August 6, 2015
Hello SRI Colleagues,
A few of our colleagues have already started the 2015-2016 school year – special shout out to Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School and Paulo Freire in Tucson – while many others will be starting in the coming weeks. Where did the summer go? As you jump back into the school year, here are some highlights from the School Reform Initiative community.
Summer Learning
SRI Facilitators around the country have been busy working with new and experienced SRI practitioners. To date, there have been 33 summer seminars and institutes around the country, and we have hundreds of new colleagues in the SRI community! Collaboration and reflective practices abound and educators are preparing for the new school year with great tools and resources.
SRI Affiliation
School Reform Initiative affiliates are individuals who have taken the extra step of demonstrating their commitment to SRI and and involvement in the SRI community. We see this process as a way to self-identify as an active member of SRI. Becoming an affiliate will allow you to participate in the SRI community in many ways – some of which we know and some of which we know will evolve. This is now a yearly process – so that we make sure we have up-to-date contact information.
Opportunities for SRI affiliates include:
- Ability to run for election to the board of directors
- Ability to serve on work groups
- Ability to vote for elections
- Ability to apply for scholarships through the Faith Dunne and Nancy Mohr Scholarship Fund
- Ability to apply for SRI learning grants
- Ability to apply to be a facilitator for work contracted through the national office
- Receive discounted registration fee for SRI Annual Winter Meeting
Becoming an SRI affiliate is easy, and there are no financial requirements or obligations associated with becoming an SRI affiliate. We believe this is an important step in identifying people within the SRI community who are working to sustain our organization, one that is fiercely committed to educational equity and excellence. Please join us by affiliating or renewing your affiliation today.
Please note that SRI Affiliation is an individual process. Schools, organizations and districts cannot affiliate, but individual teachers, school leaders, and other supporters of our work can become an affiliate.
Back-to-school with Protocols – not just for adults!
As our summer seminars are hitting their peak, and we are planning for the next school year, we had a very timely conversation in our facebook group about using protocols in the classroom. It was sparked by the question “Who out there is using protocols with kids in classrooms? How about protocols/processes/programs where students are leading the reform?”
This prompted some great suggestions and resources. One project that was highlighted was Youth and Adults Transforming Schools Together (YATST). Helen Beattie and her students have played a role in several SRI Winter Meetings and we are always happy to share their work in Vermont.
This also led to several suggestions of protocols that easily lend themselves to classroom use: Block Party, Chalk Talk, Compass Points, Connections, Consultancy, Continuum Dialogue, 4 A’s, Microlabs, Norm Setting, Text Rendering, Tuning, Zones of Comfort, Risk, and Danger.
A few people also noted that most, if not all, protocols can be used in the classroom, some may require slight modification of language to make them more student friendly. This points to the power of protocols for developing a learning community – both in your classroom as well as your school!
Want to join the conversation? Join our facebook group
More Opportunities to Connect
SRI colleagues and staff have been busy this summer thinking about and practicing new ways of building our virtual opportunities for both learning and workgroup work. Be on the lookout for announcements in the coming weeks! Do you have an idea for a virtual connection or suggestion? Send it our way, email Chris, chris@schoolreforminiitative.org!
Thank you,
Kari Thierer, Heidi Vosekas, and Chris Jones
on behalf of School Reform Initiative
