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Hi everybody, I am Dr. Dianna Ballesteros.
Nice to meet you all

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I want to thank you all for being so patient
and so friendly to wait for us, Trish and

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I from St. Elizabeth's Day Home
I want to thank the panel, who have shared

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amazing things.
What Trish and I did was, we divided our time

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into an administrative perspective, of embracing
the Teaching Pyramid at St. Elizabeth's Day

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Home.
St. Elizabeth's Day Home has been around for

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108 years
Always serving families and children

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We serve 125 kids right now, 70% are on some
form of scholarship

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So I also want to acknowledge, I brought some
Super Friend teachers with me.

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I have Amy King, from our mentor site. Stand
up Amy. Our mentor classroom has fidelity.

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And I also brought Vixchell Estrada, here
who actually is a teacher in one of our, what

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I say, is one of our more complex classrooms
because she has an AM session and a PM session

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So she really, her ratio is 28 kids in one
day

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So that is pretty incredible and I want to
acknowledge both of them

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I also have my Super Friend teacher here.
Internal coach, teacher, my debater, I would

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say.
My administrator teacher debater who really

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pushes me to really think about that teacher
perspective, Trish Byron

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I want to thank her for that
For me, I think for us on of the most important

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things is that the Teaching Pyramid was change
And change is the most difficult thing for

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any human being, but it happens all the time
For some reason, we just can't get use to

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it
So for us, it was the change that we are bringing

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on because it was driven by our DRDP
So you know, first year DRDP, exploring the

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social-emotional areas.
You know the friendly pieces

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Second year, exploring **inaudible** So we
are like, "Okay, wait a minute, this isn't

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just developmental. What is going on?"
We are trying **inaudible**

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So, when were a an RTT Pilot Site and they
said, "You know, you are an RTT Pilot Site,

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you can have the Teaching Pyramid"
We were just amazed, because we're a sole

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entity with this one little center and we
don't have, you know, the county office, the

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state funding, you now.
So, it was wonderful. We said, "Yes! Let's

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do it"
Some of the teachers tell me, "We thought

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you said it was mandatory"
And I said, "I don't think I said it was mandatory,"

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but thank goodness they did, because 19 of
the 24 of us attended the training.

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Along with myself, the executive director
and the program director.

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Part of that, I think is really, really important
is that when your going to create a change

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in a center, you have to be really well versed
in the content and be knowledgable.

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Otherwise, I could not have the conversations
and the debates I have with Trish, on going.

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Or the debates I have with teachers or to
listen to their perspectives.

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Because I have one perspective as an administrator
and they have a different perspective.

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They are the people that are daily implementing
it.

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I think one of the things I admire most about
the teachers is that in taking this risk,

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right, they were under the microscope.
There were people looking at their work, listening

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to their language, video taping everything
that they did.

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You know, giving them feedback that some of
them felt like constructive criticisms.

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And sometimes, you know, it's reality. It
feels like criticism.

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But to have that we are asking them to create
this safe atmosphere, supported atmosphere

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for children, I think as administrators, we
have to do the same.

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Create that supportive atmosphere for teachers
that are implementing this amazing, tremendous

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change.
And to be that caring, compassionate environment

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for them and to be accessible for them for
conversation.

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Because if conversation, discussion and debate,
doesn't happen, it doesn't change.

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So I think that is one of the most important
things that we established as a team

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And those conversations, please don't think
they are formal.

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Trish, will pop in to my office, and I'll
say, "Did you do the sad/mad box?"

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And she'll say, "Yes! I got it." and move
on

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Another week will go by, and I'll ask, "Did
you use the sad/mad box?" and she'll say,

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"You know, I need to tell you something."
And I'm like, "Okay. Here it comes."

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And then she'll say to me, "I don't think
it is age appropriate for the toddlers."

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And I'm like, "Alright"
**laughing**

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But she makes me think. She pushes my thinking
because she is there with the toddlers.

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She has the 12 toddlers every single day.
40 hours a week. So she knows the toddlers.

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So then we have those conversations and debates
and then we move forward.

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We journey forward.
I think that is pretty much it.

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Again, that environment of supportiveness
is important for everyone.

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So introduce Trish Byron
**applause**
Thank you.
As a teacher, just having this Teaching Pyramid
introduced into our program, has really flipped,
I guess you could say, the climate, 180 degrees
from kind of a negative one to a positive
one.

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It has been the best program I have ever seen,
so thank you Teaching Pyramid for that.

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But, as a teacher, I think the way we implemented
it so well was because everyone was on board.

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From the administrators down to the kitchen
staff.

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Everyone knew what was going on.
The admin was awesome because they understand

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the teachers are the ones that actually implement
it in the classrooms.

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We are really responsible for doing the Teaching
Pyramid, but they are there to help us in

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any way.
They gave us tons of creative flexibility

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to do whatever we wanted to get it going in
the school with all the classrooms and the

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parents and staff and all that.
So, thank you for that.

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They gave us also the emotional support, too,
and positive feedback, which we know, works

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for the kids.
As a human, you need that for yourself, too.

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We actually set up a board in our front lobby
so teachers can give PDAs to themselves, well

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not to themselves, but the other teachers.
**laughing**

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So parents can see it everyday, and teachers
can see it everyday.

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It makes you smile when you walk by.
So we, like Dianna was saying, we got creative

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with our things.
So we created, we all call it something different.

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I call it emotion box, but it's the one where
you need to calm down, or you are sad or happy.

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For the ones that the Teaching Pyramid handed
out, it was geared towards older children,

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but we have 18 months to 2 year olds.
That stuff isn't really going to work.

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With Dianna, we were creative enough to come
up with one for toddlers.

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Bigger things, where they can do the same
kind of things. So that is the way we implemented

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it.
**off camera** And those they brought as real

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life examples so you can see them in life.
So Calm Down Kits, Calm Down Box, Emotion

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Box, there's lots of different names for them.
We did a lot of brain storming of different

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things that we could put in there.
One thing that is not in there is paper because

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2 year olds love to tear paper so that is
not in there.

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Another example we have up there, we put PDAs
in the bathrooms, so when you are sitting

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on the toilets you can read
**laughing**

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So I actually got a lot of feedback from people,
"I know I saw that PDA in the bathroom"

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So because they allowed us to be creative,
and said, "Yeah go for it. Do whatever you

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want."
We also have the Stay Respectful in the front

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lobby, in the kitchen, in all the classrooms.
So everyone is aware of it.

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That's, again, from being able to do a lot
of communicating and giving us the freedom.

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Also, we realize the Teaching Pyramid also
helps us in other aspects, like CLASS.

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Our CLASS scores went up tremendously after
having Teaching Pyramid in the classroom.

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And also we do our DRDPs and everything.
Thank you