Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Post #3 Resources for Anti-Racist Conversations & Family/Staff Meetings

 “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” - Maya Angelou

Possible Video Resource: You might want to use the video below with your staff sometime during your opening days of school.
Courageous Conversations: Much of our adaptive work lie in the daily interactions we have with each other. Knowing what to say in the moment when you hear deficit language about students and families without being threatening is a huge challenge. If we do not engage in these courageous conversations, we are being non-racist, which Kendi describes as neutral, or not seeing/recognizing the issue. Having conversations in the moment is being anti-racist. My current understanding of Kendi's writing is not to take these conversations personally because we all have biases, and that our work together is about addressing systems and structures that close opportunities for our children. This blog post from Larry Ferlazzo could serve as a reading you use with your staff to open up courageous conversations:  Educators Must Challenge Racist Language and Actions. 

Liaisons

I'm happy to announce that we have a few liaisons who are aligned/mostly aligned to our region as indicated by the Central Support list (also linked on the right side of this blog). Please welcome Mary Gillen (Budget Analysis), Daniela Reyes Saade (PandA), Grace Wang (OEL Instructional), and Cyntoria Grant (Engagement). We have a mix of people from Performance Management and Staffing, but for now, I'm adding Julia Garcia and Jackie Nazzaro as our primary points of contact. I have added the named liaisons to our email group, and we can have them join our region meetings when applicable. 

You can obtain your own school's list of liaisons using the third tab of the spreadsheet. We are continuing to work with departments to get better aligned with central support. 

Family/Staff Meetings - Send invite!

Many of you are holding family and/or staff meetings. I have attended a few so far and would love to drop in on your meetings if time allows, so please invite me! For your meetings, you may wish to use some of the following slides to answer common questions:

Thinking about nine days of PD:

I know you are working with your ILTs to create an arc of learning for the nine days of PD. Below, please find a mock up of what could work. Focus on what absolutely needs to be done to welcome students on Sept. 21. There is time to assess one's space and work on building routines for arrival, etc. 

Sept. 8-9    School-Based (Big Picture)
Welcome Staff, Community Building, Set themes for the year's focus through an anti-racist lens. Use slides from ALI to frame, provide time for staff to engage with each other and process content in small groups. Create a schedule of PD - combination of district, school, team, and individual time. Schedules and collaboration will be a huge topic. Remember to make time to conduct Wellness/Tech Checks with individual/small groups of students/families. I'm happy to review your plans with you.

Sept. 10-11    District

Week 2 - Divide each day into two hour blocks - start each day as a whole group and come back as a whole group to process content from each time block. End each day with gratitude.

Sept. 14 - 19   Welcome back to the building!!!! Classroom/Building 
Set up remote learning space - make it a competition!
Non-classroom staff can support in logistics - signage, school wide environment
Provide/work on grade level groups into pods
Define quality remote instruction 
End the week READY for students in a remote environment

There is time to start preparing the building for students; start with students arriving October 1!

One step at a time.

School Leader Optional Meeting Notes/Decks

Notes/Decks from Optional SL Meetings.

School Reopening Plans

Thank you for all the effort you have put into your individual school plan. I have been slowly reviewing them and am happy that many of you have provided links to relevant documents and/or short responses. I reviewed the plan with a school leader to provide guidance where needed. I'm happy to do the same during our check-in calls. 

Family Choice Survey Results

I really appreciate the time and effort you have taken to reach out to families to obtain their choice between hybrid/remote and need for transportation. Here are our results by region as of yesterday afternoon:


And our individual school results with 13 schools in the green 👏: 



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