Reimagining Advisory. |
Reimagining Advisory
During the 2013-14 school year, Nipmuc created an advisory program as a way to ensure that all students connected with an adult in the school. The advisory program groups students by grade-level and provides a curriculum focused on a range of topics including adjusting to high school, skills for academic and personal success, team and community building, and post-secondary planning. In addition to working with their advisers, students also have the chance to work with school counselors, PE instructors, and the athletic director to explore topics related planning for the future, social/emotional/physical wellness, and leadership.
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As we begin looking ahead to the 2019-2020 school year, we're taking advantage of the opportunity to work together to reimagine advisory and how it can support our vision for learning at Nipmuc. Let's begin by building a common understanding of advisory by answering the poll below.
Four corners: Connecting advisory to our beliefs about learning
The work of revising advisory to meet the needs and interests of students and teachers needs to be focused on our school's beliefs about learning. In order to be sure that we have an understanding of how our beliefs align with advisory, we'll take part in a "four corners" activity.
As part of the activity, move to your assigned section of the room. Have a conversation with a person beside you about the connection or potential connection between advisory and what we believe. Then add your comments to the chart paper. We'll then debrief the comments put forth by each group. |
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Check out the brainstormed connections to our beliefs and opportunities for growth below:
Data-driven
During last week's advisory session we asked students and teachers to participate in a survey about our advisory program. The survey was completed by 56% of teachers and 63% of students in grades 10-12. The data provides us with some information about:
In the next part of today's workshop, we'll review the data received from students and teachers in order to get actionable in reimagining advisory. We'll focus on three key categories:
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Analyzing the data and making recommendations
Follow the steps below to analyze the data and begin the process to:
- Identify your focus area.
- Individually review the data through the lens of your focus area making note of what you notice, what questions you have about the data, key themes from the data, and data-driven recommendations to address what you see.
- Get together with others who share your focus area. Working as a group, write down your recommendations on chart paper.
Gallery Walk
During the Lead Learner meeting on March 18, students and educators provided some recommendations about how to reshape advisory based on our beliefs about learning and the survey data we collected last week. Our goal is to work together to build consensus and make sure all of our options are on the table.
We need your help! Take a few minutes over the course of the next few days take part in a gallery walk in which you review the ideas on each of the sheets of poster paper posted in the PDC. The recommendations are grouped by focus area. The three areas of focus include
Using your green sticker dots shared in everyone's mailboxes, identify the two ideas per focus area that you're most excited about. Place your green dots (six total) next to the recommendations that we should consider as we work together as a school community to reimagine advisory.
Be sure to stop by the "What are we missing?" section to add your out-of-the-box ideas that may not have shown up through the other focus areas.
We need your help! Take a few minutes over the course of the next few days take part in a gallery walk in which you review the ideas on each of the sheets of poster paper posted in the PDC. The recommendations are grouped by focus area. The three areas of focus include
- Time/Structure of the Advisory Program
- Curriculum, Focus, and Opportunities of Advisory
- Consistency of the Advisory Experience & Buy-in of Students and Teachers
Using your green sticker dots shared in everyone's mailboxes, identify the two ideas per focus area that you're most excited about. Place your green dots (six total) next to the recommendations that we should consider as we work together as a school community to reimagine advisory.
Be sure to stop by the "What are we missing?" section to add your out-of-the-box ideas that may not have shown up through the other focus areas.