How Site Visits Have Continued Our Focus On Professional Development
As principal of South View Middle School in Edina, Minnesota, I’m proud that our school has been selected as the first AMLE School of Distinction from Minnesota and has also achieved recognition as a National Banner Unified Champion School. These distinctions reflect South View’s progressive work around inclusion, developing agency, and fostering a strong sense of belonging for all learners.
On our own journey of continuous improvement, the opportunity to visit and collaborate with other schools has had the greatest impact on where we are today. As my team reflected on these visits, we started to wonder how we could leverage this knowledge to support the ongoing professional growth of both our school and our broader community. That’s when we began hosting site visits to offer professional development for fellow educators within the context of an actual school day. Participants get to hear, see, feel, learn, and process instructional practices that align with adolescent development; or as we like to call it, the magic of the middle level.
When educators leave a school site visit, or even a session on a promising practice at a conference, it can be easy to dismiss next steps with phrases like, “that would never work at our school because…” Research is clear that teacher efficacy has one of the greatest impacts on student learning. To reach our school goals, we have focused on building the capacity of our team to understand that the initiatives we have in place to support student learning are both worth it and possible. We don’t outsource; we form task forces (agency, professional learning, purposeful community, meaningful grading, etc.) and invest in growing the leadership of our own people. As Joseph Grenny et al. explain in their book Crucial Influence: The New Science of Leading Change, “Virtually all forces that influence human behavior work on one of two drivers. At the end of the day, a person asks, ‘Can I do it?’ and, ‘Will it be worth it?’”
Is It Worth It?
The purpose of our site visit days is for other educators to see that the work we are doing around inclusion, agency, and belonging is worth it and that they can do it too. The morning begins with a large group session grounding us in what we all have in common: middle level education programming. During this peak brain growth, young adolescents are naturally preoccupied, concerned, and focused on how they fit in, connect, contribute, and belong. “Middle schoolers discover who they are through others. It’s what their brains are primed for,” explains Chris Balme in his book Finding the Magic in Middle School: Tapping Into the Power and Potential of the Middle School Years. Understanding this unique developmental stage helps educators value and appreciate (is it worth it) the structures we have implemented that are designed to support a sense of belonging and agency. This includes multi-age advisory, daily flex time, “club” belonging flexes, teaming, student leadership, unit guides, and more. This introductory presentation is meant to inspire and validate the important work we all do as middle-level educators.
After the large group presentation, participants visit classrooms to see the work in action. We begin in multi-age advisories to observe community circles. Our circles are one of the ways we address social-emotional learning. Having this shared experience across the entire school helps to establish community, practice social skills, and build a common language to draw from. Hearing about multi-age advisories and observing them are two different things. Observers get to feel the balanced energy level, engagement, and family feel that comes with a multi-age advisory. Besides building connections and community, advisory is also a time where learners develop agency and executive functioning skills around planning and prioritizing, goal setting, and reflection.
Participants then explore and observe daily flex classes. Daily flex is a “flexible” time for learners to use their agency and meet one of their learning needs. Teachers put in different offerings, allowing for multiple pathways in one flex session, and learners sign up for where they will go. Teachers can offer support, extensions, and enrichments during this 30-minute flex session. We offer many tier two interventions during this time, including literacy, numeracy, and SEL. Teachers and learners highly value this time because the learning is personalized. It is a structure designed to get the outcomes we desire around student agency.
If seeing isn’t believing, next, participants get to ask questions of a learner panel. The panel consists of a variety of students that represent the student body who answer questions posed by the audience. Participants are strongly encouraged to talk to many learners throughout the day. In fact, the kids are a central part of our site visits, and we amplify and create space for their voices to be heard, validated, and appreciated. A teacher panel is also hosted for participants to ask about their specific wonderings. The conversations are collaborative and responsive to the questions that arise as educators continue to experience our school day.
Can We Do It?
Classroom observations and hearing from students comprise the “is it worth it” galvanizing that we share with participants. Next, we offer breakout sessions so participants can learn how they “can do this.” The breakout sessions include schoolwide literacy, assessment practices that build agency, advisory, learning pathways, middle school scheduling, Edina Unified and student leadership groups, restorative mindset, thinking classrooms, and leading transformational change. Participants experience two different breakouts of choice and leave with ideas, resources, and experiences around these topics to take back to their teams.
Our intentional design of this professional development day leaves time at the end of the day for teams to process and collaborate around what they have experienced. This team time allows participants an opportunity to gather their thoughts and takeaways before they disperse and go back to daily routines. That time can be hard to find later if not taken advantage of on this day when teams have this common time together. As they reflect, South View leaders are there to answer questions, strategize, or process with them. Teams leave with the feeling that, “we can do this”!
The beauty of these site visits is that our South View team also grows as we offer others this professional development. Getting to experience our school through the eyes of other educators energizes and inspires us to improve. Hearing our learners talk about their learning, their sense of belonging, and agency skills never gets old. We do charge participants a reasonable fee for the full day of learning, including a breakfast and lunch. These funds are then put into our own professional development training for our team. Since starting these site visits four years ago, South View has hosted more than 800 educators. Attendee feedback has supported the impact that these events have had on our fellow educators:
- I was engaged right from the beginning. It was an amazing, from-the-heart welcome. I could see and feel the passion.
- Every activity during the day was beneficial to me.
- Seeing is believing. The time to go into classrooms and connect with students was great.
- Fantastic breakout sessions. I am always a bit leery of breakout sessions being useful; these were hands down the best sessions I have ever attended.
We would strongly encourage all schools to both attend and host site visits. We’ve found them to be incredible opportunities for educators to come together around those two central questions when tackling the challenges of educating young adolescents: Is it worth it? And how can we do it?
Want to Learn More? You’re Invited!
South View is hosting its next Site Visit on January 27th, 2025. Learn more and register here. Or sign up for our mailing list for our Fall, 2025 Site Visit. You can also hear reflections on past site visit on our South View Stories podcast.
Patricia (Tricia) Pettis, Ed.S has been an educator for 24 years and is currently serving as the principal of South View Middle School in Edina, MN, an AMLE School of Distinction & Special Olympics National Banner School. She has presented at the local, state, and national level on personalized learning, advisory, learning pathways, and PLC practices. Check out South View’s podcast: South View Stories on Spotify.
South View was one of 11 middle schools recognized as a 2023 School of Distinction by AMLE, the only one in MN. We are also 1 of 5 MN Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools®. These distinctions are a reflection of South View’s progressive work around developing agency and belonging for all learners.