Podcast: Adding CPI Training to edTPA Prep Boosts Skill and Confidence in New Teachers
New teachers looking to position themselves for success should make sure CPI training is a part of their edTPA prep.
While the edTPA isn’t a nation-wide requirement yet, it’s gathered serious momentum as a critical indicator of a teacher’s true readiness to step into the classroom. Its performance-based format validates their effort and investment in the student teaching process, and functions as a valuable metric of their fitness to teach.
In his work with first-time educators, Professor Rowand Robinson has found that the best practices and values established in CPI training are a key bolster to the skills they’ll need to step into the classroom with confidence.
Reflection is a critical component to preparedness and prevention—in teaching, and in life.
Whether you’re a student teacher or a veteran educator, Robinson finds that the compatible structures afforded by CPI training and edTPA completion help teachers optimize their approach in the field once they’ve begun student teaching. Drawing on his own experiences, Rowand observes that when the intensity of prep meets the energy of the classroom, teachers can get swept into a tide of activity that leaves little room for mindful responses to challenging behaviors. Training can help get educators into a thoughtful frame of mind where choices are made with intention and confidence, always leaning into the positive potential.
In this interview with Rowand Robinson, you'll learn:
- Why the edTPA matters, even if it’s not required in your state.
- How CPI training can enhance your success in the planning, instruction, and assessment stages of teacher prep programs like the edTPA.
- How CPI training reinforces the best practices that educators are learning in their teacher prep programs.
- When to time CPI training to maximize your odds of success in student teaching.
- How to employ a reflective approach to both crisis prevention and teaching preparedness.
- How to translate reflections and observations into a reliable plan of action for when unpredictable things happen in the classroom.
- How to rethink restraint, by integrating verbal and proxemic de-escalation tactics into your teaching approach.
- How to take a constructive and positive approach to classroom management tactics like redirection so that students are situated for long-term success.
- Why collaboration among educators is so critical for their own professional success, and how it builds the consistency that can help students thrive.
Guest Biography
Rowand Robinson is a professor at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater in the Department of Special Education. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1999, and his research interests include juvenile justice and conflict resolution. Robinson has worked with youth with autism, intellectual disabilities, and emotional and behavioral disorders in various settings in the Southeast and Midwest, including a wilderness education residential program and public schools. He first received training in Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® in 1989 and currently instructs teacher candidates to work effectively with troubled youth.