“Re-Discovering America,” an Interactive Training for Teachers
Are you looking for a creative way to:
bring the perspectives of Indigenous peoples into your classroom?
teach the history of this continent through the lens of Indigenous peoples’ experience?
engage your students in honest reckoning with past and ongoing injustices?
consider how you might develop relationships with Indigenous people in your community, based on truth, respect, justice, and our shared humanity?
During this training, you will experience the interactive workshop, “Re-Discovering America,” designed for middle schools and high schools. It will be facilitated in-person by Paula Palmer, co-director of Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, and Gail Melix, Herring Pond Wampanoag. The experiential exercise will be followed by a period for reflection and sharing personal responses. We will conclude with discussion of how you might bring this program into your schools and classrooms.
“Re-Discovering America” is a participatory exercise where students symbolically experience the colonization of North America as the Native peoples and the European colonists experienced it. Though a scripted presentation, students hear the voices of Indigenous leaders and European popes, monarchs, presidents, generals, and historians as the story of colonization unfolds. They learn about the Doctrine of Discovery and how it was employed to take lands away from non-Christian peoples. They learn how this Doctrine continues to violate the rights of Indigenous peoples in our country and around the world. They learn how Indigenous peoples organized to claim their rights through passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the issues that matter most to Native Americans today.
Paula Palmer is co-director of Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, a program of Friends Peace Teams. She coordinates a network of 12 Native American workshop facilitators and 60 non-Native workshop facilitators who present TRR workshops both in-person and online. She is a member of Boulder Meeting, Intermountain Yearly Meeting, and her ministry has been under their spiritual care since 2013. She also calls Quakers to reckon with our history as promoters and operators of Indigenous boarding schools during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Gail Melix is a Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples workshop facilitator. She is an enrolled member of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe of Plymouth, MA, and member of the Sandwich Quaker Meeting of New England Yearly Meeting. Gail serves as co-clerk of the Earth Quakers Justice Team and is a board member of Native Land Conservancy, an Indigenous-led land trust. She carries concerns for climate crisis, environmental justice, racism, and right relationship with Indigenous Peoples. With Paula, she presents programs about the Quaker Indigenous boarding Schools.
Some sample responses to recent “Re-Discovering America” workshops:
We're establishing a cohort of learning specialists who can be resources to each other.
Join colleagues from Friends schools across the network
Exchange ideas and share challenges with Learning Specialists
Breakout conversation and whole group sharing
Our agenda will be open and collaborative:
Queries:
What about being a learning specialist in a Quaker school is unique?
How do we support students whose last 3 years of schooling has been inconsistent or vastly different from other students (in terms of using remote learning, hybrid, lapses in contact, etc.)
What systems exist in our schools to support teacher collaboration with learning specialists?
How can we use testimonies of equity and equality in learning support?
Join authors Toni Graves Williamson, Ali Michael, and Dr. Robin DiAngelo (virtual) for a conversation about White Fragility (Adapted for Young Adults): Why Understanding Racism Can Be So Hard for White People.
Originally written by renowned best-selling author Dr. Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility has been adapted for young adults by Toni Graves Williamson, the director of equity and inclusion at Friends Select School, and Ali Michael, the co-founder and co-director of the Race Institute for K-12 Educators.
As school boards around the country are banning books, there’s never been a more important time for students to ask difficult questions, engage in meaningful dialogues, think critically and independently, and take action to create change. White Fragility (Adapted for Young Adults) provides a roadmap.
Signed books will be available.
Opportunity to purchase signed copies of White Fragility (Adapted for Young Adults), at the Race Street Meetinghouse upon arrival. Books provided by Harriett’s Bookshop.
Join Friends Council on Education for an evening of inspiration and hope, featuring a panel of Friends school alums whose work is centered on climate activism and climate justice. Hear their stories, learn from their experiences, and engage in conversation about one of the most pressing issues of our times.
Come for inspiration...leave ready to act!
Participate in small groups for dialogue and sharing, engage in Q&A with the panelists, hear from Friends school student leaders, and clarify your own commitments for taking action and making a difference in 2022.
Join Friends Council on Education for an evening of Light -- poetry, music, thought -- to uplift and sustain us on this next stretch of the road we are traveling.
Listen to and be inspired by educators and artists offering reflections on "Who are we called to be in this moment?"
A conversation with Dr. Wayne Frederick, President of Howard University
Crissy Cáceres, Head of the Brooklyn Friends School, will interview Dr. Frederick, President of Howard University and a surgeon, to explore the intersections of the pandemic, our healthcare system, and the renewed energy in our nation to live into the values we espouse. Their conversation will explore these issues nationally and how they inform our own experiences in our own school communities.
First-Come, First-Served Registration is required.
Friends Council’s Annual Meeting - What's Next on Our Journey?
A conversation with Anand Giridharadas and Bryan Garman
What’s on Your Minds – Hot Tops?
Although we hope that you will be able to attend the entire gathering of your peers, you will be able to register for individual sessions.
Gathering Schedule
Thursday, April 22 from 4 to 5:30 pm EST
Please join us - Friends Council Annual Meeting: What’s Next on Our Journey?
A panel featuring Heads of School Ken Aldridge [Wilmington Friends School], Karen Cumberbatch [Carolina Friends School], Brenda Crawley [Plymouth Meeting Friends School], and Angela Garcia [Friends Community School] will talk about their leadership journeys and what they hope and imagine for the future of Quaker education as Friends Council enters its 90th year.
Thursday, April 22 @ 6 to 7:00 pm EST
A conversation with Bryan Garman & Anand Giridharadas
(from Drew): Bryan was one of Anand Giridharadas’s English teachers at Sidwell! Click the photo [RIGHT] for a brief bio for Anand, but as a subscriber to his newsletter, The.Ink, a viewer of his frequent commentary on television, and a reader of his book, Winners Take All, I can confidently say you are in for a treat. In my humble opinion, I believe Anand Giridharadas is one of our country's most important writers, thinkers, and commentators on where our country is headed next and how we might imagine getting to there from here.
For more information about Anand Giridharadas please visit: prhspeakers.com
Friday, April 23 @ 12noon to 2:00 pm EST
Hot Topic & Group Discussions: What’s on Your Minds?
We’d like to engage in more extended conversation about the topics most on your minds. Please use the form included to add your hot topics. We will break into smaller groups, including affinity groups by school size for this part of our agenda. We’ve planned for two hours, so bio and ZOOM fatigue breaks will be built in!
We at FCE will also have a questions for all of you that will help us plan for next year.
We encourage you to add your topics and bring your lunch.
I am also happy to have two volunteers to help sort the topics and facilitate small groups. Just two of you, one from a larger and one from a smaller school. Come on, you know you want to!
Join Friends school educators and students on Inauguration Day to reflect on the end of the previous four years and the beginning of the next four years!
Registration is required
The Zoom Room will open at 10:45.
11am - Welcome and moment of worship Dr. Rodney Glasgow - framing remarks "Looking back to look forward."
12noon - Inauguration ceremony begins.
We will stream the ceremony and reconvene at the end of the President's speech.
12:40 - Reflective Worship convened by Dr. Darryl J. Ford
Gather with DEI Practitioners and Others for Conversation about Prioritizing Social and Emotional Learning through Trauma-Informed/Healing-Centered Pedagogy?
School Counselors will share their insights:
Brittany Copeland, Germantown Friends School
Maria Alonso, Westtown School
Reflect
Reflecting on the impact of 2020 events, etc. individually and institutionally
What has changed for you? What new perspective have you gained?
What has changed for your institution? What new perspective has your school community gained?
Reconnect
Relationship building: reconnecting with colleagues, students, and families
Partnering with students and families to establish open lines of communication and remain connected
Re-envision
Knowing what we know now, what is the [new] way forward? Individually? Institutionally? Collectively?
How do we demonstrate each testimony in our libraries?
How does your library program support and connect with Quaker themes?
Come explore what makes our libraries unique as Friends school libraries. Walk away with your own "elevator speech" about your library program's value to your school.
Agenda (Tentative)
8:30
Gathering and refreshments - Abington Friends School Faulkner Library
Share & Tell Session: focusing on Social Emotional Care
Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 2pm
(Eastern Daylight time) Register Here
Join lower school colleagues from Friends Schools to share ideas, challenges, hopes, and updates.
Our Framing Question will be:
As we anticipate a small window of in-person time with our Lower School Friends. . .
How will we maximize that time and set young children up for staying connected with each other and with their teacher?
Share with colleagues about what to expect when children return.
How will we re-engage children with basic learning routines?
Let's think together about parent engagement
Bring resources you love and your burning questions.
Are there ways that we can help one another and collaborate?
Peer facilitators, Narissa Bajjo(Greene Street Friends School) and Jill Bean (Lansdowne Friends School) will "prime the pump" and facilitate conversation in both large and small breakout groups.
Hang around and join on-line Meeting for Worship at 4pm.
Click for help with Zoom.
We recommend the use of a headset or a bluetooth device to use ZOOM audio.
Join colleagues for a Symposium for Teaching Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, the history of colonialism, and the reality of Native people in the U.S.
Meet with K-12 educators to brainstorm, share resources, learn activities, lesson plan, and develop approaches for examining the myths of what we've been taught, and how to teach differently.
Bring lessons, activities, and resources to share. Help us build a network of change agents and educators in schools.
Un-Columbus Day is Co-Sponsored by Friends Council on Education, Educating for Equity, Race Institute for K-12 Educators, and Friends Select School.
Facilitating Quaker Decision-Making in Friends Schools
A Workshop on Clerking with Arthur Larrabee
This workshop will address the attitudes, practices, and skills that can help implement the Quaker decision-making process in Friends schools.
How can we use the Quaker decision-making process in Friends schools?
How can we develop a clear understanding of roles, responsibilities, and inclusivity, especially as these relate to decision-making in a Friends school?
Tenets of the Quaker Decision-Making Process
There is a spiritual energy in the world.
We can access the spiritual energy to help guide us in the conduct of human affairs.
When we choose to access this spiritual energy, life is more satisfactory – both for the individual and for the institution.
There are attitudes, practices and skills that can facilitate this process.
For Friends school heads, trustees, division heads, faculty, committee and task force clerks.
—Arthur Larrabee
Arthur Larrabee, teacher and consultant, is the former General Secretary of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. He has led many workshops on clerking, drawing from his long service to the Religious Society of Friends, as clerk of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the Committee in Charge of Westtown School, and Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and as well as numerous committees and boards.
Administrative teams are invited to come together for renewal and reflection. Collaborate with seasoned Friends school leaders to explore common topics such as responding to crises, supervising, or leading and managing change “in the manner of Friends” – in other words, from the perspective of the unique challenges and opportunities available to leaders of Friends schools. Enjoy the relaxing environment of Pendle Hill (Wallingford, PA) in summer – walking trails, healthy and locally sourced food, and collegiality.
Workshop participants will:
Be reminded of the basic tenets of Friends education and have opportunities to apply those tenets to real-life situations;
Explore how leading a Friends school is different from leading a non-Friends school, both in terms of the expectations of constituents and the tools available to Friends educators;
Be exposed to research on best practices and have opportunities to apply those findings to real-life situations;
Come away with a “toolkit” and explicit guidelines that participants can take back to their schools with them.
SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) workshops offer opportunities for real and challenging conversations about identity factors - race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual identity, ability, age, etc. and the impact of these factors on our own teaching, our own identities, our schools and classrooms. Discussion encourages collaboration with colleagues to transform learning communities creating a more equitable environment for all.
Lead by National SEED Project trained facilitators and Friends school educators.
Participants in this cohort make a commitment to attend eight (8) monthly 3-hour evening sessions (5:30pm to 8:30pm or 6pm to 9pm) and to share their personal learning with their home school communities. Each session begins with a shared meal. Group size limited to 20 participants.
Early Childhood Educators
(Infant - Age 5) Peer Network
Send your ideas for un-conference topics, questions, themes when you register.
OUR IDEAS, OUR OWN UNCONFERENCE
This year’s Early Childhood Educators (ECE) peer networking will be structured as an “unconference,” where we will discuss the topics that you are most interested in covering.
Registration
Refreshments & Book Sales [Cherry Street Rm]
9:00- 9:20
Welcome & Framing [Meetinghouse] Brian L. Johnson and Ali Michael Toni Graves Williamson and Deborra Sines Pancoe
9:20
Presentation The Personal Work & Responsibility of Establishing Educational EquitySharif El-Mekki, Principal of Mastery Charter
Shoemaker Campus & Founder of The Fellowship – Black Male Educators for Social Justice. El-Mekki is a 27 year veteran educator and in his 11th year as the principal of Shoemaker. He blogs at Phillys7thWard.org and can be found on Twitter @selmekki.
10:00
Transition to seminars
Click above for topics & locations
10:15 - 11:15
Seminars / Breakout groups
11:15
Transition to Panel discussion
Snacks available in the Cherry Street Rm
11:30 - 12:10
Panel discussion [Meetinghouse] Students from Building-21, Friends Select School, and Teen Sharp
Activating Inclusiveness - Black boys, White Teachers, Best Practices Christopher Avery - Lucretia Mott Rm [1st floor]
Currently, the Vice President of Programs for Steppingstone Scholars, Chris Avery has worked with students for over 20 years around the globe. Published in the NAIS Diversity Handbook, Chris received the 2014 Teaching Tolerance: Teacher of the Year Award due to his dedication to improving education and better preparing students for the diverse world they face.
Black Boys Doing What? Re-defining and Re-constructing Black Boy Masculinities Jack Hill - AFSC Training Rm [Basement]
Jack Hill, a notable diversity consultant, facilitator, educator, writer and child advocate, has given presentations and workshops at conferences locally and internationally, and has offered consultation to schools and organizations nationwide in the areas of multicultural education, diversity, equity, social justice and organizational culture. His articles and talks on race, education, religion and diversity have appeared in The Baltimore Sun, Black Issues Book Review, NPR, ABC, Chicago Tribune, The Afro American Newspaper, WashingtonPost.com, Urbanite Magazine, The Chicago Defender and other media. Jack is a contributor to A Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys and to Diversity Work in Independent Schools: The Practice and The Practitioner, a publication of the National Association of Independent Schools.
Excavating the Guide and Reflecting on Self Ali Michael - Rufus Jones Rm [1st floor]Guide editor Ali Michael will talk participants through video and exercises embedded in the Guide to help participants process and apply the content in their own teaching.
Ali Michael, Ph.D., is the co-founder and director of the Race Institute for K-12 Educators, and the author of Raising Race Questions: Whiteness, Inquiry and Education (Teachers College Press, 2015), winner of the 2017 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award. She is co-editor of the bestselling Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories (2015, Stylus Press) and bestselling Guide for White Women who Teach Black Boys (2017, Corwin Press).
How to be a 1st Responder to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Events and Issues - Cherry Street [1st floor]Brian L. Johnson is a career educator with 27 years of experience as a teacher, Apprentice Principal of Instruction, consultant, Admission Director and currently serving as the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at The Philadelphia School. Brian authored A Look in the Mirror, One School’s Study of Raced Based Achievement - Independent School Magazine and is a contributing author of The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys.
Brian Caselli Jordan is an associate Kindergarten teacher, garden educator and member of the Diversity Committee at The Philadelphia School. He is part of the social justice music & education duo, City Love, offering workshops/assemblies throughout the country and is currently pursuing a masters in early childhood education at Temple University.
Seeing #BLACKBOYJOY - Literacy Based Mirror & Windows for Black Boys Erica Snowden - Meetinghouse [1st floor]
Erica Snowden is the Dean of Lower School and Diversity Clerk at Greene Street Friends School. In addition to being a contributing author to WWGTTBB, she has published in the Journal of Ethical Educational Leadership, and has presented at ADVIS, PAIS, University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers College on topics of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Spreading positive gossip re-writing the narrative of black boys - MLK Room [3rd floor]
Toni Graves Williamson is the Director of Equity and Inclusion at Friends Select School. She is a facilitator of the Race Institute for K12 Educators. Toni leads Diversity, Equity and Inclusion professional development and student leadership experiences throughout the region.
Deneen R. Young is a health advocate, motivational speaker, lifestyle coach, certified spin instructor, certified participant indoor row instructor, and an entrepreneur of YoungLife Coach ~ Beyond Fit, LLC. Working in an independent school for 17 years administratively as well as several roles within the school community.
Hip-Hop Pedagogy Dr. Carl S. Moore - Room 136 [1st floor]
Dr. Carl S. Moore is currently the Assistant Chief Academic Officer at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). He also serves as Certificate faculty in Temple University’s Teaching in Higher Education Certificate and has dedicated his career to advancing leadership development and student success in higher ed.