Foothills Blog

Teacher Sustainability Project Updates

In late March, we shared that we are engaged in a teacher sustainability project to better support teachers so that they can better support students and create the distinctive learning experiences that are the hallmark of this school. Our goals are to:

--Provide teachers with collaborative professional time and sustainable responsibilities
--Sustain meaningful student experiences throughout the day
--Provide teachers with what they need to sustainably support all students in the classroom
--Provide families with effective evidence of their children’s progress via methods that are sustainable for teachers

Through our schedule redesign process, we have looked at ways to create more meaningful blocks of planning time when students are with specialists, combine lunches to allow for more cross-grade interactions, as well as create flex time during the week to build experiences and project learning time as students and teachers explore various interdisciplinary units throughout the school year. In addition, the creation of a K-6 PE position will not only create additional collaborative planning time for many teachers but will also provide the opportunity for the development of a thoughtful, research-based K-9 PE and Health curriculum. Teachers have been a part of the schedule redesign process from the start and are excited about how it is progressing.

Last week, faculty began the process of rethinking how we can more effectively communicate evidence of each child’s progress in ways that are more sustainable for teachers. We are exploring how students can demonstrate their learning and progress over time, how we can make student learning and progress more transparent, and how we can create more opportunities for families to experience the learning.

Ultimately, our goal is to better support teachers through sustainable practices that provide more space and time to create the type of experiences that make a Foothills education so impactful on our students' learning - where the arts and sciences are woven into meaningful experiences to inspire curious, confident, lifelong learners.