As a first step in the redesign process, current PHA middle school faculty and staff traveled to The Foundry, a community space in East Cambridge, to launch their collaborative work. Embracing the spirit of possibility, and centering the assets and strengths of the PHA community, the team created a shared timeline of PHA and our individual and collective educator journeys. Then after engaging with some research, we began to draft a vision of a PHA Middle Schooler. In Part 2 of the educator launch, we will turn our individual post-its into a cohered draft of this vision. Then, this vision will be synthesized with student and family-created visions. Our goal is to have a shared goal--to be the school that educators, students, and families want, believe in, and pursue, together.

Interested in the research educators looked at and discussed at this session? Check out the links:

• The Future of Smart Podcast: The Hidden Promise of Adolescent Learning

• The Search for Deeper Learning by Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine (excerpts) 

• Street Data by Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan (excerpts)

• Empathy interviews with current 7th and 8th graders; questions asked:

  • Tell me something about yourself.

  • What types of learning activities do you like most?

  • What types of learning activities do you like least?

  • If you could learn about anything or take any class, what would it be?

  • If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about middle school, what would it be?

Adult learning leads to student learning. This week, three middle school leaders attended the School Redesign In Action Conference in Newport, RI. Jacques Faublas (MS Dean of Students), Callie Kniffin (MS Special Education Team Chair), and Ben Spencer (incoming MS Assistant Principal/Director) attended several workshops on a number of topics relevant to the PHA MS redesign, including promoting student voice, supporting student activists for racial justice, interdisciplinary learning, student support systems, supporting BIPOC educators, and more. The PHA team left with a variety of new resources, takeaways, and key questions to inform and improve the MS redesign. Take a look at the team's notes from the conference! 

These types of adult learning opportunities--ones that expose us to new ideas, impactful practices, and different perspectives--will be vital for the adult learners of the PHA Middle School next year and beyond. 

Continuing our collaborative work from The Foundry, the middle school educator team convened on a Wednesday afternoon to get closer to our vision for PHA middle schoolers. In this co-planned meeting, the team first shared stories of our own identities and experiences as middle schoolers. Then, we dove into sorting and categorizing the notes from our collective brainstorm from our previous meeting. These notes, informed and inspired by research and student empathy interviews, became the seeds for first drafts of statements for a portrait of a PHA middle schooler. 

We are eager and excited to engage in a similar process with students and families in the coming weeks in order to create a shared, cohesive vision for our students and their middle school experience. 

(Note: These images represent just some of the draft statements that emerged from the meeting--not all!)

In this virtual meeting, middle school leaders Chris Douglas (7-12 Principal), Ben Spencer (incoming MS Assistant Principal/Director), and Jacques Faublas (MS Dean of Students) hosted 6th grade families to introduces themselves, share information on the middle school redesign process, and hear and answer questions. If you missed it, you can watch a recording of the meeting here. Or, just check-out some of the inspiring responses family members gave to some of our questions for them during the meeting:

What makes parenting/caring for 6th graders special? What do you like most about it? 

• "My son is open with me...and I appreciate that."

• "They're in such a growth space!  Lots of changes and such interesting people!"

• "My daughter is opening up more and more. She is more vocal. So at that age they are creating new identity."

• "My daughter is more independent. I love how she is finding herself."

Over the next two years, I hope my middle schooler becomes...

• "More confident and accepting of who they are, while continuing to appreciate others' differences and beliefs."

• "Even more growth.. more excitement about heading to school… positive and outspoken teen"

• "Achieving better grades"

• "More independent to do her work"

• "More responsibilities"

• "More confidence about himself & getting better grades"

• "My hope for my middle schooler is for her to continue to believe  in herself as she face new challenges."

• "Standing for her self and others"

• "I hope my middle schooler becomes more independent, and continues to grow."

A group of sixteen 7th grade leaders came together to play some games and use their voices to help build our vision of a PHA middle schooler. These students had volunteered through a survey to give some of their time to collaborate around their hopes for themselves and their peers. A crucial part of the redesign will be creating more opportunities for students to not just actively participate in their school experience, but to lead it. While enjoying pizza and snacks, here are the questions these 7th grade leaders brainstormed responses to:

• What kind of person do we hope each PHA middle schooler is or becomes?

• What kind of student do we hope each PHA middle schooler is or becomes?

• What do we think all PHA middle schoolers should be able to do?

• What do we think all PHA middle schoolers should know?

To continue to gather the diverse perspectives of our vibrant PHA community, current 6th and 7th grade families visited the Essex St campus to build connections and share their dreams for our middle schoolers. Families connected around their own middle school experiences, read insights gathered from the family perspectives survey, and reviewed research on the future of education. Families then brainstormed together what habits and mindsets they believe all PHA middle schoolers should develop, as well as what all PHA middle schoolers should know and be able to do. This collaboration led to families' aspirational statements describing the middle schoolers they hope their students become. 

It was joyful to be with families at school, especially post-pandemic, and we are excited to build more opportunities for middle school families not just to visit PHA but to use their wisdom and skills to collaborate with PHA educators and students to bring to life our dreams for our school.  

A group of representatives from our three key stakeholder groups--students, families, and educators--met to do the work of synthesizing the community brainstorms into a draft version of our Portrait of a Middle Schooler. After the group shared introductions and something they were good at or knew a lot about, they looked at the statements that each community group had developed in their respective visioning meetings. You can see those statements here. The group then put statements together that were similar and came up with categories of statements, making sure that there was student, family, and educator representation in each category: how we act, how we treat others, how we learn. Once the categories were developed, small groups created draft descriptors for those categories. Now, we are asking the wider community to vote on the descriptors that resonate most with them. SEE THE OPTIONS AND PLEASE VOTE HERE! 

After surveying and meeting with educator, student, and family groups to brainstorm a wide variety of hopes and ideals for middle school students, convening with representatives from each group to narrow the brainstorm, then sending out proposals for the community's vote, we have landed on a vision for our middle schoolers for the 2023-24 school year! We had sixty community votes that decided on the following three characteristics for our middle schoolers to strive to be and become every day:

• A PHA Middle Schooler is a compassionate and accepting community member.

• A PHA Middle Schooler is a responsible and thoughtful individual.

• A PHA Middle Schooler is a curious and engaged scholar.

We will use this vision to guide our thinking and support for students in all aspects of our work with them. We will also continue to engage the community with this vision and allow it to evolve over the coming years as necessary. Thank you to those who played a direct role, large or small, in developing it!