Call for membership

There are several anticipated vacancies on the Leadership Team for the 2020-2021 academic year. Quick refresher: The Leadership Team is involved with all aspects of the teaching and learning at Harwood. If this opportunity piques your interest, please reply to the facstaff email sent on Friday 2/14. For teachers, membership on the LT will qualify as a teaching assignment, but will also require some additional time commitments outside of regular work hours, including: 

• One day summer retreat in August
• Facilitation of Professional Development, Learning Communities
• Attendance at monthly LT/Dept. Heading meetings and twice weekly Listening Sessions
• Preparation for inservice or other PD 
• Potential for workshop/conference time related to LT 
• Potential for evening community/parent presentations

Listening Session

Listening Sessions were developed this year to provide extra time and space for faculty to interact with the Leadership Team and share thoughts and ideas on particular topics.  The Leadership Team is smaller in numbers than in the past and this provides an opportunity to gather input from a broader spectrum of the faculty.  

As a reminder, we are in the staff lounge on Monday afternoons, 3:00-4:00 and Wednesday mornings, 7:30-8:10 (with coffee!).  In addition we create a shared google doc for each session to take notes from each session and to allow those who cannot attend in person with the chance to add their thoughts digitally.

Topic for the coming week (Feb. 17):

Extended Studies  (use this doc to comment)

We will hear from some members of the Science and World Language departments about their experience in this pilot year.  We also want to hear questions and needs from others as implementation across departments for the 2020-21 school year draws closer.

LT Goals

We took a mid-term look at our work this year and prioritized our goals/work for the rest of the school year and through the summer.  This doc shows the scope of our plans.

HULT blog update Jan 16

News from the LT

One of the many benefits of existing in a small state is the close-knit relationships that exist among different school districts and the opportunities they present for collaboration. In early January, the Leadership Team was able to take advantage of one such opportunity when we tele-conferenced with two PBL coordinators -- Emily Rinkema and Stan Williams -- at the Champlain Valley Union (CVU) school district. (Emily and Stan are the authors of the blog “CVU Learns” whose articles have been used as discussion pieces at Harwood Learning Communities.) Having compiled a list of questions collected from Learning Community meetings, we were eager to speak with Stan and Emily directly. The list below represents some of our biggest takeaways from the hour-long conversation we had with them:

• It was recognized how major this transition to PBL is for teaching and learning. This change will not happen overnight and time and patience are needed by all.
• In reference to the CVU blog post about using new content on summative assessments, it was acknowledged that not all summative assessments involve new content
• Finding time for professional development is a universal struggle that school leadership must be creative in facilitating
• K-U-D (Know, Understand, Do) is a powerful and accessible way for teachers and students alike to think about unit design.

 Perhaps our most important take-away of all, however, was a sense of validation. While we will always have growth areas, our accomplishments are many and continue to serve as a solid foundation for continued improvement. 

Exhibitions Update

 Through an enormous amount of work and dedication, HU continues to build a culture of reflective learning exhibitions grades 9-12.  Not only do these exhibitions represent demonstrations of growth and personal exploration, but they also directly mirror the skill-based assessment and development upon which proficiency based learning is built.  As each grade's exhibition logistics continue to evolve, supported by many staff in the building, so increases the need for coordination and school-wide oversight. As the single leadership team overseeing all teaching and learning in our building, logically HU Leadership team should be directly involved in supporting the complexities and challenges of these four end of year exhibitions.

To that end, Chris Whalen, Ellen Berrings, and Sally McCarthy joined us for a focused discussion on Exhibitions at Harwood Union.  Using the pilot experience of the Capstone course as a starting point, we began a backwards-design process to analyze the elements of the exhibitions grades 9 - 11.  The goals of additional LT time include:

• Continuing to reverse design exhibition structure and elements from the Capstone
• Further coordinating exhibition assessment with current grade based performance indicators
• Supporting the complex organizational process of end of school wide exhibitions
• Developing greater coordination between existing exhibitions components in order to build greater consistency of student expectations grades 9-12
• Clarifying/establishing lead staff for each grade's exhibition

We will continue this important work in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for further updates. 

Listening Session

In light of the shortened week, we will not have Listening Sessions next week. We will, however, resume the week of January 27th on the topic “Brainstorming ideas to address incomplete courses during Summer Session”. All Listening Sessions will take place in the Faculty Lounge. 

Upcoming Events:

1/20: Building inservice day

1/21: District inservice day 

1/23:  JumpRope finalized for Semester 1

Rosters for ELOx offerings due

1/27:  Listening Session, 3:00-4:00

1/29:  Listening Session, 7:30-8:15

1/30:  Student choices (from TA) for ELOx due to Lisa T by end of day

2/4:  ELOx day

HULT blog update, December 13, 2019

Thanks to all who participated in this week’s Listening Session about Open House. If you haven’t already shared your perspective on our two proposed models for Open House, you may still do so up until the end of the day on December 20th by commenting directly on the large sheet of poster paper hanging on the wall of the staff lounge. After analyzing this latest round of feedback, the LT will produce a finalized Open House proposal to the administration for the Fall of 2020.

In last week’s Listening Sessions, we received lots of valuable input about ways to improve our existing course evaluation process. In addition, we heard from several faculty members about the promise of an entirely new model for course evaluations called the METIC. Stay tuned for more information about this collaborative alternative method of course feedback. 

The next step in the process of revamping the course evaluation process will happen after the break when members of student government weigh in with their insights about potential improvements. Once this has been done, students will draft a revised course survey which Leadership Team will then review before final adoption. We hope to have a finalized Google Survey Form for teachers to use by mid-March.

Upcoming dates:

12/17: TA meetings (not Learning Community meetings as previously scheduled). 

HULT Update November 15, 2019

Listening Session

This week’s topic has focused on our three year PD plan. Given the importance of this topic, we will continue with this topic for another week. All Listening Sessions will take place in the Faculty Lounge. As always, coffee and snacks will be provided! 

Community Celebration

If you read last week’s blog post, you may have noticed -- under Upcoming Events -- that we switched our Learning Community meeting scheduled for 11/26 to a “Community Celebration.” Our rationale was simple: It’s a busy time of year when stress levels are often at their highest. 

The plan is as follows: Gather in the Middle School Commons Area at 3:00. After snacks and drinks, we will have a staff wide trivia event hosted by our very own Jess Deane. Groups will be created randomly and prizes will be given to top finishing group.

Open House should be one of the most important events in the school calendar. For many families, it is the only time they will meet their child’s teachers or, possibly, set foot on our campus. For staff, it is a unique opportunity to meet families and showcase the values of our community. In light of this, the LT has been searching for ways to get more families to participate. 

Having gathered feedback through surveys and Listening Sessions, we recently put together two proposals that reflect that main currents of the feedback we received. Both proposals are now before the Harwood Administration, where any decisions about changes will ultimately be made. 

Many thanks to those of you who took the time to share your perspective. We will keep you updated with any news we hear.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

11/18: Listening Session: Harwood’s Three Year PD Plan (3:00 - 3:45)

11/19: ELO-X

11/20: Listening Session: Harwood’s Three Year PD Plan (7:30 - 8:10)

11/26: A community celebration. Instead of our planned Learning Community meetings, meet in the Middle School Commons. Details to follow. 

12/3: Department Meetings

12/17: Learning Community: Summative work session

Harwood Leadership Team Update, November 4, 2019

News from the LT

One of the most important roles of the Leadership Team at Harwood is to plan, facilitate and sometimes lead professional development (PD) throughout the year. Much of our efforts on LT over the past two weeks have been directed at PD. Not limiting ourselves to the 2019-2020 school year, we have begun laying out a vision for what PD might look like for the next three years. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but, ultimately, we think this will allow us to present a more coherent and complete professional development program. It will also allow us to schedule (and budget for) outside consultants if and when necessary. 

We are also reexamining our traditional assumptions about when PD happens. At Harwood, professional development tends to occur during monthly Learning Community meetings or during Inservices at the beginning or end of the school year. We wonder whether there may be better ways to deliver PD throughout the school year.  

In a few weeks, we will be hosting a ‘listening session’ devoted to PD. Please consider attending as we are eager to hear your thoughts. Stay tuned to this blog for information about when that Listening Session will occur. If you can’t wait till then, feel free to email us: huleadteam@huusd.org

Listening Sessions:  

Speaking of Listening Sessions, thanks to the many faculty and staff members who have already participated in one or more of these gatherings. Last week we heard lots of great ideas about how to improve Open House. We are using the feedback to develop an Open House proposal. Though this proposal won't be able to incorporate ALL feedback, we feel that it will make for a more productive and relevant Open House for everyone. Stay tuned, as we'll share this proposal out for feedback.

This week’s topic focused on technology use at Harwood and the potential harm technology poses to adolescent psychological well-being. Given the magnitude of the question, we are going to continue with this topic for one more week in hopes that more faculty and staff will share their perspectives. Although the Leadership Team will not be directly responsible for any changes in our technology policy, we will facilitate the conversation and pass along the information we collect to the HU Administration. 

Please note that we are changing the location of our Listening Sessions from the Senior Cafe to the Faculty Lounge. As always, coffee and snacks will be provided! 

Upcoming Events:

11/6: Listening Session: Technology and Psychological Well Being of Adolescents (7:30 - 8:10)

11/26: A community celebration. Instead of our planned Learning Community meetings, we’d like to facilitate a community celebration. Details to follow. 

12/3: Department Meetings

12/17: Learning Community: Summative work session.

HULT blog update, October 2019

Learning Communities Update

This is the fifth year of Learning Communities at HUHS/MS.  The concept of professional learning groups is not new, but if properly implemented and genuinely imbedded into schools, they can have a great impact on teaching practice and student learning.  As teaching and professional development needs constantly change, the HU Leadership Team has responded in changing the format and focus of the HU Learning Communities. This year we have modified the format of Learning Communities in two important areas.  First, we have grouped staff, for the most part, in grade alike groups. Our intent in grouping staff in this way is to bring about greater consistency in practice among teachers of similar grade-levels. Second, we have used feedback data from staff to create several professional development themed  strands; these strands are sequenced using a backward design model so that our collective learning continues to build upon previous group work.

Our first session Tuesday October 1st was titled ‘What is a summative?’... and included these questions of inquiry: “How do assessments contribute to learning? How do I better align assessment and learning targets?”.  The session was facilitated with a protocol that collected feedback based on what participants supported, questioned, and motivated them. Some of the most prevalent discussions and overall themes included:

--The relationship of content versus transferable skills development (and assessment)

--The interchangeability of summative content to increase buy-in from a greater range of students

--The diverse perspectives specific to summative design in a professional learning group that has such a cross content representation

--The idea of using summatives to extend (not just measure) learning 

 --What structures need to be in place for teachers to be able to design summative assessments that promote new learning for students?

Each of the Learning Community facilitators reported thought provoking and inspiring discourse. In several Learning Communities, people were curious about an update from CVU: how do educators feel about this type of summative now? What is the current practice? We have reached out to the CVU teachers who maintain the blog for an update - stay tuned! We look forward to our next meeting focused on this theme of summative purpose/design.

Upcoming Learning Community topic strands:

--What are Summative Assessments?

--Formative Assessments

--UDL Lesson Design and teaching PBL

--Differentiating Instruction

Our next Learning Community meetings are set for Tuesday, October 22.  The agenda and reminders will be sent out just before.

---

Beginning the week of 10/21, the Leadership Team will start hosting weekly informal “listening sessions” for the purpose of hearing more from faculty and staff about a variety of considerations.  The plan is to have two of these listening sessions per week, one after school on Mondays (3:00-3:30), and one session before school on Wednesdays (7:30-8:00). We will also link an online communication tool to this blog for those who cannot attend either meeting, but wish to share feedback. The topic of the week will be communicated during the week prior. This week’s topic is…..designing a NEW plan for Open House based on the Open House survey feedback!!!

HULT Upcoming Tasks

TOPICS	Information/Link(s)
Learning Community Format Development	Information Coming Soon
Short/Long Term PD Plan	Information Coming Soon
Attendance Requirements for ELOx	Information Coming Soon

TOPICS

Information/Link(s) 

Learning Community Format Development 

Information Coming Soon 

Short/Long Term PD Plan 

Information Coming Soon 

Attendance Requirements for ELOx

Information Coming Soon 

HULT Completed Tasks

TOPICS	Information/Link(s)
Parent/Open house White Pages Link	White Pages, 19-20
Create Learning Community format, groups, topics
Update on progress from YEWs regarding Wellness Center goals
Design and Plan for “listening sessions”

TOPICS

Information/Link(s) 

Parent/Open house White Pages Link 

White Pages, 19-20 

Create Learning Community format, groups, topics

Update on progress from YEWs regarding Wellness Center goals

Design and Plan for “listening sessions”

HULT Blog Update September 2019

This will be our Humor Hook for our blog -just wanted to be transparent about this!   

Pictured here -Sam K using "up to date" technology 2.0 to get the HULT word out! Nice Job Sam!

Dear Harwood Faculty/Staff,

This year, the Leadership Team (LT) is making a commitment to provide better staff-wide communication about our work throughout the year. We recognize that the planning and decisions that the LT does can vastly impact our work throughout the building, and that communication is key to making sure that we pave the best path forward. We intend to write a monthly blog post to keep staff current on our priorities and completed tasks. We will send an email out when there is an update. 

As a reminder, the LT is a group of teachers and administrators that advise or make decisions related to the implementation and improvement of proficiency-based learning in our middle and high schools. Leadership Team functions fall into four general categories: student learning, support and recovery, professional development, and student engagement.

If you have any questions, concerns or ideas for the LT, please find one of us or email us huleadteam@huusd.org. 

Pictured Here, the HULT team meets to deep think about important things 

Andrew Reid                       Duane Pierson

Bill Poderzay                       Lisa Therrien

Carly Brown                        Michael Woods

Tim Gershon                       Sam Krotinger

HULT Upcoming Tasks/Priorities

TOPICS	Information/Link(s)
Learning Community Format Development	Information Coming Soon
Short/Long Term PD Plan	Information Coming Soon
Attendance Requirements for ELOx	Information Coming Soon

TOPICS

Information/Link(s) 

Learning Community Format Development 

Information Coming Soon 

Short/Long Term PD Plan 

Information Coming Soon 

Attendance Requirements for ELOx

Information Coming Soon 

HULT Completed Tasks

TOPICS	Information/Link(s)
Parent/Open house White Pages Link	White Pages, 19-20

TOPICS

Information/Link(s) 

Parent/Open house White Pages Link 

White Pages, 19-20