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Hawk Academic Mentor Program Proposal
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Created on January 26, 2024
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Transcript
Program Description
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Academic Mentoring: Leveraging Student Leaders in the Classroom
Rebecca Brewster, ELA Teacher Rachel Spring, Academic Mentor Courtney Trinh, Academic Supervisor
Who We Are
What we are going to learn
How did we get here?
Video Overview
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Surveying Interest
Recommend-ation Process
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Hawk Academic Mentor Program: Administrative Considerations
Designing the Program
Content Areas
Teacher Expectations
Student Expectations
Federation Consider-ations
Guidance Consider-ations
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Scheduling Consider-ations
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Hawk Academic Mentor Program
Training Recommend-ations
To-Do List
Content Areas
Hawk Academic Mentors will be placed in 9th and 10th grade ELA, math, science and history classes. They WILL NOT work in elective courses at this time.
Hawk Academic Mentors may serve in various capacities based on subject area teacher need. For example:
- multilingual mentors may assist newcomer students with translation
- mentors will strong content-area skills may assist in a co-taught classroom to be an additional support for their peers
- mentors placed in a lab-based science class may assist with lab set up and break down
Team Members: Sonila Alves Kaitlin Bedard Maundy Bontemps AJ Butler Jennifer Fitch-Tewfik Elianiz Fuentes Laureano Lisa Mannetta Lois Miller Matt Pacheco Nora Pierre-Louis Rachel Spring Courtney Trinh Catie Tuccinardi Kendall White
1/16/24: School Council Presentation
1/11/24: Working Group Meeting #2
1/25/24: Working Group Meeting #4
1/4/24: Working Group Meeting #1
1/18/24: Working Group Meeting #3
Surveying Interest
A survey of interest was sent out in November to establish a focus group. 16 staff members and students participated in round-table discussions to determine if this program was worth pursuing, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Another survey of interest was sent out and a 14-member working group of 7 staff and 7 students was established to brainstorm a program proposal.
1/17/24: Meeting with Guidance for Feedback
12/5/23: Focus Group Meeting
Who We Are
Rebecca Brewster, ELA Teacher: Rachel Spring, Academic Mentor: Courtney Trinh: Academic Supevisor of Humanities at Southeastern Regional (5 years), former ELA teacher (16 years), AP Coordinator, Visiting Instructor at Bridgewater State University
Training Recommendations
All teachers and students participating in the program will be expected to attend a training session to review expectations and provide teacher/student matches with time to get to know one another prior to working together. The following were a part of the working group discussion regarding training:
Time/Date
5/31 PD day
Commitment Letter
To be signed by students, caregivers and teachers prior to attending the training
Students Will:
Shadow a paraprofessional as a part of the training (preference for the end of the year rather than in September)
Training Development
Would like feedback from other admins and various departments to design this
Recommendation Process
Teachers will fill out an application indicating they are willing to work with a Hawk Academic Mentor. Student applications will be reviewed by an Administrative Review Board based on:
- Grades: Applicants must be passing the subject they wish to assist in with at least a B average and all other courses with at least a C average at the end of term 3. Students chosen to participate in the program must maintain at least a B- average in the subject they will assist in and a C average in all other classes until the end of the school year.
- Attendance: Attendance will be reviewed. Chronically absent students will not be eligible to participate.
- Behavior: Behavior records will be reviewed to ensure each applicant is a positive peer support for other students.
- Written Statement: Applicants will be required to provide a well-written statement of interest.
Hawk Academic Mentor Elective Course
The program is designed to provide 11th and 12th grade students with the opportunity to assist in a either a 9th or 10th grade classroom as a full-year elective course during their academic week, is a great way for students to develop their leadership skills, and to give back to the Southeastern community. Hawk Academic Mentors will assist both their peers and the classroom teacher with various tasks throughout the class, and will be expected to complete weekly reflections on the experience.
Program Description
- Established meeting schedule & agenda items
- Invited stakeholders to meetings and held separate meetings with stakeholders (i.e. admin team, guidance department, Federation reps, School Council) to gain input into program design
- Pitched final proposal to principal and obtained approval
Designing the Program
Steps we Took to Design the Hawk Academic Mentor Elective Course
Students could take this course as a junior and a senior (HAM I and HAM II).
Guidance Considerations
Students will receive 4 credits for completing the course successfully.
Based on feedback from guidance department members, the following criteria and suggestions are proposed:
Pass/Fail course that is NOT factored into a student's GPA
Scheduling Considerations
- Students will apply to the HAM program, but will not choose this course as a part of the regular course recommendation process.
- A meeting with guidance counselors will take place prior to student schedule meetings so that the counselors know which students are approved for the program.
- When the counselors meet with these students, they will let the student know they have been approved and discuss whether the student wants to participate. Students who choose to participate should also choose a backup course in the event that we are unable to match them with a teacher or make the program work in their schedule.
- Once guidance has finished their schedule meetings with students, we will have a finalized list of student participants to make matches with teacher participants.
- Administration will create the course and schedule students based on the matches, and guidance will notify any student who was unable to be scheduled in the program.
Student Expectations and Responsibilities
Students will review the assignment topics and readings and assist with tasks as necessary as determined by the classroom teacher. They will be expected to maintain professionalism at all times (adhere to dress code, proper use of technology, arrive to class on-time etc.).
Students Will:
Complete a weekly reflection in Google Classroom
Students Will:
Be allowed to work on their own assignments as determined by the teacher
Students Can:
Earn community service hours by helping out at a teacher's after school night
Students Will Not:
Grade assignments, be given access to IEPs/504s, share info they learn about a student, etc.
Federation Considerations
- Hawk Academic Mentors will count towards a teacher's class size per the contractual agreement.
- While teachers will have a separate gradebook for their Hawk Academic Mentor, this will not be considered an additional course that a teacher needs to prepare for. We will treat this like we do when a student drops an "AP" designation but remains in the classroom.
Teacher Responsibilities
- Teachers will provide mentors with the topics for review, pertinent readings or presentations etc. prior to the start of the academic week for review.
- Teachers will assign in-class duties and responsibilities as needed.
- Teachers will provide feedback on and score the weekly reflections (see attached assignments and scoring rubric).
- Teachers will provide support for mentors based on their weekly reflections as needed.
- Teachers will upload a weekly reflection grade into School Brains, upload a term grade and comments, and communicate with the mentor’s caregiver(s) as a part of their professional responsibilities.
Academic mentoring was offered up as a possible solution!
Like many schools, we were struggling with issues like:
- How to better support diverse learners, such as ML students or struggling readers, especially when paraprofessionals were being pulled from classes to cover for absences
- How to support teachers who were feeling overwhelmed, especially when their paraprofessionals or co-teachers were absent
- How to provide students with additional leadership opportunities
How did we get here?
What are we going to learn?
This presentation will discuss how we leveraged student leaders in the classroom through an academic mentoring. Specifically, we will explain:
- How the idea for this program came about
- What considerations your Administrative team might need to address
- What processes might need to be developed to launch the program
- The teacher experience of working with an Academic Mentor in the classroom
- The student experience of working as an Academic Mentor
- Lessons we learned and changes we will make during the upcoming school year
To-Do List
The following things still need to be worked out:
- Departments need to be informed so they know this is happening and can answer any questions, encourage students to apply, etc. (week of 2/5)
- ELA department will roll this out to students on 2/9 and 2/12
- Deadlines for applications 2/26
- Administrative Review Board members need to be confirmed
- Training needs to be developed (again, would like other admins/departments to weigh in)
- Commitment letter needs to be created
- Training dates/location/materials/