In Exeter, Seacoast Teachers Find Ways To Improve

EXETER, NH — Teachers and school administrators from all over New Hampshire gathered in Exeter last week for three-day training focused on ways to improve for the upcoming school year. The training involved multiple teachers from the Seacoast, including those from Portsmouth, Hampton, Raymond, Newmarket, Exeter-based SAU 16 and Durham's Oyster River School District. Among topics covered was social-emotional learning, staff-student feedback and school culture.

About 194 teachers and administrators participated in the institute, which took place Tuesday through Thursday at Exeter High School. Part of the training were break-out sessions, where they identified problems and obstacles, and decided on ways to solve them.

"As we head into the next school year, we want educators in each school to identify areas where they can better empower students in their education," said Assistant Superintendent Christopher Andriski. "Although this may look different at each school, we're all working toward the common goal of improving services to students."

At Cooperative Middle School, staff addressed several "barriers" to their goals. These include certain traditions in the school, such as the cafeteria dictating the class schedule, as well as transition to competency-based education and incorporating social-emotional learning into class instruction, according to SAU 16. Principal Patty Wons said she plans to create a competency-based education committee focusing solely on helping students and staff to overcome these barriers.

Lifting these barriers would go toward the goal of better communicating the School District's vision of what an SAU 16 graduate would be, according to SAU 16.

"Not everybody understands the why behind our vision of the graduate and the work we're doing to achieve that, so this school year we're really going to focus on better communicating our methods and reasoning," said Wons. "We recognize there's work involved in doing this, but we're excited to move forward."

Meanwhile, Exeter High School staff focused on improving their feedback surveys. Principal Michael Monahan said he wants to make sure all administrators, faculty and students are giving and receiving feedback in a way that is positive for everyone.

Among those participating were East Kingston Elementary School kindergarten teacher Marne Dohrmann, fifth-grade teacher Carol Miller and Principal Steve Tullar. For the next school year, they will work on establishing a positive school culture for everyone in the building and community, according to SAU 16. And that means delving into issues like communication, flexible classroom and outdoor spaces and new curriculum requirements to see what needs to be changed.

"East Kingston is a really good school, but part of why we're a good school is because there's constant motion," said Tullar. "We want to make sure our foundation is solid. And this isn't about looking at discipline issues or students misbehaving in the hallways, it's about who we are as a school and how do we work together to achieve our goals."

The three-day training was part of the 2Revolutionslearning institute, an education design lab that works with school to implement new learning models.

"What we're trying to do here is give everyone in the room the tools and resources they need to embody competency based education," said 2Revolutions founder Adam Rubin. "Our goal is to help educators build their capacity on the ground and create a system that is sustainable as they continue with this work for years to come."