WHAT IS THE pbHTA PROGRAM?

pbHTA (place-based HTA) is an engaging, “hands-on” project-based program offered to Oahu’s middle school students. This program is an alternative to HTA’s more traditional blended middle school program offered at the Waipahu campus. Instead, pbHTA is a blend of virtual instruction and place-based learning at numerous community partner sites on Oahu. pbHTA’s goal is to increase student engagement and critical thinking by focusing on issues that affect our community and developing meaningful, real-world solutions.

WHAT DOES pbHTA LOOK LIKE AT HTA?

  • This course is centered on the Engineering and Design Process as students engage in projects and place-based activities while learning through the Problem Solving Approach. The emphasis of this course will be to identify problems; collect, organize and analyze data; research solutions; create and test prototype designs; and communicate ideas via a variety of media, including art and technology.
  • As a virtual learning program, classes at pbHTA will take place once a week in a synchronous in-person classroom, twice a week in the Zoom virtual classroom and two times a week in face to face (F2F) interactions at “worksites” (in-field), with mentors, school partners and/or teachers. Types of learning activities in this course include:
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    • Independent Assignments – Students will complete interactive lessons, tasks, quizzes, and tests in Altitude Learning. These will be designed to support the development of solutions and to investigate the driving questions in projects that students are engaged in. 
    • Zoom Virtual Class Sessions – Zoom classroom sessions are mandatory. There are no makeup Zoom sessions. During virtual instructional events students will be assigned a variety of different learning tasks and are expected to participate and collaborate with one another.  Students may participate in whole class or in small groups, coordinated by the teachers. 
    • F2F Learning - Campus Face to Face (F2F)classroom sessions are are also mandatory. During F2F class instruction and advisory sessions, students will be engaged in highly collaborative, discussion based and/or hands-on activities. Preparation is critical to ensure full participation in these PBL events.
    • Partnership - PBL Events - These sessions will involve students in small cooperative groups and may include school partnerships and mentors. Students will meet with coordinated partnerships and mentors at the worksite agreed upon to conduct authentic learning activities designed with a project, problem and/or place-based approach. Wednesdays and Fridays are reserved for these sessions, however flexibility may require other days in the week, depending on the partnership and the project. Learning Coaches will be apprised of these session schedules in advance. It is strongly suggested that families cooperate in car pools for these sessions. 
    • Projects (PBL/Field-Based Studies) – Throughout the semester, students will be engaged in a variety of project-based learning/field-based studies. These projects are considered essential to students’ learning and are fundamental to our school’s learning approach. Students will be engaged in at least two different projects, simultaneously, at any given time, and may be engaged in more, depending on the amount of time and effort required for each project. Some projects will require physical field-based participation while others may be 100% online or virtual. More information about these projects will be shared throughout the year.
    • Self Assessment and Reflection - Students will keep a log of their learning in the form of an electronic portfolio in the NuVu platform. They will use assignments, tasks, activities and events outside of school, and school project-related work as evidence of their learning. They will complete reflections that explain what they learned and how that aligns to specific course standards. It is expected that students will contribute to their electronic portfolio outside of the structured course learning events. Learning Coaches, teachers and mentors will be able to contribute to the electronic portfolios but are not required to. They will provide feedback on work and reflections contributed by the student. 
    • Advisory - All Advisory meetings are mandatory. Students will meet in person on Mondays as a whole group in an advisory meeting once a week. This meeting will be approximately 60 minutes. The teacher may break the group into smaller groups for collaborative discussions and interactions. Community building tasks and activities will be emphasized during these virtual meetings. In addition to the whole group virtual interactions, teachers will communicate individually with each student during regularly scheduled days and times. These individual meetings will focus on the students’ time management and portfolio management. Students will complete a doodle scheduler to identify best schedules for these individual weekly meetings. 
    • Attend scheduled sessions at the learning center, partnership (in-field) locations and online classes on time.
    • Come to all scheduled sessions prepared. Make sure that you have completed the online work assigned for the week, studied for any quizzes or tests, and are prepared with any materials that are needed for class and/or engaging in the project at hand including chromebooks or laptops, notebooks/journals, writing utensils, measuring/work tools, white boards, etc. 
    • Ask for help when needed.
    • Students will be expected to work in collaborative groups, peer discussions and carry out assignments in an effective and efficient manner without being disruptive.  Students must respect opinions and thoughts that are voiced in class, online and in the field. This is a demonstration of Collaboration. 
    • During campus and field-based events students are required to wear their pbHTA name badges.
    • Schoolwide policies in the student handbook, including dress code and academic integrity will be enforced. ​
  • pbHTA Students Interview Dr. Sharon Schleigh for Teacher Feature!
    Meet Elissa Minamishin, pbHTA Middle School teacher!

ESSENTIAL pbHTA PROGRAM COMPONENTS

  1. Place-based Learning and Site Visits- The program’s foundation rests upon real-world projects and problems that students will engage in with our community partners. The pbHTA “classroom” will be outside and knowledge and skills attained will be applied to those challenges facing our community. A student will be expected to visit a community site weekly. These weekly site visits will be scheduled in advance of each semester and a clear calendar of events will be communicated to both the family and the community partner.
  2. Virtual Classes- To provide maximum flexibility and a dynamic learning experience, HTA’s premier virtual class instruction and model will be integrated into the pbHTA program. A minimum of two virtual instruction class days per week will be expected and required. These virtual classes will provide the content knowledge that will then be applied during community site visits. Attendance will be mandatory and regularly recorded.​​
  3. ​Student Support: The pbHTA program recognizes that at times students may struggle to understand difficult concepts and will therefore need targeted small group and individual instruction with their teachers. Additionally, skill-based practice and workshops will be required in a face to face environment. To that end, one day a week will be reserved for such interventions during student support times at the Waipahu campus. This will be the closest pbHTA corollary to a traditional classroom and will be the only day scheduled each week at the Waipahu campus. setting.

DO YOU QUALIFY FOR THE pbHTA PROGRAM?

  • Your family must attend a pbHTA enrollment information session to review program details and expectations.
  • Your family must be compliant with all HTA policies and procedures.
  • The learning Coach MUST be available to provide transportation 1 to 2 times per week to pre-arranged educational partner sites around Oahu.

pbHTA RE-ENROLLMENT PERIOD:
NOT AVAILABLE

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS:

Please contact Mr. Zitello at mzitello@myhta.org or Mr. Shah at ashah@myhta.org.