Happy New Year from all of us at CSTP! We hope you are looking forward to a great year of meeting and exceeding your personal education goals. | |
Let Us Know Your Interest! Washington State Teaching Standards: Financial Education | |
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Pending funding approval, CSTP will work with OSPI to recruit educators to provide feedback on Financial Education learning standards that are currently being updated by a team at at OSPI.
The teacher group will focus on the state Learning Standards Review project. The project aims to prioritize, revise, and clarify the state learning standards. The selected focus group will:
- Engage in dialogue and feedback around the current standards and implementation.
- Complete a bias and equity screening of the standards.
- Review revision drafts and strategize how to provide continued support for revision and implementation.
- Offer feedback on the updates and changes.
CSTP is looking for about 30 K-12 educators who can meet twice this spring: Once in person (tentatively set for March 15th) in the Seattle area and once virtually. Travel expenses will be covered and you can earn a stipend of up to $450.00
If you are interested in being a part of this project and have expertise with the Financial Education standards, please fill out this interest form. Once funding is approved, we will send out the official application.
Questions about this project can be directed to anzara@cstp-wa.org.
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Washington's 2025 Legislative Session has Begun | |
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As of Monday, our 2025 Legislative Session has begun! CSTP will once more be providing information on all bills that educators should keep an eye on. This will be a long session, so we'll be here for a while! Every Friday, our Legislative Update Coordinator, Samantha Miller, will recap the week's events and what bills are still in play.
You can stay updated and catch up on past weeks (and even updates from past years) here on our Stories From Schools blog! We will also be sending out updates via email.
Read the legislative preview from last Friday here.
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CSTP's National Board Component 1 Support is Open for Registration | |
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Registration is still open for Component 1 of our online cohort, which begins March 26, 2025
Online cohort: Facilitated by Ranice Innocent. This will be Ranice's 6th year facilitating and supporting National Board Candidates/Cohorts. Foundations and all four components will be offered, with 12 clock hours available for each section. Read more and register here.
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Partner with CSTP to Offer Clock Hours at Your Next Training | |
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Are you running a course, professional development or book study and want to offer Washington State clock hours? CSTP is an approved Washington State clock hour provider and can approve your courses for clock hours. It is free for the instructor to apply for the course with participants paying a nominal fee.
Learn More and Apply for Clock Hours
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Career Connected Learning with CSTP | |
CCW is a statewide network of business, labor, education, and community leaders creating work-based and academic programs for young people in Washington to explore, prepare, and launch themselves into college and careers. CSTP is the designated Sector Lead for Education supporting this work at the state level. Here are our monthly updates.
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As we begin this new year our work as the Sector Lead with CCW continues. This month we're particularly excited about the following events and opportunities:
- We're thrilled to be part of the planning team that will be designing and facilitating some sessions for the Statewide CCW Convening that will be happening in February! Our shared time together is one of three annual opportunities for all CCW actors to come together to engage in community around shared vision, next steps, and best practices.
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We are gearing up to serve as facilitators for two Regional Gatherings regarding Educator Pathways. We will be hosted by ESD 105 in Yakima on February 4th and ESD 189 on February 25th. These events are dedicated to fostering education career development and opportunities across the region. The driving question that will anchor our time together will be, “What do equitable and accessible pathways to becoming an educator in our region require of us?”. If you're interested in attending either of these events please reach out to Saara Kamal directly at saara@cstp-wa.org.
- The Center for Excellence is continuing their work to create a comprehensive, user-friendly website as a central hub for information about careers in education in Washington State. The website supports Career Connect WA programs to strengthen equity and career-connected learning in the education sector. The team is in the process of conducting stakeholder interview and recordings from education experts from state agencies, high school teachers and students, parents, college faculty, and other education professionals. Shortly, we're looking forward to beginning the design phase to create user-friendly and visually appealing layouts!
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As Round 13 Program Builders prepare to present their proposals, we as the Sector Leads are here and ready to support with any technical assistance they might need! Please reach out directly to Saara Kamal at saara@cstp-wa.org to schedule some time!
That's all for now and we hope to see some of you at our upcoming Regional Gatherings!
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WEA National Board Certification Resources | |
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National Board Information Session Series: Registration Now Open!
Audience: Certificated Educators. Our Certification Trainings are conducted online through Zoom, as a Member Benefit, free of charge to WEA Members only.
National Board Certification — Overview: Session 1 (2 Clock Hours)
National Board Certification — Standards & Process: Session 2 (2 Clock Hours)
National Board Certification — Support & Next Steps: Session 3 (2 Clock Hours)
See here for more trainings and details from WEA!
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National Board Writing Webinars | |
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Who: Any National Board candidate working toward National Board Certification in 2024-2025
What: These one-hour webinars are designed to support writing for the National Board portfolio. Candidates should expect to examine their own writing and work with peers on the selected topic. These sessions DO NOT replace cohorts nor conditional loan requirements.
When: Twice monthly, always Tuesdays, 4:30 PM-5:30 PM (choose Series B for upcoming dates).
See here for 2024-25 dates and registration.
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EWP Teacher Financial Aid Programs | |
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The Washington Student Achievement Council has a list of financial aid programs for prospective teachers through the Washington State Educator Workforce Program (EWP). This aid is meant to attract and retain teachers to work in subjects or locations of high need, also known as "Shortage Areas."
EWP includes options for current teachers, student teachers, paraprofessionals, and non-educators hoping to move into the teaching field. There are conditional scholarships for educator retooling programs, paraeducator pipeline programs, shortage area scholarships, alternative route candidates, as well as student teaching grants that encourage individuals to pursue teaching in subjects or locations of high need.
Check them out here.
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Read a Post from the 2025 Washington State Teacher of the Year | |
Upcoming Holiday: Martin Luthor King, Jr. Day | |
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On January 20, 2025, we celebrate and honor Dr. Martin Luthor King, Jr.
From the National Museum of African American History and Culture:
"On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law, designating the third Monday in January a federal holiday in observance of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The legislation to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first introduced just four days after his assassination on April 4, 1968. Still, it would take 15 years of persistence by civil rights activists for the holiday to be approved by the federal government and an additional 17 years for it to be recognized in all 50 states. Today, it is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities."
Read more here.
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ReadyWA Student Storytellers: The Benefits of Learning a New Language | |
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In her first story for Ready WA, Helen shares important benefits to learning a new language. Helen shares how speaking Mandarin connected her to family & culture while gaining skills for her education, career, & even health. Read the story here!
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Join us for fun facts, obscure knowledge, and exploration of physics, genetics, etymology, art, and more!
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Without looking at any of your shirts or jackets, can you remember which side your buttons are on? It actually might depend on your gender and presentation.
Menswear has buttons on the right, with buttonholes and the upper placket on the left. This is true of shirts, coats, the flies of pants, and more. For women’s clothing, especially shirts and dresses, those buttons are placed on the left. There is no concrete historical record on why this is. There are some common theories involving weapons, servants, and right-handedness.
A man’s sword would typically lie on his left thigh, drawn by the right hand towards the right side of the body. With right-sided buttons, the openings of the fabric between the buttons face the right. Thus the weapon in question would not be in danger of catching on the shirt, jacket, or vest. Meanwhile, if women had maids, these maids would button up their employers’ garments. The left-sided buttons would be on the right for the person facing the dress, making it easier for the right-handed maid to button these complex garments.
There are stories about women riding side-saddle on horses, with their legs canted to the left. Left-side buttons keep the left-facing openings from catching the wind. Or, in the most tenuous story yet, it might be Napoleon’s fault. He loved getting his portrait done with his right hand in his waistcoat, and women might have copied the pose to mock him. So, he decreed that women’s clothing should button in the opposite way.
While it’s fun to speculate, the true culprit in the modern day is mass-production, alongside the rise of menswear-inspired clothing in womenswear. If women were to wear shirts similar to men’s, but distinct in cut and fabric, then putting the buttons on the opposite side allows someone to tell the difference in an instant–which is efficient for factory work.
Notably, this is not even consistent in women’s clothing–many pairs of women’s pants have a right-side button, matching the men’s styles. This is especially true in jeans. It’s also generally more acceptable for feminine people to wear more masculine garments (think oversized flannel shirts) than the inverse.
There are so many systems in our lives that we barely think about and accept as the default. These small differences, despite being arbitrary or irrelevant in the modern day, persist and serve to underline artificial gender differences. This is no inherent part of living. It’s just a normalized and industrialized habit.
As a person who wears many different styles and cuts of clothing, is it too much to ask for both flexibility and consistency in the fashion industry? Yes? Fine; I’ll go wear my oversized flannel shirt again, I guess.
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