Hi everybody, I am Dr. Dianna Ballesteros. Nice to meet you all
I want to thank you all for being so patient and so friendly to wait for us, Trish and
I from St. Elizabeth's Day Home I want to thank the panel, who have shared
amazing things. What Trish and I did was, we divided our time
into an administrative perspective, of embracing the Teaching Pyramid at St. Elizabeth's Day
Home. St. Elizabeth's Day Home has been around for
108 years Always serving families and children
We serve 125 kids right now, 70% are on some form of scholarship
So I also want to acknowledge, I brought some Super Friend teachers with me.
I have Amy King, from our mentor site. Stand up Amy. Our mentor classroom has fidelity.
And I also brought Vixchell Estrada, here who actually is a teacher in one of our, what
I say, is one of our more complex classrooms because she has an AM session and a PM session
So she really, her ratio is 28 kids in one day
So that is pretty incredible and I want to acknowledge both of them
I also have my Super Friend teacher here. Internal coach, teacher, my debater, I would
say. My administrator teacher debater who really
pushes me to really think about that teacher perspective, Trish Byron
I want to thank her for that For me, I think for us on of the most important
things is that the Teaching Pyramid was change And change is the most difficult thing for
any human being, but it happens all the time For some reason, we just can't get use to
it So for us, it was the change that we are bringing
on because it was driven by our DRDP So you know, first year DRDP, exploring the
social-emotional areas. You know the friendly pieces
Second year, exploring **inaudible** So we are like, "Okay, wait a minute, this isn't
just developmental. What is going on?" We are trying **inaudible**
So, when were a an RTT Pilot Site and they said, "You know, you are an RTT Pilot Site,
you can have the Teaching Pyramid" We were just amazed, because we're a sole
entity with this one little center and we don't have, you know, the county office, the
state funding, you now. So, it was wonderful. We said, "Yes! Let's
do it" Some of the teachers tell me, "We thought
you said it was mandatory" And I said, "I don't think I said it was mandatory,"
but thank goodness they did, because 19 of the 24 of us attended the training.
Along with myself, the executive director and the program director.
Part of that, I think is really, really important is that when your going to create a change
in a center, you have to be really well versed in the content and be knowledgable.
Otherwise, I could not have the conversations and the debates I have with Trish, on going.
Or the debates I have with teachers or to listen to their perspectives.
Because I have one perspective as an administrator and they have a different perspective.
They are the people that are daily implementing it.
I think one of the things I admire most about the teachers is that in taking this risk,
right, they were under the microscope. There were people looking at their work, listening
to their language, video taping everything that they did.
You know, giving them feedback that some of them felt like constructive criticisms.
And sometimes, you know, it's reality. It feels like criticism.
But to have that we are asking them to create this safe atmosphere, supported atmosphere
for children, I think as administrators, we have to do the same.
Create that supportive atmosphere for teachers that are implementing this amazing, tremendous
change. And to be that caring, compassionate environment
for them and to be accessible for them for conversation.
Because if conversation, discussion and debate, doesn't happen, it doesn't change.
So I think that is one of the most important things that we established as a team
And those conversations, please don't think they are formal.
Trish, will pop in to my office, and I'll say, "Did you do the sad/mad box?"
And she'll say, "Yes! I got it." and move on
Another week will go by, and I'll ask, "Did you use the sad/mad box?" and she'll say,
"You know, I need to tell you something." And I'm like, "Okay. Here it comes."
And then she'll say to me, "I don't think it is age appropriate for the toddlers."
And I'm like, "Alright" **laughing**
But she makes me think. She pushes my thinking because she is there with the toddlers.
She has the 12 toddlers every single day. 40 hours a week. So she knows the toddlers.
So then we have those conversations and debates and then we move forward.
We journey forward. I think that is pretty much it.
Again, that environment of supportiveness is important for everyone.
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.
It has been the best program I have ever seen, so thank you Teaching Pyramid for that.
But, as a teacher, I think the way we implemented it so well was because everyone was on board.
From the administrators down to the kitchen staff.
Everyone knew what was going on. The admin was awesome because they understand
the teachers are the ones that actually implement it in the classrooms.
We are really responsible for doing the Teaching Pyramid, but they are there to help us in
any way. They gave us tons of creative flexibility
to do whatever we wanted to get it going in the school with all the classrooms and the
parents and staff and all that. So, thank you for that.
They gave us also the emotional support, too, and positive feedback, which we know, works
for the kids. As a human, you need that for yourself, too.
We actually set up a board in our front lobby so teachers can give PDAs to themselves, well
not to themselves, but the other teachers. **laughing**
So parents can see it everyday, and teachers can see it everyday.
It makes you smile when you walk by. So we, like Dianna was saying, we got creative
with our things. So we created, we all call it something different.
I call it emotion box, but it's the one where you need to calm down, or you are sad or happy.
For the ones that the Teaching Pyramid handed out, it was geared towards older children,
but we have 18 months to 2 year olds. That stuff isn't really going to work.
With Dianna, we were creative enough to come up with one for toddlers.
Bigger things, where they can do the same kind of things. So that is the way we implemented
it. **off camera** And those they brought as real
life examples so you can see them in life. So Calm Down Kits, Calm Down Box, Emotion
Box, there's lots of different names for them. We did a lot of brain storming of different
things that we could put in there. One thing that is not in there is paper because
2 year olds love to tear paper so that is not in there.
Another example we have up there, we put PDAs in the bathrooms, so when you are sitting
on the toilets you can read **laughing**
So I actually got a lot of feedback from people, "I know I saw that PDA in the bathroom"
So because they allowed us to be creative, and said, "Yeah go for it. Do whatever you
want." We also have the Stay Respectful in the front
lobby, in the kitchen, in all the classrooms. So everyone is aware of it.
That's, again, from being able to do a lot of communicating and giving us the freedom.
Also, we realize the Teaching Pyramid also helps us in other aspects, like CLASS.
Our CLASS scores went up tremendously after having Teaching Pyramid in the classroom.
And also we do our DRDPs and everything. Thank you