Educators learn how to better connect with their students
North Allegheny School District superintendent Robert Scherrer opened his presentation with a question for the nearly two dozen local educators in the room: “How do you measure a successful school district?”
The responses included culture, growth, learning and happiness.
But a rift emerged when Mr. Scherrer asked them how their own districts measure success: grades and test scores are king.
“Here’s the reality of the world that many of us live in right now,” he said.
The session, held Tuesday at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s office in Homestead, was part of the AIU’s summit on encouraging meaningful student engagement in the classroom.
The seminar drew roughly 100 educators from across southwestern Pennsylvania for presentations on topics including career readiness, classroom technology and project-based learning.
Mr. Scherrer described North Allegheny’s push to rethink the meaning of success. In May 2016, shortly after he was named superintendent, Mr. Scherrer and his administrative team met with the school board. They weighed the definition of success, why it’s important and what their approach lacked.
“One of the things we started to realize was that things that are really important to us as a school district, really weren’t things we were measuring,” he said.
The exercise began a push for North Allegheny to incorporate areas such as student engagement, school safety and college and career readiness.
The district outlined its priorities, revised them based on community and school feedback, then sent it to the board. They met skeptics along the way.
“Sometimes when you try to look at something differently, there’s this perception that, ‘Oh, you must not be making the grade. You’re trying to shift our focus to something else.” Mr. Scherrer said. “We’re saying, ‘No, by a lot of these traditional methods we do well. But we’re trying to do right by kids.’ “
The mission: “Prepare students for success in a changing world,” he said.
Jesse Torisky, president and CEO of the Autism Society of Pittsburgh, led a session on preparing the legal system for students with autism. From police to courts, the justice system is largely still learning how to effectively interact with young people on the autism spectrum — and in the meantime, that creates complicated scenarios for everyone in involved, he said.
K.D. Meucci, a fourthgrade teacher in the Bethel Park School District, led a session on how to connect with students in the first five minutes of class. The goal is to get their brains working right away and make school somewhere they want to be, she said.
One tip: lead with “something fun and out of the box,” such a jokes, quotes or riddles.
“Anything to engage them,” she said.