.png)
by Sarah Hochstetler and Cathy Fleischer
It's September, and back to school season is in full swing! Many of us are already in classrooms while others are just settling in with a fresh group of students. Wherever you are in the start of this new school year, we want to encourage you to keep Everyday Advocacy's guiding principles in mind as you move ahead. What does it look like to explore your concerns about literacy education and move toward action in ways that are:
🍎 SMART 🍎 SAFE 🍎 SAVVY 🍎 SUSTAINABLE
Some of you are in schools with supportive administrators, parents, and community members. You feel safe in implementing the curriculum and pedagogy you know works best for the children and youth you teach. And you’re using Everyday Advocacy principles to keep it that way. Some of you might be in situations where support is eroding: for the books you offer students, the lessons you teach, the conversations you facilitate. As a case in point--we were struck by the recent article in the NY Times Magazine about such a school district in rural Michigan. Perhaps you're using EA principles to help create change in situations like this.
We’re wondering, what’s your story surrounding these changes in the contexts of our teaching? What is happening in your school and district and how have the principles of Everyday Advocacy helped you?
If you're willing to share your experiences with us--Sarah and Cathy--we'll organize excerpts and share what we learn from you with others committed to Everyday Advocacy. Starting in October, Teacher Stories will offer short and practical examples of educators implementing the SMART, SAFE, SAVVY, and SUSTAINABLE framework. Brief narratives will focus on one of the four principles on alternating months for the purpose of highlighting what those steps look like in different school spaces. You don’t have to write a whole essay. Readers would benefit from a paragraph or two that tells us, for example, how working in SMART ways has helped you or how working in SAFE ways has shaped your advocacy. We’ll gather these short vignettes together into a single blog post to share widely with readers of this section of the Everyday Advocacy website.
Interested? Check out this sign-up sheet. Let's support each other as we Learn, Prepare, and Act in the year ahead!