Overview

The K-12 Promising Practice and Innovation Team, a “think tank” for forward looking, innovating and learning about and disseminating promising and innovative practices in hybrid, remote, and in person school design, will convene representatives from across schools monthly to explore promising and innovative practices in K-12 education. As schools are focused on the challenging and complex work of implementing high quality remote and hybrid learning for PHA students, the Promising Practice and Innovation Team will work to review the most recent research and lessons from the local, national, and international field regarding hybrid, remote, and in person learning in 2020, to ensure that our students are benefitting from innovative design and instructional practices. The Promising Practice and Innovation Team will share the learnings of the team with educators across schools so that they can inform forward thinking and planning as we work to ensure that all PHA students are achieving at high levels.

Goals

1. Knowledge Building: Participants will work together to develop our knowledge of recent research, lessons learned, and promising practices in school design and teaching and learning- particularly with a focus on new learning that has emerged since the spring of 2020.

2. Gather and Learn from Stakeholder Input: Participants will work to communicate updates routinely with the PHA community.

3. Share and disseminate Innovative Practices. Participants will work together to share best practices and innovation in hybrid, remote and in person settings and will disseminate promising practices to PHA staff to widen and deepen our collective knowledge base.

Participants

Participants should be PHA colleagues who serve in a variety of roles across campuses. The group’s focus will be on promising instructional models, designs, and practices in hybrid teaching and learning. A mix of representatives from K-12 and campuses that reflect:

• 1-2 teacher or staff voices from each school.

• 1-2 instructional leaders from each school (ex: principals, ILT members, and or grade level or department leaders).

• Educators focused on serving the needs of our most vulnerable learners from Special Education and the English Language Learning program.

• 2 K-12 partners anchored in leading and supporting instruction across PHA schools.

The ideal participants are colleagues who:

• Are ENERGIZED by the opportunity to learn about the latest research and developments in hybrid learning in the research and in lessons learned from international, national, and local contexts since schools began reopening in the spring and summer.

• A STRONG DESIRE and the CAPACITY to explore 1-3 hours of research, readings and other materials in between scheduled sessions.

• A READINESS and WILLINGNESS to engage in forward thinking while also caring well for the rigorous demands of their core remote teaching and learning and themselves.

• A COMMITMENT to learning from PHA students, families, and staff through a variety of modes.

• A FLEXIBLE mindset, an INNOVATIVE spirit, and an OPEN-MINDED orientation to learning from diverse and divergent perspectives and about new ways of approaching teaching and learning in a hybrid context.

Dates and Times:

The Promising Practice and Innovation Team MET from 3:00-4:30 on Wednesdays on the following dates:

• Wednesday, January 27: 3:00-4:30

• Wednesday, March 10: 3:00-4:30

• Wednesday, April 14: 3:00-4:30

• Wednesday, May 5: 3:00-4:30

• Wednesday, June 9: 3:00-4:30

Co-Facilitators:

Katie Harris

Liz Murray

Team Members:

Karen Shmukler

Tabitha Redding

Ashley DeBlois

Kia Heller-Spencer

Ben Spencer

Byron Beaman

Rachel Wetschensky

Matthew Ferry

Dana Vera

Alison Bradley

Megan Bounit

PROJECTS:

Byron: Incorporating Hip Hop in the Classroom - Hip Hop Ed & Science Genius: Working with artists to create educational rap music (science)

Access Byron's Final Project here: Hip Hop Ed interview with Timothy Jones and here: Hip Hop Ed Interview with Aysha Upchurch

Tabitha: Culturally Responsive and Anti-Racist Teaching

Take a look at Tabitha's Final Project here on Canva

Rachel: Rethinking Special Education, specifically Special Education modeling

Watch Rachel's video Explaining Assessment

Read Rachel's "Access Self-Assessment" doc

Ben and Matthew: Standards Based Grading and Equity

Kia: Technology in the Classroom post COVID

Check out Kia's work here on the Academic Technology site

Megan: Promising Practices and Innovation website, including a subpage for Academic Technology with Kia

Ashley: Research-based SEL Instruction- taking PHA's Social Emotional Learning curriculum to the next level PreK-College