December 18, 2020
Dear SRI Community,
‘Tis the season of giving and being thankful. We here at SRI are thankful for YOU. As 2020 comes to a close, I want to end this year by thanking you for your resilience and commitment to our students, to teaching and learning, and for your ongoing support of SRI. We have learned to fare this global pandemic which rocked us to the core and caused us to create new innovative ways of staying connected socially and virtually. We also faced national social and political unrest which caused us to speak out against the injustices and find solutions of how to confront systemic racism to stop perpetuating its cycle. Our system of education faced new challenges, yet I am encouraged by educators, like you, who are actively working against those systems, in any way they can. Our message is unchanging – we care about students and communities, and even though the world often feels like it is working against us, the message and mission of our work never changes.
SRI affiliates genuinely care about the students and communities we 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. Our goal for 2021 is to help educators remain relevant virtually and provide substance with every virtual interaction, to help educators remember why they became educators, and to do whatever we can to not only help them ‘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 2020. With your help and generosity, we were able to:
- Developed Equity First Coaches Institutes
- Shifted Leading Reflective Learning Communities Isitutes from face-to-face to virtual
- Launched the second cohort of SRI Leadership Academy
- Offered multiple sessions of “Facilitating Virtual Learning Communities” and “Leading for Powerful Learning Online” to meet the pressing need of practitioners to shift their focus to support adult learning virtually.
- Hosted Virtual Connections for colleagues to meet and decompress.
- Responded to the needs of the community by offering a free webinar: “What’s a Coach to Do!?”
- Launched Summer Virtual Meeting as a way for everyone in our community to connect and share their learning and ask the deep questions about race, identity, privilege, and power dynamics in our schools.
- Partnered with Pegasus Springs Education Collective to launch a Commitment to Equity learning series for leaders, teachers, and students.
2021 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 is in our many ongoing and upcoming initiatives including:
- Continue our national offerings: Intro to SRI Reflective Learning Communities Institutes, Leading Reflective Learning Communities Institutes, and Equity First Institutes to engage more affiliates regionally – held virtually.
- Expand our affiliate base – can you help us add more people in your state?
- Continue to refine the SRI website, adding new tools and resources including videos.
- Additional national institutes designed to continue to support the growth of facilitators, particularly around educational equity and excellence.
- An unending commitment fo 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. When we collaborate and work together, phenomenal things can happen! 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 help us grow:
- 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 important 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.
- 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, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube 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 2021, 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 commitment to students, families and communities!
With gratitude,
Dr. Deirdre S. Williams, Executive Director
P.S. Please give and post your giving to other SRI affiliates and friends on social media.
