July 2021 IL Newsblast No images? Click here Teach Plus Illinois celebrates its 2020-2021 Teacher Leaders in its Annual ShowcaseA job well-done to our cohorts of teacher leaders from the K-12 Teaching Policy Fellowship, the Chicago Change Agent Fellowship, the Early Childhood Education Fellowship, the Illinois State Teachers of the Year Policy Fellowship, and all of our Teacher Leaders from our partner schools and districts. We are honored to have worked alongside you to bring about change for all Illinois teachers and students. From our hearts to yours, thank you! On June 23rd, we celebrated the teacher leaders from all our programs. Please enjoy the recap video above featuring our five featured speakers: Brandon Thornton, Briana Morales, Jasmine Gilliam, Kelly McGee, and Margi Bhansali. For a brief introduction to each of the featured speakers and links to their complete talks, click here. You can also find links to all our media hits from the year here, and one-pagers describing the work of our Change Agent and Kindergarten Readiness Innovators here. Thank you to all our teacher leaders for the work you did, our staff for leading our change in IL, and our funders, without whom, none of this would be possible. -Teach Plus IL staff From Teach Plus Illinois Bill Curtin, Teach Plus Illinois Policy Manager and Teacher Leadership Coach Dear Teachers, I’m writing in Josh’s place this month as he enjoys some well-deserved downtime, and I hope you are finding the opportunity to do the same this summer. After a year in which teachers were pushed to the limit helping students overcome trauma and distance and disconnectedness, it is important to remember that we cannot pour from an empty cup, and we need to take some time to refill and refresh to bring our full selves to the work. Yet despite all the challenges we’ve faced, we are also immensely proud of all that we’ve accomplished over the past year. At our Virtual Showcase on June 23, we celebrated the successes of our teacher leaders, who led with teacher voice to shape important policy issues and led changes in their schools to improve student outcomes. I encourage you to watch one or more of our featured speakers detail the kinds of work they’ve done. Every time I reflect on it, I am blown away by the fact that in the midst of the most difficult year teachers have ever faced, all of these teacher leaders signed on to do even more--to push their students, their colleagues, indeed our whole system, to be better. And that work is not done. In addition to our Showcase, last month also saw the launch of the 2021-22 Teaching Policy Fellowship, Early Childhood Educator Fellowship, and Chicago Change Agent cohorts. The teachers selected for these programs are already preparing to lead changes in policy and practice and work toward a more equitable education system for all students. As we begin to look ahead to the fall, these teacher leaders and so many more will play essential roles in implementing the recently released guidance to plan a safe return to school, assessing student learning to deliver impactful instruction, and supporting students’ mental and emotional health as they process trauma. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that teachers are ready to rise to any challenge. I have never been prouder of my chosen profession, and look forward to the coming school year with both awe and optimism as we continue to build a brighter future for all students. Yours, Bill Curtin Policy Manager and Teacher Leadership Coach The Practice Corner Congratulations to each and every one of you for making it through this incredibly challenging school year! We are so proud of our 2020-21 cohort of Change Agents and Kindergarten Readiness Innovators who volunteered to take on more work (leading teams of teachers in their schools to solve a teacher-identified problem of practice) despite the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic. These inspiring teacher leaders were a source of strength for their peers throughout the year, and were able to bring about important and lasting changes in their schools, centers, and districts. Several teachers created and ran well-attended professional learning communities in their schools around subjects like vertical alignment and virtual assessment in K-8 mathematics, employing ELL teaching strategies (in-person and virtually), and teaching executive functioning skills to diverse learners. Other teacher leaders changed the way their schools:
One Chicago teacher leader increased the percentage of students at or above grade-level by 58% throughout the year, and an Early Childhood educator from Carterville ensured that 95% of the students at her center were kindergarten-ready by the end of the year. Thank you to all of our teacher leaders for their perseverance, creativity, and commitment to students this year. We are so excited to welcome our next cohort of teacher leaders, who you'll hear more about next month! Kristen Ciciora IL Director of Instructional Practice Programs OpportunitiesCenter for Childhood Resilience is Offering License Clock Hours for Educators! CCR VLC trainings focus on trauma-responsive and healing-centered practices and policies, and foster personal and professional resilience, social-emotional awareness and self-care. The VLC is a free on-demand learning hub for educators and clinicians as well as parents and caregivers. The VLC provides an opportunity to connect, collaborate and expand knowledge of trauma-informed, healing centered practices, and offers innovative and culturally-attuned trainings. Professional development topics include:
As a part of our partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), educators who complete the VLC trainings can earn license clock hours. The license clock hours are available to Illinois educators, administrators, school staff and school counselors. Illinois licensed social workers and psychologists can earn Continuing Education Credits (CEUs). To earn license clock hours and CEUs, participants must complete a short survey at the end of each training, and then will able to download a certificate of attendance. Click here to learn more! If you have questions about the VLC learning platform, please contact ccr@luriechildrens.org CFE is currently accepting applications for its 2021-22 Action Research Fellowship (ARLI) Program! For 16 years CFE has offered Action Research Leadership Institute Fellowships to Chicago’s most outstanding PreK-12th grade teachers. Action research is the systematic process of looking closely at a specific aspect of one’s practice in order to improve student outcomes, improve the school environment, and make positive changes to one’s teaching. Fellows conduct action research in their schools, increase their leadership engagement, and use their findings to impact education policy. Each awarded CFE Action Research Fellow receives a stipend of $1,250, and over the course of the academic year, engages in intensive training in determining a student research focus, collecting data, examining the efficacy of specific strategies, documenting student achievement, and reflecting upon their practice. At the conclusion of each program cycle, our ARLI Fellows share their research findings and associated policy recommendations through an oral presentation and written paper. CFE is specifically committed to supporting educators working with students in the lowest-income and most under-resourced communities in the city. Final Presentations from our 2020 and 2021 ARLI Fellows are now posted on our CFE Resource Roundup, and we urge all interested candidates to take a look at a couple of these to see what the program is all about. Please note that the ARLI Application deadline is now Monday, August 2. Please click here for an overview and access to the application! Good Reads 2020-2021 Early Childhood Education Policy Fellow Margi Bhansali writes about the necessity to communicate openly with parents and families before students return to school in her op-ed "Want Chicago’s Kids Back In-Person this Fall? We Must Talk to Families This Summer." "While CPS has offered district-wide information sessions, those are too big, and families don’t feel like their specific questions and concerns are being addressed. The district should create a comprehensive community outreach program to educate families. Chicago Public Schools and the Department of Public Health should make efforts to talk to families all throughout the summer, focused on communities with low in-person return rates for the fourth quarter. " Read the entire op-ed here... 2020-2021 Teach Plus Illinois K-12 Senior Policy Fellow Krista Siems Wilson wrote an op-ed featured in Education Post: "When We Talk to Our Students, Let’s Focus Less on ‘Learning Loss’ and More on Their Learning Leaps" "I know that this anxiety is exacerbated for them by repeatedly hearing and reading reports of “learning loss” in the news and on social media. A simple Google search of the term “coronavirus learning loss” brings a list of 410,000 scholarly articles, many under the theme “how to close the gap caused by pandemic learning.” My 13- and 14-year-old students are internalizing the harmful narrative that they are behind." Read the entire op-ed here... "llinois quickly adopts CDC guidance dropping mask mandates for vaccinated students and teachers" "Illinois students and teachers who are vaccinated will not be required to wear masks in school buildings this fall after the state quickly adopted new health guidelines issued Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Read the rest of this article from Chalkbeat here... Alumni Engagement: Coming Soon Teach Plus IL has officially started an alumni space open to all alumni of our programs. Please continue to be on the lookout for direct communication of rising events and opportunities soon. If you'd like to be added to the Facebook group, need to update your information, or have general questions, please reach Crystal Jameau at cjameau@teachplus.org. |