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We have begun laying out all of our units and test driving new units and assessments. We are in the beginning phases of setting up time to meet so that we can vertically align.
We are referencing the NCAS standards now and work backwards from our SAS Ubd curriculum and unit design templates.
Quite simply, Nyssa is the best! As a consultant, she is supportive, engaging, and inspiring. I don’t say that lightly. We all know that topics that demand high cognitive loads like curriculum work or unit planning can be laborious,... but with Nyssa in the room, the work feels light, fresh, and constructive. An obvious master teacher herself, Nyssa empowers teachers to become better at their craft.
Whether presenting, listening, or brainstorming with you and your team, she always makes you feel heard and well informed.
Her expectations and goals are clear, while still giving you the freedom to learn and collaborate in the way you know is best for yourself as an adult learner.
Nyssa doesn’t try to push her own agenda and is always very transparent about her own thinking , allowing you to make the best decisions for your students and program.
During her time with us, Nyssa put in obvious extra effort by developing custom visual maps and templates that helped ground us in our present while also guiding us to see our way forward. With Nyssa, you are very much a part of your own process, fortunate to be guided and supported along the way. Nyssa is the best! -
1) What were the most helpful aspects of my work with teachers at AMIS?
Keith: Many classroom teachers find the evolving expectations for curriculum documentation and assessment to be daunting, and at times, overwhelming. In addition, arts courses often seem not to fit the standard templates and models used by schools. Nyssa has the ability to break these topics down into easily understandable parts, and can help guide our music educators towards realistic and practical strategies for implementation in their schools.
2) What changes in thinking, practice, way of working, etc have people mentioned (if any) since our sessions together (either this past year or previous years?
What is the impact of my work on teaching and learning?
Keith: Our teachers have been known to say that their approach to teaching students changed on the first day back in the classroom following a workshop with Nyssa.
3) Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Keith: I know of nobody else in the world with Nyssa’s background and skill set.
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1) What were the most helpful aspects of my work with you or your team?
Stacy : What has been most powerful for us is working as a PK-12 team. In large schools, we are all too often siloed into our specific section of the school. Your work with us brought a strong and coherent focus on the PK-12 experience and helped to think programmatically and begin to look at hour work across the school to connect in performing arts, including drama.
2) What changes have you noticed in your own or your team’s thinking, practice, way of working, etc since our time together?
Stacy : There is a greater value around the time they spend together as a vertical team. As a school, we have been working on Vertical Common Assessments and the challenge has been in departments like performing arts, what do they come together around when they don't teach classes with anyone else in their department (typically). The standards and our deepening understanding of them and how they progress through our program allows us to find connection points to look at our students as learners in our program across the grades.
3) Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Stacy: Rarely do we focus on professional learning funds outside of the core subject areas, our experience with you has helped to support a shift in our work to offer a greater focus on all programs, as the powerful work and collaborative experience for the team around articulated program development has empowered our teachers, engaged them in ways we cannot often do with their curriculum and outcomes. Our work with you will reduce the idiosyncratic nature of individual programs within the program based solely on teacher preference and experiences.
