As a young teacher first joining the staff at Northwest High School in 2005, I was constantly reminded that the staff at Northwest, we are a family. I was immediately welcomed into the staff and supported throughout my growth as a new teacher. It was evident to me from that early age that the support of staff and leadership is essential for new teachers to thrive. It is the same for our students. When working with students in the classroom or at a program level, it is vital for students to sense they belong and are valued as part of the community.
Team Building
When transferring into the Multiple Pathways program in the fall of 2021, it was evident that the teachers in this program did not sense the same level of interdependence that I experienced at Northwest. I endeavored to be part of the progress the program experienced by building professional relationships with the staff and support teams and develop communication and collaboration specifically with the English department teachers. The challenge is that the program is in 3 separate locations.
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To facilitate collaboration and team building in the program, I developed PLC content that would require teachers to discuss with their content areas. I also created professional learning experiences that focused on teacher strengths and discussions where the knowledge each person possessed was valued and encouraged. An example of this was the Gallery Walk on the 8 Cs of Motivation. We began the activity as a digital collaboration board in all 3 program locations and continued the work in person during Professional Development days. This allowed teachers to share their practices for re-engaging students and pick up tips from other professional educators. (See Domain 2: Professional Development Presentations, 8 Cs of Motivation.)
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Another example of this is the incorporation of warm-ups during PLC meetings, especially using the Wayfinder website purchased by the district to support social-emotional learning for students and adults. Some examples of the activities or discussions utilized in the Multiple Pathways PLCs are linked here.
By providing opportunities for teachers to feel the work they do is valued and supported, it builds a professional community that celebrates our knowledge and passion for student engagement and learning.
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Further team building in this location occurred with my Internship Project called Executive Leadership Training. The front-facing purpose of this task was to train students on Executive Functioning skills that will positively impact them in their educational, personal, and professional lives. A secondary purpose for this was to engage teachers in a project to build collegiality and interdependence. I designed the implementation of the program to highlight teacher strengths and built a team of teachers that increased our sense of collective teacher efficacy.
Student Support and Celebrations
When working in a program to re-engage students who were unsuccessful in traditional high school buildings, teachers must work to create a culture that rebuilds student confidence and creates a sense of belonging. In this vein, I have worked to create a classroom culture of support for each student, recognizing each one for success along the way.
Specifically, in the 2023-24 school year, I implemented the Edmentum Success wall. Initially, the wall was to be implemented across the Independent Studies classrooms. However, this failed to catch on this school year so the wall now exists in my classroom. Upon completion of an Edmentum online recovery course, students are not just rewarded with a credit, but also a paper cap or diploma that we put their name on and they place on the wall. This allows students to take a moment to celebrate their effort and success and for other students to witness the success of their classmates. Student conversations about this process include comments like “I’m up there twice now” or “I can see my name; I’m up at the top.”
The Edmentum Success wall will be implemented throughout the program throughout Summer School this year, proving that we build on small successes over time.
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Earning a high school diploma is the ultimate goal of many students in the Multiple Pathways. However, many students come in uninformed about how far they actually have to go in that process. In conjunction with our interim counselor, I created the Multiple Pathways Graduation Requirements posters to raise awareness about the credit expectations for graduation along with the district Portrait of a Graduate characteristics. These posters were placed around the classrooms, hallways, and offices of the Independent Studies program this spring, elevating conversations around the student understanding of credit requirements as well as the intangibles of what we learn from completing high school through the Portrait of a Graduate characteristics. In conjunction with credit check conversations with the counselor, students have a more clear picture of their anticipated graduation timeline.
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The Graduation Requirements poster will be placed in each classroom and hallway during the course of Multiple Pathways summer school to continue the work of helping students make personal goals for graduation.
Positive Behavior Expectations: MTSS-B Matrixes
As a young teacher, I began to understand that students need and expect boundaries. Whether implementing classroom rules or building procedures, when students are given a guide for behavioral expectations and those expectations are held consistently, many people will meet those expectations.
In the summer of 2022, as a member of the team that produced the Advanced Placement Summer Boot Camp, now known as the Advanced Academics Summer Symposium, we recognized that we assumed advanced students wouldn’t need guidance for proper behaviors on a college campus and we had to back up and re-teach expectations. With that realization, when I became coordinator in the summer of 2023, I wrote and implemented the and MTSS-B behavior matrix for the Conference that was provided to students in their folders and reviewed each morning during the introductions. I called this matrix the “We are AP Professionals” paper and throughout the day, I would remind students that “We are AP Professionals” as a callback to the expectations. This greatly reduced the number of off-task behaviors or hallway disruptions.
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The matrix will be updated and used again this summer at the Advanced Academics Summer Symposium. A similar matrix will be written and implemented for Multiple Pathways Summer School to increase awareness of positive behavior expectations.