Village High School in Colorado allows students to select their mentor teacher through a voting process. Each student fills out a Google Form and ranks their first, second, and third choices, and then school leaders match each student with their preferred mentor teacher as best as they can.
This podcast episode, named “When Student-Teacher Relationships are Prioritized, Learners Thrive,” dives into the story of a student at Map Academy, and how his relationship with a mentor teacher helped him re-engage with school and avoid dropping out.
Listen to more interesting podcast episodes from Map Academy at Education Disruption.
At Map Academy, the Anchor program provides each student a 1:1 relationship with an adult adviser, an opportunity to build community with peers, and a designated block of time each day to set academic goals and monitor student progress.
Students at The Forest School Online work with a peer partner each morning to set their daily goals on a tracker and create action plans for their “core skills” block. They hold each other accountable and support each other through daily goal progress checks and action-plan reviews.
Laurel Springs School built their own in-house private social network where students could connect with each other, have discussions, and post questions/comments asynchronously to continue conversations outside of class and build an online community.
Students at Taos Academy generate a list of check-in questions and activities, such as “What book character are you feeling like and why?” or “Share a dance move that shows how you are feeling,” to gauge students’ current states. Students then sign up to run the daily check-ins each week.
Learning Success Coaches at ASU Prep Digital use this call log and progress-monitoring tracker to check in weekly with their assigned students, provide guidance for their courses, and monitor their academic performance to offer support as needed.
Teachers at ASU Prep Digital have their fifth-grade students join a live synchronous class huddle each morning to review the weekly plan, ask students to set goals, and incorporate social-emotional learning (SEL) activities such as icebreakers, emotion check-ins, spotlight student achievements, and more.
This template from The Forest School Online demonstrates how students lead a daily 15-minute morning launch which covers learner outcomes, questions of the day, and a call to action. The morning launch kicks off each day by building culture among the students and setting the tone for the day.
At My Tech High, parents and families use the program’s Facebook group to share notes, feedback, and questions on different curriculum providers and tools. Families have a large number of options for curriculum platforms, so peer feedback is crucial to determine the best fits for families.
