Longmeadow highlights student-led SEL learning walks, shares classroom snapshots with staff

Nilda Arizari, director of student and family support for Longmeadow Public Schools, told the school committee the district ran educator- and student-led social-emotional learning (SEL) "learning walks" to catalog best practices and strengthen peer-to-peer professional learning. "It's a collaborative classroom visit," Arizari said, describing visits of about 10 to 15 minutes in which teams of educators, students and support staff collected observable, non-evaluative evidence tied to a shared inquiry question.

The project, Arizari said, paired one teacher, one student and one support staff member on visiting teams to produce a 360-degree view of classroom practice. "We took the model from instructional rounds in education," she said. The district left participating teachers a short, positive note and a set of findings so faculty could act on concrete examples quickly.

Student participants described practical benefits. "I think it's important to give a student point of view on the positives that teachers are doing," said Teddy Craft, an eighth-grade student at Williams. Craft said the walks helped teachers learn what students appreciate and gave students leadership experience during debriefs. Erin Craft, a third-grade teacher at Center School who also participated as a parent, said the process "gave him a chance to practice his leadership and advocacy skills."

Presenters said the first round included 16 classroom teachers, 16 staff members and more than 17 students; each participating school received an email with images, findings and a curated list of SEL practices aligned to CASEL competencies. Amanda Aricolo, Center School's SEL coordinator, said some artifacts hang in teachers' rooms at Center School and others were distributed to faculties after the walks.

Superintendents and committee members praised the approach as job-embedded professional development. Committee members noted the work is an efficient, peer-to-peer way to scale promising classroom practice and encouraged continuing the learning walks a few times each year.

The district said two schools remain to be visited and that administrators hope the learning walks will become routine. The committee did not take any formal action on the presentation; next steps are informal continuation and sharing of materials with faculty and the community.