February 6, 2021
FRIENDS COUNCIL NEWS
COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS ON RACE
Racial Literacy and the Power of Storytelling
Friends Council has been co-hosting and organizing Community Conversations on Race for the past three years and this 2020-2021 school year is no exception. Community Conversations on Race (CCOR) bring educators and community members together to learn and talk about racism and to practice having the difficult and important conversations about race that are needed to help dismantle racism and white supremacy.
Planned and coordinated by Toni Graves Williamson, Mary Lynn Ellis and Deborra Sines Pancoe, the most recent January 26 event featured guest presenter Erica Snowden, Director of DEI at Friends' Central School. Erica Snowden focused on racial literacy -- the ability to read, recast and resolve racially stressful encounters – as a means to better health and healing from racial stress.
Following a land acknowledgement to the Lenni Lenape and a heartfelt acknowledgement of Dr. Howard Stevenson's work, Snowden focused her presentation on multicultural literacy....
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INAUGURATION DAY PROGRAM
History Behind Us, History Before Us: This Moment in Time
As our country and the world watched the Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2021, over 300 students and educators from 21 Friends schools across the country gathered virtually for an Inauguration Day Program, "History Behind Us, History Before Us: This Moment in Time." This is the second inauguration day event to be co-sponsored by Friends Council on Education and The Glasgow Group. This year's event featured special guest Dr. Darryl J. Ford, head of William Penn Charter School.
Friends Council serves as the connector between Friends school educators and schools. A key focus is to frame and facilitate conversations through a lens of dismantling racism, oppression, and white supremacy. On this historic day we offered this program as a time of reflection on recent events, particularly Jan 6, 2021, as well as a time for hope about what the next four years might bring -- an intentional time for students and educators to engage in consideration about their own roles in moving forward.
Dr. Rodney Glasgow, head of Sandy Spring Friends School, led the Inauguration Day event, offering inspiration and facilitating journaling and conversation among students and teachers in advance of the swearing in ceremonies. Toni Graves Williamson, experienced antiracism educator, Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Friend Select School, and Friends Council Board member, greeted participants by recalling an earlier Inauguration Day gathering. "Being in community in moments like this is important. Four years ago, despite a sense of uncertainty and fear, we left the workshop with action steps and a sense of hope."
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SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE EDUCATORS PEER NETWORK
Meeting for Worship Pandemic-style 2021
Quaker & Spiritual Life folks met at the end of January to reconnect and refresh ourselves and to help think about meeting for worship "pandemic style."
Some Quaker schools have a designated person or committee whose role is to pay attention to the Quaker nature of the school, including the quality and practice of Meeting for Worship and the integration of Friends testimonies into every aspect of school life. However, many schools do not have enough staff to fulfill this aspect of Friends education.
The Quaker & Spiritual Life peer network peer network (formerly called Upper School Religion Teachers and Quaker Life in Lower and Middle Schools) has been meeting regularly for at least 20 years. During 2020 and now in 2021 - this group of dedicated Friends educators meets to support each other and to share ideas about how to best address the needs of our school communities and keep the Quaker heart of our schools healthy and strong.
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UPCOMING PROGRAMS
Please be sure to visit our website calendar regularly, as well as the Programs section of our website for new additions and updates!
ONGOING
- Heads Gathering - Monday morning, weekly
- Early Childhood Heads Gathering - Thursday, weekly
- Virtual Meeting for Worship, Wednesdays weekly, 4:30pm EST
HAPPENING SOON
- Performing Arts Peer Network: Performing Arts in Quaker Schools - Pandemic Teaching Symposium
Many other peer networks and workshops to be announced!
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FRIENDS COUNCIL MEETING FOR WORSHIP
Friends Council
Meeting for Worship Zoom-style
Wednesdays at 4:30pm EST
We hope to see you!
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DID YOU KNOW…
….that this year as the pandemic rages on, Friends Council is making our services more accessible to Friends Schools by offering many of our workshops and peer networks free of charge?
This makes your support more important than ever.
Your gift supports our work connecting Friends School educators and Friends Schools as they deliver Quaker-inspired education in 2020-21.
Make a gift to Friends Council today.
We thank you!
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STUDENT VOICES MATTER!
The Bridge Film Festival (BFF), founded in 2000, provides a voice for students attending Quaker schools and Quaker Meetings worldwide.
BFF invites creative and socially conscious students to produce films that focus on messages through a Quaker lens. Listen to what acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns says about us. Read about last year's winners.
There are four categories for telling stories: Narrative, Documentary, New Media, and Public Service Announcement (PSAs). The Narrative, Documentary, and New Media entries must be ten minutes or less in length and PSAs run 30 or 60 seconds.
The deadline to submit is March 12, 2021.
The judging and screenings will air online globally in the Spring of 2021.
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Calling all middle school and high school students!
Friends Journal 8th Annual Student Voices Project
Friends Journal welcomes submissions from all students (Quaker and non-Quaker) at Friends schools and also Quaker students in other educational venues, such as public schools and homeschooling.
A selection of the submissions will be featured in the May 2021 issue, reaching thousands of readers living on every continent. Honorees will also receive a free one-year digital subscription and will be recognized
by Friends Council on Education for their work.
2020-2021 THEME: LEARNING FROM 2020
Prompt: What have you learned about yourself and your community in the past year?
It's been quite a year since the coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down. In March 2020, everything about daily living seemed to change or shut down, including schools and meetinghouses. From remote learning and virtual worship services to Black Lives Matter protests and racial justice work to the worsening climate crisis and divisive U.S. politics, there's a lot to process on a daily basis. Meanwhile, we're staying home more, being more intentional about connecting with others (thank you, technology), recommitting to our faith communities in new ways, and generally missing the relative ease of life before this whole mess started. Let's write about it.
Submission Guidelines
• One submission per student.
• Must have an original title, and it must be typed.
• Word count: between 300 and 1,500 words.
• Submit individual entries via Submittable (link at Friendsjournal.org/studentvoices).
• Deadline: February 15, 2021.
New this year! Join a virtual writing workshop co-hosted by Friends General Conference in December with FJ's associate editor, Gail Whiffen. More details on the website.
Friends Council on Education
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