Summer Virtual Meeting Agenda
We have packed our virtual time together with ample opportunities for rich learning with colleagues. The first day of Summer Virtual Meeting includes the conference opening address and interactive learning experiences with two authorities in the educational community, Dena Simmons and Shawn Ginwright, who will give us tools to transform schools into healing spaces as we navigate the disproportionate social, emotional, and mental impact that this global pandemic and systemic racism have had on children in this country. During the following two days of Summer Virtual Meeting prepare to deepen your learning as you engage in challenging and complex conversations in a virtual Reflective Learning Group.
August 5, 2020
Opening and Keynote
Link to Join: Contact Chris Jones, chris@schoolreforminitiative.org, if you registered and have not received it.
10am-12pm EST Opening and Keynote with Dr. Dena Simmons
12pm-2pm EST Break
2pm-2:45pm EST A Conversation with Equity Leaders
2:45-3pm EST Break
3pm-4pm EST Keynote with Dr. Shawn Ginwright
August 6, 2020
Virtual Reflective Learning Groups – 8am-1pm (with breaks)
Groups will with be East (CST and EST) or West (PST and MST) with their Schedules running 8am-1pm Pacific (West groups) or Central (East groups).
August 7, 2020
Virtual Reflective Learning Groups – 8am-1pm (with breaks)
Groups will with be East (CST and EST) or West (PST and MST) with their Schedules running 8am-1pm Pacific (West groups) or Central (East groups).
Summer Virtual Meeting Opening Day Presented in Partnership with Pegasus Springs Education Collective
Summer Virtual Meeting will begin with the conference opening and an interactive keynote in the morning followed by a powerful conversation with equity leaders and an afternoon keynote. Use this link to access the opening and afternoon keynotes: Contact Chris Jones, chris@schoolreforminitiative.org, if you registered and have not received it.
Dena Simmons – 10am-12pm EST
Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is an activist, educator, and student of life from the Bronx, New York. She is the Assistant Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. She writes and speaks nationally about social justice and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy as well as creating emotionally intelligent and safe classrooms within the context of equity and liberation. She is the author of the forthcoming book, White Rules for Black People (St. Martin’s Press, 2021).
Shawn Ginwright – 3-4pm EST
Shawn Ginwright, PhD is one of the nation’s leading innovators, provocateurs, and thought leaders on African American youth, youth activism, and youth development. He is Professor of Education in the Africana Studies Department and a Senior Research Associate at San Francisco State University. His research examines the ways in which youth in urban communities navigate through the constraints of poverty and struggle to create equality and justice in their schools and communities. Dr. Ginwright is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flourish Agenda, Inc., a national nonprofit consulting firm, whose mission is to design strategies that unlock the power of healing and engage youth of color and adult allies in transforming their schools and communities.
“A Conversation with Equity Leaders” – 2pm-2:45pm EST
As an added bonus, Dr. Ginwrights keynote will be preceded by “A Conversation with Equity Leaders”. We will hear from a panel of district, school, university, and community leaders from across the country as they share their equity journeys and what they have learned about what it means to lead for equity and excellence in the midst of the challenges of COVID-19.
Reflective Learning Groups Thursday and Friday
You will receive your link to join your Reflective Learning Group in messaging from your facilitators. Please check with Chris Jones, chris@schoolreforminitiaitive.org, if you have not received your message by Wednesday.
Reflective Learning Groups reside at the heart of professional learning with SRI. Engaging in these groups is what sets SRI Summer Virtual Meeting apart from other educational conferences. We’ll spend most of our time in these small groups, co-facilitated by SRI affiliates. All registrants who signed up for the full conference 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 sharing a dilemma or an “artifact” from your practice that you may present in your Reflective Learning Group. The dilemma or artifact should represent an issue of equity or inequity in your work context. You are encouraged to use this time to focus on issues specifically related to the challenges of leading, teaching, and learning for equity in the midst of the pandemic.
If you are thinking about sharing an artifact from your practice to Summer Virtual 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 share 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 share at Summer Virtual 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 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 in my practice?
- 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 be prepared to share it electronically with colleagues in your Reflective Learning Group. As we continue to plan for Reflective Learning Groups, please know that your presence and artifact will make important contributions to our virtual learning experience. Please feel free to email us at contact@schoolreforminitiative.org.
We look forward to seeing you Wednesday,
Deirdre Williams and Chris Jones
on behalf of School Reform Initiative