Member News -- December 6, 2017
Extending Our Reach
Changing the World

We know NNSTOY makes a difference. 

We use our teacher leadership to improve education for all of our students. We build up our profession. 

Our work is remarkable, reaching teachers, policymakers and school communities. We have five fellowships that connect members and nonmembers. We've published 15 meaningful reports on critical issues in education. We offer a world-class conference where we learn and grow together and with other teachers and education leaders. We have developed seven teacher leadership professional learning courses to help our members and other educators use their teacher leadership on behalf of our students and our profession. We advocate for policies and initiatives that benefit our students. We have published more than 47  articles seeking social justice and equity in education. 

We make an impact on lives, both now and in the future. And we are just getting warmed up.

To do more, we need your help. 

Make a donation to NNSTOY through our Facebook Group or on our website. A donation of $5/month will go a long way toward helping us achieve our aggressive goals for 2018 and 2019. 
Courageous Conversations 
ECET2 New Jersey Reflects, Learns and Leads for Educational Equity

Last weekend teacher leaders in New Jersey hosted a celebration of teaching and leading in the name of educational equity at an ECET2 convening.
Josh Parker (Maryland 2012) encouraged educators to "make moments matter" in school.

A number of NNSTOY members attended along with more than 50 educators from across the state who are not members. Kelisa Wing (DoDEA 2017) and Casey Bethel (Georgia 2017) offered a rousing breakout session on ending the school-to-prison pipeline. Wing said, "You can tell a lot about a tree by the fruit it bears, but that's just a symptom. To make change you have to get to the root cause."

In this TED talk, linguist John McWhorter makes a case for students learning more than one language. 
Apply to Present at the Conference
TED-Ed Talks and Workshops

This year's National Teacher Leadership Conference sponsored by NNSTOY is going to be amazing.

NNSTOY members can apply to give TED-style talks during our Day of Motivation and Insight (July 9) or apply for a regular conference session (July 10-11). 

All of the presentations will focus on four critical problems of practice: student engagement, teacher leadership, educational equity, and social & emotional learning. 

To apply, fill out a proposal to present using one of our online Google forms:
 
Wondering what you can win in this week's Thankful Thursday drawing?
Annual Giving Campaign
 
Katherine Bassett will send your class four books of your choice! Even a $5 donation gets your name in the hat. PLUS, Katherine will Skype in to your class as a guest reader if you'd like!
 
Anyone who donates  to NNSTOY's Annual Giving campaign from last Wednesday through tonight at midnight PST is eligible. Donate now.
 
Washington Update
Jane West

The roller coaster continues in Congress. With the tax reform bill thumping toward Senate passage, the spending and budget stalemate threatening a government shutdown and the Higher Education Act reauthorization process underway, education advocates are busy indeed. 

Tax Reform: What it means for student loans.  There are multiple provisions that would mean cuts for education. Higher education could lose deductions for student loan interest, experience new taxes on graduate tuition benefits and some endowments and experience shrinkage in charitable deductions because of loss of tax provisions.

Higher Education Act Reauthorization on a Roll.  This week House Republicans unveiled their partisan proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The bill has implications teacher education programs:
  • Eliminates three key loan forgiveness programs used by teacher candidates, including the public service loan forgiveness program and loan forgiveness for teachers who go into high need fields
  • Eliminates TEACH grants
  • Eliminates Title II, the teacher education title, which authorizes the Teacher Quality Partnership Grants and multiple data collection and accountability provisions
Read the full education update at NNSTOY. 
 
How to Distribute School Leadership
NNSTOY and Aspen Take on the Challenge

Last week the Aspen Institute and NNSTOY held a joint leadership retreat to take on the educational challenge of distributed leadership. Twenty-five educators from across the U.S. developed research questions that will help frame a toolkit to help educators distribute leadership in their schools.
 
Contributors from the NNSTOY team included Megan Allen (Florida 2010), Katherine Bassett (New Jersey 2000), Jemelleh Coes (Georgia 2014), Whitney Crews (Texas Finalist 2015), Melissa Collins (Tennessee Finalist 2013), Eric Isselhardt, Pam Reilly (Illinois 2014), Argine Safari (New Jersey 2017), Peggy Stewart (New Jersey 2005), Hope Teague-Bowling and Christopher Todd (Connecticut Finalist 2014). 

The Aspen team included principals, principal coaches and district leaders from Tampa, Florida, Denver, Colorado, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
 
What We Are Reading
Interesting and emerging ideas about education

For Portfolio Supporters, Skeptics, and Would-Be Adopters: Some Thoughts from CRPE Robin Lake and Ashley Jochim, Center for Reinventing Public Education



How to Help Students Develop a Love of Reading  Holley Korbey,  Mind/Shift


New Ways To Engage 
Plug into teacher leadership outside of your school

How will you spend your summer?  The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funds tuition-free summer programs for school and college educators. Participants receive stipends to help cover travel and living expenses. Programs are held across the country. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2018.

Support E4E's "In Class, Not Cuffs."   Students should be in class, not handcuffs. Yet millions of students are removed from classrooms each year for minor misbehavior, and the data clearly show that students of color are suspended at much higher rates than their peers. Once suspended, students are more likely to drop out of school and be incarcerated.

The progress we've made dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline over the last few years could be stopped dead in its tracks if U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinds guidance provided by the Obama administration that helps public schools address student discipline without discriminating. 

Rescinding this guidance would be a major setback for students and for  teachers who are committed  to implementing evidence-based strategies that address the root causes of student misbehavior and end racial discipline disparities in our schools. 

NNSTOY has signed a letter written by Educators for Excellence to Secretary DeVos and Jason Boetel, asking them not to rescind the discipline guidance. Members can help by taking online action now. 

Get resources from last week's webinar on using NNSTOY research to advocate for the profession. The webinar explored how teacher leaders can use the latest research on Teacher Evaluation and Support Systems to advocate for the profession in their district and state. David Bosso (Connecticut 2012), Derek Olson (Minnesota 2008) and independent researcher Laura Goe co-authored the report and draw on the knowledge and experience of some of the country's leading educators. 

New & Noteworthy
Research, Tools and Opportunities for #TeachersLeading

Kudos, Shout-outs & Accolades
Within the NNSTOY family

Sydney Chaffee (National Teacher of the Year 2017) has been key in encouraging state chiefs to get serious about equity. Featured in the CCSSO newsletter, Chaffee asserts, " Again and again, students tell me how important it is that teachers show students they won't give up on them...Great schools are places where kids feel loved, accepted, and challenged."  

Chaffee also has a new post this week on the Transforming Education blog. In  "Balancing The Brain And The Heart," Chaffee digs deeply into the clear value of in SEL in the classroom. " Witnessing these students collaborate with one another and lift one another up in the service of mastering academic concepts was inspiring. And it was a perfect foil for nebulous discussions of social and emotional learning." 

Mary Ann Woods-Murphy (New Jersey 2010) has had some series traction on her article, "We Need To Keep Our Most Advanced Students Engaged. Here's How."  Murphy's article, featured in EdPost, on the blog at the Fordham Institute and the NAGC blog offers tested strategies to engage students at all levels. She writes, " We are at a juncture where the times demand that we dare to break through traditional scheduling, use of teacher talent and grade-level thinking to support all learners-even the ones we don't think need our help."

Peggy Stewart (New Jersey 2005) and Katherine Bassett (New Jersey 2000) presented Course Six of NNSTOY's Teacher Leadership Professional Learning Courses at the Learning Forward conference in Orlando, Florida, this week. Course Six prepares teacher leaders to create powerful family and community partnerships. 

Monica Washington (Texas 2014) has first year teachers on her mind in her latest EdWeek piece, "Your Gift to New Teachers Is to Help Them Navigate The Holiday Hustle." Washington writes, " It is so important for schools who want to retain talent to think critically about the needs of their novice teachers-they must think beyond new teacher training at the beginning of the year." Read the full article on the NNSTOY blog.

  "I've Been Teaching for 12 Years and I Love My Job But We've Got To Change Some Things," is Patrick Kelly's (South Carolina Finalist 2014) latest article in EdPost. Here Kelly provides his own perspective on what changes need to be made in order to advance the profession.  He writes, "[w]e are asking teachers to delivery 21st century-instruction in a job structure designed for the demands of the past century."


Members of the Pennsylvania Chapter, Cindy Ollendyke (2006), Ellen Burke (2005 Finalist) and Lois Rebich (2007) participate in a Service project delivering to Hershey Ronald McDonald House during a Pennsylvania state chapter service project.