Teachers share challenges and strategies in March Community of Practice

Over three weeks in March 2021, the ARTLC hosted its second teacher-led “Community of Practice” — a collaborative space for K-12 teachers across Connecticut to discuss challenges they’ve faced in the classroom and share strategies going forward. 

Twelve teachers participated in the three one-hour sessions, which were led by Fana Hickinson, a veteran teacher at New Haven Academy. 

For the first session on March 3, the group focused on student engagement. After an icebreaker activity, teachers reflected on the moment in their school year so far when they and their students felt the most joy or sense of possibility. They shared about these moments, as well as the surrounding struggles that those moments transcended or addressed. Finally, they compiled a shared document of strategies for reaching students and increasing engagement, including individual check-ins, Padlet forums, and digital notebooks.

The second session on March 10 focused on questions of assessment. First, one teacher presented on one of the strategies shared in the first session, Jamboard, and walked through examples of how she’d used it effectively in the classroom. Then, teachers reflected on challenges they’d faced assessing students equitably during the pandemic. Finally, they shared these challenges and discussed strategies moving forward. 

The final session on March 17 opened with an icebreaker, then moved into a discussion of the events of the previous day — a white man murdered eight people in Atlanta, six of them Asian women. Teachers discussed how to address traumatic events in their classrooms with their different student age groups and subject areas. The session concluded with takeaways from the community of practice and individual next steps.

Written by the ARTLC Team.

Screenshot from the event