At Love It, we prioritize collaboration and alignment across grade levels, kindergarten
all the way through senior year, to create a cohesive educational journey.
Teachers foster skill building over content delivery, focusing on critical thinking and
problem solving.
We practice responsive teaching methods tailored to individual student needs, and encourage
parents to actively engage in their child's education too.
That's why at Love It, we have a whole team dedicated to supporting the efforts of our
teachers.
We love it teaching and learning team.
A team made up of four professionals you'll meet today.
This is Living Love It, Stories from the Riverbank.
I'm Jessica Stant, Chief Engagement Officer at the Love It School.
On this episode, you'll meet PJ Miller, Director of Teaching and Learning in grades K-2.
Ashley Trier, Director of Teaching and Learning in grades 3-5.
Ashley Guyanillo, Assistant Head of the Middle School for Teaching and Learning.
An Amanda Lucas, Assistant Head of the Upper School for Teaching and Learning.
Together, they're known as the Teaching and Learning team, or TLT for short.
You'll notice PJ refers to this group as the Teacher of the Teachers.
What I love about that depiction is that it models a lifelong interest in learning for
all of us, most especially kids.
As a relatively new team on campus, the TLT is identifying what we do especially well,
and where there are opportunities to do things even better.
They're collaborating with teachers to develop engaging lessons and create meaningful experiences
for students.
And without question, they're celebrating and cultivating joyful learning, promoting
a positive and engaging environment for students and teachers alike.
First, still hear my conversation with PJ and Ashley Trier, who serve our lower school.
Followed by my discussion with Ashley Guyanillo and Amanda from the Middle School and Upper
School respectively.
I am PJ Miller, I'm the Director of Teaching and Learning, K-2.
And I tell the kindergartners that I am a teacher of the teachers.
So I support the teachers and design questions.
They may have to prove their teaching crap.
I also go into the classrooms and help teach small groups, model curricular lessons, just
be a presence in the hallways for the K-1 kiddos.
My name is Ashley Trier and I'm the Director of Teaching and Learning for grades 3 through
5 in the lower school at Love It.
What I do is I work with teachers alongside teachers to enhance the teaching and learning
opportunities for our students to help teachers create engaging lessons and opportunities for
their students to be challenged in creative ways.
Great.
So I think it would benefit our listeners to just hear how you came to this work, like
a little bit about your backgrounds and how you have now become the teacher of the teachers
to borrow PJ's phrasing.
PJ, you want to go first?
Yeah, great.
I started my educational career as a child of educators.
My lineage of educators goes far back.
And so although I wanted to be a game show host when I grew up, I ended up in the field
of the family, which is education.
I fell in love with teaching second grade and one of my uncles he taught abroad and got
me into the international scene and so I went over to Quador at the American school they
are in top for three years, fell in love with international education and then found
my way back to the States and just had a passion for helping teachers locate their curiosity
and using that as professional growth and found this role that I could do exactly that
help them locate what they're curious about and us dive into it so that they can have
better opportunities for the kiddos they serve.
I love that locate their curiosity.
What a great thing to model for kids too, right?
The inspiration that a student would feel and seeing an adult being curious and excited
about something.
That's great.
Right, we never stop becoming learners or being learners and so I think it's important
for us to model being a lifelong learner as well for kids.
Totally.
We're going to talk more about that in a few minutes, Ashley.
Yeah.
My experiences are pretty broad and varied.
This is my 26 year in education.
Started as a classroom teacher in Augusta, Georgia and moved to Atlanta not too long after
that and teaching and like PJ just have this thirst for learning and continued my education
at Georgia State and working on a master's in administration and was lucky enough to start
kind of broadening my perspectives and working at a central office and working in the race
of the top work that was keen about with Obama and really now common core standards,
teachers evaluation systems and that's where I really learned sort of the impact that educators
have that as a teacher we were kind of in our own walls and that's what that's our day
to day life is impacting 20, 25 students in our classrooms that stepping outside of
that and broadening horizons and the impact that you get to have on multiple teachers
and multiple students across a district.
I've taught college and teacher prep programs and then I decided that was really interested
in learning more about assessment so started working at the Georgia Department of Education
and the assessment office and developing early learning measures formative assessments
for kindergarten versus second graders across the state, which I loved.
I love that work always learning something new, but I really miss being at the local
source at a school so return to school-based leadership as an assistant principal in
Gainesville and then as a principal and what brought me to love it was a lot of what PJ
said was this opportunity to do some of the things that I love the most which are working
alongside teachers, developing curriculum, you know, just planning and providing opportunities
for great teaching and learning opportunities for students and so that's what brought me
here.
So I'm talking to you two together and then I'm going to be talking to two other folks
in the middle of the upper school in a few moments who have similar roles and this alignment
across the three divisions, I don't know that it's really ever happened in this way before.
Why does it matter what you're doing in the lower school and how that impacts potentially
not just a middle school student but ultimately an upper school student.
Talk parents through that.
I think it's important for us as a K-12 institution to know what the journey of a child is when
they step on campus as a five-year-old and leave as an 18-year-old.
What skills are we developing over those 13 years?
What are the learning experiences?
The child is engaging in over those 13 years?
What is in their tool belt?
What is in their expertise, their knowledge when they enter into either the adult field,
that college or something else?
How are we growing those tools, growing their development over those 13 years?
It's really important that instead of us being blocked off and we just do lower school
things and the middle school just does middle school things and the upper school does
upper school things that have a connected continuum across K-12 so that a child who's
here for 13 years is very prepared to face the future that exists out there for them outside
of these walls.
Yeah, and I think I would add on to that to say when you think about a portrait of a graduate,
we get six years with them in the lower school six years of a lot of time and we want to make
sure that what we're doing is not to say just preparing them for middle school but that it's
this unified approach that it makes sense that it's seamless as they move from elementary
lower school to middle school to upper school that it's kind of a common sense approach that we've
taken to our curriculum to what we are doing for students and how we're preparing them for the world.
Can you give an example to our parents of what that looks like very practically?
The four of you, the teaching and learning team, has been meeting now since the summer,
I guess, is when you guys really came together in earnest. Give our listeners an example of one of
the topics that's coming up in those meetings and how it's connecting lower middle and upper.
Great question, I think. So what's really interesting about the numbers on the TLT and what's
actually what makes this amazing is that we're all interested in getting in the work right now
and hopping and diving in and bringing in our passions, bringing in our energy to help support
the work right now. There is so much energy between the four of you.
As you alluded to earlier, as you mentioned earlier, really having conversations K12
together has not been something in the curricular role. People in charge of curriculum that has
at least in my knowledge. And so we do have a lot of energy and excitement and we want to hop
in. I think it's important for us to bring an impact, to be able to bring impact and to really
support these teachers and the students and the faculty that also serve our kids, that we learn,
love it first. We need to learn what the curricular journey is of a child. We need to learn where are
they starting foreign languages. We need to learn what does it look like in kindergarten when they're
asking questions to when they're asking questions in 10th grade. How are we building that skill?
Although we want to hop in and immediately start putting things together, I think it's really
important for us to go far, but first taking it slow. And so just learning what's out there. For
instance, this past week, we had all the teachers come together across K12 and we broke it into
curricular sections such as science and math and literacies and all teachers K12 wrote down what
their journey looks like in their perspective space. So at the end, we had these giant bullets in
boards, pieces of paper that showed a child starting as a five-year-old and reading and learning and
writing all the way to where they would be in 12th grade. And so just an opportunity for us to learn
more. And that was a great example of that. Yeah. And I think to build on that, Jessica, you talked
about a practical example. We're still working on that, but I think just thinking about a kid's journey
through history from kindergarten through 12th grade and really asking what does it mean for a kid
to think like a historian, right? Or think like a scientist when they're in the science lab or
approaching scientific issues in the world. And so what does that look like as a kindergarten
developmentally? What's what is appropriate for that? And then building on those skills and
making sure it's in a logical and developmentally appropriate way as they go through that process.
There are lots of questions right now that we've heard, not just at Levit, but more generally
around the idea of skill building in the classroom and the worry that may emerge around the sacrifice
of content over skills or skills over content. Can you talk to our families about why skill building
is so important and how content is still a part of the conversation, but not necessarily the
driver of the conversation? What does that look like, especially because you two are working in the
lower school, particularly in the lower school? Yeah, I'll start with that. So the child has to
hunt the skills to be able to approach and access the content that we're giving them or putting
in front of them. And so if we want to use the example of thinking like a historian or thinking
like a scientist, what are the special skills that are required of a historian or a scientist or
reader, writer, mathematician? For them to approach the content with those skills and know what to do
with it. So whether that is being able to understand cause and effect or being able to think
empathetically and take on different perspectives, they can approach any content or knowledge based
with those skills and be successful. So really what makes the teachers here at Levit so special
is that it's not when I was in school, it was very much the sage on the stage. It was the dispenser
of knowledge to give me the information and rather the experience is here in the lower school,
the teacher poses a problem poses something that we need to work together as a class and then we
do our learning through problem posing through exploration rather than here's what you need to know
and you need to keep this in your brain. When we get opportunities for students to explore their
own thinking, reflect with others, collaborate, then we're building those skills that we want them
to have in the workforce. We want to have people in professional fields that ask good questions.
We want people in the professional field to be reflective of their learning and we could do that
through any we could do that through the beginnings of the United States or what is happening in Europe
in 1312. We could do that at any point but we make sure that our learning experiences are focused
on the skills that we want our students to have in the future. PJ, you mentioned lifelong learning
and you know modeling curiosity for our kids and I wonder if you could give some examples
about how your roles, both of you Ashley and PJ are facilitating, you know, you mentioned
that you referenced it but how are you really facilitating that professional development
for our lower school teachers. So we have multiple we have multiple opportunities to give
or supply professional development professional growth learning opportunities for teachers.
One thing that Ashley and I do as directors of teaching and learning is that we have rotating one
on one conversations with lead teachers who come into our just we come into our space and we focus
on a design question that they may have created or just what is the most important thing that we can
support you in. It's a real time for each teacher to have their interests and curiosities blossom
under someone else to support them in that work. It might have one teacher who is really curious
about creating differentiated small groups and that's just teacher language to say I have readers
who are here and I have readers who are there and how do I help move the needle for both my teachers
my readers here and my readers there. That's one that we'd have another way for professional
growth especially being lifelong learners and being reflective is we have a new lead workshop
where if you were a new lead at our school that would be for the fun what a lead is yeah thanks
so designing the lessons making sure that we're following the curricular journey and path we want
kids to follow and in the resource space such as like science or art they are just lead teachers
on their own and so if you're a new person to love it and you are lead teaching whether that be
at home room or in a resource we meet once a month to invest in their development as well so
outside the 101 also making sure that it's a space for them to to grow their capacity too and I
think Ashley could talk about a couple other opportunities that we have yeah and similar to the
the new lead workshop there's the co-teacher fellowship which is for the co-teachers in those
classrooms they have a community of themselves where they work in cohorts depending on how long
they've been at love it what their experiences are and yeah this year we're looking at having some
seasoned in the co-teacher fellowship to actually facilitate each of those cohorts so kind of
building capacity within the co-teachers to actually lead their own people which is great obviously
we we have dedicated space and time in our schedules for regular professional development with our
Wednesday late starts that allows and gives us an opportunity to meet with our teachers whether
that's whole school or by department or grade level to provide any type of relevant professional
professional development that we're currently kind of examining or applying you to our school
into our day so lots of our opportunities for teachers to grow I think that's one of the wonderful
things about love it is that it's it's it's this beautiful canvas allowing teachers to top
into what they're curious about what sparks them what's what puts them on fire and to learn more
about it and to go after it I think one of the interesting sort of tensions to unpack here is
you know this individual curiosity and interest and also what you all talked about in terms
of the alignment of curriculum how do you marry those two things um individual interests and
curiosity and then the overarching expectations of curriculum K through 12 I think I would say
first that that the overarching K 12 vision and goals for the school are the top priority I mean
that that is what we want reinforced and to be seen in the school in the classrooms so giving
teachers those opportunities to within those goals and visions to find what drives them I don't
think that those two are naturally at tension or odds with each other but finding ways to
take what they're curious about or interested in or wanting to learn more about
and seeing how we make that work into the vision of our curriculum and our school
to add on to that I would say the mediums for faculty meetings where we're all together
is a time where it can be more of the vision and mission of what we're trying to do at love it as a
collective where as the one-on-one conversations is more of a time for a teacher to be focused
like locate the curiosity and follow it and as the research shows you know top-down professional
development is not really it is a really move the needle with anyone my administration is telling me
to do this because I have to and so in those bigger meetings and faculty meetings we source that
responsive classroom would be something that could really help our students experience all the
spaces in the lower school on the same level for instance the way that we interact and
collaborate with our peers in the home room would be the same way that we do it in science and so
since we source that as a as a lower school we spend the majority of our time and faculty meetings
diving into professional development about building our toolkit for supporting engaging learning
being responsive to kids making sure that we you know kids are going to make mistakes they're
going to have mishaps it's part of life and growing up and so how do we help them to see that
and to move forward and to learn from that and be reflected like all of those things happen
in the bigger work but in the smaller work we also want to make sure that we're being responsive
to teachers and their interests and that's where it happens in the one-on-one okay PJ you just
hit on something that I wanted to ask you all about there's a few questions I have directly
connected to that family school partnership and one of them is the inevitable reality that is
human beings and especially as growing evolving children there's lots of room for mistakes and
hopefully embracing and celebrating those missteps but when they do inevitably occur how would
you advise a parent to connect with the lower school what's the best way to do that we I'll take a
step back before I take a step forward with that question we spent last year reading a book talking
about just the hopes and dreams that parents have and the hopes and dreams that teachers have
and how sometimes those can film unaligned but really they're all aligned with the same thing we
want what's best for kids and teachers have seen you know 16 years of a seven-year-old and so they
come in with the knowledge of live-scene 157-year-old so I kind of got the idea of where seven-year-olds go
and some families it could be this is my first seven-year-old and I think the work that we did last year
was really really important for us to know that like on both ends teachers and parents like we're
trying to do the same thing we want our kiddos to flourish we want them to have joy in learning
we want them to be readers writers mathematicians scientists historians all those things
and so I think really taking a step back and looking at like we are in this together and sometimes
it could seem as I think historically in our profession it's really easy to think that there's
a divide between parents and and teachers because you know teachers know the way to teach and then
parents are the way to parent but really when we break down those artificial barriers we have
two parties that want the best for the child and so I would say for parents I would say reach out
to the teachers I mean these teachers are fantastic educators top-tier educators and they want
to work alongside parents they make time out of their day to meet with parents to talk about the
inner workings and I think it's really important for us to have a consistent message when kids make
mistakes that it is like mistakes are awesome because that's where our greatest learning happens
and occurs and so instead of shying away from them and not wanting them to happen rather
working together parent and teacher of what do we do when a child makes them a state like we
should celebrate it but also you know support the growth and development but I would say reach out
and just see what these great teachers can do great you have talked a lot about being the
teacher of the teachers but I think that there's a lot of room there and you just did it and really
partnering with parents if you could give any advice to parents on how they can support their
students learning at home how would you coach them that's a good one you know like PJ said it
is a true partnership and if everyone's giving 100% then the student wins and so first thing I
would say was I was like make a connection with your child's teacher or teachers put forth that
effort of you know that you're willing and your learner to be a part of your child's journey here
at Love It and get engaged there are parent support groups that we offer there are you know
room parent the room representatives great level representatives that can parents can be a part of
and just get engaged in the different organizations that there are you know friends in the arts
just all different kinds of areas that parents can get involved with but I think attending
hopes and dreams conferences parent teacher conferences the back to school nights you know
that we have parent nights all of those things are opportunities for parents to come in and hear
firsthand from teachers administrators the leaders in the building of how they can best support
their child you know and really just having conversations with your child is really really important
and just so valuable it's something that doesn't seem to happen as often as it used to maybe
and just asking your child you know looking them in the eye how was your day what was the best part
of your day what did you enjoy most was everything that was difficult today what did you find
challenging really having conversations with your child I would say to add on to having conversations
with your I'm going to give a couple so just get ready I the having a conversation with your child
sometimes it's difficult for them to source what happened during the day I mean they did like
40 different things right so sometimes when you attach an emotion to a question like when was
a time you felt happy today was a time where you left today was a time where you might have
felt disappointed today or something of the sort can help them reflect on what happened during
the day of its high to an emotion I would say also like other things for parents
education is a lot different than when you were in school and what I mean by that is it's really
it's really not much different but it is very different it's different in the fact that we're not
teaching the same thing to every single child and they're all receiving the same exact notebook
and they have to fill it out exactly the same way or they get reprimanded as it was for me in my
schooling we're a lot more responsive we can locate where children are on the learning continuum
and meet their needs and create lessons that can hit each of them where they are and so what I would
say is my advice would be to reach out to the teacher and ask you know where is my child in the
reading journey where is my child becoming a writer what could I specifically work on at home
that would help them to grow that craft for instance you know conversations gray but also
just reading a book just writing in a journal like those things are wonderful if we want read if
we want readers we have to read if we want writers they have to write and if we want mathematicians
they have to do math like those things but no one expects you to have all the knowledge and you're
not supposed to as a parent not supposed to know all of the things to teach them so that they are
performing at the highest academic caliber so reach out to your teachers and ask for their advice
I know these teachers will be more than happy to give tools and ideas to support your child
specifically where they are it won't be a can't and do this and that's that's the way it work it'll
be specific for your particular child because our teachers know our kids so I would say reach out to them
great advice for parents who have heard something that you've shared today and they want to
explore it with you more how can they connect with you I was actually going to add on to the like
Ashley and I are here and we're available and part of our role is to be teachers of the teachers
but also part of our role is to support parents as well Ashley are playing around with how do we
get more communication out to parents be a little bit more transparent of what we're learning here
so be on the lookout for some of those things ask to the PSG leaders parent support group leaders
to request Ashley and I and we would love to do learning based on that but also reach out to our
emails and ask us any questions that you may have because this is part of our role is to make sure
that you feel well equipped well resourced and just know what's happening here with your child so
reach out to me at PJ dot Miller at love it dot org and I would love to connect and likewise I'm
Ashley dot trigger t i e i g e r at love it dot org we're here every day where this is part of our
role is to serve students the faculty's dot and parents okay guys you know what's coming next it's
the last question what does living love it mean to you living love it to me me and I've only been
here a short time but this to me has really stood out in my my few months here is living love it is a
blank canvas to take risks and to just go for it and go big and I love that living love it to me
is embodying joy learning is joyful working with other people who care about learning is joyful
giving high fives to kids coming at a car or who are running into the building because they want to
learn is joyful and so I would say living love it is carrying that joy with me and making sure that
I present myself as someone who's joyful as well modeling joy for our kiddos you both do
just that modeling joy lots of energy and enthusiasm as I've shared coming from this team Ashley
and PJ thank you so much for being on living love it today thank you thank you
I'm Ashley Guy Nello I'm the assistant head of middle school for teaching and learning and my job
is to motivate and excite teachers to develop the best teaching and learning that drives our kids
forwards in their sense of curiosity and wonder about the world my name is Amanda Lucas I'm the
assistant head of the upper school for teaching and learning and my job is to help and inspire a
culture of learning in the upper school and ensure that people grow and meet their passions and
needs as they work together with students to create community in their classroom awesome both of you
have really interesting backgrounds Ashley is actually a love it alum class of 88 88 class of 88
can you both and you know give us the the the cliff notes version how did you end up at the
Levitt school what did the career journey look like that got you here now I am a product of
independent schools and a public district Magnus schools so which are very similar to independent
schools I would say I have two degrees one in English which is my content area of choice and then
the others a masters in education in the area of curriculum and instruction and then I will also
have a master's in English from middlebury so I think what if I I don't know if I can summarize
this up in it so you know love it for me when I consider where I want to work in an independent
school and where I want to work with faculty and with students I'm really looking for that holistic
sense of helping students to become who they want to be and so love it for me was that place
I actually came from a nine through 12 boarding school in northwestern New Jersey and they had a
very similar philosophy and so when I was looking to progress and move forward in my educational
journey and influence with teachers I was looking for something similar I knew I had found it one
place and I was looking for it in another place and I wasn't going to settle until I felt like
I found that place that values holistic education for students my journey is a little bit different
I would say that my journey actually began in second grade when I came to love it and I went
through the lower school the middle school and the upper school and by the time I left I had
developed such a sense of love of art and learning and culture and history and so I actually began
my career in sports marketing because I also play tennis here so I've taken a really unique
approach to coming into education because I had this solid foundation I then went lived overseas
I did sports marketing I do Olympic marketing and then I found my way back to my love of
history and culture and learning to get back into education and so I started in high school actually
in Connecticut and moved back to Atlanta six years ago and have been at another independent school
where I've gotten to sort of hone a lot of my craft and really think about the middle school learner
and how they learn and what's great for them and then the opportunity to come back to love it and
kind of complete full circle come home to the place that really shaped to what became in the
world has been it's been wonderful you both sort of just hit on something that I want to explore
a little bit more and I asked a version of this question of Ashley and PJ the K12 experience here
and you Ashley are sort of inheriting these kids from the lower school in Amanda you're inheriting
students from lower and middle school why does it matter that we spend time thinking about that
curricular arc K through 12 what's the impact of that because in my time here I've been here for 13
years we've certainly had versions of these roles but certainly not to the degree where they're
you are all spending as much time together as much as you are now so talk through that how what's the
impact of having these positions across the schools that really are connecting that journey
for kids K through 12 man think when we think about or we can when we consider what we want our
love it graduates to be it's really important to begin with the end in mind and thinking about what
skills do we want them to have when we send them off to those higher education institutions and so
what happens is that if we think in silos of 9 through 12 6 through 8 and K 5 we don't actually see
the arc of the student experience we see three separate individual experiences and so when we think
about the love it experience that really runs K 12 and so we always want to start with the end
in mind where we headed because then we know how to help teachers teach the skills and the
knowledge that they need in order to produce the outcomes that we expect our students to have
and I would add on to say that when we're thinking about developing the whole child
if you're not thinking about developing the whole child with a connection across the arc
then we're actually missing the ability to connect with the whole child and support
their growth through each of these phases of life because we know that brain development and
social emotional maturity changes as kids develop and we need to support that journey by looking
both vertically but thinking as well per grade level how is that whole child evolving and how do
we help them take the next step it's worth saying too you know this is not just happening in the
classroom at Levitt there are other efforts underway to align the student experience outside the
classroom as well and in fact some of the engagement work that I'm doing along with my team is
around that experience so if you were for example to look at our school counselors up until a few
years ago there was no director of school counseling overseeing the work of our counselors across
three divisions and now Sarah Friedman's position allows for that to happen and so there's a lot
more cohesion in terms of programming and thinking about those developmental milestones in terms
of social and emotional well-being and how that ultimately impacts the classroom experience too so
it's not just happening in the classroom it's a deliberate effort and across the Levitt ecosystem
to really align that student experience and the parent experience as well we're talking a lot
about change and evolution those words have come up quite a few times in the last few moments and
I wonder if we can sort of use that the spirit of that to think about um what has changed since
our parents have been in school if a parent were to walk into a classroom today what would look
different to them in terms of how a learner is learning and I guess on the flip side of that what
would look familiar oh I'll take that one I mean certainly what's familiar is kids are in a classroom
they're in a building what's different is you're going to see less of the teacher is the expert
imparting knowledge in a student sitting passively and just taking it in you're going to see
much more student centered activity students grappling with the issue students making meaning out
of what they're learning and that's how we develop someone who can think about the world around
them and help create someone or help create solutions to it I think the other thing that's different
is certainly there's a much more much more technology now than what we used to and parents were
in school including myself we did everything by hand we had no computers and so kids using technology
wisely in a way that can help them either create something or access information in a new way
is also something different parents are seeing if they were stepping into our classrooms
yeah I think what comes to mind is the saying right we want the guide on the side not the sage on
the stage you know I think about that a lot we have these spaces called model classrooms and
what's so great about these spaces I actually teach a section of English nine to nine creators
and so I can move the tables around I can raise them I can lower them I can write on the walls
it's a it's a space that is conducive to all different types of learning and learning styles
and so you know one of the things that we try to teach our kids is about these neuromits and
preferred learning styles which is a neuromit right but as teachers we want to try and engage
all different aspects of learning and learning styles so kids can be exposed to multiple ways in
which they can learn best and so you know I in when I want to engage the class in a whole class
discussion I push all the tables together and we create a discussion centered table where I like
to talk about the collective brain of the table and using everybody's insight or I can have my kids
break apart and work in small groups or pairs and have a space to write on and to think out loud
and so it's a great space that we have up here in the upper school that allows our teachers
to experiment with what works best for students in classroom space in the middle schools
so important because middle schoolers need to move you know they they they really are more active
in their learning and so we've got classrooms where we do we have desks that raise and lower we have
some that you know I want to sit in the bean bag chair but that's how I get comfortable learning
we have another room with chairs that are on roller so that again the kids can move as they
need to form groups easily but that sense of a creative learning space is probably different from
the traditional classroom where we were all in rows and we just sat at our desk and and learn
and I think just to add one more thing to that I think what's interesting is what we know about
great teaching is that we really have to shift gears with students about every 15 to 20 minutes or so
or our students they start to zone out right so having a space that allows for us to make those shifts
very easily is really important and setting students up for success one of your roles
is thinking about how we offer feedback to teachers and and I'm assuming part of that is really
modeling you know embracing and celebrating what what feedback can provide not just for the adult
learners in our in our community but also to kids so can you talk through that what are what are
some of your goals when you think about supporting our faculty and providing feedback to them on their
learning practice Amanda mentioned we want to really develop this culture of learning or also
the teacher is learning and growing and so often what we're basing that on is a design question
that the teacher is coming up with something that they're looking to grow and expand on
so I'll give you an example our language department here in the middle school they really are
working on communication and so the faculty asked me to come in to their department meeting and
they were actually modeling how to talk if you've got a conflict and in a way that actually was
building how to build strong communication practices and we were able to give feedback almost
like a coach it's almost like coaching our teachers on where they want to grow and we can
provide from our experience sort of some learning some research some strategies as teachers can practice
and build their craft I think there are a couple of things that you said actually that I'd like
to kind of expand upon one of the things you mentioned is they where people want to learn and
grow right and so what we know about change and how people learning grow is that they have to
decide what is important to them right and so what I heard you say is that we're the vehicle
through which we can help them to change and follow their passion and their area of interest
in building a better class room experience for the students the other thing that I think when
we think about the connection between feedback for students and feedback for adults is the art of
asking a good question which you that was the thing you mentioned and so I think the more we can help
teachers to ask those strong good questions that are open-ended right that have have areas for
students to experiment with and feel out and what is going to work for them you know I'm thinking
about writing a paper and when I give students feedback on a paper a lot of times it's in the form
of questions because I want them to to consider why they made the choices that they made and so when
I'm talking with teachers about the work that they're doing in a classroom after a 15 minute walk
through of a classroom observation I'm curious you know if you had to do this over again what changes
would you make in your teaching if anything right there may be something that they they don't want
to change because that lesson was amazing for them and they they got the expected outcomes the
students that they were seeking but sometimes it's not so asking both teachers and students to
reconsider their choices or to understand more about the choices that they made is really important
in that growth and change cycle what does a typical day look like for the two of you just like
what did what was today actually what what was your schedule today what did it look like typical day
I attended a math curriculum day here on love its ground and I came in to talk about
let's find what the the division of the ideal math student in middle school is and so stimulating
teachers to as a whole group a whole department six seventh and eight what are the characteristics of
that student we were able to come up with that they wrote a vision statement that's going to craft
the curricular work they were going to do the rest of the day you know I then moved into some teacher
training on you know grades are due and academic reporting and how to do that and then setting up a
professional development opportunity in a phone call for teachers for both history and social
studies how to cultivate some new ways of developing thinking and writing in our classrooms so
and of course then there's the going and insane teachers and popping and and seeing what they're
doing and learning with the kids in the classroom so that's been my day Amanda so my day began with
upper school department heads meeting because I do a lot of work with them so that they can do
good work with their teachers and so we talked that we actually talked about narrative comments
and writing narrative comments actually mentioned grade reporting and so we wanted to really think
about what is the purpose of comments who are we writing comments for what would we like our
comment readers to understand more about their individual students experience through comment
and while that seems like a kind of mundane task the conversation that resulted from it
really helped to support the type of culture of learning that we're trying to build on love
its campus then I went to an AP Spanish language class and did a little bit of observation there
actually was talking about getting classroom observations I was there and then I had a one-on-one
with a department head about the great work that they're doing in their department and how I
could support them and then I went to some more classes and I was in our American studies junior
level English English class the English portion of American studies because they have a history
American studies and an English American studies and then I taught my own class of English nine
and so we were really looking at we were starting to think about what it means to build community
because we're doing some work for our ninth grade sing experience and so we read an article
about building community and talked about what it meant for us and what were the elements of
building an effective community what is the ninth grade sing experience that's a service
initiation for ninth graders every single one of our ninth graders participate in an advisor
and this year every single one of our ninth graders will actually be visiting public
libraries throughout Fulton County so that's exciting to see too getting a library card and
checking out a book yes speaking of things that have probably changed over the year okay so when
you two reflect on what a really healthy school family partnership looks like whether that's
thinking about examples of what a parent can do at home to support their students learning
and growth or perhaps an issue arises and a parent needs some help and troubleshooting for their
child what does that look like what are the behaviors associated with that from the school side
and also from our families a healthy parent school relationship that the school can take the lead
on helping educate educate parents on the journey of how their child is learning so for example
sessions about how the brain works and how parents understand that and then providing guidance
on how to talk to your kids about grades in a way that is empowering what are some healthy tips
you can do for example with a sixth grader they've got to start to have more homework how do you
do that in a way that again is empowering so there there could be some strategies and then there
could be some learning that parents want as they try to best support their child and often sometimes
they're not aware of those developmental milestones and what they can do so the school can really be
a partner in that at the same time where there's a concern with how a child is learning we just
got through our hopes and dreams conferences and it's an ample time for parents to express their
concerns and we partner in that meeting here's what we're looking for as a parent for our child to
grow this year and then myself as the advisor okay how can I take that and partner with the resources
our school has to offer to help grow what you're looking for and seeing in your child as they
develop here and love it yeah I think I I really like how you frame to that as a partnership
and the word that was coming into my mind was an ongoing conversation right so understanding
between and it really essentially we're talking about a three-party conversation right so the
student especially in the high school we love for the student to advocate for their own learning
experience to be proactive in that to come talk to one of us if they have a concern or to talk
to their advisor and then to make sure that the parent is part of that ongoing conversation
and that we include them into that learning experience the other things that I heard you say you
mentioned like instruction on the brain one of the things that were implementing this year
in the ninth grade is a program called neuro teach from the center for transformative teaching
and learning and those are strategies any anything from like learning how to take notes to test
taking strategies to understanding why it's important to get enough sleep at night so that your
your brain can rest and you can come back rejuvenated the next morning and so thinking about how can
we partner with parents and that to ensure what's happening home is directly supportive of the
educational experience that they want for their child and that we want for their child as well.
I want to put a plug-in for Love It Learns parent institute where a lot of these conversations are
also taking place if you are looking as a parent for more ways to learn about where your kids are
and how to best support them take a look in the lowdown every week and you'll find opportunities
to participate in book clubs and conversations and workshops to explore some of these topics more.
What does success look like a year from now? What does success look like for Amanda and Ashley in
their roles? Wow I think that's a great question. I think success I'm still harping on this word
that you said of partnership and I think that partners so success for me right this is my
first year at Love It and so success for me looks like creating a foundational partnership
with the stakeholders at the institution so and those specifically are the students and the
parents and then other faculty so how can I support them understanding how I can best support those
three groups in addition to other stakeholders having the answer to that question or a beginning
answer to that question is really important for me as a new member of the institution so if I can
answer that then I will be able to understand more about what I need to do in my role in or what
research I need to find or what strategies we need to talk about to to ensure that the student
has the best experience that they can have at Love It. Success for me is also really being clear
on understanding the scope and sequence of what we're teaching in middle school and how we are
teaching it. If I can come out of this year with that foundation then I can know where are the
opportunities that we can push things where can we see more interdisciplinary work where are the
opportunities that we can leverage other parts of the school for example some of the great work
that Fran Turner does with civic engagement how can we bring that more into the middle school so
for me similarly to mand us establishing that foundation is going to be really critical and
successful and developing a really strong partnership with my department head so we're really my
team members who are supervising that curricular work so that we're ready to kind of
grow to the next stage you know and set the vision of where we want to grow to further the
the development of the whole child here love it. For parents who have heard something from today's
conversation and they want to unpack it with you more what's the best way to get in touch with you.
I would say email emails the best first way to contact us mine is Ashley dot guy Nilo at
love it dot org and I would love to set up a time to talk. I agree with Ashley email is always the
best point of contact and probably the fastest point of contact for us and my email is Amanda dot
Lucas at love it dot org. Great all right as we did with PJ and Ashley it's your turn you too
what does living love it mean to you. Living love it to me means understanding each person
in such a way student or faculty member or parents where they feel seen heard and valued to the
point that we all are on the same page about understanding what success looks like for each of them
and I think when we when we do that we've created this kind of like beautiful and intricate
partnership where everybody seals like we are in this together. Living love it for me
actually takes me back to Mrs. Love it and and her new deal in education her views about
what is education and how do we develop that here through every portion of what the school does
whether it's in the classroom in advisory with athletics with the arts and living that vision
every day and bringing that to our kids and inspiring our teachers with it. Lots of inspiration here
Ashley and Amanda thank you so much for being on living love it today thank you for having us.
Thanks to PJ Miller Ashley Trigger Ashley Guy Nilo and Amanda Lucas for being on living love it
today you can find living love it on Apple podcasts Spotify or your favorite podcast app connect
with the Levitt School on Facebook Twitter and Instagram all things love it school may be found on
our school website loveit.org I'm Jessica Sant and until next time I hope you've enjoyed this
story from the Riverbank.