The end of the school year has been busy for us as well! Below are some exciting updates taking place during the last few weeks:
Pollyanna in the News
The Children's School in Atlanta and Pollyanna were mentioned in NAIS's
Independent School Magazine.
“The school worked with Pollyanna, an organization that helps groups of people to explore diversity, equity, and inclusion. Its template for independent schools, which started at The Dalton School (NY) in 2011, allows schools to replicate and customize programming in cities around the world.”
New Trustees
Professional Development for Pollyanna's K-8 Racial Literacy Curriculum
We hosted 35 people from 15 schools and 6 states on Saturday, June 1, in New York City. Lead developer of our curriculum, Monique Vogelsang, ran the 3-hour workshop that covered the framework of the curriculum, pedagogy and best practices, as well as examples of lessons from each grade.
Pollyanna has proven to be the leader in the commitment to build the cultural competency of teachers for the betterment of all students in our schools. The K-8 Racial Literacy Curriculum will be essential to implement in the coming year. The training by Monique Vogelsang was outstanding. I learned so much on Saturday about race as a construct as it relates to specific legislation and declarations in history.
Ruth Jurjensen, Francis W. Parker, Chicago
Pollyanna’s PD workshop was quite transformative. We learned how to dismantle the racism that operates in our U.S. history and how to strengthen our pedagogy. Racial Literacy Curriculum is a necessity if we are committed to creating a community to include equity and justice at its core.
Jennifer Vermont-Davis, Allen-Stevenson, New York City
Please remember, the curriculum is free and you may access it once you've
registered on our site
. Over the last two weeks, over 50 schools have accessed the curriculum. In addition, if you are interested in us coming to your school to conduct professional development, please reply to this email and we'll be in touch.
Flint Hill hosted its first intra-conference on May 18, “The Community of Care: The Flint Hill Vision.” This event allowed attendees to talk about how each understands and experiences our vision:
Take meaningful risks. Be yourself. Make a difference
. It was a day devoted to listening, talking and sharing. It was a day meant to be for each individual to share experiences they may have had in the past and discuss what roles each can play to make the school family more responsive, open, honest and direct in helping each other meet the vision as a school. It was evident that this event was something the community wanted and needed. Some of the discussions were challenging, some were uncomfortable, but all of them were beneficial to everyone who was there. Empathy became a dominant, emotional trait throughout the day.
Update on the
Parent/Guardian Companion Guide
for the Racial Literacy Curriculum
We have received a challenge grant from the
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
to create the
Parent/Guardian Companion Guide
for Pollyanna's K-8 Racial Literacy Curriculum. This Guide will be available for schools implementing our curriculum in fall 2019. This piece will support our curriculum by educating parents on what they need to know to reinforce classroom messages around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. This is a 1:1 grant, and in order to receive the grant of $46,000, we need raise $46,000. Please consider donating
online by clicking here
.
Wishing you a great start to summer!
All my best,
