December 28, 2016
The Way It Is
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
~ William Stafford ~
Dear SRI Community,
As the year soon comes to a close, I want to end it by thanking you for your commitment to students, to teaching and learning, and for your ongoing support of SRI. Our system of education is far, far, from perfect and in many ways, is designed to keep certain students and communities from achieving. However, many of the individuals I meet are actively working against those systems, in any way they can. The thread we follow is unchanging – we care about students, and even though the world often feels like it is working against us, the thread of our work never changes.
The SRI affiliates I talk with genuinely care about the students and communities they serve, and recognize that schools as they currently exist need to improve so that all students have the chance to succeed. Our affiliates are passionate about making such change. Loving and caring about all students is at the center of where we start. My goal for 2017 is to help educators remember why they became educators, and to do whatever we can to not only help them to ‘feel’ supported, but to actually ‘be’ supported, and work together to create the schools our students deserve. I hope you will join me and continue to support SRI!
We have much to celebrate as we close out 2016. With your help and generosity, we were able to:
- Host an amazing Winter Meeting in Miami with educators from around the world joining together in collaborative and reflective learning groups.
- Provide over 60 scholarships through the Dream Big Campaign for educators to attend SRI learning events including Winter Meeting and summer seminar sessions.
- Increase our affiliation number to over 1000, up from just 400 affiliates a two years ago. Affiliate with SRI
- Average over 5000 website visitors each month, where people can freely access our protocols, research, blog and other tools.
- Launch our first ‘call for protocols’ and will have the ‘New Protocol’ section active on the website in January.
- Hold a pilot for our ‘Protocols for Youth Engagement’ with teachers from around the country, and will be adding new tools to the website in late Winter/early Spring.
- Host several online learning events including ‘How to facilitate online’.
- Support a number of like-minded organizations including COSEBOC, Teach to Lead (US Dept of Education), CES, The White Privilege Conference, and more.
2017 brings even more opportunity for SRI’s growth through affiliate engagement and education. We have amazing affiliate volunteers in our community who are helping SRI board and staff by joining us in our many ongoing and upcoming initiatives including:
- A phenomenal Winter Meeting in Denver, January 12-14, 2017. Hope you can join us!
- A new date for Winter Meeting! We are mixing things up and will be moving our annual Winter Meeting to the Fall! Save the date – November 2-4, 2017 in Atlanta, GA. Over the years, we’ve had several requests to move Winter Meeting, but we continued to hold our January dates as our partner organization CES held their annual Fall Forum in the fall. Now that CES has held their final Fall Forum, we are moving to November for our annual meeting and will be developing additional opportunities so that current CES affiliates still have a place to gather, connect and learn with one another.
- An updated and easier to navigate website in the spring that will include ‘New Protocols’, ‘Protocols for Classroom Engagement’, and an easier way to search through protocols using ‘tags’ to find exactly what you need!
- Additional national seminars and workshops designed to continue to support the growth of facilitators, particularly around educational equity and excellence.
- A spring facilitator retreat in Vermont, May 19th & 20th.
- Specific work and resources dedicated to supporting affiliates in multiple ways including regionally and virtually.
- An unending commitment to supporting educators, particularly classroom teachers, to empower them and help them change the system of education to serve all students!
A new year brings hope and possibility. People are amazing and when they collaborate and work together, phenomenal things can happen. I strongly believe in the power of individuals to change the world and am excited to continue to provide tools and resources for others who are working to do the same! Our individual voices are essential, and my hope is that our collective voices can help move mountains.
I invite you to support SRI so that together we can continue to do good work in service of students. There are several ways to support SRI:
- Donate a tax-deductible financial gift. As a nonprofit, we are primarily supported through grants and individual donations. Your financial gift provides the funding that we need to implement and support our multiple initiatives. A financial gift of any size is extremely importing in helping us sustain ourselves as an organization.
- Become an affiliate. Affiliating is a yearly process, and demonstrates your commitment to SRI and the work we do to support educators throughout the world. There is no financial commitment, and the process is quick and easy.
- Share SRI with your friends, families and colleagues. Help us expand our circle of supporters by sharing the work of SRI and explaining how this work has made an impact on your life. Ask your friends and families to follow us on Facebook, join the mailing list, and enter into the conversation about school transformation – this is a conversation for everyone, not just educators.
- Keep working in ways that lead towards the creation of a culture of collaborative and reflective practice. Have challenging conversations, hold one another accountable, be brave by deprivatizing your practice, and work daily to reflect and collaborate in service of students.
I am filled with hope for 2017, and a renewed commitment to stand for children even in the face of overwhelming odds. SRI is fiercely committed to educational equity and excellence, and we cannot do this work without your support!
Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to students, families and communities. And thank you for joining us on the journey to change the world!
With deep gratitude,
Kari Thierer
Executive Director
School Reform Initiative
PS – Don’t forget to share this with your friends, families and colleagues! Help us grow and sustain SRI. We cannot do this without you!
