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Member News -- August 16, 2016
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Good Reads on Educational Equity
Recent articles that provoke our thinking about social justice.
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Jason Proctor and Whitney Crews at the July annual conference.
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Conference 2017
We have already begun planning our 2017 national conference and are gearing up for an amazing experience in Washington, DC, July 15-18. (We are even considering extending the event to July 19
for a Day on the Hill!)
Now that have two co-chairs in place, Daniele Massey (DoDEA 2013) and Julia King (Washington DC 2013), we need your help!
Join the 2017
Conference Committee Team.
The conference team depends on sub-committees to make decisions and to plan just about everything: theme, strands, keynote speakers, concurrent session speakers, meal choices, social outing, service projects, gifts for presenters! The sub-committee structure makes the work manageable and keeps our meetings focused and brief.
Members of the conference planning committees meet virtually for one hour a month from August through March. Beginning in April, the meetings take place twice a month.
If you are interested in helping to guide and plan our next conference as a member of conference planning committee this year, please send a note to Jessica Hansen at
jessica@nnstoy.org
.
We will hold our first meeting within two weeks, and w
e are eager to get started! If you served on past conference planning committees, we welcome you back with open arms. If you have not, please consider joining us in this unique new opportunity to contribute to the success of this exciting event.
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Which States Invest the Most in Education?
Education Spending by State
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What Else We are Reading 
New and noteworthy ideas about education from around the country.
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New Ways to Engage
Strategies to lean into NNSTOY teacher leadership, understand member benefits and engage with the organization.
Submit a Teacher Prep Idea to Teach to Lead DC.
Do
 you have a great idea to bridge the gap between teacher preparation and classroom practice? Submit your idea for the upcoming Teach to Lead Teacher Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. November 3-4. The summit will focus on teacher preparation programs, and how to leverage teacher leadership to strengthen such programs through collaborating, problem solving and developing action plans.
Learn more and submit an idea by September 6
.
Join Us for a Cup of Virtual Coffee.
- Joe Fatheree (Illinois 2007)
What one thing are you looking to improve upon as a classroom teacher this year?
- Barbara LaSarancina (New Jersey 2001)
When did/do you know it's time to leave the classroom to pursue other roles in education?
While you are at it, check out the updated banner on our
Teachers Leading Facebook page
. To support the organization and each other, SHARE posts that you like regularly on your Facebook page.
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Resources for
Teaching & Leading
Policy
Opportunities
Editors at
Chicken Soup for the Soul
are looking for stories and poems that inspire teachers. They suggest some topics that could be perfect for STOYs and Finalists.
* Learning from the students
* Challenging yourself
* Stepping out of your comfort zone
* Your best piece of advice for new teachers
* Your best piece of advice to re-energize a teacher
The s
ubmission deadline is October 30.
Tools
Room to Run
,
TNTP. This multimedia feature can be used to communicate with parents and other educators about the benefits of rigorous standards.
Webinar--
Zika Virus Response Planning: What School Administrators Need to Know.
Provided by U.S. Department of Education. Friday, August 19, 1:30-2:30 PM ET. Download CDC Zika guidance
.
How to join the webinar
:
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Washington Policy Update
ESSA Accountability Regulations
The U.S. Department of Education received more than 20,000 comments
regarding their proposed ESSA accountability regulations. The regulation proposal is controversial, particularly as they require schools to be identified for improvement based on 2016-017 data.
- Council of the Great City Schools has concerns with the implementation timeline, and dividing schools into three performance categories, which they say could lead to "over-identification of low-performing schools."
- The Education Trust supports the "single summative school rating" requirement and the "greater weight academic indicators have with respect to identifying schools in need of improvement." Ed Trust, however, does want to see changes that would lead to "consistently under-performing subgroups of students "being defined by their individual progress" and not "how they perform compared to the statewide student average."
- National Education Association finds the proposed regulations "too close" to No Child Left Behind and believes the regulations "don't give states enough flexibility in setting academic goals." NEA is also concerned that the Dept. wants schools with "low-performing subgroups to face serious sanctions after three years," and doesn't support states coming
Note: Jane West's Washington Update will return in September.
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Kudos, Shout-outs & Accolades
News from the NNSTOY community.
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Montana STOYS meet early one morning to plan their state chapter. (Left to right) Jessica Anderson (2016),
Anne Keith (2010), Anna Baldwin (2014) and Craig Beals (2015).
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Tara Dale's
(Arizona Finalist 2014) article
"
The Secret to Engaging Students
"
was
published on the blog,
Educators for High Standards
.
In the article, Dale argues that one of a teacher's most important and challenging jobs is getting students interested in what they are learning. To accomplish this, she engages them "not by asking them to memorize the moon phases, but by teaching them to think."
- Sean McComb's (NTOY & Maryland 2014) article 3 Strategies to Jumpstart Classroom Relationships was published on the Teaching Channel blog. In the post, McComb recounts his early thinking about student-teacher relationships: "To my new-teacher eyes it was a mystery. Did the magnetic teachers in my department just have some kind of superpower bestowed by the teaching gods? Or perhaps it was the result of a secret formula they got in their teacher education program? Was there a goat-sacrificing ceremony to which I wasn't invited?" The majority of the piece is stocked with solid and practical advice about how to build relationships in those "foundational first days" and keep them going to helps students grow.
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- Whitney Crews' (Texas Elementary 2015) article "Changing Professional Development from the Inside Out" was published in EdWeek and the NNSTOY blog space. In it she writes,
"If we want to be seen as professionals and treated as such, then we educators need get rid of our negative let's-get-this-over-with attitude. Instead we will seek out professional learning experiences that work for us and help our students to learn. Where none exist, we will craft them ourselves. Anything less is a disservice to us and our students."
"I've been an educator for 26 years. Over 95 percent of the children I've taught have been children of color. I've worked very hard to not only teach with cultural sensitivity, but to confront my own prejudices and those of others. I call out friends and family members who make racist jokes or comments. Several of my students have lived with our family when they needed a home.
"I say all this because I want you to know that I thought I got it. I thought I understood institutional racism and White privilege. I knew it in my head but on July 7th it tore apart my heart."
- The prolific Anna Baldwin had a piece published on Education Post that is also about educational equity and social justice. In
"While talking in small groups, I brought myself to voice this sentiment, and a woman of color in my group said directly to me, '
But you have to speak up. It's really lonely doing this by ourselves.'"
*If you have items of interest about yourself or other members, please forward them to laurie@nnstoy.org.
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has a number of interesting virtual conversations going. Join the Facebook group and check out responses to questions posed by
