Being a New Village Academy teacher is not for everyone.  It requires exceptionally hard work, creativity, and dedication to student success.  Designing authentic projects, leading a Crew, running responsive academic skills workshops, and participating in democratic decision-making and restorative practices all require skills not normally expected of high school teachers. Crew leaders serve as anchors of an in-school Crew family, as facilitators of learning in the truest sense, and as a bridge between school and the world of adult work and living.  Teachers have smaller class sizes, deeper relationships with students and families, and the empowerment of being part of an innovative educational and community endeavor. 

One day per week most students are off-campus engaging in internships, apprenticeships, and projects.  On these days, advisors help students engaged in community projects, identify student career interests and work-based learning placements, and visit worksites for students fully engaged in internships and apprenticeships.  Because of the additional challenges of teaching at a ground-breaking school, Wednesday afternoon is dedicated entirely to professional development, project, workshop, and advisory planning, and building community partnerships.  While students engage in work-based learning and independent study outside of school, teachers are given the training they need to grow as a team, as crew leaders and as facilitators of learning within a new framework.

Every team member at New Village Academy must be convinced that innovative ways of thinking about education are needed to meet the needs of a large segment of our student population.

We don’t have to agree on everything, but some basic premises are essential to being able to do this work together:

1. Students deserve to have their cultural identity affirmed, their needs met, and their aspirations supported in school – to feel that they are seen and heard, that their work is meaningful, and will prepare them for the life they envision for themselves.
2. Students deserve to be treated with dignity and respect at all times – especially when they have made mistakes. The traditional punitive response to mistakes is not working and alternative, restorative approaches are needed to address mistakes and misunderstandings, to heal harm, bring students back into the community, and support growth. 
3. Teaching and learning happen best in the context of strong, respectful relationships and supportive community.
4. Learning should be grounded in depth of understanding, critical thinking, and authentic application of learning to real-world contexts, rather than “coverage” of content and seat time in worksheet-based classrooms.
5. Success should be defined by genuine preparation for real life – college or career, active citizenship, and personal/interpersonal growth – rather than by credits earned, test scores, or GPAs. 
6. Parents and community members have an essential role in the education of our youth – as supportive teachers and listeners, as mentors and advocates. At New Village Academy, we enroll families, not just students.
7. Young people are capable of much more than we have given them credit for – they should be taken seriously and given the tools to take responsibility for their own education, and for making our city and county a better, more just community. 
8. Our Annapolis community and its individual members are enriched and made more resilient when adults, businesses, young people, and organizations come together to ensure that all of us are thriving, especially our youth.