, I can’t come find you!’, so instead they decided to play a game where they guessed the number they were thinking of which moved into a directed draw on how to draw dinosaurs.”
Sarah gives credit to her team and administration for the support to make Kindergarten Play Time! happen. Her building administrators provided the kindergarten team para support which allowed them to assign an adult to each of the rooms to monitor.
“I think the main thing for us was to just allow the socialization opportunity for kids who wanted it. If their social needs are being met at home during the pandemic then that’s awesome, but some of our students are in situations where they are the only child in a quarantined home with limited opportunities to socialize with same-aged peers. Distance learning has challenged us to find new ways to provide equal opportunity for our students and even though it’s not equivalent to the experiences that they get during in-person learning, it does provide social opportunities for students who might not have had access before.”
Thank you for finding a way for your students to get play into their day, Sarah and for letting us share your wonderful idea!
If you have ideas or stories to share, please contact us at wakids@k12.wa.us!
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This year, teachers in Washington State were faced with the surreal experience of welcoming and getting to know students remotely. For kindergarten teachers, the experience was additionally challenging, as they introduced young children and families to school for the very first time.
Each year, the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS) provides an opportunity to give special attention to the unique needs of our youngest learners as they begin their K-12 journey. All three components of WaKIDS are intended to establish relationships and an understanding of where each student is across key areas of development that pave the way for future learning.
Kindergarten is the grade level with the widest range of student skill and ability. WaKIDS provides a way to identify those differences early and offers tools to define next steps for each child, with suggested activities that can be shared with parents and caregivers. Developmental progressions, like GOLD®, are especially supportive for setting student growth goals and monitoring progress.
As elaborated on below, given the challenges of remote assessment and instruction, it will be very important for administrators to follow up on any cases where teachers were not able to observe objectives for WaKIDS. While some areas of development may have been difficult to assess, WaKIDS focuses on key foundational areas of development that teacher should prioritize. If teachers were faced with impediments collecting information for WaKIDS, they may be facing more serious issues interacting with children and families in general. Following up as to what information teachers were not able to collect and what gaps this leaves for their instruction will be a critical support to teachers use of WaKIDS data this year.
Stay tuned for a pre-recorded webcast from WaKIDS Assessment Specialist, Yoona Park, and others. This webcast will share information about using WaKIDS data and GOLD® reports. It will be posted to our WaKIDS Whole-child Assessment webpage.
Finalize All WaKIDS Data by Friday, 11/13, 9pm
Kindergarten teachers need to finalize their WaKIDS data by Friday, 11/13, 9pm. This deadline cannot be changed.
Teachers can check their assessment status by generating an Assessment Status Report under the Reports tab.
Click here for instructions on finalizing data by class.
Preliminary vs Unfinalized vs Finalized
Preliminary data are tentative assessment selections that teachers make before they finalize. Unfinalized data may happen when teacher upload documentation and make initial, preliminary assessments. Sometimes, teachers don’t realize the levels they set are only preliminary (and unfinalized) and don’t count toward assessment completion. Teachers have to FINALIZE their data! Even just one teacher with unfinalized data will cause the entire building to show as unfinalized. Click here for descriptions of each type of data.
Not Yet vs Not Observed – Please follow up!
While ‘Not Yet’ and ‘Not Observed’ sound similar, they carry two vastly different meanings. One refers to a children’s knowledge, skills, and abilities and the other refers to the teacher’s ability to observe a child. Using ‘Not Yet’ means that a child is not yet demonstrating a skill or is not a reasonable expectation for a child of this age. You’ll note that ‘Not Yet’ comes before the 0-1-year-old red color band. Selecting Not Yet is leveling a child’s knowledge, skills, and abilities here. ‘Not Yet’ purely refers to a children’s knowledge, skills, and abilities (not a teacher’s ability to observe them). A child whose knowledge, skills, and abilities are labeled as ‘Not Yet’ means that they are not yet demonstrating a skill. If a teacher is unsure whether to use ‘Not Yet’, look at each level on the developmental progression to see if a child’s knowledge, skills, or abilities can be found below their grade color band. Please do not use this option for a child you have not observed.
‘Not Observed’ means that you an unable to observe an objective or dimension. This may be due to several reasons: a child beginning excessively absent, late enrollment, inability to connect with child in a virtual environment, etc. ‘Not Observed’ does not level a child’s knowledge, skills, or abilities. ‘Not Observed’ refers to the teacher’s ability to observe a child.
‘Not Observed’ option is hyperlinked to the student’s name under the colorband. When you click on the name, it will prompt you to select a reason for ‘Not Observed’.
Please follow up with ‘Not Observed’! As in years past, teachers who are unable to assess an objective for a given student may choose ‘Not Observed’. This year, due to COVID, teachers may have selected this option more than usual.
It will be very important for administrators to follow up to understand why ‘Not Observed’ was selected and help teacher’s problem-solve barriers they may be facing. WaKIDS assesses things like: Speaking clearly, attending and engaging, and critical motor skills, as well as the basics in literacy and numeracy. These are foundational, high-priority skills that teachers should be focused on developing with all students, to the greatest extent possible.
While some areas of development may be more difficult to assess remotely than others, information can and should be collected – not just for WaKIDS. If teachers were faced with impediments to observing and collecting information for WaKIDS, they are likely facing more serious issues interacting with children and families in general. Following up as to what information teachers were not able to collect and what gaps this leaves for their instruction will be a critical use of WaKIDS data this year.
Archive Any Students Not Assessed
If there are students with unfinalized data, the class cannot be finalized in MyTeachingStrategies®. Administrators should work with their teachers to check if students who need to be archived have been successfully archived. This includes any “test student” teachers may have created in the beginning of the assessment period. Administrators would need to archive all “test students” in their building.
Click here for instructions on archiving student records.
District Assessment Coordinators (DAC) Confirm Completion by 11/18
OSPI provides time for DACs to confirm full WAKID completion, making sure that teachers have finalized their data. Please take this period to look at classroom-level completion status and immediately reach out to teachers and administrators to let them know of incomplete data, if you find any.
For technical issues related to the MyTeachingStrategies® online platform call: 844-853-4653. If your issue is not time sensitive, you may also email: wakids@teachingstrategies.com. There is typically a 48 hour turn around on emails, but telephone support provides immediate assistance.
Teaching Strategies also has a self-help portal with over 900, easily searchable articles to assist you. To access the portal, please click here.
Contact the WaKIDS Team for support at 360-725-6161 or wakids@k12.wa.us.
Please note that after 4 pm on 11/13 the WaKIDS team will not be available to provide technical assistance. Additionally, Teaching Strategies helpline is set according to Eastern Standard Time. See below for their contact information.
This year, WaKIDS 101 is being offered as a self-paced, online course. Teachers have two weeks from the start date of the online session to complete the course and interrater reliability. The course is overseen by a WaKIDS 101 instructor, who interacts with training participants and is available to provide additional support, as needed.
OSPI will be offering a mid-year WaKIDS 101 training beginning January 19. This training is prioritized to districts planning to offer Transitional Kindergarten programs this year. Late-hire teachers from schools that opt to use GOLD® more than once a year but who missed the fall training may also choose to attend the mid-year training.
The mid-year training will be open for registration by the end of November. Please check pdEnroller or the WaKIDS Events and Trainings page for information at that time.
As in years past, districts may receive funds to apply toward the cost of providing a substitute and/or to reimburse teachers new to WaKIDS for attending a WaKIDS 101 training between July 15 and October 15, 2020. Additionally, districts may claim funding to reimburse teachers new to WaKIDS who completed Interrater Reliability (IRR) certification during their training. Please note that Transitional Kindergarten (TK) teachers are not eligible for reimbursement, as TK is not a mandatory program, but TK teachers are eligible for IRR funding.
OSPI has contacted all eligible school districts through the iGrants system (Form Package 844) to notify them of the funds that are available to them. OSPI will reimburse districts at a set rate to compensate teachers for participation in WaKIDS 101 training and completion of Interrater Reliability Certification. The rate of compensation districts pay teachers may vary in accordance with districts’ own policies and bargaining agreements.
Funding is limited to those teachers conducting the assessment who are new to WaKIDS in the 2020-21 school year.
Districts have limited time to claim available funding for WaKIDS 101 training.
Is your district planning to implement Transitional Kindergarten in 2020-21? OSPI has just released a competitive grant, due December 1, 2020 through iGrants, called Transitional Kindergarten Partners in Transition (Form Package 101).
These mini-grants include:
- Funding to purchase Creative Curriculum®, including training and coaching for Transitional Kindergarten teachers in one classroom;
- Up to $3,600 to offset teacher release time for professional development;
- Up to $5,000 to purchase developmentally appropriate materials for indoors and outdoors;and
- A community of practice to support your district to create a system for coordinated enrollment for Transitional Kindergarten with community preschool programs, including developmental preschool, ECEAP, and Head Start.
Funds for this competitive grant are contingent upon OSPI receiving federal Preschool Development Renewal Grant to support innovations in early learning systems from 2020 to 2022.
Eligibility Criteria:
This grant is available to elementary schools that meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Have been identified for improvement (e.g. Comprehensive, Targeted, RAD, etc.)
- State Tribal Compact or Bureau of Indian Education School
- Title I, Part A, Schoolwide Program
- Learning Assistance Program High Poverty School
- Must have two letters of support from Head Start, ECEAP and/or other community-based preschool partners with whom the district has worked or intends to work to coordinate enrollment for Transitional Kindergarten*.
*An emphasis of this grant is the development of a system for coordinated enrollment for Transitional Kindergarten and entering into required Memorandum of Understanding, in collaboration with community preschool programs. Therefore, funds are targeted to schools in communities which include ECEAP, Head Start and other community-based preschool programs.
Timeline
- Applications open in iGrants November 10, 2020 (Form Package 101)
- Applications are due in iGrants by December 1, 2020 at 4:00 p.m.
- Award notification made December 10, 2020
- Districts must purchase Creative Curriculum® by December 18, 2020 in preparation for training
- Transitional Kindergarten teachers and one assistant teacher must attend the following three Creative Curriculum® training sessions (coaching will be scheduled separately with each district):
- Wednesday, January 13, 2021, 1-5 pm - Wednesday, January 20, 2021, 1-5 pm - Saturday, January 23, 2021, 1-5 pm
- TK teachers new to WaKIDS, involved in this grant, will be able to participate in a condensed self-paced, online WaKIDS 101 training course offered to compliment the Creative Curriculum ® Training
- Principal and district administrators must attend four coordinated enrollment community of practice sessions:
- Friday, January 15, 1-4 pm - Friday, February 12, 1-4 pm - Friday, March 19, 1-4 pm - Friday, April 23, 1-4 pm
If you have questions about this funding opportunity, please contact Gretchen Stahr Breunig, Kindergarten Transitions Specialist, at gretchen.stahrbreunig@k12.wa.us
Alondra Mendoza, Administrative Assistant for Early Learning and WaKIDS OSPI: 360-725-6161 | Email: alondra.mendoza@k12.wa.us or WaKIDS@k12.wa.us
Yoona Park, WaKIDS Assessment Specialist OSPI: 360-725-6180 | Email: yoona.park@k12.wa.us
Gretchen Stahr Breunig, Kindergarten Transition Specialist OSPI: 360-764-0445 | Email: gretchen.stahrbreunig@k12.wa.us
Karma Hugo, Director of Early Learning OSPI: 360-725-6153 | Email: karma.hugo@k12.wa.us
ALL STUDENTS PREPARED FOR POST-SECONDARY PATHWAYS, CAREERS, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT.
Led by State Superintendent Chris Reykdal, OSPI oversees K-12 public education in Washington state. Our mission is to provide funding, resources, tools, data and technical assistance that enable educators to ensure students succeed in our public schools, are prepared to access post-secondary training and education, and are equipped to thrive in their careers and lives.
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