By Amy Stewart

Back to school season has been a whirlwind in our Empowerment Collaborative schools this year! There is a lot of hope and energy entering into this school year. 

In early August, Buckhannon-Upshur Middle School hosted an “academy” for their teachers to support each other and their new hires in professional learning, culture building, and planning. Teachers joined Amy in the mornings of the 8th, 9th, and 10th to study things like classroom design to support productive classroom management, high leverage teaching strategies, and the broad strokes of project-based learning. Teachers used that information to set up their classrooms, begin work with their teams, and other activities. 

On Thursday, Kathleen and Amy had the opportunity to conduct a team norming and visioning session with each of the grade level teams as they worked together to establish their vision and working relationships for the  y ear. In a year where there was so much turnover and movement in the teams, this was a fantastic opportunity to build culture, community, and focus for the year. We capped off the week by joining all of the educators in Upshur County Schools for their high energy convocation. Dr. D’Antoni spoke at the convocation and invited the schools to seek the passion in every student and  build avenues for them to use that passion. 

Kelli Whytsell, superintendent of Calhoun County Schools, decided that she wanted her whole middle school team, teachers and students alike, to be onboarded to the protocols of the Empowerment Collaborative. One of her major goals for the year is to increase the student-led options in the middle school, and bringing students more deeply into how they do school is a major step in that direction! In order to get warmed up to the skill of brainstorming, Kathleen and Amy hosted a “brainstorming boot camp” to demonstrate the processes of brainstorming with we would use as we work through the protocols. A week later, students engaged in a process in small groups to choose a protocol on which they would focus their brainstorming. This is an ongoing effort these students and teachers are going through to further implement, explore, and expand the Empowerment Collaborative protocols in their school experience.

Peterstown has the exciting opportunity of moving into a new school this year! Governor Jim Justice and BabyDog joined them for their ribbon cutting ceremony. They are building culture and opportunities for students and teachers within their new space, and we are excited to see how teaching and learning is transformed through their efforts!

We have two school districts that are exploring the possibilities of the Empowerment Collaborative for their middle schools. Zac Northrop is working with these school districts to conduct interviews and observations with the superintendent, business and industry, administrators, teachers, and students. He is on a mission to uncover the needs, desires, and community assets and expectations through deep customer empathy. We believe this approach will allow these new districts to set deep, important goals for their vision as a school and district by seeking to understand their own place in their school and community’s story. As one superintendent described it, we have a unique opportunity to work with parents and the community to help them understand what is going on in the classroom. We would add to that- they have skills and knowledge that can be an asset to all of the students in the community and may be shared! 

All of these efforts contribute to a similar energy- a real feeling that this year has great potential for growth, innovation, and student empowerment as students, teachers, and schools seek to redefine what’s possible.