October 21, 2019
Fall Meeting in Cambridge is just a few short weeks away. We are busy putting the finishing touches on the Fall Meeting program and cannot wait to see you! This email includes some logistic information, as well as some information about how to prepare for your Fall Meeting experience. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out – we are here to support you and make sure this is a learning opportunity that helps prepare you for supporting your fierce commitment to educational equity and excellence.
Royal Sonesta Hotel
Our conference will take place at the Royal Sonesta hotel located at 40 Edwin Land Boulevard Cambridge, MA 02142. Parking is available in the attached parking garage. We will have discounted parking coupons at the registration desk.
The Royal Sonesta has two towers. Our pre-conference day, Wednesday Nov. 6th will take place in the East Tower. For the full conference, beginning Wednesday night at 6:00 PM, registration will take place in the Grand Ballroom Foyer, Level 2 of the West Tower.
When you arrive onsite, we will provide a map of the spaces. Onsite registration will be available Wednesday morning for our pre-conference guests; Wednesday evening from 6:00-8:00pm in the Grand Ballroom Foyer; and then again Thursday morning beginning at 7:00am.
Fall Meeting Agenda
We have packed our 2.5 days together with ample opportunities for rich learning with colleagues. You can review the agenda online to see the variety of learning opportunities you will be experiencing. We also know that lots of learning at conferences happens outside of the formal sessions, we are leaving time for you to gather with friends and colleagues to enjoy the amazing City of Cambridge and nearby Boston.
Please note that breakfast is provided as part of your registration each morning Thursday, Friday & Saturday. However, lunch and dinner are on your own. There are many restaurants located within easy walking distance of the hotel, including quick options as well as amazing sit-down restaurants. You will certainly not be disappointed with the variety of options nearby!
How to Prepare for Fall Meeting
There are two specific ways to begin to prepare for your onsite experience.
1. Sign up to attend a Learning Experience.
Learning Experiences take place Friday morning and Friday afternoon. There are two options – signing up for a single 3 hour session or attending two 90 minute sessions. All registered participants have the opportunity to sign up in advance for their session of choice. You will also be able to sign up on site, however, choices may be more limited as sessions have limited space. Follow this link to register for your preferred Learning Experience.
2. Prepare for your Reflective Learning Group experience.
Reflective learning groups reside at the heart of SRI Fall Meeting, and our learning in these groups is what sets SRI Fall Meeting apart from other educational conferences. We’ll spend most of our time in Cambridge in these small groups, co-facilitated by SRI affiliates. Every Fall Meeting registrant will be assigned to a reflective learning group, which will include participants from across the country and from all areas of education.
In reflective learning groups, we’ll co-create brave and safe spaces to:
- use SRI tools and resources (i.e., protocols) that support adult learning, collaboration, and reflective discourse through the lens of equity;
So that we can:
- learn more about our own practice and invite feedback by taking a close, public look at the work we and our students produce;
In order to:
- build our capacity to access, engage, and sustain complex and challenging conversations about equity, identity, and implicit bias that lead to action.
We’re asking you to consider bringing an “artifact” from your practice that you may present in your reflective learning group. This artifact should represent an issue of equity or inequity.
If you’re thinking about bringing an artifact from your practice to Fall Meeting, it should be real and important to you – something you wonder about, not something you’ve already figured out. The artifact, issue, or question you bring should not be a showpiece effort. We will learn more about our own practice from something that represents a significant challenge or on-going issue in your practice. In thinking about what to bring to Fall Meeting, we suggest asking yourself these, or similar, questions:
- How does this artifact, issue, or question represent an issue of equity (or inequity), in terms of race, class, and/or culture?
- What beliefs, assumptions, and biases might I be holding about my practice, or students and their learning?
- In what ways does my practice support every student? Where might I be getting in the way of student success? What — or who — am I missing?
- How am I being seen in the world? In terms of anti-racism, what success have I accomplished? What challenge(s) must I overcome in order to interrupt systems of racism?
Examples may include:
- a question about your practice
- an assignment or assessment you created and want to refine to provide access for every student
- a piece of student-produced work that confuses you (or from a student that eludes you);
- a dilemma in your practice that centers on equity and you’re trying to manage it;
- an issue that’s not yet fully formed, but you have a hunch it’s going to be significant;
- student data that you don’t quite understand or you wonder what to do next;
- a letter to parents or colleagues you’d like others to see before sending;
- a strategic plan you’ve designed and you wonder how it supports all students;
- a section of curriculum or lesson plan that you’d like to revise to be relevant to your students’ experiences.
If the artifact you want to share is a document, please bring 10 copies with you. While SRI will have a Cyber Cafe where you can access the internet and print small jobs in a pinch, copy services won’t available at the conference hotel.
As we continue to plan for reflective learning groups, please know that your presence and artifact will make important contributions to our learning in Cambridge. Please feel free to reach out to Beth Graham (bethigraham1@gmail.com), who welcomes your questions and concerns.
We are looking forward to seeing you and learning with and from our colleagues from around the country and world! Please reach out if you have any questions.
Safe travels,
Deirdre Williams, Chris Jones, Kari Thierer & Beth Graham
School Reform Initiative
