Facilitating Virtual Learning Communities Webinar
March 23, 25, 30, April 1, 2021; 7-8:30PM Eastern
Participants in these sessions will engage in a variety of SRI protocols and practices to explore how SRI critical friendship can foster and sustain professional learning communities in a virtual space. Ample time will be reserved to debrief the virtual experience, examine implications for our work, and develop next steps in using virtual professional learning communities to engage more teachers and students in SRI’s Mission and Guiding Principles.
More Information and Registration
SRI Reflective Learning Communities Institutes
SRI invites and supports teachers as well as school and district level leaders, individually and/or in teams, to learn about and practice the skills, habits, and dispositions of SRI’s Collaborative and Reflective Practices.
The heart of our mission is creating and supporting learning communities that are fiercely committed to equity. Our flagship professional development sessions around building these communities are the SRI Reflective Learning Communities Institutes. These institutes come in 2 parts: Introduction to Reflective Learning Communities and Leading Reflective Learning Communities, and we are offering both this Spring.
Introduction to Reflective Learning Communities Institute
May 4-5, 2021; 9am-1pm EST
This two-day institute is geared to educators new to the work of SRI and prepares educators to be full participants in collaborative learning teams, professional learning communities, or other professional communities of practice. We will work together to create a reflective learning community, learning the concepts, habits, tools, and skills that lead to more reflective practice and increase student achievement. The Introduction to SRI Institute supports participants to take up issues of educational equity in schools, to learn to be in conversation about race and identify and interrupt instances of systemic oppression and inequity in their schools. Workshop participants have the opportunity to present authentic work from their practice for review and feedback under the guidance of a highly-skilled SRI facilitator. Participants leave this workshop with tools and strategies to:
- Use protocols to build the skills and culture needed for reflective dialogue and collaboration;
- Engage in collaborative examination of student and educator work, and manage school dilemmas;
- Give and receive constructive feedback; and
- Work in ways that challenge each other’s assumptions about educational excellence and equity.
Leading Reflective Learning Communities Institute
April 13-15, 2021; 9am-1pm EST
This three-day institute is designed for educators who are often called upon to facilitate meetings or deliver professional development and need support in designing, implementing and supporting adult learning. Using research-based tools and strategies, participants learn how to nurture ongoing conversations designed to improve teaching and learning. The Institute provides in-depth study of protocols; introduces adult learning theory; builds explicit connections between adult learning and student success; supports participants to ask for and receive feedback critical to their success; and enables participants to design action plans that facilitate the improvement of teaching and learning through the lens of educational equity and excellence. By the conclusion of the 3-day institute, participants will:
- Gain an understanding of adult learning theory;
- Understand the connection between adult learning and school transformation;
- Understand core considerations when leading with SRI reflective tools and processes;
- Explore themselves as leaders; and
- Begin to develop and/or deepen the facilitative skills needed to lead educators’ learning.
#KeepingEquityFirst2021
Our goal for 2021 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!
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!
Do you have news to share? Interesting things happening in your area? Please let us know so we can share with our community! Email Chris Jones, chris@schoolreforminitiative.org.
Thank you,
Chris Jones, and Patrena Wright
On behalf of School Reform Initiative
