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Associate Professor, the University of Washington College of Education

Dr. Ann M. Ishimaru is an associate professor of educational policy, organizations, and leadership at the University of Washington College of Education. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of leadership, school-community relations, and educational justice in P-12 education. Her community-based research seeks to leverage the expertise and leadership of nondominant students, families, and communities to realize equity in education. She is a principal investigator of the Family Leadership Design Collaborative (with Dr. Megan Bang), a national transdisciplinary research project aimed at co-designing research and practice with nondominant families and communities, practitioners, and scholars to transform educational systems. Dr. Ishimaru also co-leads a national study of district-level equity leadership and a research-practice partnership examining racial equity teams as a catalyst for equitable instructional and organizational practices. She is the recipient of the 2017 AERA Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award and the 2016 UCEA Jack A. Culbertson Early Career Award in Educational Administration. Prior to becoming a faculty member, Dr. Ishimaru earned her doctorate at Harvard Graduate School of Education and her master's at Stanford University School of Education. She has worked as an environmental educator, middle and high school science teacher, and director of a community-based cultural arts organization. She lives with her husband, three children, and two cats in Seattle, Washington.

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Associate Professor, the University of Washington College of Education Dr. Ann M. Ishimaru is an associate professor of educational policy, organizations, and leadership at the University of Washington College of Education. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of leadership, school-community relations, and educational justice in P-12 education.

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Once a routine practice, the notorious "sit and get" staff meeting has become the latest trend in education to have a (much-needed) pandemic makeover.

"Send emails... don't waste my time in a meeting... want feedback-send a Google form," tweeted @JayandRagsy, a high school librarian from San Francisco, referencing a long-standing sentiment among educators that many staff meetings are pointless and eat up valuable time that could be allocated for planning or grading.

The pandemic may be creating an opportunity to make major improvements to staff meetings, however, as schools have been pushed to evaluate how they run and structure them in virtual settings-prompting changes that may remain when educators return to school full-time. Teachers and administrators we spoke to shared that distance learning has inspired them to adopt practices that make meetings more collaborative, engaging, and targeted.

"The pandemic has disrupted the automaticity of staff meetings," said Michael Crawford, the cofounder of EdSpace, a social network for educators. "This has forced educators to examine what they've always done, ask questions about the efficacy of those practices, and adapt."

After talking to educators from across the country about these new meetings, we compiled some of the most interesting, innovative, and durable adjustments.

On-Demand Meetings

Because everyone's time is limited during the pandemic, many districts are treating meetings with more flexibility than ever before. Educators are now recording a video or sending an email to relay pertinent information when they might have called a meeting before-giving staff members time to continue to prep their lessons or even make their dinner.

"Nothing has been lost by reading information on my own schedule instead of attending a meeting, unless I need to be part of a decision-making process," said third-grade teacher Margaret Shafer in Morton, Illinois.

In Friendswood, Texas, the Galloway School asked for staff input about the new, asynchronous meeting format, after testing prerecorded staff meetings in their third week of school this fall. Fabiola Vacatoledo, an elementary and middle school teacher, said she greatly appreciated being able to cook dinner while watching the meetings and would prefer to continue the asynchronous format with only a handful of in-person meetings scheduled throughout the year.

The asynchronous approach has also been applied to training and professional development (PD). At Minnieville Elementary School in Woodbridge, Virginia, educators used Nearpod -a tool where one can include interactive elements like polls into presentations-to do beginning-of-the-year PD sessions on their own time this year. To show proof of completion, staff completed check-ins embedded into the slides before moving on to the next one.

Increasing Teacher Voice

When it comes to teaching and learning during the pandemic, educators have learned that no one is an expert. In many schools, the uncertainty has opened a door for more teacher input, and staff meetings are beginning to leverage teachers' expertise and problem-solving capabilities.

Robbinsville Public Schools district in New Jersey, for example, now starts out some department- and grade-level meetings-and even some professional development-with a Mentimeter or Zoom poll to dictate the agenda, which can lead to timely, pertinent discussions as a whole or in small group breakout rooms.

Meanwhile, Minnieville Elementary has done away with their old weekly or monthly staff meetings entirely. Instead, administrators now host open Zoom hours several times a week during which staff can bring their issues to the table to work through together. "The staff meeting is no longer the 'admin hour' where the administrative team talks at staff without two-way communication," shared principal Deborah Ellis and assistant principal Melanie Krotz in a joint email.

Best practices borrowed from their interactions with remote students have also carried over to staff. During the annual summer PD training at Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, staff gathered in a spacious field house, and high school math teacher Emma Chiappetta projected a shared Google doc onto a large screen. Using their own laptops, faculty were given 10 minutes to respond to questions in the document with their names and then comment on others' reflections. Afterward, Chiappetta skimmed through the document and pointed out trends and important insights.

The new approach-which can also work remotely-not only kept staff socially distanced but gave voice to more staff members than the old sessions, said Chiappetta. One colleague emailed her, saying, "I know I am not usually talkative, but it made me feel like my voice was heard."

Emphasizing Human Connections Over Technical Logistics

Working through a pandemic, let alone living through one, is hard, educators told us, so many districts have been emphasizing connection and social-and-emotional support over logistics to help each other get through it.

Since remote learning started, Siler City Elementary School in North Carolina has incorporated weekly themes like fail-forward, self-care, and teamwork into meetings to reinforce needs that the administrators have seen arise among the staff. Guided by the themes, staff participate in related activities like breakout discussions and games, said Kristen Breedlove, the assistant principal of Siler City Elementary.

Reflecting their deep commitment to social and emotional learning, staff at Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, now focus their staff virtual meetings mostly on community-building activities-like giving shout-outs to colleagues-instead of disseminating information like they used to pre-pandemic.

To kick off meetings at North East Independent School District (NEISD) in Texas, the SEL behavior team engages colleagues with an SEL prompt to initiate discussions on their thoughts and feelings-and ways to cope with current stressors-so that they feel ready to get down to business. They've found that apps like Mentimeter-which, in addition to polling, collects feedback with real-time word clouds and quizzes-and Pear Deck -which allows educators to embed assessments into their Google slides-have been helpful tools to pique conversations.
Courtesy of Rebekah Cummings-Kmieiciak
Changes to staff meetings can simply involve building in time to talk. At meetings at Kenilworth Junior High School in Petaluma, California, for example, staff are now given time just to vent, so that they still feel supported and connected while remote.

"We're all frustrated and struggling, and since we don't get to congregate in a staff room, we really need that time to feel like we're all in this together," said eighth-grade English teacher Laura Bradley.

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Staff Meetings Get a Needed Makeover During the Pandemic

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Once a routine practice, the notorious "sit and get" staff meeting has become the latest trend in education to have a (much-needed) pandemic makeover. "Send emails... don't waste my time in a meeting...

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Schools have been trying valiantly since March to get teachers up to speed on effective techniques for teaching remotely. Professional development has been a big part of that effort -but it's often difficult to get busy teachers to participate.

Casey Rimmer, director of innovation and edtech for Union County Public Schools in North Carolina, has developed a model she thinks is working during COVID-19 and could be replicated elsewhere. It's reminiscent in some ways of a less formal version of the phenomenon of professional development "microcredentials," in which teachers earn credit and even extra pay upon demonstrating mastery of discrete teaching skills.

Prior to COVID-19, professional development sessions in the Union County district happened periodically throughout the year on days when students weren't in school buildings. Some were teacher-led, and some involved breakout sessions with small groups

Rimmer's district is currently offering in-person instruction to a rotation of small groups of students Monday through Thursday, and virtual instruction for all students on Fridays. Some students have also opted for full-time virtual instruction.

Here's how PD works now.
Weekly, Optional Modules Build In Flexibility
In an effort to give teachers some "grace and flexibility," all professional development opportunities are now virtual, asynchronous, brief, and optional. Rimmer's team builds four new modules each week and releases them on Thursdays, often providing guidance for techniques and concepts teachers say they recently struggled to master.

Rimmer leads the PD efforts, along with a colleague, and a rotating group of guest contributors. On one recent week, math instructional coaches added a module on using math tools in the learning management system. Sometimes, teachers propose a module and end up offering to create it themselves, for a small stipend.
How the Modules Are Structured
Each module has four sections: "Introduction," "Learn," "Practice," and "Assess." Each item fits into at least one of four categories: building community, monitoring progress, providing feedback, and delivering content. All elementary school modules are in one Canvas course all district teachers can access, and all middle and high school modules are in another.

In recent weeks, Rimmer has tried to move beyond the basics of online learning tools and begin to focus on enriching instruction, with guidance on giving students opportunities to respond in virtual environments, or using the district's "smart learning suite" to allow students learning in school to interact seamlessly with students learning at home.
How Teachers Are Evaluated, Rewarded
As of now, Fridays are remote learning days in the district. Some principals have encouraged teachers to use some of that time to complete at least one module. Others have pinpointed specific modules that might complement what teachers have been doing in their departments.

Both the elementary and secondary course pages have about 11,000 pageviews per week, Rimmer said, which makes her think some of the district's 2,000 teachers are visiting more than once. "I probably answer 500 questions a week with, 'There's a module on that, let me get you the URL,'" Rimmer said.

Rimmer's team provides grades and feedback on teachers' submitted final products, and completing the courses results in credit for teachers' mandatory continuing education requirements. Teachers are also encouraged to use the modules as opportunities to develop content they'll end up using in their classrooms.

"Our goal is that the practice is relevant practice," Rimmer said. "We don't want them to make a quiz nobody ever takes."

Principals have access to Rimmer's team's grading sheets so they can determine which teachers have expertise on specific subjects. When a particular topic comes up, "they know who that go-to person is. That person is way more beneficial to a teacher down the hall than somebody like me," Rimmer said.
Lessons Learned and Future Goals
Asynchronous options make perfect sense for teachers who are already overcommitted, but it does mean they miss out on some benefits of the pre-COVID-19 approach, like the value of spontaneous interactions. Rimmer has tried recently to add discussion boards to mimic that experience, but she's still looking for more ways to encourage meaningful interaction between teachers.

The biggest success of this PD approach so far? Teachers get to see a concrete model for how they can structure their own online classes, instead of having to make it up as they go. "The teachers not only learn the content, they see how the flow and the motions go," Rimmer said.
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Rethinking Teacher Training During COVID-19: Bite-Sized Digital Lessons

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Schools have been trying valiantly since March to get teachers up to speed on effective techniques for teaching remotely. Professional development has been a big part of that effort -but it's often difficult to get busy teachers to participate.

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University of Washington College of Education

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EduTalks 2020 | Families as fellow leaders on the journey to educational justice

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The 6 Shifts Needed for Better Family Engagement

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The 6 Shifts Needed for Better Family Engagement

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QED offers a variety of services in support of transformational change. The QED Transformational Change Model (or TCM) provides a visual map of pathways to transformational learning environments.

(Click to view larger image.)

While most schools recognize the need for change, not all change is created equal. QED's Transformational Change Model looks at 23 indicators of learning environments across three different strata of change:

Traditional - where change is about making improvements to current practices, thus effectively maintaining the status quo.

Transitional - where change aims to change current practices to improve outcomes, with tangential impact on the status quo.

Transformational - where change aims to change not only practices, but outcomes, thereby disrupting the status quo

As change progresses from left to right (from traditional to transformational), the depth of the color blue increases accordingly, indicating the depth (and fidelity) of implementation required. For some indicators the progression from one degree of change to another is not a smooth or natural one; these are illustrated by a white gap in the row. The white gaps indicate the need for the educational system to break with one practice - and often a corresponding set of beliefs and assumptions - in order to embrace the next. The two practices cannot exist side-by-side in any meaningful way.

Similarly, as the model moves from left to right, the 23 discrete indicators of traditional change begin to merge into a more holistic transformational picture of a student-centered learning environment, supporting simultaneous change in other indicators.

Download a PDF version of the Transformational Change Model.

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Transformational Change Model - QED Foundation

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QED offers a variety of services in support of transformational change. The QED Transformational Change Model (or TCM) provides a visual map of pathways to transformational learning environments. (Click to view larger image.) While most schools recognize the need for change, not all change is created equal.

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Culturally Responsive School Leadership

Muhammad Khalifa, Foreword by Lisa Delpit

Culturally Responsive School Leadership focuses on how school leaders can effectively serve minoritizedstudents-those who have been historically marginalized in school and society. The book demonstrates how leaders can engage students, parents, teachers, and communities in ways that positively impact learning by honoring indigenous heritages and local cultural practices.

Not only does Khalifa challenge us to understand our own implicit biases, he provides practical solutions for change. Culturally Responsive School Leadership couples real-world examples of systemic marginalization with specific strategies for how leaders can truly learn to interrupt systems that work only for some.- Christine Osorio, superintendent, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, MN

Khalifa draws on his own experience as an educator in Detroit to provide others who choose to take on this difficult but important work with insights that are invaluable and not typically learned in graduate school. For educational leaders who genuinely seek to make a difference this book will be an invaluable resource. - Pedro A. Noguera, distinguished professor of education, Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles

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Culturally Responsive School Leadership Muhammad Khalifa, Foreword by Lisa Delpit Culturally Responsive School Leadership focuses on how school leaders can effectively serve minoritizedstudents-those who have been historically marginalized in school and society. The book demonstrates how leaders can engage students, parents, teachers, and communities in ways that positively impact learning by honoring indigenous heritages and local cultural practices.

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Culturally Responsive School Leadership Synthesis

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University of Minnesota Culturally Responsive School Leadership Framework

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"A compelling story. . . . Their Highest Potential is noteworthy for the author's innovative use of community informants as her primary source for documenting the existence of an educational system designed to subvert the corrosive messages of a racist society."-- Journal of American History

"Excellent. . . . Walker should be commended for her work in bringing forth the 'voice of the people.' Clearly, a much-needed addition to an overly lopsided history that continues to ignore 'their highest potential.'"-- MultiCultural Review

"This is a first-rate book and a very moving story. . . . [It is] without question the finest re-creation of African American education in the rural South from the post-World War I era to the modern civil rights movement."--James D. Anderson, author of The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935

"Walker reminds us of at least two important things about the education of African American students. First, African Americans always have been and always will be able to educate themselves. Much of the literature attempts to suggest that African Americans are incapable of providing quality education for themselves. Walker's book is empirical proof to refute such notions. Second, her book reminds us of that moment in history when school was a caring place for African American children--a stark contrast to what many experience in schools today. Caswell County Training School was an integral part of the community where the hopes, dreams, and aspirations for academic and cultural excellence were mutually reinforced by school, home, and community. This is a must read for anyone seriously interested in promoting excellence for African American learners."--Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin-Madison [if used with Anderson quote, use her book title instead of affiliation: author of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children]

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Their Highest Potential | Vanessa Siddle Walker | University of North Carolina Press

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African American schools in the segregated South faced enormous obstacles in educating their students. But some of these schools succeeded in providing nurtu...

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Distance Learning CCR development Resource

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Distance Learning CCR development Resource

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Distance Learning: Boosting College-, Career-, and Life- Readiness | Getting Smart

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One recent Wednesday morning, Kendall was having an issue finding information on when her asynchronous lesson assignment was due. She looked in her online learning management system, but could not find the answer.

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Last week I was reflecting with some colleagues about how life has changed since March. Without traveling I have been able to slow down, create new routines, and it has allowed me to enjoy the little things that I may have missed had the year gone according to plan. I have enjoyed spending time with my family and more connection. As I was sharing, my colleague asked, 'What will you choose as your new normal going forward?' The emphasis on choice and the intentionality of it really resonated with me. Although none of us chose the pandemic and it has wreaked havoc on so much, I can take the lessons that I have learned in all of this chaos and choose to prioritize what matters and make choices about what my new normal will be moving forward.

As I have been reflecting on this question personally, it prompted me to ask myself and other educators, 'What will we choose as our new normal?" Whether we realize it or not, education has shifted more in the last 8 months than in the last hundred years. Schools have been shuttered and reopened adopting new schedules, technology, and approaches. There have been many models tried and I have seen educators working harder than ever to meet students where they are, build relationships, and connect on a personal level to achieve social, emotional, and academic outcomes.

There has been a realization of the importance of social-emotional health and a realization of the contexts in which our students live. There has been more empathy, more innovation, and more learning. In the midst of chaos, we have the opportunity to evolve.

Pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. Arundhati Roy

If we see this pandemic as a portal and use this opportunity to create a new way forward, What if we choose to leave behind the parts that no longer fit the future we want to create? I hope that we can leave behind inequitable opportunity and access, standardization, isolated content, compliance, seat time, and the focus on narrow metrics of success like math and reading scores because that's what we test to name a few.

I asked on Twitter "Given what we have learned about education through Covid19, what would you change about education?"

Here are the biggest themes and some examples of how educators are tackling them:

We need to address the whole child

This begins with an awareness that if we truly want to develop knowledge in students, we have to know them, love them and help them see the full beauty of who they are and what they can become. And if we have this awareness, we must set our expectations high and align the accountability systems that hold us all accountable for creating systems that develop the knowledge, skills, and mindsets that matter most in each and every one of our students. The CASEL Framework emphasizes the importance of establishing equitable learning environments explicitly, teaching, practicing, and monitoring the skills across settings of classrooms, schools, families, and communities to enhance all students' social, emotional, and academic learning.

More authentic work including internships and projects that go beyond "school"

In the Big Picture Learning Network, "leaving to Learn" is one of their core principles and instead of narrowing the curriculum like some have they have chosen to double down on this commitment. Co-founder Elliot Washor shared, "We have many students who have continued their community-based internships remotely because they have close ties with their mentors and Advisors. Four of our students who have had an internship with a newspaper recently published their coronavirus experiences in their city newspaper. A student with a Harbor Freight Fellowship in the skilled trades is continuing to build a Tiny House with online mentor and advisor support."

Others are using gardens to learn, do, and enjoy learning (and eating) outdoors and in the community.

Install a Learning Garden on every campus! Outdoor education & gardening is hands-on, engaging, & provides educational opportunities for every subject level! BONUS... in a garden students & teachers enjoy sunshine 🌞 fresh air & learn how to grow healthy organic food!🥕🥦🍓 pic.twitter.com/AAL1RRMOMK
- Ready to Grow Garden (@readygrowgarden) December 4, 2020

Less busywork, more meaning

As a parent and educator, I am a big fan of this one! I find myself often asking, wouldn't we be better off if we just spent time exploring big (or small) problems and learning, collaborating and taking action to solve them? Well, we can! The UN Sustainable Goals provides a framework with 17 challenges that are relevant to each and every one of us and provide authentic and meaningful topics to learn more about, delve deeper into and most importantly take action to make an impact locally and globally. Jennifer Williams, author, activist, and educator and all around awesome person, shared a few great projects at ISTE this week and lots of inspiration too. The first is the Writing for Change prompts from Adobe Spark and Wakalet. Each challenge addresses one or more of the UN Sustainability Goals with a provocation, some resources and writing prompts for students to share their ideas. This is a great way to start small and have students start to investigate ideas. The second is to engage in a worldwide Goals Project. You can learn more and sign up here.

Different models work for different students

First, I want to acknowledge the many students who are struggling for a variety of reasons (some for lack of the experiences noted above) but there are also students who are flourishing in a hybrid model or pure virtual model. We are seeing a number of families and districts recognizing that there will likely always be a need and demand for more options that include flexibility for how students access school and the learning community that goes beyond the typical 5 day a week school day to meet the diverse needs of students.

I spent last week with my friends from Logan County Public Schools in Kentucky and we developed core principles for their learning model, regardless of where students learn. There are 8 schools and variations in each model but they are seeing the value and importance of providing a continuum of support for students to meet the learning goals, not just be in class or a zoom call. Across the district, each student has a mentor or people designated to check in on them and they have created a range of supports from virtual courses and class meetings on Zoom, small community pods that meet at churches, Boys and Girls clubs or in the neighborhood of where the students live and a hybrid model where students come to school for guidance, support and connection. The teachers can focus on helping students reach their learning goals, not spend their time teaching students at the same time in all different places.

The constant is the learning, the variable is the location, time, and place.

As we enter into what is promised to be the most challenging part of the pandemic where numbers will be at an all-time high, we also can see the light at the end of the tunnel. This is an opportunity to look to our learners and focus on what really matters most now and what skills, mindsets, and dispositions we want to ensure as we move forward. Let's continue to have conversations about what is working, what is not, and what is now possible for learning and learners that we couldn't imagine before when school. As we continue to learn what is possible, I encourage you to explore, learn, and consider, 'What will you choo se as the new normal?'

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The Pandemic is a portal: What will you choose as your new normal? | Katie Martin

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Last week I was reflecting with some colleagues about how life has changed since March. Without traveling I have been able to slow down, create new routines, and it has allowed me to enjoy the little things that I may have missed had the year gone according to plan.

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Scheduling is a valuable but untapped resource for school improvement. Through our work in schools across the country, we have seen again and again how a well-crafted schedule can

result in more effective use of time, space, and resources (human as well as material);

help solve problems related to the delivery of instruction; and

assist in establishing desired programs and instructional practices.

We believe that Deming was right when he said that it is more often the structure of an organization than the inadequacies of the people who work within it that causes problems (Bonstingl 1992). The examples we'll discuss only hint at the power of scheduling to improve schools. But, first, let's review some problems that scheduling can help alleviate.

Three Issues All Schools Face

Although scheduling varies from elementary school through high school, three areas of concern span all levels.

1. Providing Quality Time

Fragmented instructional time is an issue at all levels. In elementary school, a variety of practices contribute to this problem. For example, haphazardly scheduled pullout programs (for ESL or special education, for example) disrupt classroom instruction; and because the schedules of specialists (for music and art, for example) are created for periods of varying length, core teachers must plan instruction around the remaining chopped-up time. In addition, when special programs classes meet just once a week for a short period, students receive piecemeal instruction.

At the middle and high school levels, fragmentation occurs in a different way. Students traveling through a six-, seven-, or eight-period day encounter the same number of pieces of unconnected curriculum each day, with little opportunity for in-depth study. In middle schools, this problem may have been exacerbated by exploratory programs, which in many schools have evolved from risk-free explorations to full academic courses with tests, grades, and homework.

Recently we worked with a district where students spent four periods daily in English, mathematics, social studies, and science, and two periods in six-week exploratory "wheels." In other words, students saw 4 core teachers and 12 exploratory teachers during the year. Is having so many teachers per day and per year consistent with what we know about middle school students?

2. Creating a School Climate

The daily schedule can have a great effect on a school's climate. At the elementary level, discipline problems can result from the way small-group reading and math instruction is scheduled. Many teachers continue to divide their classes into reading, language arts, and math groups, which meet separately with the teacher while other students complete worksheets or work in learning centers. All too often, teachers must interrupt small-group instruction to address discipline problems that arise in the back of the room.

In middle and high schools, traditional schedules create at least four situations that may contribute to the number of discipline problems.

Many disciplinary referrals result from scheduled transitions, when large numbers of students spill into hallways, lunchrooms, and commons areas, or congregate in locker rooms and bathrooms. If students are not sent to the office directly, the problems often carry over into the classroom, where teachers must deal with them before beginning instruction.

The assembly-line, traditional period schedule contributes to the depersonalizing nature of high schools. When teachers are responsible for 100-180 students daily, and students must answer to six, seven, or eight teachers a day, it is nearly impossible to develop close relationships, which may help reduce discipline problems.

Short instructional periods may also contribute to a negative classroom climate. When students who misbehave do not respond to a quick correction, many teachers send them to the office. With only 40- to 55-minute class periods, these teachers view any time taken away from classwork as unacceptable.

The middle school schedule, in particular, often makes teaming efforts difficult. Students in seven-period schools often are enrolled in three non-core classes, while the four-teacher teams-one teacher each from English, math, science, and social studies-are assigned five classes daily. Thus, during many periods of the day, 20 percent of the students are "off core." As a result, teams must remain in a period schedule, and the team structure, which usually facilitates disciplinary control, is weakened.

3. Providing Varying Learning Time

Perhaps the most critical (and unresolved) time allocation issue that schools face is the indisputable fact that some students need more time to learn than others. In secondary schools, reliance on the Carnegie unit has made all students "Prisoners of Time" (National Education Commission on Time and Learning 1994). High schools, and to a lesser extent middle schools, experience this problem, especially in late January. After receiving their first-semester grades, some students conclude that they will not pass the subject regardless of their performance during the second semester. Believing they have nothing to gain by doing the work, some of these students act out and skip classes. In a way, we have created a system to handle students who need more time to learn: we give them F s and make them repeat the course during summer school or the next academic year!

On the other end of the spectrum, possibilities for acceleration in U.S. schools are very limited. Most districts, however, offer one celebrated occasion for advancement. At the end of 7th grade in middle and junior high schools, teachers must decide whether or not a student should enroll in algebra during the 8th grade. This inflexible system forces instructors to make premature decisions about a student's potential in mathematics. If the school schedule were not as rigid, perhaps educators could make the decision to accelerate students at more appropriate times.

In elementary school, our usual reaction to the need for different amounts of time for learning is to provide individual assignments to those who learn quickly, and to regroup, slow down, and provide pull-out programs for those who need more time. The problems with these accommodations are that (1) sometimes the activities provided for those who learn quickly are thrown together haphazardly (Renzulli 1986), and (2) students placed in the lower groups fall farther behind. In addition, students in pullout programs often are stigmatized by their participation in them.

Scheduling as a Solution

Redesigning the school schedule can help address each of these three issues. We begin with the elementary school.

Elementary School Scheduling

A number of elementary schools across the country have adopted parallel block scheduling to reduce instructional fragmentation, improve discipline, and provide regularly scheduled, yet flexible, opportunities for extended learning enrichment (Canady 1988, 1990; Canady and Reina 1993). Figure 1 illustrates part of such a schedule, designed for four base teachers and an extension center.

Figure 1. A Parallel Block Elementary School Schedule for Four Base Teachers and an Extension Center

Teachers A and B work with their homeroom classes for an uninterrupted 100 minutes to begin the time block shown. They can use this time for language arts and social studies or perhaps for a whole class reading lesson. Teachers A and B may team together for this block if desired.

During the next 50 minutes, Teacher A works with Reading-Writing Group 1; Teacher B instructs Group 3. Teaching about half of the class, the base teacher conducts a reading group, or a writers' workshop, or perhaps conferences with individual students. Discipline is improved because independent groups are no longer in the back of the room. The extension teacher picks up Reading-Writing Group 2 from Teacher A and Group 4 from Teacher B and escorts these students to the extension center.

At the end of this 50-minute period, the extension center teacher returns Reading-Writing Groups 2 and 4 to their classrooms and picks up Groups 1 and 3 for their extension time. The rest of the school day is devoted to math, science, music, the arts, and physical education. Sleepy Hollow Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, has operated a similar schedule for the past four years.

In the extension center, students who need more time to learn receive assistance through reteaching and reinforcement, and they have opportunities for practice. Any pullouts for special services-special education, English as a second language, gifted and talented, or Chapter 1-are provided during extension center time. Students who have mastered basic concepts work on enrichment activities.

The extension center position can be staffed in different ways. Increasing homeroom size frees up regular teaching staff. An alternative is to staff the center with Chapter 1, English-as-a-second-language, gifted and talented, or special education teachers. Still other options are to use the computer lab or a foreign language program as the extension center or to rotate library/media, guidance, and reading enrichment professionals for a specific period of time (three weeks, for example).

Other Tips for Elementary Schools

Schedule all specialists for equal periods of instruction on a rotating schedule during the same time block each day. Consider four- or six-day cycles, rather than the unwieldy and unfair Monday through Friday schedule.

Rotate shared itinerant specialists who travel to different schools on a nine-week or semester basis, rather than two days a week here and two days a week there.

Schedule recess time contiguous to another class change such as for lunch or specials' classes to reduce time lost to movement.

Avoid short periods of time such as 15-minutes between lunch and specials. These often are wasted.

Middle School Scheduling Models

We'll look at three models at the middle school level.

The four-block schedule. One schedule being used with increasing frequency across the country greatly reduces fragmented instruction. In the four-block schedule, students spend one block of the day (about 90 minutes) in language arts, a second block in mathematics, and a third block in either social studies or science. The block of social studies/science is rotated every other day, every other unit, by semester, or on some other basis. Students spend the fourth block of the day in physical education, music, and/or exploratory courses, which meet for 90 minutes every other day. They attend only three academic courses daily.

Language arts and mathematics teachers teach three groups every day for the entire year; social studies and science teachers work with three groups per day, but with six groups for the year; and physical education, exploratory, and elective teachers work with only three groups per day. With this scheduling plan, both teachers and students experience less stress and fragmentation.

The four-block middle school schedule significantly reduces the daily number of class changes, thereby reducing discipline problems. Examples of schools operating this schedule during the 1994-95 year include: Newberry Middle School in Newberry, South Carolina; Goochland Middle School in Goochland, Virginia; and Wilbur Wright Middle School in Dayton, Ohio. Districts that operate the 4 × 4 semester block high school schedule may find this plan a logical transition for middle schools.

The 75-75-30 plan (Canady and Rettig 1993). W. Marshall Sellman School in the Madeira School District in Cincinnati, Ohio, implemented this unique 180-day school calendar for the 1994-95 school year. According to teachers, students, and parents, the program was a great success.

Under the Sellman plan, the school follows a fairly typical middle school team block schedule for the first 150 days. Courses end after two 75-day terms, and students begin their final six weeks of school enrolled in specialized courses, created and designed by teachers. Such specialized courses provide (1) additional learning time for students who have yet to master grade-level objectives, and (2) academically enriching activities for all students. Course titles at the Sellman School include Principles of Mathematics, Team-Accelerated Instruction, Water Science, Inventioneering, Mock Trial, and Fun with Poetry.

The concept-progress model. This approach is another attempt to address students' differing needs for learning time (Canady and Rettig 1992, Canady 1989). Several elementary and middle schools across the country are using it to provide mathematics instruction to heterogenous groups. Figure 2 illustrates one version of this plan.

Figure 2. A Concept/Progress Middle School Model for a Six-Day Cycle with 50- to 60-Minute Periods per Day

Math teachers A, B, and C present the basic concepts of a mathematical topic to their entire classes two days of every six-day cycle. Math Teacher A's Concept Math Group meets on Days 1 and 2 of the six-day cycle. During concept math time, the teacher focuses on grade-level instruction, ideally using cooperative learning, providing direct instruction, and, when needed, illustrating with manipulatives. The teacher does not test and grade students in concept groups.

After working with their whole groups, Teachers A, B, and C divide students into two Progress Math Groups-temporary, flexible, homogeneous groupings of students, based on their understanding of the basic ideas taught in the Concept Math Group. Math Teacher A instructs Progress Math Group 1 on Days 3 and 4, and Group 4 on Days 5 and 6. (Note that Progress Math Groups 1 and 4 equal Teacher A's Concept Math Group.) Teachers monitor and adjust instruction during this time, providing enrichment and additional assistance as needed; however, Progress Math Groups remain on the same topic. For example, if teachers have planned to work on long division for 18 days, Progress Math Group 2 might focus on dividing two digits into three digits, while Progress Math Group 5 might be dividing three digits into four. Note, however, that all groups work in long division for the number of days determined by the pacing guide that teachers developed at the beginning of the school year. Students are graded based on their progress within the topic.

In the computer lab, similar adjustments are made in the selection of software for each group. The concept-progress model is just one way of designing the school schedule to serve students with varying instructional needs by providing

whole-group instruction without the pressure of testing and grading;

small groups so that teachers can monitor and adjust instruction without having to teach one group while policing another group; and

both extended learning and enrichment time on an individual student basis.

Other Middle School Scheduling Tips

Many middle schools can benefit from operating on some of the more popular high school block scheduling models, such as the Day 1/Day 2 schedule. Students have fewer classes daily, and fewer class changes are necessary.

Consider adding a nontraditional core teacher to the interdisciplinary team. At Glasgow Middle School in Fairfax County, Virginia, a foreign language teacher is now on each 8th grade interdisciplinary team. At other schools, related arts teachers are on teams on a rotating basis. For example, an art teacher might be the fifth person on a team for nine weeks of art, followed by nine weeks of computer technology, nine weeks of teen living, and nine weeks of drama. Being part of the team increases the likelihood that the content of these exploratory subjects will be integrated with the core.

Another way of reorganizing the 180-day calendar, which is similar to the 75-75-30 Plan, is the 35-(5)-35-(15)-35-(5)-35-(15) Plan. Each semester students attend regular classes for 35 days and have 5 days for reteaching and/or enrichment. Then they continue regular classes for 35 days and end the semester with 15 days for extended learning time or enrichment/electives (See Canady and Rettig 1995, Chapter 5).

High School Scheduling Models

During the past 10 years, high schools across the country have begun to implement block schedules to address curriculum fragmentation. Many schools operate alternate-day schedules, the 4 X 4 semester plan, and many variations (For a detailed treatment of these plans see Canady and Rettig 1995). Each plan can also have a positive effect on school discipline. Here are two examples.

A trimester plan with daily periods for extended learning. In the fall of 1994, Parry McCluer High School in Buena Vista, Virginia, used a trimester schedule with extended classes for enhanced learning (Canady and Rettig 1995, Chapter 4). In such a plan, students enroll in two classes per trimester; each class meets for two hours in the morning and reconvenes for an additional 45 minutes of extended learning time each afternoon. Nearly all students require this additional time for learning; however, a few have been permitted to contract out of the extended learning time for advanced study with another faculty member. An equally small number of students require more time than can be allocated each trimester to complete course objectives. If these students have worked hard and simply need more time, they may be granted an "Incomplete," which they can make up during extended learning time of the next trimester.

A schedule that provides algebra for all students. In one school district-where 40 percent of the students enrolled in first-year algebra failed the course, and where approximately one-third of the students who had passed the course the previous year failed the state proficiency examination-we designed the following schedule to provide varying learning time for students in Algebra I.

As shown in Figure 3, four sections of Algebra I are scheduled in the same period or block, and the curriculum is divided into four distinct segments. During Quarter 1, all students begin together as heterogeneous groups with teachers A, B, C, and D. After completing Quarter 1, students who need more learning time are regrouped into a separate section, which repeats Part 1 with Teacher D during Quarter 2. Teachers A, B, and C continue Part 2 of the course with students who, at the time, are performing successfully. At the end of each quarter, teachers determine whether a regrouping is necessary. When a group must repeat one of the four parts of the course, we recommend using a different teaching approach-for example, having that teacher reteach the group using a software package in the computer lab or having one of the other four teachers reteach that part of the course.

Figure 3. A Middle School Schedule That Provides Varying Learning Times for Students Taking Algebra I

Figure 3 shows some students finishing the course in four quarters, and some in five, six, seven, or even eight quarters. Variable learning time is provided for students, and no student is forced to sit through a repeat of the entire class. The same idea shown in Figure 3 can be designed for English, particularly for grade 9 students, by basing the parts of the course on an identified sequence of writing and reading skills.

Other High School Scheduling Tips

Schools may periodically alter the regular schedule so that each class meets for a full day on a rotating basis. For example, in a six-period school (on a six-day cycle), teachers would meet with each of their five classes for a full day and then have a full day off for planning or professional development.

Some schools have scheduled one long lunch period rather than two or three short periods. During this extended time the library, gym, computer lab, and outdoor recreational areas are opened for student use. Teachers schedule office hours for extra help; club meetings and other activities also may be held. Several serving sites are necessary to accommodate students purchasing lunch.

Harnessing the Power of Scheduling

We've looked at ways that some elementary, middle, and high schools have redesigned their schedules to reduce curriculum fragmentation, discipline problems, and student failure. We need to move beyond individual school models of scheduling, however, and toward districtwide plans. Ultimately, we envision students progressing from school to school in a seamless design. Such a plan may even enable 5th and 8th grade teachers, for example, on an every-other-year basis, to continue with their students during their first year in middle or high school.

Only in the last decade have educators begun to capitalize on the potential of scheduling to improve schools. With open minds and equal doses of creativity and technical expertise, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students can harness this power.

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The Power of Innovative Scheduling - ASCD

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Scheduling is a valuable but untapped resource for school improvement. Through our work in schools across the country, we have seen again and again how a well-crafted schedule can result in more effective use of time, space, and resources (human as well as material); improve instructional climate; h

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Innovative Schedules for Teaching and Learning

Download the PDF here.

Introduction

The minutes and hours of the school day are critical to build knowledge, foster student motivation, and drive student outcomes. To make the most of precious instructional time, teachers must first develop engaging lessons that meet the various needs of students. This requires teachers to collaborate, plan, and reflect outside of instructional time. Effective school schedules maximize the time teachers spend with their students but also recognize teachers' additional responsibilities beyond instructional time. Unfortunately, not enough schools successfully balance these priorities.

Teachers in the United States spend far more time engaged in active instruction than teachers in other high-performing countries. Based on self-reported data, teachers in the United States spend 27 hours teaching out of 45 hours of work per week. Compare this with teachers in Singapore, who teach for only 17 hours per week, or teachers in Finland, who teach for a total of 21 hours per week. Schools in these countries prioritize time for planning and collaboration, recognizing that developing and executing lessons take time and preparation. According to a recent analysis of more than 140 school districts, the average length of a U.S. teacher's workday is 7.5 hours. In another analysis of more than 120 school districts, the most common length of time allotted for planning was 45 minutes per day. In this short time, teachers must grade student work, plan for future lessons, engage with families, and complete necessary paperwork. As a result, teachers have little time to plan or collaborate with peers.

The squeeze for time to plan lessons and complete other administrative tasks shapes a school's professional environment and, ultimately, affects the quality of instruction. In a recent survey from the American Federation of Teachers, one of teachers' two most cited "everyday stressors" was time pressure. As teachers are largely separate from other educators during instruction, lack of time for collaboration can be very isolating. More than half of lower secondary school teachers in the United States report that they do not teach jointly or observe other teachers. Such practices can improve teaching quality by granting teachers opportunities to receive feedback on their lesson execution and infuse new best practices into their repertoire.

In addition, providing teachers with more time to plan and attend to other responsibilities throughout the school day creates systematic opportunities to support new teachers and stretch more seasoned teachers-increasing the likelihood of teacher retention. During this structured planning time, new teachers should receive the coaching and personalized training they need to maximize their effectiveness and meet their professional goals. Meanwhile, experienced teachers can pursue leadership roles or coach new teachers.

Fortunately, schools can look to several promising models to change their typical schedules. The Center for American Progress compiled five of these innovative school schedules. Some of these schedules have already been implemented in schools across the country to improve instruction and ensure that teachers have ample time to teach, prepare, and develop their craft. CAP has also included teachers' ideas for alternatives to the traditional school day model.

While each example schedule varies, there were similarities in how school leaders and teachers at each school reimagined the use of time. These innovative schedules all included:

Additional time for planning and collaboration

Flexible instructional blocks to differentiate content to student need

Opportunities for small group instruction or student-directed learning

Innovative school schedules: Example schedules from schools across the country

Guilmette Elementary School, Lawrence, Massachusetts

What's different about this schedule?

Guilmette Elementary School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, added more than 260 hours of instructional time to the school year and built in common planning time by extending the school day and strategically aligning grade team schedules. The schedule also allows for targeted intervention and enrichment opportunities for all students. (see Table 1) Students follow a similar schedule on Mondays through Thursdays. On Fridays, students participate in high-quality enrichment programming from noon to 2:30 p.m., which is led by community partners. These enrichment activities include art, music, yoga, and cooking. Teachers participate in professional development and planning at that time.

Operations and cost

The extra instructional hours are a significant cost. The district's teacher contract provides teachers with a stipend of $2,500 per year for added hours that is distributed evenly across their paychecks. Moreover, the quality of the enrichment programs offered on Friday is dependent on the community partners that teach the programs. Guilmette has worked to find high-quality, affordable partners.

Outcomes

In the four years since Guilmette has implemented the new schedule, its English language arts and math proficiency scores have steadily improved; since 2013, Guilmette outperformed other elementary schools in the district. More information is available on the school's report card.

Objectives

Add 260 or more instructional hours each school year

Provide collaborative planning time for teachers

Create added opportunities for enrichment and targeted intervention that focuses on acceleration

Achievement First Greenfield middle school schedule, New Haven, Connecticut

What's different about this schedule?

Greenfield schools, which are a part of the Achievement First network, designed a schedule that leverages four modalities of learning: self-directed learning; small group learning; large group instruction, and immersive expeditions. Students engage in daily self-directed learning to build responsibility and differentiate the pace of their learning. During this time, students use independent work or technology to review new concepts and move through mastery of content at their own pace. Students also participate in small group learning in sections of 14 to 16 students to dig into specific topics and receive individual feedback. Larger group instruction is reserved for seminars, debates, and experiments.

Every eight weeks, students engage in immersive expeditions for one to two weeks that explore a specific issue and apply skills to the real world. Expeditions such as creating a play, television show, or movie allow them to use writing, improvisation, and teamwork skills to bring stories to life. For example, in the expedition "Make your story come to life," students write and produce scenes or short plays to be performed by other actors. They engage with a professional theater company for storytelling workshops and go on behind-the-scenes tours.

Interactive digital learning is a key element of the Greenfield model. A cloud-based Personalized Learning Platform, or PLP, takes the place of traditional textbooks. Students use a laptop to access their online self-directed content, track progress toward their goals, and take assessments to demonstrate mastery of concepts. This system minimizes teachers' work and increases transparency of student progress. Teachers or students do not need to input results to track progress; the platform does it automatically. Teachers, students, and families can log in to access student progress anywhere with an internet connection. It also helps the school communicate with parents and families.

Every teacher is responsible for leading one instructional area-either humanities, math, science, writing, or social studies. This specialization allows teachers to focus on achieving ambitious results in their content area. A yearly pacing calendar identifies where students must perform at every point in the year in order to be on track with these ambitious outcomes. Teachers use pacing reports each day to determine where students are performing relative to the bar and to adjust their instruction in ways that will maximize the number of students who are on and ahead of pace.

In addition, Greenfield differentiates teachers' roles and schedules to allow for specialization, planning, and life balance. This includes collaborative planning time for all teachers, differentiated coaching, and professional development, as well as growth opportunities based on teachers' skills and experience. Greenfield also offers a staggered teaching schedule for more experienced teachers.

Within each grade, students are organized into goal teams of 10 to 12 students and assigned a goal coach. These teams meet daily in order to set and reflect on academic, life habit, or enrichment goals; deepen relationships with the goal coach and other goal team members; and build habits of success. Within goal teams, students are paired off with another student, called a running partner. These pairs provide mutual support and accountability to one another as they strive for ambitious short- and long-term goals. Goal teams are led by a goal coach who is a staff member in the school. The goal coach works closely with one goal team to build community and to be a primary support for each student and running partner pair.

Operations and cost

The ongoing operation of this schedule is not more costly than other schedules that Achievement First operates in its network. Core to Achievement First's mission is to operate with the same public dollars as traditional district schools in the geographies where it operates.

Outcomes

The Greenfield schools piloted the model in kindergarten and middle school grades, all of which saw proficiency exceed or equal the scores of other Achievement First schools in Connecticut after just one year. Kindergartners exceeded 90 percent proficient rates in reading, and 60 percent of students demonstrated at least 75 percentile growth in math. For middle school grades, average scores on English language arts weekly quizzes ranked first or second in the overall Achievement First Connecticut network. Fifth grade math scores exceeded the network average, but sixth grade scores were below the average. For more information on socioemotional growth, review the Achievement First's Greenfield Schools Year 1 Pilot.

Objectives

Allow for accelerated, differentiated academics through four modalities of learning: self-directed learning time; small group learning; large group learning; and immersive expeditions

Build in time for enrichment

Foster habits of success in all kids, including curiosity, personal growth, empathy, gratitude, drive, and teamwork

Emphasize the importance of student, family, and staff motivation

Differentiate teacher roles based on experience and create more time for planning for all instructional staff

Reduce turnover by finding ways to accommodate senior teachers who need more flexible schedules

Generation Schools secondary schedule, Brooklyn, New York

What's different about this schedule?

Generation Schools Network's secondary school model creates up to 30 percent more learning time than traditional public schools in New York City and provides opportunities for differentiated instruction. It also reduces student-to-teacher ratios and overall teacher workloads to facilitate the development of supportive teacher-student relationships.

Furthermore, teachers have more time for collaboration and professional development. All teachers, as part of their approximately 180-day work year, participate in a one- to two-week Summer Institute dedicated to collaborative planning in preparation for the school year. In addition, grade teams have two weeks of professional collaborative time staggered throughout the year when their students are in intensives. This is in addition to the collaborative time that teachers have every day.

To reduce teacher workload and increase instructional time, the Generation Schools Network differentiates instructional roles-foundation, studio, and intensive teachers. This allows the school to build on a wider range of teachers' strengths and to design roles and responsibilities that help teachers be effective and reduce turnover. In addition, it reduces teachers' student load. Teachers have 75 or fewer students daily compared with their peers in New York City traditional public high schools, who often teach 150 students daily. The model organizes teachers into grade level teams and a college and career intensives team. The college and career intensives team rotates from grade to grade over the course of the year, spending a month with students exploring college and career pathways. Teachers on that designated grade team are not responsible for students that month and can use that time for collaboration and breaks. By staggering teacher breaks, Generation Schools Network expands the instructional year for students without increasing the number of working days for teachers.

Every student also has a differentiated schedule that fits their needs. Students participate in extended foundation courses-including interdisciplinary courses on humanities or science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM-which teach required subjects for all students as well as have various studio courses based on their interests. Studio courses include art history, physical education, art, foreign languages, or advanced sciences.

Operations and cost

Generation Schools' model reconfigures the same number of staff members who are employed in a conventional school model so that each school can offer much more planning time to teachers and instructional time to students without increasing staff costs, which are a majority of a school's budget. Depending on how districts budget, this type of schedule may require additional costs for maintenance or transportation.

Outcomes

Generation Schools Network has improved student achievement and graduation rates. Brooklyn Generation School, or BGS, has improved attendance, course completion, and graduation rates. At 69 percent, the four-year graduation rate at BGS has matched that for the city overall-70 percent-and outperformed schools with a similar demographic of students. These achievements are especially remarkable, as 85 percent of BGS' students enter high school behind or significantly behind. In addition, 100 percent of the 2016 graduating class was accepted into college-many receiving multiple admissions and significant financial aid to make the opportunity real.

Objectives

Increase instructional time for all students and opportunities to differentiate instruction

Reduce student-to-teacher ratios and overall teacher workloads to facilitate the development of supportive teacher-student relationships

Integrate collaborative planning time for teacher teams

Model school schedules designed by teachers
Created by Lexie Woo, fourth and fifth grade teacher in Queens, New York
Model elementary school schedule

What's different about this schedule?

This schedule allows educators the opportunity to improve their instruction through strategic collaboration with colleagues, additional planning time, and ongoing feedback from administrators.

The timing of instructional blocks rotates to diffuse the negative impact of time-sensitive factors, such as tardiness, early dismissals, fatigue, medication use, and attention span. In addition, each subject has a double instructional block once per week, providing time for innovative educational practices, including multidisciplinary learning; project-based learning; and science, technology, engineering, art and design, and math, or STEAM, and STEM. This allows students to engage in a more self-directed and autonomous educational experience, growing as independent thinkers and doers.

With this dynamic schedule, teachers can select preferred preparation times, allowing teachers to shape their day to fit their working style. In other words, teachers can deliver instruction at the height of their energy.

Objectives

Create more teacher planning time and develop more opportunities for teachers to receive feedback on their instruction

Allow teachers to self-select preparation periods to ensure that the timing works for their teaching and working styles

Offer double instructional blocks for each subject throughout the week

Rotate the timing of instructional blocks

Created by Crischelle Navalta, high school teacher in Donna, Texas; Jillian Harkins, high school teacher in New Haven, Connecticut; Mary Kreuz, high school teacher in Toledo, Ohio; Megan Williams, eighth grade teacher in Washington, D.C.; and Amanda Zullo, high school teacher in Saranac Lake, New York
Model high school schedule

What's different about this schedule?

This schedule strategically minimizes teachers' workloads to ensure that they have time to build their content expertise. In addition, teachers have additional time apart from active instruction to collaborate with their content team, plan independently, or assume a leadership position.

Objectives

Reduce instructional load by ensuring that teachers teach no more than two different course subjects, and limit teaching time to only 60 percent of a teacher's day

Build in approximately 40 percent of the day for conference time, leadership roles beyond the classroom, common planning time with content or grade team, and professional development

Conclusion
Meg Benner is a Senior Consultant at the Center for American Progress. Lisette Partelow is the Director of K-12 Strategic Initiatives at the Center.
Tasked to deliver differentiated, high-quality instruction that prepares students for the social and academic challenges in college and beyond, schools must push their thinking on how they allocate time throughout the school day. Innovative school schedules should meet diverse student needs and ensure that all teachers are primed to deliver engaging, rigorous content. As this issue brief demonstrates, various models already exist to accomplish these goals. As schools across the country reimagine their school day schedules, they will be most successful if they customize the use of time to meet content needs rather than adapting content to fit a fixed schedule.

Endnotes

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Reimagining the School Day - Center for American Progress

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Innovative Schedules for Teaching and Learning Download the PDF here. The minutes and hours of the school day are critical to build knowledge, foster student motivation, and drive student outcomes. To make the most of precious instructional time, teachers must first develop engaging lessons that meet the various needs of students.

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Flipgrid is where social and emotional learning happens! The leading video discussion platform for millions of PreK to PhD educators, students, and families.

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Over the course of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years, I worked with a group of instructional coaches in a district in Illinois to create an implementation matrix to guide educational practice in realizing the district's vision of personalized, twenty-first century learning where all students are successful.

After I framed the structure for the matrix based on the National Implementation Research Network's Practice Profile Planning Tool, the coaches and I worked collaboratively on the process. The coaches worked between my visits to research, deliberate, synthesize, and articulate the "critical components" of practice and delineate unacceptable variations, emerging practice, and gold standards for each element of those critical components. I offered questions and key resources to sharpen and deepen their understandings.

As the matrix began to take shape the district's Curriculum and Instruction team met with the coaches to review the emerging matrix and provide feedback. Using SRI's Tuning Protocol, the C&I team responded to the coaches' guiding question, offering "warms" (evidence of aspects of the matrix that met the coaches' stated goals) and "cools" (gaps, areas needing more clarity, and disconnects in the matrix for improvement).

After addressing the C&I team's feedback, and continuing to refine the Implementation Matrix, we repeated the tuning feedback process of the Matrix with the Student Centered Learning Study Group, which includes SCL champions from every school in the district. Once again, the coaches responded to the feedback as they continued to refine the Matrix. Coaches then worked in teams to present the Matrix to each district school's faculty, using a modified tuning protocol to solicit faculty responses to the question "Does this document provide enough guidance for implementation? "

Following a thorough review of all feedback, we put the polishing touches on the ready-to-operationalize matrix, compiled a chart listing all feedback (from the original C&I review forward) and the revisions addressing each, and created tables of faculty responses from each school, noting the number of times a given response was given, i.e. the number of individuals each response represented at any given school).

For the final meeting of the school year, the Student Centered Learning Study Group (soon to be rebranded as the 21 st Century Teaching and Learning Study Group) reviewed and discussed the documentation. They then worked in small groups to focus on developing shared understanding around key implementation areas - assessment, research, and project-based learning - before reconvening to discuss matrix roll out and professional learning priorities for the following school year.

While the district's leadership team changed over the course of the two-year process, individually and collectively they maintained a focus on student learning. Patrick Hardy launched the project, Teresa Hines provided continuity and focus, Jody Ware bridged the gap, and Duane Meighan carried the vision forward. The district leadership's investment in building shared language, commitment, and ownership through support for the instructional coaches' development work and the successive rounds of feedback throughout the district combined with the coaches' collaborative learning process, relentless pursuit of high-quality, evidence-based practices, and dedication to creating accessible, practical guidance to produce an exceptional roadmap for implementing student centered learning with clear parameters for fidelity and improvement.

Read the Instructional Coaches' reflection on the process.

Access the Student Centered Learning Implementation Matrix.

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Student Centered Learning - Developing an Implementation Matrix - QED Foundation

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Over the course of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years, I worked with a group of instructional coaches in a district in Illinois to create an implementation matrix to guide educational practice in realizing the district's vision of personalized, twenty-first century learning where all students are successful.

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6 Flaws in Teacher Professional Learning

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6 Flaws in Teacher Professional Learning

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The Six Flaws of “Traditional” Professional Development

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The majority of teachers have experienced bad PD, but many can also name an instance that actually worked for their practice and improved learning for their students. In this post, we look at six aspects of PD that can be reworked to provide more beneficial PD experiences.

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A COUPLE YEARS AGO I visited Detroit to attend the Allied Media Conference; a four day event where activists, organizers, and artists from all over the country gathered to host and attend sessions rooted in media-based liberation practices.

Although I traveled to Detroit to take part in a multitude of sessions and workshops -- one session stood out to me the most: the session with Adrienne Maree Brown.

In that session Brown spoke about the value and power of vulnerability, reconnecting with the magic in our daily life, and setting boundaries as artists and activists looking to shape change in the world.

As a filmmaker and aspiring organizer this session really spoke to my interests - and since you're reading this, you probably want to make work that's meaningful and build communities around solving the problems you care about most... you might also share a curiosity about the formation, sustainability and the rise-and-fall of social movements throughout history.

These are just a few of the questions on my mind before I started reading this, and while they weren't necessarily answered, Emergent Strategy - a book not filled with historical facts - takes you on a journey through a series of movement-building insights from someone who's not afraid to share the good times, the challenges, and the lessons along the way.

While it takes a lifetime of movement building experiences, conversations, failures, books, etc. to scratch the surface of those questions I wanted to start somewhere, so I decided to grab a copy and started reading.

If your an artist, activist, or an organizer involved in an alliance, network, collaborative, club, or any formation of people working towards a shared vision - in this book you'll find useful tools that you can implement to become a more creative leader, facilitator, or even just better tools to hold existing leaders and movements accountable.

Nature has its own way of organizing.

In the beginning of the book Brown outlines six elements of biology, physics, and ecology that can help to shape our perspective on our journey toward building liberated communities.

Here's a my abridged interpretation of six core principles from page 45 (try to forgive this first lesson for being mostly a bulleted list):
One: Adaptation - How we change Two: Fractal - The relationship between small and large Three: Resilience and Transformative Justice - How we recover and transform Four: Non-linear and iterative - The pace and pathways of change Five: Creating more possibilities - How we move towards life Six: Interdependence and Decentralization - Who we are and how we share.

Metaphor: Fungus

Mycelium is the part of the fungus that grows underground in threadlike formations. It connects roots to one another and breaks down plant material to create healthier ecosystems. Mycelium is the largest organism on Earth - and it's mostly hidden from sight.

Themes: Interconnectedness. Remediation. Detoxification.

In Brown's chapter on fractals she emphasizes that - if we are to approach solutions to problems on a large scale and imagine a future different than the one we're headed towards presently - the internal problems we face have to be recognized by those doing the organizing, such as:

Over working

Unrealistic expectations

Organizational and movement splitting

Personal drama disrupting movements

Drifting off course from the mission -- especially in relation to money

Stagnation and the inability to make decisions

In this chapter she lightly touches on the issues of self-care, the struggle to free ourselves from addiction to cell phones and social media, loneliness on a crowded planet, and our nagging desires to achieve more... problems that can each create competition and conflict within movements.

She also mentions something important - we've spent a lot of time deconstructing the issues and problems of the world - so much so that we tend to know more about what we don't want than what we actually want our futures to feel like.

If there was one thing that drew me to her work from that one magical hour in Detroit it is the following paraphrase:

"showing black, brown, and white people sitting at a lunch counter together was once considered science fiction..."

So, I'm curious - what will our new science fiction look like?

Before I went to her workshop I had read Octavia Butler's pattern master series, and fell in love with one of her books called Mind of My Mind -- so when Brown started connecting of the value of science fiction with the practice of visionary organizing, I knew I had found something special.

Let's take a second to talk about the role of toxic masculinity in the culture of organizing.

She mentions her work with the organization Ruckus, which modeled after Greenpeace but was "rooted in a masculine action culture... Ruckus was in and out with mind-blowing", creative actions... This was in line with a model of action grounded in spectacle...

...The politics were radical and actions historic, but there wasn't any sense of ownership or community engagement with the work, which meant at a fundamental level the power dynamic wasn't changing" (p. 61)

This chapter and all all the anecdotes make for a great cautionary tale.

All too often organizations and political spaces can not only be dominated by hyper-masculinity but also by a culture steeped in a value system that will ultimately lead to its downfall.

It's common get caught up in the hype of overvaluing achievement based, quantifiable, measurable actions and tasks rather than allowing space for uncertainty, pushing towards vulnerability, creativity, and mission... to create lasting community engagement.

In order to change directions in a movement we must have the courage admit when were wrong - but a traditional masculine organizing culture doesn't allow itself the freedom do that.

So when things get messy and power dynamics change for the worse within and outside of an organization it can help to refresh our clarity on what questions we are asking ourselves.
Are we asking...
Or, are we asking...

There's so much more to this chapter but I hope this overview helps remind you to ask the question you want to ask... about what our approach as activists, artists, and organizers is in relation to the communities we want to serve.

"Many of us respond to change with fear, or see it as a crisis. We spend precious time thinking about what has changed that we didn't choose or can't control and/or thinking ahead to future stress." (p. 68)

In the next chapter on adaptation Brown touches on our tendency to resist change and offers us several ways that we can shift our perspective toward wasting less energy on control and gain more of our personal energy by letting go and "adapting towards pleasure". This topic is covered way more in-depth in her book Pleasure Activism.

To some extent you might say we all have a desire to feel a sense of security and stability - to find and position important things, people, and places around us that are reliable and consistent - whether we're willing to admit it or not another issue.

I believe that while this desire is natural and can be beneficial, it can often manifests from a place of fear - a fear rooted in the habitual assumption that "the future will not care for me..." that the world is a place of scarcity so we must latch on to stability or else... CHAOS!

As I read this book I continued to search for my beliefs about broader ways in which things play out in my own life. On the opposite end of our desire for stability is the feeling of terror - the terror of accepting that there are many, many things beyond our control.

While it's no doubt proven difficult, I find much more joy habitually positioning my perspective on life with a belief that... the world, while it has no shortage of deep systemic problems, at its core is a place of abundance... and the anxiety we feel is often the product of not letting go of our desire to control the future.

It is largely the machinery of late stage capitalism - and the toxic values and practices that it gives genesis to - that would try persuade me otherwise.

Now, this doesn't mean we shouldn't seek to change it - on the contrary - this is great tool to help us regulate our emotions and communicate to others in our movements and communities with a rare sense of trust. And it's with this sense of trust that we can effectively shape the change we want to see in this world.

"As an individual, get really good at being intentional with where you put your energy letting go as quickly as you can of things that aren't apart of your visionary life's work. Then you can give your all from a well-resourced place, when the storm comes, or for those last crucial miles". (p. 72)

Less on point. More on purpose.

Rather than placing your value on whether what you've accomplished matches the exact shape of the blueprints that you've started with, you can choose to shift towards purpose and let go of the small deviations from the organizational roadmap. That's the practice of emergence, right?

Here are a few bullet-point takeaways and action items that helped me encapsulate Brown's strategies on shifting towards a more impactful leadership practice in this chapter:

1. Less prep, more presence

2. Low ego, high impact

3. Building alignment, not selling ideas

4. Relationship is the measure of our strength

5. This will be as amazing as you are

6. Trust your own work, and trust each other

There a number of gems hidden in this chapter when it comes to creating an atmosphere for a highly effective and emotionally responsive team, but there so numerous I just couldn't include them here so you'll have to read them!

"In terms of organizing - this means organizations, or campaigns, or even individuals - it's a set of relationships *between* organizations, campaigns, individuals." - Farhad Ebrahmi

As we develop we're often met with the dissonance between two worlds - world of compassion, collaboration, and emotional intelligence and the other world: one of competition, one-up-man ship, and meritocracy.

It's up to us to figure out which strategy ultimately serves us and those we love.

In this chapter Brown explores the concepts of decentralization and interdependence, nudging me to ask the question:

How can we thrive together while seeing each of our own individual desires for independence and still meet our needs for collaboration and connection?

In any organization, group, or collective where people are asked to make contributions you will run into the issue of intellectual property - or the "who will own the new ideas" problem. Who gets the credit? What does that say about my status? What role does status play in movements for justice?

I came to some personal realizations while reading this chapter, basically, that during collaboration process it's important to communicate from the beginning something about ourselves and the appetites of our egos with a sense of humor.

I don't believe we will be able to abolish the ego, or our petty wars for credit... but we can live with a shared sense of humor and humility and work things out from there.

I can learn to say "Yes. I am a FOOL... and I let my ego get the better of me, and my ego wants all the credit in order to feel valued in this collaboration."

Along these lines, here are a few concrete takeaways from this chapter:

When working as an organization many of us want to hide and protect some part of us from those that were working with. Maybe it's our desire not to be too vulnerable or maybe we're just building up to it slowly. Maybe we don't feel that we deserve to be seen. Maybe we don't believe we're as incredible of a leader as the people around us believe that we are.

Here I don't think she's advocating to go from zero to one hundred and share everything about yourself, but rather to recognize up front that we have more that meets the surface and more importantly, so does everyone else we work with. So we must confront our fear of being seen for the leaders that we are.

While hopefully in good taste and keeping our egos in check - I think this is really helpful for those who might be reluctant to "show off" their leadership skills and end up erring on the shy side - sometimes it's so much so that we don't get to know them with the depth and richness that they deserve.
2. Don't Be Afraid To Be Wrong
"The easier being wrong is for you, the faster you can adapt to the changing situations".

In my experience, taking ownership of my own ego is super useful in speeding up the healing processes. I often want to use defensiveness as a tool to say "I know you think I'm stupid and but I'm really not. Oh and also I make no mistakes!" but this digs me deeper down the rabbit hole of regret.

My takeaway here is sweet and simple: accept when you're wrong. Apologize. And remember to trust your team and your shared purpose.
3. Accept inner multitudes
This principle is something we can all relate to. I want to eat healthy but that same person also wants ice cream. It's always good to remind ourselves that we aren't a monolith of perfection nor do we have to operate in absolutes. I can have sugar cravings AND acknowledge my addictions and relapses - while still maintaining self-respect and integrity despite however many failures in self-discipline occur along the journey.
4. Ask for and receive what you need
This advice spoke to me and helped me realize one of my core weaknesses - the inability to ask for and communicate what I need and openly receive care in whatever form it takes. This is crucial and if we are afraid to ask those we trust for help, how will we ever build an interdependent future and decentralized communities where people learn to lean on each other and ask for help when it's needed.

I'm not advocating that we start abusing this principle but I think you know who you are if this resonates with you and your probably erring on the side of never using your ability to ask for help.

"Humans are both understandable and mysterious. Communion is all about acceptance, and organizing is about both." -Peter Hardie (p. 105)

The next lesson, found in Brown's chapter on non-linear and iterative change, is one of the more personal and poetic chapters - one full of vulnerability in the form of diary-entry-style prose and insights into movement building.
"The heart is a frontline and the fight is to feel in a world of distraction" (p.110)
She mentions early on that we have the power to learn from grief and more important to reject the assumption that we should be ashamed of experiencing grief.

You may find yourself feeling torn between the desire to be productive and the overwhelming power of grief. This is when you reject the idea that grief is not productive part of the movement. In fact, movements are often built on grief and the fight to reduce future experiences of chronic despair and oppression, so we might do better to recognize it as a tool for liberation than a burden to be relieved of.

In this chapter there's an important memory Brown shares with us about making a trip to NYC for the Occupy Movement rally in Zuccotti Park.

"I noticed the wingnut messaging... and the whiteness and yet I felt close to tears a few times, seeing unexpected diversity in the crowd, seeing the self-organized systems emerging for the creation of art, sharing of information, health, and wellness. There was even a table of "coaches" to help people figure out what their role in the movement could be... I actually felt moved to see so many white people, very normal-looking white people, standing around the edges of this park, looking liberated themselves, holding up signs that criticize capitalism." (p.111)

This piece is a great reminder that, as people of color, we can all too often get into a frame of mind that is so critical it begins to undermine our actual intentions and erode the quality of engagement that we sought to create community with.

I'm not saying we need to let go of our criticism but we should be mindful of and strategic with when and where and who that criticism get applied to, if we want a truly diverse movement to flourish. Because no one culture is homogeneous nor monolithic, although... would it even be easier if that were the case?

Since from around the time of the murder of Trayvon Martin and onwards I began to think of current permutation of racial tensions in the US and find myself being so critical that I am critical of my criticism - :( . Can you relate?

What I mean is that I don't want to fall prey to a populist cancel-culture sentiment that isn't actually rooted in compassion, radical, revolutionary movement-building guided with intelligence and integrity.

I want my identity politics to be nuanced and humble and inclusive. Not rigid, combative, and exclusive. I believe that's a more difficult and radical choice and ultimately I believe in an identity politics that unites more than it alienates and is always aware of that goal, all the while still holding true to it's function - speaking truth to power and shifting that power back into to the hands of the people.

"Sometimes I think we put up critiques to excuse ourselves from getting involved, and sometimes I think we do it to protect our hearts from getting broken if it doesn't work out. Critique, alone, can keep us from having to pick up the responsibility of figuring out solutions." (p. 112)

Brown also has a refreshing way of looking at movement building... kind of like parenting or what she calls being a movement doula and gives us what is probably my all-time favorite quote in the whole damn book:

"Parents don't know how to raise a child because they read all the books and went to the classes. They figure it out in the dead of night, covered in shit and tears, and finally holding the sleeping child stunned by love." (p. 119)

Soak that up and take it into lesson 6...

What is transformative justice? What does it look like and what are some guiding principles we can use to find it in our lives?
In a discussion about resilience and transformation Brown gives us several tools that were shared with her from the Young Women's Empowerment Project.

Here are my interpretations on the outlines of those principles... yes, I love making lists - leave me alone.

Transformative Justice...

1. Acknowledges the reality of state harm

2. Looks for alternative ways to address and disrupt harm which do NOT rely on the state

3. Relies on organic creative strategies that are community created and sustained

4. Transforms the root causes of violence, not only the individual experience (p.135)

Principles for Liberated Relationships:

1. No omissions, no white lies, no rejections

2. Acknowledge the dynamics and keep growing

Remember the complexity of racial, gender, class, sexuality and national constructs, etc. and seek to evolve "beyond them" or find a way to also transcend them so that those constructs do not imprison you, but rather help you feel more free.

3. Relinquish Frankenstein

You are not creating people to be around -- you are meeting people with their whole lives behind and ahead of them.

Transition from trying to make and fix people into working up a curiosity about people and what you can learn from them. (p. 143)

Here's another one of my personal favorite quotes from the book that really speaks to heart of what's difficult about participating in any style of internet criticism...

"We create memes. Reducing someone into the laughing stock of the internet that day. We write think pieces on how we are not like that person and how we obviously wouldn't make the same mistakes they have. We deconstruct them as thinkers, activists, groups, bodies, partners parents children finding all their contradictions and limitations and shine a bright light on them. When we are satisfied that that group or person is destroyed, we move on." (p. 145 )

"When forced into a binary, you always choose wrong." - Jelani Wilson

The 7th lesson I learned from this book rests largely on studying and celebrating the work of visionary futurists like Octavia Butler. Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha started the Octavia's Brood project and wrote a book highlighting the value and contribution of Butler's work as an afro-futurist and visionary author.

If you want to get more familiar with Octavia check out this dated and brief yet insightful interview:

"Imagination is one of the spoils of colonization which in many ways is claiming who gets to imagine the future for a given geography. Losing our imagination is a symptom of trauma. Reclaiming the right to dream the future - strengthen the muscle to imagine together as Black people is a revolutionary, decolonizing activity. (p. 163)

In her chapter on "Creating More Possibilities" Brown makes a strong case for us to remember the relationship between power, imagination, and future worlds.

If we look back on the process and effects of colonization and juxtapose them to present day imperialism and even everyday capitalism we have to ask ourselves - to whom are we relinquishing the power of our imaginations... and in exchange for what?

"Because of our ancestors, because of us, and because of our children - there will be a future without police and prisons ". (p.163)

We are taught to believe that tunneling down a career path and clinging to our day jobs will eliminate the risks of an uncertain world and create a sense of stability.

This is true to some extent, however, what if we shift towards a future perspective - from our narrow career goals towards future generations and the planet... when we trade our ability to organize and relinquish our power to participate in shaping communities for the comfort of corporate life we risk everything.

Perhaps that's why it takes a national event to shock us into remembrance - a recollection that there are alternate paths that our futures can take; one on our terms and one largely undetermined by the agendas and imaginations of the ultra wealthy, corporate executives, big data and tech companies, militaries, police, prisons, and the footsoldiers of powerful institutions. I'm sure there's a middle ground in there... but essentially, we must reclaim our ability to structure our time, our days, our weeks, our years and take back the power to imagine the shape of our futures.

"Occupy and Black Lives Matter are two large scale efforts that take this collaborative ideation to a movement level, proliferating futures from a place of possibility, of multitudinous paths forward... towards a shared dream" (p. 160)

Collaborative ideation, as I can interpret it, is a concept introduced in this chapter design to give ourselves permission to kill the ego and share our ideas of the future - not as private property - but as public spaces and ideological parks to be enjoyed maintained for and by the public.

In the USA we are obsessed with private property largely with an auxilary and erroneous fear that there isn't enough for everybody to have a piece. So just remember that when it comes to creating community, someone has to take the risk and move their private ideas into the public... and trust the people to build upon it.

"Organizing takes humility and selflessness and patience and rhythm, while our ultimate goal of liberation will take many expert components. Some of us build and fight for land, healthy bodies, healthy relationships, clean air, water, homes, safety, dignity, and humanizing education.

Others of us fight for food and political prisoners and abolition and environmental justice. Our work is intersectional and multifaceted. Nature teaches us that our work has to be nuanced and steadfast. And more than anything - that we need each other - at our highest natural glory in order to get free." - Dara Cooper (p. 159)

Becoming a visionary organizer and creative revolutionary is inherently dance between science and fiction. It is neither dystopian or utopian.

It is a path that requires us to place marginalized communities at the center of our stories while compassionately disrupting the single-wealthy-straight-white-male-hero narrative that we are accustomed to...

"Visionary fiction intentionally explores how change happens from the bottom up."

So when you read and imagine, remember that you are probably not merely escaping the trauma and discomfort of the world - and simultaneously you are not diving into an exercise of austerity - but you are exploring imperfectly... with a bias toward liberation into alternative futures on your own terms with a desire to disrupt the status quo.

My 8th and final takeaway from this book skips a couple chapters that I believe are somewhat of a mix of the rest of the chapters in the book. Brown has some wonderful conversations with other organizers and activists about the nature of organizing, what needs work, and some philosophical meanderings about the metaphors that nature gives us as blueprints for change.

Here I'll focus on my favorite takeaways for what Brown calls tools for facilitation. Whether your involved in an organization, alliance, network, company, collaborative, club, or any form of people working towards a shared vision there are some universal tools you can implement to become a better leader and organizer.

While I've skipped a lot content that you might find helpful, poetic, and inspiring, I've included and made minor wordplay adjustments what I believe are some of the most practical takeaways below:
Useful Tools for Facilitation: Trust the people

Here we are reminded of Lao Tzu's proverb "If you don't trust the people, they become untrustworthy" and Brown simply flips that proverb from the negative to the positive, "If you trust the people, they become trustworthy". The real struggles of building a movement can come from interpersonal politics, dynamics, and "ego" games.

We often go into a situation with a set of expectations and try to mold that experience towards that set of expectations rather than trusting the people to self-organize around a given topic or issue. I consider this principle to mean two things: trust the people, and let go of your desire to control, and things will work out.

Set a goal and intention

Why are we meeting?

The goals should be visible to all, transparent, and referred to throughout the meeting. We can assume that people have different levels of focus, interest, attention, energy, and beliefs so its necessary to level the playing field and get everyone one on the same page even if it means a little bit of goal repetition.

Invite the right people

Make sure that you are asking the right questions before you call a meeting. Who is directly impacted by the issue? Who is doing compelling work on the issue?

Having the right people at the meeting doesn't mean making the easiest, most comfortable choice. Conflicting points of view with a shared purpose can advance the work and bring real issues into the room.

Articulate individual participation

Is it relevant? Is it clear? Is it accessible? These are a few questions that you can help shape the individual participants of a given meeting. Language barriers can be both literal and cultural so it's important to give the participants in the room a chance to articulate their own priorities for the meeting. Try using post it notes on a blank wall to visually articulate each person's individual priorities and vested interests.

Create a living agenda

Brown says here, from her personal experience, that most conversations need around 1.5 hours to adequately dive into a given subject... So creating a central purpose with the option to temporarily deviate off course allows the agenda live with a sense of adaptability.

Listen with love!

This principle is rather self-explanatory and I think we all are guilty of denying ourselves this opportunity. The essential takeaway here is to put your annoyance aside and listen without judgement. There is as conversation in the room that wants and needs to be had. Don't force it, don't deny it. Let it come forth.

Know when to say yes and when to say no Don't hover What you gonna do?

Brown quotes a question once asked to her by Gibron Rivera "What is the next most elegant step?"

It's OK to realize that what you once thought was the right course of action needs revising and maybe you need to account for people who are not in the room who need to be in the room before you can say for sure. Maybe you need a full day to plan out the nuances of strategy and tactics before moving forward. Maybe that's a hit to your ego but a better plan in the long run.

Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing

1. Be inclusive

2. Emphasize bottom up organizing

3. Let people speak for themselves

4. Work together in solidarity and mutuality

5. Build just relationships among ourselves

6. Commitment to self transformation

And last but not least she mentions Don Miguel Ruiz's practical guide to personal freedom: Remember the four agreements The Wrap-Up
While no book is perfect, this book is an amazing step towards bridging the magic of community building and with a map for what it means, and what it takes, to co-create futures with those around us.

Again, here are the eight lessons to hold onto:

I will return to this book for insight into self-care and what it means to redefine leadership and lead by example. We're way past due to shine light on the intersections of democratic organizing, social movement mobilization and the small worlds of how to take care of ourselves in the pursuit of a better future.

We have no financial relationship with the authors of the books we read and take notes on, but we do want to help support the authors for their hard work, so go find the book on or anywhere books are sold.

...If your still reading this, you probably had too much fun and would like to reach the complaint department - all you have to do drop by and become a patron for $1 - this pays for the coffee and tea required to fuel the response to each complaint. I can only promise that it will immediately solve all of your problems and end capitalism as we know it.

Don't you have something your late for? Get out of here.

A COUPLE YEARS AGO I visited Detroit to attend the Allied Media Conference; a four day event where activists, organizers, and artists from all over the country gathered to host and attend sessions rooted in media-based liberation practices.

Although I traveled to Detroit to take part in a multitude of sessions and workshops -- one session stood out to me the most: the session with Adrienne Maree Brown.

In that session Brown spoke about the value and power of vulnerability, reconnecting with the magic in our daily life, and setting boundaries as artists and activists looking to shape change in the world.

As a filmmaker and aspiring organizer this session really spoke to my interests - and since you're reading this, you probably want to make work that's meaningful and build communities around solving the problems you care about most... you might also share a curiosity about the formation, sustainability and the rise-and-fall of social movements throughout history.

These are just a few of the questions on my mind before I started reading this, and while they weren't necessarily answered, Emergent Strategy - a book not filled with historical facts - takes you on a journey through a series of movement-building insights from someone who's not afraid to share the good times, the challenges, and the lessons along the way.

While it takes a lifetime of movement building experiences, conversations, failures, books, etc. to scratch the surface of those questions I wanted to start somewhere, so I decided to grab a copy and started reading.

If your an artist, activist, or an organizer involved in an alliance, network, collaborative, club, or any formation of people working towards a shared vision - in this book you'll find useful tools that you can implement to become a more creative leader, facilitator, or even just better tools to hold existing leaders and movements accountable.

Nature has its own way of organizing.

In the beginning of the book Brown outlines six elements of biology, physics, and ecology that can help to shape our perspective on our journey toward building liberated communities.

Here's a my abridged interpretation of six core principles from page 45 (try to forgive this first lesson for being mostly a bulleted list):
One: Adaptation - How we change Two: Fractal - The relationship between small and large Three: Resilience and Transformative Justice - How we recover and transform Four: Non-linear and iterative - The pace and pathways of change Five: Creating more possibilities - How we move towards life Six: Interdependence and Decentralization - Who we are and how we share.

Metaphor: Fungus

Mycelium is the part of the fungus that grows underground in threadlike formations. It connects roots to one another and breaks down plant material to create healthier ecosystems. Mycelium is the largest organism on Earth - and it's mostly hidden from sight.

Themes: Interconnectedness. Remediation. Detoxification.

In Brown's chapter on fractals she emphasizes that - if we are to approach solutions to problems on a large scale and imagine a future different than the one we're headed towards presently - the internal problems we face have to be recognized by those doing the organizing, such as:

Over working

Unrealistic expectations

Organizational and movement splitting

Personal drama disrupting movements

Drifting off course from the mission -- especially in relation to money

Stagnation and the inability to make decisions

In this chapter she lightly touches on the issues of self-care, the struggle to free ourselves from addiction to cell phones and social media, loneliness on a crowded planet, and our nagging desires to achieve more... problems that can each create competition and conflict within movements.

She also mentions something important - we've spent a lot of time deconstructing the issues and problems of the world - so much so that we tend to know more about what we don't want than what we actually want our futures to feel like.

If there was one thing that drew me to her work from that one magical hour in Detroit it is the following paraphrase:

"showing black, brown, and white people sitting at a lunch counter together was once considered science fiction..."

So, I'm curious - what will our new science fiction look like?

Before I went to her workshop I had read Octavia Butler's pattern master series, and fell in love with one of her books called Mind of My Mind -- so when Brown started connecting of the value of science fiction with the practice of visionary organizing, I knew I had found something special.

Let's take a second to talk about the role of toxic masculinity in the culture of organizing.

She mentions her work with the organization Ruckus, which modeled after Greenpeace but was "rooted in a masculine action culture... Ruckus was in and out with mind-blowing", creative actions... This was in line with a model of action grounded in spectacle...

...The politics were radical and actions historic, but there wasn't any sense of ownership or community engagement with the work, which meant at a fundamental level the power dynamic wasn't changing" (p. 61)

This chapter and all all the anecdotes make for a great cautionary tale.

All too often organizations and political spaces can not only be dominated by hyper-masculinity but also by a culture steeped in a value system that will ultimately lead to its downfall.

It's common get caught up in the hype of overvaluing achievement based, quantifiable, measurable actions and tasks rather than allowing space for uncertainty, pushing towards vulnerability, creativity, and mission... to create lasting community engagement.

In order to change directions in a movement we must have the courage admit when were wrong - but a traditional masculine organizing culture doesn't allow itself the freedom do that.

So when things get messy and power dynamics change for the worse within and outside of an organization it can help to refresh our clarity on what questions we are asking ourselves.
Are we asking...
Or, are we asking...

There's so much more to this chapter but I hope this overview helps remind you to ask the question you want to ask... about what our approach as activists, artists, and organizers is in relation to the communities we want to serve.

"Many of us respond to change with fear, or see it as a crisis. We spend precious time thinking about what has changed that we didn't choose or can't control and/or thinking ahead to future stress." (p. 68)

In the next chapter on adaptation Brown touches on our tendency to resist change and offers us several ways that we can shift our perspective toward wasting less energy on control and gain more of our personal energy by letting go and "adapting towards pleasure". This topic is covered way more in-depth in her book Pleasure Activism.

To some extent you might say we all have a desire to feel a sense of security and stability - to find and position important things, people, and places around us that are reliable and consistent - whether we're willing to admit it or not another issue.

I believe that while this desire is natural and can be beneficial, it can often manifests from a place of fear - a fear rooted in the habitual assumption that "the future will not care for me..." that the world is a place of scarcity so we must latch on to stability or else... CHAOS!

As I read this book I continued to search for my beliefs about broader ways in which things play out in my own life. On the opposite end of our desire for stability is the feeling of terror - the terror of accepting that there are many, many things beyond our control.

While it's no doubt proven difficult, I find much more joy habitually positioning my perspective on life with a belief that... the world, while it has no shortage of deep systemic problems, at its core is a place of abundance... and the anxiety we feel is often the product of not letting go of our desire to control the future.

It is largely the machinery of late stage capitalism - and the toxic values and practices that it gives genesis to - that would try persuade me otherwise.

Now, this doesn't mean we shouldn't seek to change it - on the contrary - this is great tool to help us regulate our emotions and communicate to others in our movements and communities with a rare sense of trust. And it's with this sense of trust that we can effectively shape the change we want to see in this world.

"As an individual, get really good at being intentional with where you put your energy letting go as quickly as you can of things that aren't apart of your visionary life's work. Then you can give your all from a well-resourced place, when the storm comes, or for those last crucial miles". (p. 72)

Less on point. More on purpose.

Rather than placing your value on whether what you've accomplished matches the exact shape of the blueprints that you've started with, you can choose to shift towards purpose and let go of the small deviations from the organizational roadmap. That's the practice of emergence, right?

Here are a few bullet-point takeaways and action items that helped me encapsulate Brown's strategies on shifting towards a more impactful leadership practice in this chapter:

1. Less prep, more presence

2. Low ego, high impact

3. Building alignment, not selling ideas

4. Relationship is the measure of our strength

5. This will be as amazing as you are

6. Trust your own work, and trust each other

There a number of gems hidden in this chapter when it comes to creating an atmosphere for a highly effective and emotionally responsive team, but there so numerous I just couldn't include them here so you'll have to read them!

"In terms of organizing - this means organizations, or campaigns, or even individuals - it's a set of relationships *between* organizations, campaigns, individuals." - Farhad Ebrahmi

As we develop we're often met with the dissonance between two worlds - world of compassion, collaboration, and emotional intelligence and the other world: one of competition, one-up-man ship, and meritocracy.

It's up to us to figure out which strategy ultimately serves us and those we love.

In this chapter Brown explores the concepts of decentralization and interdependence, nudging me to ask the question:

How can we thrive together while seeing each of our own individual desires for independence and still meet our needs for collaboration and connection?

In any organization, group, or collective where people are asked to make contributions you will run into the issue of intellectual property - or the "who will own the new ideas" problem. Who gets the credit? What does that say about my status? What role does status play in movements for justice?

I came to some personal realizations while reading this chapter, basically, that during collaboration process it's important to communicate from the beginning something about ourselves and the appetites of our egos with a sense of humor.

I don't believe we will be able to abolish the ego, or our petty wars for credit... but we can live with a shared sense of humor and humility and work things out from there.

I can learn to say "Yes. I am a FOOL... and I let my ego get the better of me, and my ego wants all the credit in order to feel valued in this collaboration."

Along these lines, here are a few concrete takeaways from this chapter:

When working as an organization many of us want to hide and protect some part of us from those that were working with. Maybe it's our desire not to be too vulnerable or maybe we're just building up to it slowly. Maybe we don't feel that we deserve to be seen. Maybe we don't believe we're as incredible of a leader as the people around us believe that we are.

Here I don't think she's advocating to go from zero to one hundred and share everything about yourself, but rather to recognize up front that we have more that meets the surface and more importantly, so does everyone else we work with. So we must confront our fear of being seen for the leaders that we are.

While hopefully in good taste and keeping our egos in check - I think this is really helpful for those who might be reluctant to "show off" their leadership skills and end up erring on the shy side - sometimes it's so much so that we don't get to know them with the depth and richness that they deserve.
2. Don't Be Afraid To Be Wrong
"The easier being wrong is for you, the faster you can adapt to the changing situations".

In my experience, taking ownership of my own ego is super useful in speeding up the healing processes. I often want to use defensiveness as a tool to say "I know you think I'm stupid and but I'm really not. Oh and also I make no mistakes!" but this digs me deeper down the rabbit hole of regret.

My takeaway here is sweet and simple: accept when you're wrong. Apologize. And remember to trust your team and your shared purpose.
3. Accept inner multitudes
This principle is something we can all relate to. I want to eat healthy but that same person also wants ice cream. It's always good to remind ourselves that we aren't a monolith of perfection nor do we have to operate in absolutes. I can have sugar cravings AND acknowledge my addictions and relapses - while still maintaining self-respect and integrity despite however many failures in self-discipline occur along the journey.
4. Ask for and receive what you need
This advice spoke to me and helped me realize one of my core weaknesses - the inability to ask for and communicate what I need and openly receive care in whatever form it takes. This is crucial and if we are afraid to ask those we trust for help, how will we ever build an interdependent future and decentralized communities where people learn to lean on each other and ask for help when it's needed.

I'm not advocating that we start abusing this principle but I think you know who you are if this resonates with you and your probably erring on the side of never using your ability to ask for help.

"Humans are both understandable and mysterious. Communion is all about acceptance, and organizing is about both." -Peter Hardie (p. 105)

The next lesson, found in Brown's chapter on non-linear and iterative change, is one of the more personal and poetic chapters - one full of vulnerability in the form of diary-entry-style prose and insights into movement building.
"The heart is a frontline and the fight is to feel in a world of distraction" (p.110)
She mentions early on that we have the power to learn from grief and more important to reject the assumption that we should be ashamed of experiencing grief.

You may find yourself feeling torn between the desire to be productive and the overwhelming power of grief. This is when you reject the idea that grief is not productive part of the movement. In fact, movements are often built on grief and the fight to reduce future experiences of chronic despair and oppression, so we might do better to recognize it as a tool for liberation than a burden to be relieved of.

In this chapter there's an important memory Brown shares with us about making a trip to NYC for the Occupy Movement rally in Zuccotti Park.

"I noticed the wingnut messaging... and the whiteness and yet I felt close to tears a few times, seeing unexpected diversity in the crowd, seeing the self-organized systems emerging for the creation of art, sharing of information, health, and wellness. There was even a table of "coaches" to help people figure out what their role in the movement could be... I actually felt moved to see so many white people, very normal-looking white people, standing around the edges of this park, looking liberated themselves, holding up signs that criticize capitalism." (p.111)

This piece is a great reminder that, as people of color, we can all too often get into a frame of mind that is so critical it begins to undermine our actual intentions and erode the quality of engagement that we sought to create community with.

I'm not saying we need to let go of our criticism but we should be mindful of and strategic with when and where and who that criticism get applied to, if we want a truly diverse movement to flourish. Because no one culture is homogeneous nor monolithic, although... would it even be easier if that were the case?

Since from around the time of the murder of Trayvon Martin and onwards I began to think of current permutation of racial tensions in the US and find myself being so critical that I am critical of my criticism - :( . Can you relate?

What I mean is that I don't want to fall prey to a populist cancel-culture sentiment that isn't actually rooted in compassion, radical, revolutionary movement-building guided with intelligence and integrity.

I want my identity politics to be nuanced and humble and inclusive. Not rigid, combative, and exclusive. I believe that's a more difficult and radical choice and ultimately I believe in an identity politics that unites more than it alienates and is always aware of that goal, all the while still holding true to it's function - speaking truth to power and shifting that power back into to the hands of the people.

"Sometimes I think we put up critiques to excuse ourselves from getting involved, and sometimes I think we do it to protect our hearts from getting broken if it doesn't work out. Critique, alone, can keep us from having to pick up the responsibility of figuring out solutions." (p. 112)

Brown also has a refreshing way of looking at movement building... kind of like parenting or what she calls being a movement doula and gives us what is probably my all-time favorite quote in the whole damn book:

"Parents don't know how to raise a child because they read all the books and went to the classes. They figure it out in the dead of night, covered in shit and tears, and finally holding the sleeping child stunned by love." (p. 119)

Soak that up and take it into lesson 6...

What is transformative justice? What does it look like and what are some guiding principles we can use to find it in our lives?
In a discussion about resilience and transformation Brown gives us several tools that were shared with her from the Young Women's Empowerment Project.

Here are my interpretations on the outlines of those principles... yes, I love making lists - leave me alone.

Transformative Justice...

1. Acknowledges the reality of state harm

2. Looks for alternative ways to address and disrupt harm which do NOT rely on the state

3. Relies on organic creative strategies that are community created and sustained

4. Transforms the root causes of violence, not only the individual experience (p.135)

Principles for Liberated Relationships:

1. No omissions, no white lies, no rejections

2. Acknowledge the dynamics and keep growing

Remember the complexity of racial, gender, class, sexuality and national constructs, etc. and seek to evolve "beyond them" or find a way to also transcend them so that those constructs do not imprison you, but rather help you feel more free.

3. Relinquish Frankenstein

You are not creating people to be around -- you are meeting people with their whole lives behind and ahead of them.

Transition from trying to make and fix people into working up a curiosity about people and what you can learn from them. (p. 143)

Here's another one of my personal favorite quotes from the book that really speaks to heart of what's difficult about participating in any style of internet criticism...

"We create memes. Reducing someone into the laughing stock of the internet that day. We write think pieces on how we are not like that person and how we obviously wouldn't make the same mistakes they have. We deconstruct them as thinkers, activists, groups, bodies, partners parents children finding all their contradictions and limitations and shine a bright light on them. When we are satisfied that that group or person is destroyed, we move on." (p. 145 )

"When forced into a binary, you always choose wrong." - Jelani Wilson

The 7th lesson I learned from this book rests largely on studying and celebrating the work of visionary futurists like Octavia Butler. Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha started the Octavia's Brood project and wrote a book highlighting the value and contribution of Butler's work as an afro-futurist and visionary author.

If you want to get more familiar with Octavia check out this dated and brief yet insightful interview:

"Imagination is one of the spoils of colonization which in many ways is claiming who gets to imagine the future for a given geography. Losing our imagination is a symptom of trauma. Reclaiming the right to dream the future - strengthen the muscle to imagine together as Black people is a revolutionary, decolonizing activity. (p. 163)

In her chapter on "Creating More Possibilities" Brown makes a strong case for us to remember the relationship between power, imagination, and future worlds.

If we look back on the process and effects of colonization and juxtapose them to present day imperialism and even everyday capitalism we have to ask ourselves - to whom are we relinquishing the power of our imaginations... and in exchange for what?

"Because of our ancestors, because of us, and because of our children - there will be a future without police and prisons ". (p.163)

We are taught to believe that tunneling down a career path and clinging to our day jobs will eliminate the risks of an uncertain world and create a sense of stability.

This is true to some extent, however, what if we shift towards a future perspective - from our narrow career goals towards future generations and the planet... when we trade our ability to organize and relinquish our power to participate in shaping communities for the comfort of corporate life we risk everything.

Perhaps that's why it takes a national event to shock us into remembrance - a recollection that there are alternate paths that our futures can take; one on our terms and one largely undetermined by the agendas and imaginations of the ultra wealthy, corporate executives, big data and tech companies, militaries, police, prisons, and the footsoldiers of powerful institutions. I'm sure there's a middle ground in there... but essentially, we must reclaim our ability to structure our time, our days, our weeks, our years and take back the power to imagine the shape of our futures.

"Occupy and Black Lives Matter are two large scale efforts that take this collaborative ideation to a movement level, proliferating futures from a place of possibility, of multitudinous paths forward... towards a shared dream" (p. 160)

Collaborative ideation, as I can interpret it, is a concept introduced in this chapter design to give ourselves permission to kill the ego and share our ideas of the future - not as private property - but as public spaces and ideological parks to be enjoyed maintained for and by the public.

In the USA we are obsessed with private property largely with an auxilary and erroneous fear that there isn't enough for everybody to have a piece. So just remember that when it comes to creating community, someone has to take the risk and move their private ideas into the public... and trust the people to build upon it.

"Organizing takes humility and selflessness and patience and rhythm, while our ultimate goal of liberation will take many expert components. Some of us build and fight for land, healthy bodies, healthy relationships, clean air, water, homes, safety, dignity, and humanizing education.

Others of us fight for food and political prisoners and abolition and environmental justice. Our work is intersectional and multifaceted. Nature teaches us that our work has to be nuanced and steadfast. And more than anything - that we need each other - at our highest natural glory in order to get free." - Dara Cooper (p. 159)

Becoming a visionary organizer and creative revolutionary is inherently dance between science and fiction. It is neither dystopian or utopian.

It is a path that requires us to place marginalized communities at the center of our stories while compassionately disrupting the single-wealthy-straight-white-male-hero narrative that we are accustomed to...

"Visionary fiction intentionally explores how change happens from the bottom up."

So when you read and imagine, remember that you are probably not merely escaping the trauma and discomfort of the world - and simultaneously you are not diving into an exercise of austerity - but you are exploring imperfectly... with a bias toward liberation into alternative futures on your own terms with a desire to disrupt the status quo.

My 8th and final takeaway from this book skips a couple chapters that I believe are somewhat of a mix of the rest of the chapters in the book. Brown has some wonderful conversations with other organizers and activists about the nature of organizing, what needs work, and some philosophical meanderings about the metaphors that nature gives us as blueprints for change.

Here I'll focus on my favorite takeaways for what Brown calls tools for facilitation. Whether your involved in an organization, alliance, network, company, collaborative, club, or any form of people working towards a shared vision there are some universal tools you can implement to become a better leader and organizer.

While I've skipped a lot content that you might find helpful, poetic, and inspiring, I've included and made minor wordplay adjustments what I believe are some of the most practical takeaways below:
Useful Tools for Facilitation: Trust the people

Here we are reminded of Lao Tzu's proverb "If you don't trust the people, they become untrustworthy" and Brown simply flips that proverb from the negative to the positive, "If you trust the people, they become trustworthy". The real struggles of building a movement can come from interpersonal politics, dynamics, and "ego" games.

We often go into a situation with a set of expectations and try to mold that experience towards that set of expectations rather than trusting the people to self-organize around a given topic or issue. I consider this principle to mean two things: trust the people, and let go of your desire to control, and things will work out.

Set a goal and intention

Why are we meeting?

The goals should be visible to all, transparent, and referred to throughout the meeting. We can assume that people have different levels of focus, interest, attention, energy, and beliefs so its necessary to level the playing field and get everyone one on the same page even if it means a little bit of goal repetition.

Invite the right people

Make sure that you are asking the right questions before you call a meeting. Who is directly impacted by the issue? Who is doing compelling work on the issue?

Having the right people at the meeting doesn't mean making the easiest, most comfortable choice. Conflicting points of view with a shared purpose can advance the work and bring real issues into the room.

Articulate individual participation

Is it relevant? Is it clear? Is it accessible? These are a few questions that you can help shape the individual participants of a given meeting. Language barriers can be both literal and cultural so it's important to give the participants in the room a chance to articulate their own priorities for the meeting. Try using post it notes on a blank wall to visually articulate each person's individual priorities and vested interests.

Create a living agenda

Brown says here, from her personal experience, that most conversations need around 1.5 hours to adequately dive into a given subject... So creating a central purpose with the option to temporarily deviate off course allows the agenda live with a sense of adaptability.

Listen with love!

This principle is rather self-explanatory and I think we all are guilty of denying ourselves this opportunity. The essential takeaway here is to put your annoyance aside and listen without judgement. There is as conversation in the room that wants and needs to be had. Don't force it, don't deny it. Let it come forth.

Know when to say yes and when to say no Don't hover What you gonna do?

Brown quotes a question once asked to her by Gibron Rivera "What is the next most elegant step?"

It's OK to realize that what you once thought was the right course of action needs revising and maybe you need to account for people who are not in the room who need to be in the room before you can say for sure. Maybe you need a full day to plan out the nuances of strategy and tactics before moving forward. Maybe that's a hit to your ego but a better plan in the long run.

Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing

1. Be inclusive

2. Emphasize bottom up organizing

3. Let people speak for themselves

4. Work together in solidarity and mutuality

5. Build just relationships among ourselves

6. Commitment to self transformation

And last but not least she mentions Don Miguel Ruiz's practical guide to personal freedom: Remember the four agreements The Wrap-Up
While no book is perfect, this book is an amazing step towards bridging the magic of community building and with a map for what it means, and what it takes, to co-create futures with those around us.

Again, here are the eight lessons to hold onto:

I will return to this book for insight into self-care and what it means to redefine leadership and lead by example. We're way past due to shine light on the intersections of democratic organizing, social movement mobilization and the small worlds of how to take care of ourselves in the pursuit of a better future.

We have no financial relationship with the authors of the books we read and take notes on, but we do want to help support the authors for their hard work, so go find the book on or anywhere books are sold.

...If your still reading this, you probably had too much fun and would like to reach the complaint department - all you have to do drop by and become a patron for $1 - this pays for the coffee and tea required to fuel the response to each complaint. I can only promise that it will immediately solve all of your problems and end capitalism as we know it.

Don't you have something your late for? Get out of here.

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8 Takeaways from Adrienne Maree Brown's 'Emergent Strategy' | Abolition Democracy Lab

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"We create memes. Reducing someone into the laughing stock of the internet that day. We write think pieces on how we are not like that person and how we obviously wouldn't make the same mistakes they have. We deconstruct them as thinkers, activists, groups, bodies, partners parents children finding

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Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown

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Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown

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Putting our best book forward

Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

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political science / political ideologies / radicalism

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social science / feminism & feminist theory

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social science/feminism & feminist theory

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pleasure activism; allied media project; social justice; social justice theory; transformative justice; community accountability; black feminism

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political science / political ideologies / radicalism

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social science / feminism & feminist theory

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social science/feminism & feminist theory

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Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

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Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds [brown, adrienne maree] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

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Jones & Okun

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We are Black urban planners, architects, artists, activists, designers, and leaders working to protect and create Black spaces. Our work includes a range of activities from engagement and projects in historically Black neighborhoods to hosting cross-disciplinary convenings and events. While what we do is very important, the way we do it is also critical. Acknowledging our triumphs, oppressions, aspirations, and challenges, we’ve *This principle is derived from Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. MANIFESTO created this manifesto to guide our growth as a group and our interactions with one another, partners, and communities. We push ourselves, our partners, our fields, and our work closer to these ideals so we may realize a present and future where Black people, Black spaces, and Black culture matter and thrive.

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Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing 

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Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing 

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Meeting hosted by Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ), Jemez, New Mexico, Dec. 1996

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AWSL Equity Cohort How to have a Critical Conversation authored by students for adults

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AWSL Equity Cohort How to have a Critical Conversation authored by students for adults

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Create self-directed onboarding with ongoing access to resources

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I want to think about how we open up and leverage access to professional development in a virtual world to begin to foster collaboration and begin to engage tough conversations about how we work with youth. (KP)

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Prioritize and center community furthest from educational justice by inviting to Teaching and Learning spaces. Then be willing to lead for the system learning from the community it should be serving.

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I want to think about a small focused series of professional development that is collaborative and reflective of instructional practices. PD that is an inquiry cycle. One in which adults feel empowered dig into their own practice.

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Build capacity of adults (Staff and parents) in the system and collectively design teaching and learning opportunities (job embedded and relevant)

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Build capacity of adults (Staff and parents) in the system and collectively design teaching and learning opportunities (job embedded and relevant)

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Continue to ask my staff what they need to grown and their own professional learning. Learn along with them by providing the time in their PLCs to build in the moment knowledge and over the long haul knowledge and practices as we navigate this point in time.  What does this make possible? question as an opportunity for growth and change.

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"There is really no such thing as the voiceless.  There are only the deliberately silenced or preferably unheard."

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"There is really no such thing as the voiceless.  There are only the deliberately silenced or preferably unheard."

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Bring community activists, leaders, parents, students to teach in professional learning.

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Bring community activists, leaders, parents, students to teach in professional learning.

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Decenter whiteness and the male patriarchy in professional development- an important message and something for me to work on.

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Want to find a way to elevate student voice when planning pd with staff.

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​Dismantling Racism Works (dRworks) is
​pleased to offer our workbook and other resources.
We hope you find the material here useful
to you, your organization, and your community.

​ This web-based workbook was originally designed to support the

​Dismantling Racism Works 2-day basic workshop.
The workbook is now offered as a resource to the community.
If you would, please continue to credit dRworks if and when you use our material.

This web-based workbook is resource dense, so for best results,
use a computer to view and use it.

​ Thank you.

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​Dismantling Racism Works (dRworks) is ​pleased to offer our workbook and other resources. We hope you find the material here useful to you, your organization, and your community.

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2:15 Welcome
2:25 Kecia Fox
2:40 Julie van Wijk and Charisse Berner
2:50 Heather McMullen
3:00 Kelly Camak
3:10 - 3:15 Closure