
What have we missed? Should there be a 5th stage: administrator? New career? Share in the comments.
What have we missed? Should there be a 5th stage: administrator? New career? Share in the comments.
Twitter is a great place to be for today’s educators. The variety of accounts to follow can be overwhelming: STEM ideas, early literacy activities, funding equity–you name it, there are people and organizations to inspire. Never fear, we’re here with a few recommendations from the people we trust for content. So consider this a double whammy: a look at the Twitter accounts @YumaEduSummit loves, plus an extra helping from those very same accounts.
So tell us, who do you follow for ideas and strength in the education realm?
Yuma Union High School District #70 will be opening for in person education on September 14. This is welcome news for my high school freshman, and his younger brother is hoping he’ll be able to get to his campus soon too.
I know our family isn’t alone is having conflicted feelings about this. Teaching this way is depressing and difficult. Learning this way is functional but not ideal. My kids are lonely. They need other people to share their words with. My husband is a teacher as well and, though he’s very tech savvy, he doesn’t feel like he’s building relationships.
If everyone on campus makes good, safe choices, I’m cautiously optimistic about things. I’ve been clear with our family that they have to follow mask and hygiene protocols, even if it isn’t cool, otherwise we’ll all be back at home. Together. Every second of every day.
How are you feeling about this time of transition? Do you feel ready? What are your concerns? Please share.
There are lots of offers available if you belong to the NEA, but these are open for all teachers (and have been used by team members).
Having to postpone Yuma Educators Summit 2020 is really terrible for our whole team. This whole pandemic situation is made a bit harder because of isolation–just the thing a fabulous summer conference would have provided!
There are some opportunities for you to learn and grow on your own though. Many conferences have switched to virtual, most of which are free. And even if you miss the official event webinars and talks are recorded for future use. We’ve found a few resources that tie into YES’s focus: Increasing Equity and Access in Education. There’s a lot out there these days about technology and broadband access, as you can imagine, so we’ve left those off our list.
From the Arizona K12 Center, this year’s event aims to “heighten and provide a platform for student voice, identity and perspectives.” The Institute is slated for June 15-16, and if you register (for free) by June 1 you can request a hard copy of their Teacher Leadership Report.
Share My Lesson, a website from the American Federation of Teachers, has a whole collection of equity and social justice lessons. This particular piece is a keynote address addressing the history of educational inequity–and what educators can do to be part of the solution.
NCTE has a vast repository of ELA ideas through their Read, Write, Think site. This is a blog post, technically, with links to great resources to use graphics in writing.
Dr. Terri Watson presents this podcast, episode 136 from the Leading Equity Center (there’s another podcast with a similar name, not from the Center). This may not be a comfortable listen but certainly brought home a lot of good points. The LEC homepage also offers other resources about improving school equity.
This is another session from the 2020 Share My Lesson Virtual Conference which was held in March. Speaker Brian O’Connor works with the schools and the Department of Justice on issues about what kids witness in life–and how we can help them heal.
Have you found any valuable professional development lately? Share a link in the comments please!
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that we need to announce a little sad news, BUT we haven’t lost all hope and plan to continue to building collaborative networks for educators in Yuma and surrounding areas.
Unfortunately, due to the health and safety concerns surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic, we have made the difficult choice to postpone our inaugural Yuma Educators Summit initially planned for June 2020. We are excited to continue developing an opportunity for educators in the Yuma area to network and receive quality professional development in June 2021!
We look forward to the continued participation of our sponsors and keynote speakers. Lisa Yee, LaQuisha Hall, and Alma Sandigo all plan to participate in the 2021 summit. For those of you who submitted session proposals, we are disappointed to miss your presentations and hope you will apply again next year. Educators and community members who have registered for the Yuma Educators Summit 2020 can either get a refund or have their registration rolled over to our 2021 event. Send us an email at contact@yesyuma.org if you have questions or want to request your refund.
In the meantime, we plan to continue spreading educational news, joy, articles, local awesomeness, and more on our social platforms. We also look forward to posting original content written by our Executive Board and guest authors here on our blog. (This is the first time any of us have tried to manage a blog, wish us luck!)
We don’t plan on going on the hunt for guest authors during this crazy time and anticipate really getting things started as we settle into the 2020-2021 school year. We assume you feel just as overwhelmed as us with adjusting to our “new normal,” but, maybe we’re wrong? If we are, please contact us for information about our guest blogger expectations and blog requirements (contact@yesyuma.org).
We look forward to continuing to build connections within our educator community, and, while saddened by the events of this year, are CRAZY OPTIMISTIC about the future!