I. General Information
School Name: Learning Alternatives
School District: SD#68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Inquiry Team Members:
Lacey Daly – Lacey.daly@sd68.bc.ca
Trevor McIntyre – trevor.mcintyre@sd68.bc.ca
Brett Hancock – bhancock@sd68.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: lacey.daly@sd68.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Physical & Health Education, Not applicable
Focus Addressed: Social and emotional learning
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Will the integration of the Take a Hike Shared Practice contribute to enhancing both student engagement and overall well-being?
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: Our Take a Hike program has had some significant success in implementing the Shared Practice, derived from the Theory of Change model. Our programs will start to lead some of the Take a Hike Shared Practices of Belonging, Navigation, Circle, Community Meetings, Conflict Resolution, and Healthy Engagement. Through our scanning and data collection, it was clear that we needed to move towards a school-wide guide and practice to best support the wide range of needs our learners have.
Focus: The analysis of learner data has led us to believe we need to find better ways to gather quantitative data. In response, we have initiated an inquiry into strategies aimed at increasing our data collection processes. Our goal is to attain a comprehensive understanding of our students’ multifaceted needs, encompassing aspects such as food security, academic support, substance use, mental health, transportation, social concerns, and poverty. This exploration is driven by our commitment to optimizing the allocation of resources, ensuring a tailored and effective approach to meet each student’s unique requirements. To this end, we are investigating how the Take a Hike model of Shared Practice can enhance our capacity to better serve the diverse needs of our students.
Hunch: We observed the Take a Hike program was having a lot of success in moving their students forward using the shared practice framework. We were hoping we could try it on a larger platform classroom.
New Professional Learning: The shared practice framework was the focus of our learning.
Shared Practices Overview
TAH Shared Practices are a component of our broader Practice of Change Guidebooks that focus on coordinating the efforts of each staff team in promoting the learning, healing, and growth of youth in Take A Hike programs. Each team is made up of a teacher, youth worker and mental health clinician, whose focus is to support youth in their development of the BC curriculum’s Core Competencies through a commitment to the Take a Hike Core Elements. The Shared Practices are specific, concrete, and intentional activities that support the learning and well-being of individual youth and the health of the classroom community.
The Shared Practices include:
– Belonging: a set of facilitated groups and team tasks to help students join and then feel a part of the community on a daily, weekly and annual basis
– Navigation: a practice of constructing and tending to student goals
– Circle: a daily practice of seeing, and being seen by, the group
– Conflict Stewardship: A practice of supporting students to identify what they need and communicate in healthy and direct ways
Taking Action: As a team, we worked closely with Take a Hike clinicians and program staff to start to incorporate Shared Practices throughout all of our programs. As a school, we devoted two professional development days to diving in deeper to better understand the shared practice framework and practice implementing it in our classrooms. We engaged in role-play and different real-life scenarios that supported our confidence in using the framework. We also debriefed weekly during our PLC time on what was working well and what needed improvement.
Checking: We were very happy with the implementation of Circle (a daily practice of seeing and being seen by the group) into our daily routine. While the students were resistant in the beginning, with time it became a valued component of time together in the classroom. We feel we have momentum in this area moving into a new school year this Fall.
We also zoomed in on Conflict Stewardship (A practice of supporting students to identify what they need and communicate in healthy and direct ways) but realized more work needs to be done to prepare the students for this step. This work will continue into the coming year.
Photo description: Our staff reflection on their journey implementing Circle into their daily practice.
Reflections/Advice: We feel that the foundational skills and understanding of the Shared practice we have started will continue into the new school year. This is not something that can be forced or implemented quickly. This is about layering and weaving this into the way education is delivered in our school.