No images? Click here From Teach Plus Illinois Dear Educators, Happy long weekend, and happy Thanksgiving coming up the week after next. As we roll into this time of year, I want to share and celebrate several things that I’m thankful for -- and highlight one key opportunity to help Teach Plus Illinois shape its future path.
Finally, I want to share with you an opportunity to help Teach Plus Illinois determine its future path. We are working to better understand the hopes and dreams for students’ futures held by communities across Illinois. Those voices will guide our strategic goals for building a more equitable and student-centered education system. To include your voice, please complete this interest form. Happy Thanksgiving! Warm regards, Fellow Highlights IL Policy Fellowship Alumna Breana Calloway Featured in Word In Black "Breana Calloway stood in front of the Illinois State Senate in March to testify in favor of the Racism Free Schools Act. It passed the Senate unanimously, passed through the House, and was signed into law in August. Calloway, a principal-in-training in Chicago and a former Teach Plus Fellow, worked with her cohort to pass the act, which she says 'puts something on the books to protect staff and students from racial harassment.' The goal was to distinguish racial harassment from bullying, because bullying is something that persists, whereas racial harassment can happen once and still cause the same amount of harm. And it aims to provide training for teachers, because so many 'are not prepared to deal with it,' Calloway says. Growing up in predominantly white spaces, this was personal to Calloway. She wanted to make sure that not only was her story being told, but so were the stories of thousands of students who experience this daily." (Maya Pottiger, Word in Black) Read the full article hre. IL Policy Fellows Publish State Policy Brief on the Equity Journey Continuum Teach Plus Illinois Policy Fellows recently published a state policy brief on ISBE's Equity Journey Continuum. "As Teach Plus Illinois Policy Fellows and educators who teach across the state and grade levels, we believe in the power of the EJC to guide school systems forward in their equity journeys. In this brief, we set out to learn how this new tool was being received and understood by educators. Though the goal of the EJC may be to affect system and culture-level changes for all students, we recognized that there could be disparities between a districts’ data-based rating and the lived experiences of educators." Read the policy brief here. ILSTOY and IL Senior Policy Fellow Briana Morales Hosted by Boone-Winnebago Regional Office of Education (ROE4) for Full-Day Professional Development 2023 Illinois State Teacher of the Year and 2023-24 Teach Plus Illinois Senior Policy Fellow, Briana Morales, will be presenting full-day professional development sessions throughout November and in December In Loves Park, Carterville, and Litchfield. Lunch will be provided. IL Policy Fellowship Alumna Precious Allen Named the IL Association of School Social Workers' Citizen of the Year and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools' Elementary Teacher of the Year Congratulations to IL Policy Fellowship Alumna, Precious Allen, on being named the IL Association of School Social Workers' Citizen of the Year and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools' Elementary Teacher of the Year! "Precious Allen teaches second grade at Betty Shabazz International Charter School. She teaches Literacy, Math, STEM, and Social Studies, in addition to providing outside Professional Development opportunities to her colleagues to assist with keeping them updated with ISBE credential standards. She continuously searches for opportunities to connect her students to classrooms in other countries. Precious provides her students with the requisite skills they need to be global citizens. She has introduced robotics, coding, and dissecting into her classroom and is an advocate for ensuring students of color have access to equitable opportunities in STEM education. Precious is a published author and was recently recognized as a Finalist for Illinois State Teacher of the Year. She has accepted an invitation to participate in a fellowship for Teach Plus where she can use her voice to advocate for the rights of students and work to elevate the profession. She is also a 2020-2021 Aspiring Principal Fellow and is a member of the Illinois Principals Association where she is learning how to pair her classroom experiences with the expertise of administrators." (National Life Group Foundation) Opportunities Teach Plus Student Opportunity Focus Groups Teach Plus Illinois Policy Fellows are working to better understand the hopes and dreams for students’ futures held by communities across Illinois. The community voices we collect will shape a report on what opportunity means for Illinois students, and will guide our strategic goals for building a more equitable and student-centered educational system based on these aspirations. To include your voice in this project, please complete this interest form and we’ll reach out with opportunities to participate. This opportunity is open to current Illinois educators, parents, and students in grades 3-12. Teach Plus Research Opportunities on Early Literacy and the Five Pillars of Reading Teach Plus is conducting new research on early literacy and the five pillars of reading. Our research will explore how well teachers know and use the five pillars of reading to help students learn, how they learned and continue to learn about the five pillars of reading, and how they use the five pillars of reading or other strategies to help English learners learn to read. How to participate: If you are a Pre-K-5 general education teacher, Pre-K-8 reading specialist, Pre-K-8 English learning teacher, or Pre-K-8 special education teacher, please click here to take the 15-20 minute survey. The survey will ask you about your awareness, professional learning opportunities, and instructional strategies regarding the five pillars of reading. If you are a general education or reading teacher, reading specialist, English learning teacher, or special education teacher in any grade, please, click here to participate in a 60-minute focus group. After you complete this form, we will contact you to schedule a focus group with colleagues who teach in similar specialty areas. Agreeing to be contacted for a focus group does not obligate you to participate. Please rest assured that this research is confidential. You will not be asked to provide your name or any other information that could identify you. Any responses you provide via the survey or focus group will be kept in a secure online platform only available to the research team. If you want additional information about this research, please email the Teach Plus Research team at research@teachplus.org. Thank you for considering this research opportunity – Teach Plus is committed to putting educators at the center of policymaking and implementation. FREE Six-Week Study Group on U.S. History: From Reconstruction to Today (November-December 2023)Teach Plus Illinois Policy Fellow Alum and history teacher Jordan Hohm is offering a FREE six-week study group on US History from Reconstruction to Today. Jordan is currently an Assistant Principal in the St. Louis area and this study group -- which he has also facilitated as part of an undergraduate course in a men's prison -- should help deepen your knowledge of how things are they way are. Click here to learn more, and here to register. Session Dates & Topics: (all virtual, via Zoom)
Illinois Teacher Leadership Summit Have a 'Problem of Practice' or a new initiative your school or organization is working on? Bring a team of 5 to the Illinois Teacher Leadership Summit. Your team will be partnered with a Critical Friend, an expert in your problem area, and you will walk away with an action plan. The Illinois Teacher Leadership Summit is a great opportunity for teams to develop an action plan to implement ideas and innovations in their schools, districts, and/or education-focused organization. Participants are guided by the expertise of a network of fellow educators across the state. At this Summit, we will be combining the best elements of several organizations. Educators work to collaborate, problem-solve, develop, and scale ideas and innovations through action plans, putting their own expertise into action. We attract exceptional educators from across the state to use teacher leadership as a vehicle to change the face of education. It is a unique opportunity for teachers to spotlight groundbreaking teacher-led work happening across the state of Illinois. To learn more, click here. To register for the Summit, click here. Good Reads 2023 Illinois Report Card shows strong progress in some areas"The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released the 2023 Illinois Report Card Monday showing strong progress in students' recovery from the pandemic – with increased proficiency rates and the highest graduation rate in 13 years. ISBE says gains for Black students, who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, led the significant improvement in many indicators. Teacher retention reached an all-time high in the 2022-23 school year, with a retention rate exceeding 90%. The retention rate for Black and Hispanic teachers improved the most, by 4.8% and 5.9%, respectively. The retention rate for Black teachers still lags behind the overall rate at 85.3%. ISBE, in partnership with Teach Plus, has invested federal pandemic relief funds to create affinity groups for teachers of color. The number of teachers in the profession overall also held steady with the prior year." (ISBE, WSIU Public Broadcasting). Read the full article here. Teach Plus Illinois Affinity Group Network The Illinois Affinity Group Network seeks to cultivate authentic, inclusive, intersectional spaces, shaped by and for educators of color. These affirming and supportive spaces, rooted in an asset-based understanding of diversity, will support educators in navigating and improving their school environments and will be connected to a larger network to build alliances and address systemic issues. If you are an educator of color and are interested in engaging in an affinity group, please fill out an interest form. If you are interested in joining a virtual affinity space for educator of colors, please complete this interest form. Our first virtual gathering is on Thursday, November 9th at 4:30pm. Gina Caneva: Books and libraries have been targeted aggressively. Banned Books Week is more crucial than ever."Walk into your local library this week, and you’ll probably see a display of familiar and popular books with a sign featuring the word 'BANNED' in capital letters drawing your attention. It’s Banned Books Week in the United States, and in my school library at East Leyden High School where I work, my assistant created such a display for our student patrons. Yellow caution tape surrounds books such as Laurie Halse Anderson’s “Speak,” Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi’s “Stamped,” Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy.” Often, students stop and look at the display and then ask my assistant or me if they can take the books since the titles appear off-limits. We tell them that they can check the books out, and we ask them also to take our information pamphlet to learn more about Banned Books Week. I also invite classes into our school library for Banned Books Week lessons and book talks, in which I facilitate discussions surrounding censorship and talk about titles that frequently appear on the American Library Association’s banned books list. However, many librarians in public libraries and schools across the nation may be quietly sitting out this Banned Books Week, fearful of losing their jobs or something worse." (Gina Caneva, Teach Plus Illinois Policy Fellowship Alumna). Read the full article here. |