Students and teachers at Agawam High School were joined by community members and AHS alumni for a summit ln November 2025. They shared ideas about a new teaching and learning vision that is being created through an ongoing innovative project called Meeting the Moment.
Photo credit: Agawam High School
AGAWAM — Since 2023, a group of Agawam High School teachers, administrators and students have been working on an innovative project known as Meeting the Moment with the of goal creating a new teaching and learning vision for students.
At the Feb. 10 School Committee meeting, MaryLyn Hunter, an instructional coach at AHS, and a project leader, provided an update on work to make the vision a reality. The school has been working with the Barr Foundation, a Boston-based philanthropy that has been funding the project through a grant.
Hunter was joined by two AHS students, Nazo Sahibzay and Devin Soucy, who also have been involved in the project. She said work has included “a great deal” of evidence gathering, research and planning. Hunter added that work has centered around a new learning vision of high-quality instruction centered around students who are resilient and equipped with real-world problem-solving skills.
“Our work from September to December of this school year, labeled as cycle three, was to dig further into our instructional vision and to support the creation of instruction that is centered around rigorous tasks that shift the work of learning from the teacher to the student,” said Hunter.
“This year, we partnered with SpringPoint, an educational consultant, who have helped us in making our instructional Look for Tool. Additionally, they help facilitate instructional rounds and offer coaching for several AHS staff members,” she said.
Hunter said the goal is to create learning in classrooms that is driven by student voices, filled with discussion and debate, learning experiences that require critical thinking and facilitate students in making connections between their learning in school in the real world.
This focus, Hunter said, developed into several areas, including creating the AHS Learning Lab, a second and improved Student Summit, instructional rounds and department meetings.
“The AHS Learning Lab was born out of our work at the Meeting the Moment conference in June 2025 in collaboration with our students with us here tonight. As a part of this experience, cohorts of 10 to 12 teachers have participated in focused 10-week coaching sessions in order to unlock how we might make student thinking visible and create ownership for learning amongst our students,” said Hunter.
Teachers meet regularly as a whole cohort, collaborating and sharing their ideas. Additionally they visit each other’s classrooms as a part of the experience. Data is gathered from all stakeholders and Learning Lab teachers also are a focus of instructional rounds.
The goal of this experience was three-fold: to make ideas in the instructional Look for Tool a reality in classrooms, to create a community of educators with a similar goal and to foster student ownership of learning.
Sahibzay, a sophomore, talked about her experience in the Learning Lab, telling the committee that students feel more engaged and that it makes it easier for teachers as well. “It’s reevaluating how teachers teach students and how students also feel about the learning process,” she said.
“I definitely see a big change from last year to this year,” Sahibzay added. “Even though it’s midway through the year, I see a lot of improvement in the classroom. I feel like a lot of my teachers are being more engaging with us, and they’re starting more conversations.”
Sahibzay said she likes how the Meeting the Moment project is bringing real-world learning into the classrooms to prepare students for life as adults. “That’s a big component that, especially as a student, I value,” she said.
In the Learning Lab, Sahibzay said she and her classmates are learning math in a more engaging way. “A lot of students, including me, struggle with math sometimes. And instead of just a teacher giving us notes, or just giving us a packet or an online activity, it’s actually more engaging. I feel our teacher is explaining in a way that everyone in the classroom can understand.”
The Learning Lab improves learning for all students she said because there’s a lot of different students in the classroom who are from different walks of life. “Everyone learns differently. My favorite thing about the Learning Lab is that it’s very inclusive. I feel like that’s what Agawam High School is all about.”
Soucy, a junior, shared his views of the “convenings” that Barr has conducted regularly with teachers and students during the project. “These are really important because we’re allowed to have a student voice, and we’re allowed to show what we’re learning in the school and how other schools can take what we’re learning,” he said.
“We can take examples from other schools and use that at Agawam High School. It’s been really awesome as a student to share my voice and hear how other students have felt about change in their schools,” said Soucy.
Soucy and Sahibzay also shared their experiences at the recent summit on Nov. 24. Soucy, who has been a facilitator at previous summits, said the November summit was different because there was an alumni panel.
Students were able to ask them questions about how high school prepared them for their “after high school life,” what their careers are and how that has been affected by what they learned at AHS, he said.
The summit also included parents, School Committee members and others in the community, Soucy said the summit was “important and informative” with lots of feedback. “We got a lot of good information that was really useful. We’re getting the teacher perspective as well as the student perspective in the work we’re doing.”
Sahibzay said what she liked about the November summit was the alumni panel. “It was really nice seeing the perspective of eight former Agawam students and how they felt about what we’re doing. Even though they were graduated before us, we both still had the same experiences. I liked that connection we had with them,” she said.
She added that she likes how the summit allowed a collaboration of ideas. “I believe it’s really important that we all stay united and work together. I just loved what we did.”
