End of year report 2017 18

2017-18 Year-End Report

Innovative Teaching Team ile@p Cohort Pg. 2

Art and Science of Learning Pg. 3

Innovative Teaching at Paideia   The mission of the Innovative Teaching Team is to cultivate innovative practices that enhance teaching and learning at Paideia. The team is made up of three Innovative Teaching Specialists (Amy, Lacey, and Kathy) who support teachers as they undertake the sometimes messy and challenging work of innovation. This support takes the form of collaboration on lesson development, training on specific strategies, providing space for discussion groups and reflection, facilitating informal classroom visits, and other ongoing professional development opportunities. The Innovative Teaching Specialist title was a new one for team members this year, reflecting the team’s expansion beyond technology integration to also support other initiatives including design thinking, project based learning, making in the classroom, alternative assessments, coding instruction, and other classroom innovations.

Professional Development Pg. 4

Special Projects Pg. 5

Next Year Pg. 6

Going Forward Pg. 7

The mission of ile@p is to cultivate innovative practices that enhance teaching and learning at the Paideia School.

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ile@p Cohort The ile@p 2017-18 cohort consisted of two groups of teachers from all levels of the school. The first cohort of five teachers (C-1) were in their second year of the program, and served as mentors.

They were also given the role of “innovation ambassadors” by promoting innovative teaching to the rest of the school. This group was asked to host open houses in their classrooms so others could come and informally observe them, post “What I’m Teaching” posters outside of their rooms, and write guest posts on the ile@p blog. They conferred regularly with their mentee, and observed their mentee during the Design Thinking and Project Based Learning explorations. The C-1 group was also asked to offer a workshop on a specific innovative teaching tool.

The second group of five teachers (C-2) were all new to the cohort and participated in several in-depth trainings. The first half of the year was devoted to learning and implementing the Design Thinking methodology. In January, the group took a deep dive into Project Based Learning (PBL). For both Design Thinking and PBL, the C-2 group designed units that they implemented in their classrooms, with opportunities for reflection throughout both explorations. This group finished the

school year by each choosing a topic of personal interest to research and share. ile@p was successful in that all the group members tried new teaching strategies that they might not have known of, or might not have been comfortable in trying. These teaching approaches were also shared with a greater audience. The most successful element of the cohort was the relationships that were built between the Innovative Teaching Specialists and the members of the cohort. The cohort members utilized the Innovative Teaching Team regularly to brainstorm ideas and reflect on their teaching practices. The Innovative Teaching Team encouraged risk-taking and supported the cohort members to try new approaches, often pushing them out of their comfort zones.

“For me, it's having the inspiration to try new things. Without programs like ile@p or the PBL training we had in August, I tend to stay in my bubble, teaching the way I always have and the way that is comfortable. This year I have tried numerous new approaches to teaching the same material - some of these I will continue to use and others may get dropped or modified.”

- Brian Smith The mission of ile@p is to cultivate innovative practices that enhance teaching and learning at the Paideia School.

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Art and Science of Learning The Art and Science of Learning TDP group met throughout the year to discuss topics related to brain based learning and its practical application in the classroom. The ASL group read articles, participated in discussions, and tested ideas in classes. Topics included: •

Active Learning: The group looked at the research that shows how spacing, interleaving, self-testing, formative assessments, and arts integration can help improve student memory and understanding of new ideas.

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Retrieval Practice: The group looked at how to cement long-term learning using retrieval practices. Some of the practices we examined were flashcards, low-stakes quizzes, brain dumps, and graphic organizers.

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Choice and Play: The importance of play and gamifying a classroom were the focus of this meeting. The group read several articles, played improv games, and participated in a Socratic Smackdown.

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Feedback that Works: The group examined the characteristics of high quality feedback to aid in long-term memory storage. The practice of feedforward how and why it works - was also shared.

The mission of ile@p is to cultivate innovative practices that enhance teaching and learning at the Paideia School.

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Professional Development Along with the ile@p cohort and the Art and Science of Learning TDP group, there were many additional professional development opportunities that helped promote innovative education. These opportunities took place in the form of conferences, trainings and faculty meetings.

Retreat The Innovative Teaching Team helped plan and implement this year’s retreat. With the theme of innovation, the team organized the keynote speaker, Grant Lichtman, the viewing of “Most Likely to Succeed”, and the day’s activities. Teachers had the opportunity to reflect on what they believe is important to Paideia and what areas have room for growth.

PBL 26 teachers started the school year developing project based learning units while learning with the Buck Institute for Education. The Innovative Teaching Team organized this conference and continued to support these teachers once the conference was done. The team met with teachers while planning units, helping teachers work through parts that they were stuck on and provided feedback on over all plans. The team also organized follow up meetings to reflect on how the projects were going.

CTTL Several of our faculty members attended the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) Summer Academy last July. The Innovative Teaching Team worked to disseminate the information from the academy, as well as the book Neuroteach by Glenn Whitman and Ian Keller. Many of the topics used in the Art and Science of Learning TDP group were based on research from the CTTL. An Innovative Teaching Specialist helped plan and lead several Elementary and Junior High faculty meetings that focused on the research informed strategies from the CTTL.

Mt. Vernon The Innovative Teaching Team organized for 6 teachers to attend a workshop at Mt. Vernon Presbyterian School to learn about learning walks. The group joined in on a learning walk and participated in design thinking routines and a debrief on the experience.

Pineapple Chart To help promote in-house professional development and learning from one another, the Innovative Teaching Team initiated the use of a Pineapple Chart. The idea was that teachers would make a note on a public calendar when they were teaching a lesson that they were open to having observed. Other teachers could then stop by and do an extremely informal observation.

Paideia Learns The Innovative Teaching Team maintained the Paideia Learns Facebook page for educators and community members to get a peek at the progressive, innovative learning going on at Paideia.

The mission of ile@p is to cultivate innovative practices that enhance teaching and learning at the Paideia School.

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Special Projects In order to support a larger audience, we also worked on some special projects this year. These were across school levels and disciplines and varied greatly depending on the project.

9th Grade Activity Day This year, for the 9th Grade Activity Day, the Innovative Teaching Team helped plan and implement a design thinking challenge based on the 9th grade auction project. This day focused on the students brainstorming, collaborating, and prototyping an idea that would become their 9th grade auction project and raise money for financial aid.

JH Day of Design Georgia Tech professor Leanne West helped set the stage for this year’s JH Day of Design by talking about her work with Georgia Tech and Children’s Healthcare. The students then designed an app for Children’s Healthcare that would gather data for doctors and help entertain cancer patients. The students presented their ideas to Leanne, and her team, and received feedback about how their design might be implemented in the real world.

All Levels Meeting As a follow up from this year’s retreat, the Innovative Teaching Team organized an all levels faculty meeting. The team surveyed students, 5th through 12th grade, and presented the results to the faculty in the form of word clouds. The faculty then had the opportunity to reflect and discuss what they learned.

Discover Lab - Adventures in STEAM

This year’s Discovery Lab focused on Little Bits (electronic building blocks) and coding. The group learned the basic skills associated with making and coding through projects and challenges.

Innovation and Design

The Innovative Teaching Team worked with Tom Painting’s 7th and 8th graders with the learning of design and innovative thinking. Tom and the team developed lessons that were based on Tom’s current curriculum and included skills such as 3D printing, design thinking, and making.

Elementary Design Thinking Class

During affinities in the elementary school, the Innovative Teaching Team co-taught a design thinking class with a parent. The students learned how to use design thinking as a problem solving strategy as they worked to solve a problem for a local Starbucks.

Coding The Innovative Teaching Team worked with all school levels on incorporating coding in the classrooms. The elementary school learned coding through the Week of Code, during Programming Playground, and through after-school clubs. Junior high homebase classes included coding as part of their weekly schedule, and the high school math department included coding in an Intro to Algebra 2 project.

5 The mission of ile@p is to cultivate innovative practices that enhance teaching and learning at the Paideia School.

Next Year

The 2017-2018 school year was pivotal for the Innovative Teaching Team. It marked a period of significant growth and learning.

The team organized and facilitated a second ile@p cohort, and collaborated with teachers, across all grade levels, who were not part of the ile@p group. These efforts expanded the team’s faculty reach beyond the previous school year.

Completing two years of ile@p facilitation taught the team many lessons. Key takeaways included how to effectively structure and run meaningful professional development groups, the value of intrinsic motivation over extrinsic motivation, and the value of teacher reflection and discourse as a means to drive innovation and risktaking in teaching practices.

Running the ile@p cohort required significant planning from the Innovative Teaching Team, and while it was definitely worthwhile, the team has decided to replace the cohort model moving forward. The learnings from the cohort have provided the

foundation required to shift the team’s training focus to a whole school approach.

Suspending the cohort model will create space to offer more professional development and collaboration opportunities targeting the whole faculty. In addition to whole faculty trainings and collaborations, the team will become more closely aligned with the TDP process. The Innovative Teaching Team will continue to plan and facilitate the Art and Science of Learning TDP group, and collaborating with the Innovative Teaching Team will be an official option for teachers in a peer observation year of the TDP cycle.

Even though ile@p will not exist as a cohort, the ile@p moniker will remain. ile@p, or Innovative Learning Explorations at Paideia, will be reimagined as a team or a center. As Paideia’s Innovative Teaching Specialists, Amy, Lacey, and Kathy will partner with teachers to carry out the work of ile@p. The ile@p team is excited about the work ahead of them for the 2018-2019 school year, and has crafted a one year, two year, and five year plan to guide their work going forward.

After going through a year of ile@p I feel like I have new tools and resources that will help me plan projects and curriculum for years to come. I have a supportive group of innovative colleagues who are always willing to talk through ideas, problems, and questions, and I am excited to use them as resources in the future.

-India Stubbs

The mission of ile@p is to cultivate innovative practices that enhance teaching and learning at the Paideia School.

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Going Forward One Year Goals ‣ Integrate with TDP ‣ Host monthly workshops ‣ Offer twice a year 4 hour deep dives (more in-depth trainings on a particular innovation) ‣ Facilitate a cohort of teachers exploring Project Based Learning in their classrooms ‣ Increase communication and visibility across all levels of the school ‣ Pilot the use of learning walks as a professional development tool

Two Year Goals ‣ Present at local and national education conferences ‣ Manage a separate ile@p budget ‣ Partner with other Atlanta area independent schools to start and facilitate an Innovation Mastermind Group

Five Year Goals ‣ Occupy a flexible physical space used for trainings, classroom teaching, and collaboration ‣ Exist as a separate division of the technology department ‣ Host workshops available to educators both within and outside the Paideia community

The mission of ile@p is to cultivate innovative practices that enhance teaching and learning at the Paideia School.

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