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
