Student facilitators at a recent AHS Student Summitt (left to right) Dawood Atanane, Andrew Bagley, Connor Glynn and Anthony Norman with AHS teachers Nikali Benkert and Mary Lynn Hunter. The summit brought together teachers and students to discuss creating a new education plan for AHS.
Reminder Publishing photo by Mike Lydick
AGAWAM — In the summer of 2023, a group of Agawam High School teachers began working on an innovative project to improve teaching and learning at the school.
Funded by a grant from the Barr Foundation, a Boston-based philanthropy, the goal of the project — known as Meeting the Moment — is to create a new teaching and learning plan for students.
AHS teachers Mary Lynn Hunter, a literacy instructional coach, and Nikali Benkert, a math instructional coach — leaders of the project — appeared before the School Committee on March 11 to share updates related to their work.
Hunter and Benkert had explained the beginnings of their work with the Meeting the Moment grant — the learn, dream and design phases — to the committee in early 2024. Benkert said since that visit, they’ve been chosen to continue their partnership with the Barr Foundation for a new two-year grant cycle that will bring the project to the end of the 2025-26 school year.
He said the current phase, the implementation phase, involves using information and data gathered during the first year and putting them into action in a number of ways. “We’ve composed an instructional vision for AHS, socialized that vision by creating and running design teams, systems, committees, professional learning communities (PLCs) and elicited student feedback at a recent student summit.”
The AHS instructional vision is one of high-quality instruction that centers students in:
- Creating classrooms where students feel connected, valued and safe;
- Having students use their voice to drive learning in the classroom;
- Building perseverance and resilience through productive struggle;
- Engaging in real world problem solving and skill development.
The vision was created after a year of analyzing data. Benkert said there are plans to collect even more data and input through surveys and data from classroom visits.
“Having an instructional vision is great, but it doesn’t accomplish anything without the cooperation from everyone at the school,” said Benkert. “So, we began this school year with a commitment to socializing this vision through PLCs, where teachers are given common planning time to collaborate on creating high quality teaching and learning experiences to support this project.”
Hunter told the committee that AHS also has partnered with Lynch Leadership Academy at Boston College to train 10 teacher leaders in effective facilitation. Additionally, PLCs will explore creating learning opportunities to help students develop real world skills. Another eight teachers across content areas will work with design teams to experiment with different ways to engage students in using critical thinking skills.
She said these teachers are working with both members of the Meeting the Moment team and an outside consultant from Big Sky Blue, a Barr partner, to “dig deep and not only try things in their own classrooms, but to share that learning with the whole staff.”
Nineteen staff members will analyze existing systems in place around grading, academic integrity and the school’s special education Connections program. They will look at how these programs and processes connect to the instructional vision and even investigate possible areas for improvement.
Hunter and Benkert said teachers and staff are only part of the equation when it comes to creating a culture of collaboration and innovation. The more important part of this equation is students.
On March 5, 68 students and 22 staff met at Springfield College to take part in the first AHS Student Summit. The goal was not only to gather honest student input about what it’s like to be a student at AHS, but also to empower students to lead and take ownership of their school.
Dawood Atanane, Andrew Bagley, Connor Glynn and Anthony Norman served as student facilitators at the summit. They shared some of their experiences with the committee.
“We discussed the positives and the negatives in school and talked about learning and teaching, how students felt teachers were teaching students, and how they could change the environment of classrooms,” said Atanane. “We had a bunch of fun games to get students talking and there was a lot of collaboration between the students and teachers.”
Bagley said when he started sharing his problems with school, he thought they were just going to be very personal — but he learned that everyone has most of the same problems. “The big one we talked about is not knowing what’s going on within our school community. The announcements are very hard to hear. We discussed that Principal Blain could easily send an email every morning to every student or every teacher so we could read along as announcements are made.”
Glynn said during conversations in his group, two teachers, who weren’t allowed to speak, took notes of student concerns and what sometimes excites them about school. “Everyone had the same concerns I had about our school, which really connected us as a whole. I realized the problems can be fixed, because everyone agrees on what they are. This could be a big milestone toward the future of our school — not only for me, but also for upcoming freshmen, upcoming sophomores, upcoming middle school students. I’m looking forward to what they’ll experience at AHS if this project keeps going.”
Norman said the summit was an “incredible” experience. “It was such a privilege to attend. The atmosphere of spending the day at a college campus to make our school a better place was the most valuable experience I could have been a part of. Even though my group did not know each other, we all came together quickly over the shared goals. That helped us create ideas we could use.”
