February

World Read Aloud Day! 

While today, February 1, is officially World Read Aloud Day, we know it is really EVERY day!  

Visit LitWorld for resources such as bookmarks, booklists, and events, but especially for their Read Aloud Guide to get started now and continue in the future. 

SOEL and Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy

We did end up cancelling our January SOEL meetings due to the #polarvortex2019, but let's not forget that we can always see many SOEL teachers demonstrating Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy on the LiteracyEssentials.org site.

In this video, you'll see longtime SOEL member, Roshawda Miller talk about coaching reading in small groups.

Responsive Teaching Institutes

On January 17th, the AI Team of WISD welcomed several guest speakers to another Responsive Teaching Institute.  With over 70 educators attending, many saw Dr. Ernest Morrell present on Critical Media Pedagogy: Culturally Responsive Pedagogies for Diverse Classrooms. 

Join us February 14th  8:30-3:30 at Saline Liberty School to process learning and plan forward for Culturally Relevant Teaching as part of our next Planning and Implementation Day.  Also, save the date for the next Responsive Teaching Institute on March 14th at EMU when we will host Dr. Dorinda Carter Andrews, Dr. Laura Jimenez, Dr. Terry Flennaugh, and Kimberly Wardell Stone.  

Teacher Action Research

Are you interested in learning about Teacher Action Research?  The 4th in our SOEL Teacher Action Research Webinar Series with Dr. Cathy Fleischer will be on February 13th at 4:00.    

No registration is necessary. 

Join us at:  https://zoom.us/j/189529059

**If you missed previous webinars, catch up HERE!

Echoes and Reflections 

Echoes & Reflections is dedicated to reshaping the way that teachers and students understand, process, and navigate the world through the events of the Holocaust. The Holocaust is more than a historical event; it’s part of the larger human story. Educating students about its significance is a great responsibility. We partner with educators to help them introduce students to the complex themes of the Holocaust and to understand its lasting effect on the world.

Join us February 25th 4:30-8:30 or March 5th 8:30-3:30
FREE.      Register HERE

September

Start Your School Year with Authentic Relationship and Community Building 

Teaching Tolerance provides 20 Face to Face Advisories

In these activities, students greet each other respectfully and then share interesting, meaningful activities that draw them together while practicing speaking and listening skills.

 They become more open to diverse people and cultures, ready to take a stand for equity. Such connections and understandings help create the optimal social emotional conditions for learning. They foster awareness of social biases and reveal possibilities for transforming them. 

       The activities are grouped by the domains of Teaching Tolerance’s Anti-bias Framework: Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action, with five advisories in each domain. 

See the entire guide HERE.

Powerful Literacy

Dr. Ernest Morrell, Professor of English at Notre Dame, and frequent guest speaker for SOEL and Responsive Mathematics, talks here about Powerful Literacy.  In listening to his definition we can see what is often lost among our mandates, programs, and test scores when it comes to thinking about what it means to be a literate individual. 

Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities

Echoes and Reflections: Holocaust Professional Learning

Supporting educators and their students with the courage to question the past and the knowledge to impact the future.  

Join us October 9 & 10 at WISD from 9:00-3:00

• Meet the public act requirement for teaching the Holocaust and other genocides.
• Discover and utilize classroom-ready digital lesson plans, visual history testimonies, and additional primary source materials.
• Align the curriculum to your school improvement plan strategies and district needs.
• Make connections with what you are already do in your classrooms.
• Enhance personal knowledge about the Holocaust and other genocides.

REGISTER HERE