2015-2016

WMEP Cultural Collaborative Professional Development

An Equity-Focused Collaborative for Student Success (Engagement, Achievement, and College/Career Readiness) and Educator Growth (Professional Development, Cultural Competence, and Regional Action)

West Metro Education Program Who We Are

The West Metro Education Program (WMEP) is the result of a collaboration between 11 member school districts across the Minneapolis west metro: Brooklyn Center, Columbia Heights, Eden Prairie, Edina, Hopkins, Minneapolis, Richfield, Robbinsdale, St. Anthony/New Brighton, St. Louis Park, and Wayzata. WMEP’s mission is to build our collective capacity to achieve educational excellence and racial equity. We will serve our 100,000+ students and staff through regional leadership, collaboration, commitment, and mutual support. We live our mission by working collaboratively to increase student success (engagement, achievement, and college/career readiness) and educator growth (professional development, cultural competency, and regional action). Our work helps districts embed culturally and linguistically responsive practices into research-based instructional planning, delivery, assessment and analysis. The work of WMEP and its collaborative is to create a direct impact on student success while building educator capacity and confidence.

What We Do

Operating with the lens of equity leadership and collaboration, WMEP provides valuable resources to sustain and ensure initiatives that positively impact students, families and educator practice. By integrating these initiatives into existing practices and policies, the work becomes a part of organizational culture, that leads to greater success and accountability. We collaborate and facilitate partnerships to strengthen equity work, professional development and student programming in the metro region according to the needs of specific communities.

What We Intend to Create

We intend to live out our mission statement by creating and engaging in programs and services of: Professional Development – Cultural Collaborative 1. Valued and utilized resource for member district staff in professional development around issues of race and equity integrated with member district professional development. 2. Provided at the individual and network levels including teacher cohorts and principals, and in a variety of formats and modes. Student Programs 1. Valued and utilized resource for students across member districts which is proven effective around student learning and engagement in equity in learning, living, athletics, and activities. Regional Equity Leadership – Think Tank 1. Preferred resource for research of the linkage of race/poverty/mobility and learning at the district/school/grade levels. 2. Preferred resource for community and district conversations about race, poverty, and equity in education. 3. Preferred resource for equity advocacy and legislative action in the State of Minnesota. 1

WMEP Racial Equity Professional Development Framework

District, School, Classroom Practices & Strategies

Cultural Competency

Equity Leadership

Racial Equity Achievement & Opportunity

Common Protocol Racial Discourse

WMEP recommends a common protocol for racial discourse. Many of our participants have found that professional development is more effective with common frameworks and vocabulary. These aid understanding and help facilitate discussions around the variability of learning, our history, and the systematic institutional practices that impact student success by race. A strong foundation in cultural competency and equity leadership supports the development of effective practices and strategies to positively impact student success and achievement.

Each circle in the framework identifies a subset of our professional development. Courses are color-coded to correlate to its position on the chart. Educators are encouraged to experience learning in all of the “colors” in order to achieve the result – racial equity achievement and opportunity. By using this framework and paying attention to prerequisite requirements, educators can maximize their experience in the WMEP Cultural Collaborative and impact on student achievement for students of all races.

Practices and Strategies workshops promote strategies and the necessary system transformation tools to eliminate racial predictability in student achievement. Practices and strategies, focused on students’ strengths versus a deficit model, enable teachers to utilize best practice to impact student engagement, growth, success and achievement.

Cultural Competency workshops increase cultural competence and racial equity consciousness. They also assist in authenticating relationships and increase personal racial and cultural identity development for youth and adults of all races. Cultural competency helps educators successfully prepare for and teach students who come from a culture other than their own, thus positively impacting student success and achievement.

Equity Leadership workshops provide leadership support for districts to sustain and accelerate racial

equity work as well as disrupt institutional racism and predictable patterns of resistance. This disruption makes way for access and opportunities for students who are often systematically excluded, which in turn leads to increased student engagement, success and achievement. 2

Registration

1. Go to the West Metro Education Program homepage at wmep.k12.mn.us. Click on the “Cultural Collaborative” icon or click on “Professional Development: Cultural Collaborative” under the heading “Our Work.” 2. This will take you to the Cultural Collaborative page, where you will see links to this catalog, registration, terms and conditions, and workshop locations under the logo on the left hand side. 3. When you click on “Registration” you will go to keepcertified.ties.k12.mn.us where you can search for classes or see information on each class: Class Title, Instructor, Start Date, Duration, and Enrollment. 4. To read the course description or to register, click on the class title. 5. After reading the course description, you can register for the class by clicking on the “Register Now” button at the bottom of the page. Note the cancellation policy listed below. 6. Sign in to Keep Certified. • New users need to click on “New Here? Click Here to Create a New Account.” • If you have used the CEUpid system in the past, simply enter your email address and your current password. • Forgot Password? Click on “Forgot Your Password?” and complete. Your password will be immediately emailed. 7. To complete, click the “Create Account” button. You will now proceed to the payment page. 8. On the Payment page, you have 2 options of payment: • Member district - no charge • Pay by check - Credit card payment is not available at this time 19. Click on “Enroll” to complete your enrollment process. 10. Manage Your Enrollment: • To view the classes you are enrolled in, log in at keepcertified.ties.k12.mn.us, sign in, and click on the “Review Enrollments” button. • You can also cancel out of a class you have enrolled in by clicking the Cancel button. 11. Suggestion Button: CEUpid Certifications welcomes all suggestions! Please share any concerns/problems/comments with us.

Cancellation Policy and Procedure (As of July 1st, 2015)

All workshop registrants are subject to a five business day cancellation policy. If the individual fails to cancel prior to five business days from the start of the workshop, they will be billed a $100/day no-show fee. This fee covers the cost of materials, food and other administrative costs associated with the event. In the event of a multiple/day workshop, where the days are separated by weeks or months, each day in the session will be treated as a separate event in terms of the cancellation policy.

Questions? Check our website (wmep.k12.mn.us – Professional Development page) or contact Jill Scholtz, professional development lead ([email protected]) or Kara Richardson, program lead ([email protected] or 612.752.7204) 3

Cultural Collaborative Policy and Registration WMEP’s Non-Attendance Terms and Conditions

Please take note of our Cancellation Policy and Procedure described on page 3. You are responsible for providing current and accurate employment information in your keep certified account. WMEP will bill your district for any costs associated with your participation in the Cultural Collaborative. If your district refuses to or fails to pay for any reason, you will be personally liable for those costs. The West Metro Education Program (WMEP), may wish to use your photograph, or voice for promotional and educational reasons such as in publications, posters, brochures, and newsletters; on the district website and social media site. You may also receive emails as part of a list serve to inform you of additional offerings available through WMEP. When you register for any Cultural Collaborative course, you will be asked to click the box to confirm your understanding and acceptance of all of the terms noted above. If you wish to opt out of the media release or the list serve, please contact [email protected].

Policy for WMEP Member Guests (Required for Registration)

A member guest is a participant who is not currently employed by a member district, but has written permission from a member district to take WMEP classes at no charge. This policy applies to substitute teachers, parents, community members, interns and other upon special permission. Starting January 1st, 2015, the policy for WMEP member guests is the following: At least ten days prior the course date, a member guest must submit a $100/day refundable check to: WMEP c/o Liz Lansing 4825 Olson Memorial Highway Suite 100 Golden Valley, MN 55422 With that check, please identify your name, the course title and date that you wish to attend, as well as the individual and district giving you permission to attend as a guest. The guest may register using the keep certified system or contact Jill Scholtz with the course name and date they wish to register. If there is a wait-list, current member district employees will receive priority for spots that open up. The $100 check will be returned upon workshop attendance. Failure to attend will result in processing the check by WMEP to cover Cultural Collaborative expenses, unless, the member guest has canceled at least five business days prior to the scheduled workshop date. If WMEP does not receive the check within ten business days of the course date, their registration will be invalid. This policy will not apply for WMEP member guests whose sponsoring district agreed to pay their no-show fee. Nonmember participants who are sponsored by outside districts, other institutions, or themselves will be billed the non-member rate.

Questions? Check our website (wmep.k12.mn.us – Professional Development page or contact Jill Scholtz, professional development lead ([email protected]) or Kara Richardson, program lead ([email protected] or 612.752.7204) 4

Workshops at a Glance Practices & Strategies (P&S)

Equity Leadership (EL)

Cultural Competency (CC)

Cultural Competency, Equity Leadership (CC,EL)

∆ Multi session course, must register for all sessions

Cultural Competency, Practices & Strategies (CC, P&S) All (CC, P&S, EL)

* Prerequisite required

Title

Level Presenter

Date

Page

Subset

Foundation: Journey to Responsiveness ∆

100

Sharroky Hollie

June 9 &10 June 11 & 12

7

P&S

Beyond Diversity *

100

Tonicia Abdur Salaam, Devon Alexander, Gretchen Baglyos, Anthony Galloway, Peter Gerdts, & Devrae Hudson

July 23 & 24 8 August 20 & 21 October 28 & 29 November 11 & 12 December 1 & 2 January 20 & 21 February 23 & 24 March 8 & 9 April 7 & 8 May 11 & 12

Creating Community in a 100 Diverse School Environment

Lee Mun Wah

November 17

10 CC Bio 12

Cross-Cultural Facilitation Techniques *

200

Lee Mun Wah

November 18 February 18

11 CC Bio 12

Cross-Cultural Facilitation Techniques Intermediate *

300

Lee Mun Wah

February 19

12

CC

3-Part Racial Justice Series ∆*

200

Heather Hackman

August 4, November 3 & December 12

13

CC

Advanced Racial Justice Series ∆ *

300

Heather Hackman

January 25 & March 12

14

CC

Intercultural Leadership Development

100

Amer Ahmed

October 22

16

CC, EL

NUA - The Instructional Coach

100

Kati Pearson

October 27

18

P&S

NUA Revisited

200

Kathlene Holmes

December 15

19

P&S

Elegant Racism

100

Debby Irving

November 5

21

CC

My Brothers’ Keeper ∆ *

200

Luis Versalles & Tony Hudson January 28 & 29

22

CC

Dare 2 Be Real I & II ∆ *

200

Dr. Patrick Duffy & Anthony Galloway

25

CC, EL, P&S

Depicted, Despised, & Dismantled *

200

Kevin Bennett & Mike Elston November 19

26

CC, EL, P&S,

5

August 17 & 18 October 22 & 23

CC

Title

Level Presenter

Date

Page

Subset

Exploring Impacts of Race Privilege and Poverty in School Settings

100

Dr. Nekima Levy Pounds

December 4

28

CC, EL

Echoes of the Past, Voices of Today ∆ *

200

Ramona Kitto Stately & February 1 & 2 Dr. Rev. PM Crawley Hillstrom

29

CC

Inviting Culture Into Your Classroom

100

Wren Walker Robbins

February 4

31

CC, P&S

Curriculum Design Through 300 a Racial Justice Lens

Heather Hackman & Marie Michael

June 13

32

P&S

Beyond Diversity II ∆ *

Courtlandt Butts

March 15 & 16

33

CC

Sp/ELLing Out Institutional 200 Barriers ∆ *

Luis Versalles & Deborah McKnight

March 17 & 18

34

CC

Culturally Responsive Teaching

Rachel Hatten and Jackie Roehl

October 2015-May 35 2016 (eight online modules, once a month)

CC

200

100

Join the Conversation. Share your thoughts, ideas, questions, and aha moments.

WMEP - West Metro Education Program

We Are…

An Equity-Focused Collaborative for Student Success (Engagement, Achievement, and College/Career Readiness) and Educator Growth (Professional Development, Cultural Competence, and Regional Action)

@WMEP6069 @WMEPCulturalCol Blog posts can be accessed through our website (wmep.k12.mn.us). Interested in submitting a post after attending a Cultural Collaborative, student program, or Think Tank experience? Email… [email protected]

Questions? Check our website (wmep.k12.mn.us – Professional Development page or contact Jill Scholtz, professional development lead ([email protected]) or Kara Richardson, program lead ([email protected] or 612.752.7204)

At a Glance 6

Foundation: Journey to Responsiveness Presenter: Sharroky Hollie

Practices & Strategies

Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Dates and Locations:

100:110 June 9 & 10, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 100:111 June 11 & 12, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305

Prerequisite: None, but Beyond Diversity is highly recommended Target Audience: Primarily K-12 classroom teachers Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $300 for the 2 day session* * This includes course materials

Course Description:

Day 1: A Focus on Culture and the Instructional Benefits Defines concretely what culturally and linguistically responsive teaching is and why it is necessary in our failing schools today Builds knowledge and create the context for addressing the needs of under-served students in terms of their socio-political and socio linguistic relativity in the American educational system Promotes the focus on effective instructional strategies utilization in way that validates and affirms under-served students across content areas and grade levels Day 2: A Focus on Language Explains what an unaccepted language is and why it is important for schools to recognize these languages in a meaningful way Provides linguistic features and classroom contexts to build upon instructionally in the focus areas of vocabulary, literacy, and language Provides a sample of take-away activities for classroom use the very next day Classroom teachers may attend these two days to provide a foundation for a Cultural and Linguistically Responsive Classroom.

About the Presenter:

With nearly 25 years of experience as an educator, Sharroky Hollie has worn several hats. He spent 9 years as Language Arts teacher at the high and middle school levels. For 5 years, he was a central office program coordinator in charge of professional development for teachers working specifically in the area of language development for African American students.

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Ten years ago, Dr. Hollie co-founded the Culture and Language Academy of Success, a K-8 independent charter school that espouses culturally responsive pedagogy as its primary approach. At CLAS, Sharroky has served as the board president and chief education advocate. He also directed and developed the curriculum, professional development, and teacher development. Currently, he and others are in the process of expanding the success of CLAS to open a new set of culturally responsive schools known as Validation Academy for Fall 2014. Dr. Hollie is also the executive director of the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing stellar professional development for educators desiring to become culturally responsive. With the Center, Dr. Hollie serves as a national expert, traveling around the country training thousands of teachers. Over the past 12 years, Dr. Hollie and his team have worked with over 100,000 educators. Dr. Hollie is currently a featured author for Pearson publishing, co-authoring with Jim Cummins in the Cornerstone and Keystone textbook series in 2009 and as a contributing author in the Prentice Hall anthology 2012 and Pearson’s iLit, an e-reading series. His work has appeared in several edited texts, including Teaching African American Learners to Read, (2005), Talkin Black Talk (2007). Dr. Hollie’s first book is Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning: Classroom Practices for Student Success is available through Shell Education (2011) and his second book, co-authored with Dr. Anthony Muhammad is The Skill to Lead, The Will to Teach, published by Solution Tree (2011). The following book, by Harvard Press, is Proud To Be Different: Celebration of Ethnocentric Charter Schools. culturallyresponsive.org

100:200-100:209 Beyond Diversity Presenters: Tonicia Abdur Salaam, Gretchen Baglyos, Devrae Hudson, Anthony Galloway and Peter Gerdts

Cultural Competency

Learning Opportunity: Workshop Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Dates and Locations: 100:200 100:201 100:202 100:203 100:204 100:205 100:206 100:207 100:208 100:209

July 23 & 24, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 August 20 & 21, St. Andrew Lutheran Church, 13600 Technology Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344 October 28 & 29, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 November 11 & 12, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 December 1 & 2, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 January 20 & 21, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 February 23 & 24, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 March 8 & 9, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 April 7 & 8, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 May 11 & 12, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305

Beyond Diversity 8

Prerequisite: None Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $400 for the 2-day session* * This includes course materials

Description:

The two-day Beyond Diversity seminar is the foundation (prerequisite) for all equity leadership development phases. WMEP recommends a common protocol for racial discourse, and the Courageous Conversations™ protocol is introduced in this workshop. Beyond Diversity is designed to help leaders, educators, students, parents, and community understand the impact of race on student achievement and the role that racism plays in institutionalized academic achievement disparities.

About the Presenters:

Tonicia Abdur Salaam is the co-founder and COO of JT Salaam & Associates, where she provides executive coaching, professional development and organizational consulting. Tonicia uses a combination of her lived experience and intense professional training to provide coaching and professional development that is personable, yet impactful. Tonicia lives by two creeds, “Speak truth to power,” especially for those who are unable to advocate for themselves, and “Work to give others the grace you so desperately want for yourself.” Tonicia believes in Ubuntu, that all humanity is interlinked; that belief shines through her facilitation. Tonicia is a caring, thought provoking, yet honest caretaker of the truth regarding race and believes that it is only through truth and care that racial inequity can be addressed. Of all of the accomplishments in her life, the ones that bring her the most pride and joy is being a wife, mother and “nana.” Gretchen Baglyos most recently served as vocal music teacher for The FAIR School, a K-12 arts integration magnet, and was a top 10 finalist for 2014 Minnesota Teacher of the Year. She created community in her classroom by engaging student voice and creative collaboration through music learning. She has also served as Music Director for Stages Theater Company, Choir Director for the American Boychoir School and Music Teacher for Concordia Creative Learning Academy. As a White female teacher, Gretchen models active reflection on her own growth and journey. She has facilitated workshops in classroom management and kinesthetic learning at the FAIR School and the University of Minnesota. Gretchen also served as a Racial Equity Coach for fellow educators as they reflected and developed their beliefs and practice. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Music Education from St. Olaf College and is currently pursuing her MAEd at Hamline University with an Urban Teaching specialization. Anthony Galloway is an actor, storyteller, and student learning program lead for the West Metro Education Program. Anthony has worked in experiential learning and community engagement for over 15 years. While Traveling to South Africa for the 10-year celebration of the election of Nelson Mandela, he was part of an American student delegation studying the effects of Apartheid on the new South Africa. It was here that he found a passion for multiple perspectives on race and ethnicity after interviewing more than 20 people who worked and were imprisoned with Nelson Mandela. Recently, he worked with Dr. Patrick Duffy to create a regional network of anti-racist student leaders, and the work is featured in a co-authored chapter in the book, More Courageous Conversations About Race (Singleton, 2012).

Beyond Diversity 9

Peter Gerdts most recently served as a Q Comp coordinator for WMEP and taught 8th grade Social Studies for 5 years at FAIR Crystal. He designed and taught interdisciplinary world studies curriculum grounded in social justice and facilitated student courageous conversations about race and racism. During this time, he also served and led on School and District equity teams. Before that, he taught HS Social Studies at Perpich Arts High School. As a white male, Peter has a heightened awareness of how his race and gender have privileged his own journey. He speaks openly, in protocol and with mindful inquiry while assisting others to stay engaged during difficult conversations. He models well the teacher’s journey to racial consciousness with humor and humility. Peter has a PA in Political Science from the University of MN, and holds a 5-12 teachers license through Hamline University. Devrae Hudson is an African American equity centered teacher leader committed to the success of young people. She has provided national staff development on curriculum and team leadership skills. She recently served as a Q Comp lead peer observer and coach for WMEP FAIR Schools. Her work’s focus has been on racial equity and coaching for improved instruction. Devrae has also has close to 20 years experience teaching elementary school, particularly 4th and 5th grade. Her teaching experience has consistently been coupled with a leadership component around equity and effective instruction. Devrae is a graduate of Spelman College with a B.A. in Child Development and has her M.Ed. in Teaching and Learning from St. Mary’s University of MN. She is a well respected instructional leader and engages in difficult conversations with grace and authenticity. Students and teachers alike respond well to her passion for racial equity and student achievement and she skillfully creates space for all voices, including her own. “Courageous Conversation” is a trademark of Pacific Educational Group, Inc. pacificeducationalgroup.com

Cultural Competency

100:101 Creating Community in a Diverse School Environment Presenter: Lee Mun Wah Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: November 17, 2015 Location: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Prerequisite: None Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $200* * This includes course materials

Lee Mun Wah 10

Description:

This introductory program provides basic, practical techniques on how to develop alliances and a sense of community between multicultural groups. We will focus on how to create an environment of trust where similarities and differences are valued, acknowledged and considered useful. Participants will be taken through a series of exercises that will help them learn more about each other and what each has to offer that is uniquely theirs. In addition, opportunities will be provided for participants to share the stories and life experiences that have shaped and impacted who they have become, as well as their aspirations for the future. This very intimate and moving experience often leaves participants feeling they have grown closer in friendship and understanding.

200:101-200:102 Cross-Cultural Facilitation Techniques Presenter: Lee Mun Wah

Cultural Competency

Learning Opportunity: Workshop Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Dates and Locations:

200-101 November 18, 2015, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 200-102 February 18, 2016, Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305

Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $200* * This includes course materials

Prerequisite: 100-101: Creating Community in a Diverse School Environment Target Audience: All staff Description:

Facilitating a group with many cross-cultural perspectives and experiences requires a keen understanding and thorough knowledge of how cultural differences can impact group dynamics, relationships and one’s sense of safety. In this unique training, each participant will be guided through a series of exercises and mindful techniques that will enhance their understanding of the impact of culture on relationships, conflictual cultural situations, as well as how to develop a deeper and more authentic sense of community and openness within diverse groups.

Lee Mun Wah 11

300:101 Cross-Cultural Facilitation Techniques-Intermediate Level Presenter: Lee Mun Wah

Cultural Competency

Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: February 19, 2015 Location: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $200* * This includes course materials

Prerequisites: 100:101 Creating Community in a Diverse School Environment AND 200:201 Cross-Cultural Facilitation Techniques Target Audience: All staff

Description:

The group will continue to develop Lee Mun Wah’s mindful facilitation communication and de-escalation techniques as outlined in the books The Art of Mindful Facilitation and Let’s Get Real. Participants will learn how to respond to a statement or situation using questions and reflections as a primary means of relating and deepening a culturally diverse dialogue. Through the use of selected diversity educational vignettes and film clips, participants will learn the underlying issues and needs of co-workers, students, staff, and/or parents. The group will learn to pinpoint the point of escalation and departure as well as develop the mindful skill sets to discover what they need to feel validated and understood. We will also work in small groups and as a whole group to process, practice and learn from each other by using the experiences and knowledge of those in attendance.

About the Presenter:

Lee Mun Wah is an internationally renowned Chinese American documentary filmmaker, author, poet, Asian folk teller, educator, community therapist and master diversity trainer. For more than 25 years he was a resource specialist and counselor in the San Francisco Unified School District. He later became a consultant to private schools, working with students that had severe learning and behavioral issues. Lee Mun Wah is now the Executive Director of Stirfry Seminars & Consulting, a diversity training company that provides educational tools and workshops on issues pertaining to cross-cultural communication and awareness, mindful facilitation, and conflict mediation techniques. Thousands of people from government and social service agencies, corporations and educational institutions have taken Lee Mun Wah’s workshops and partnered with Stirfry Seminars & Consulting on their diversity initiatives. It is Lee Mun Wah’s belief that we cannot wait until tomorrow for some charismatic leader to appear who

Lee Mun Wah 12

will bring us all together. We each must take a stand and personally participate in this important journey of confronting our fears and beginning a conversation not only with those we love but also with those we have been taught to fear. We cannot continue being separate and unequal without there being a cost to each and every generation. Our survival and the very future of our children depend on all of us embracing our differences as well as our mutuality. If we can accomplish this in our lifetime, we can then look back and know that we have found a way to live together authentically and harmoniously, using and honoring all of our gifts and special contributions. To Lee Mun Wah, that is the true meaning of multiculturalism. stirfryseminars.com

200:301 3-Part Racial Justice Series Presenter: Heather Hackman

Cultural Competency

Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: August 4, November 3, and Saturday, December 12, 2015 Location: WMEP Professional Learning Center, 4825 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 100, Golden Valley, MN 55422

Prerequisite: Beyond Diversity Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $540 for the 3-part series* * This includes course materials

Description:

The workshops take place over three days and are designed to be taken together as a cohort experience. This series is designed to foster the deeper development of an anti-racist / racial justice lens by presenting a solid balance of theory and practice regarding race, racism, whiteness, and healing justice work. This series is not designed for participants for whom this is their first exposure to these issues, and instead assumes that all participants have a solid working knowledge of these issues such that we can go much deeper and be more specific in the application than is possible in an introductory workshop series. In between each session there participants will be asked to do a small amount of reading and some application/writing to be brought to the next session. Session One: Refining a Critical Race Lens (August 4) This workshop addresses the social construction of race and the deep implications for that historical (and current) process on the ways racism operates in U.S. society today. Topics addressed include: how,

Heather Hackman 13

when and why race was constructed; particular attention to the rationalizations for these categories; the impact of essentializing; deep and provocative conversation about the role of race in each participant’s life; the way race supports and is supported by other systems and ideologies of power in the U.S.; and, of course, how all of this applies to education in general, and more specifically the content and processes of P-12 education today. Session Two: Undoing Whiteness: Calling Out the Wizard Behind the Curtain (November 3) This workshop focuses entirely on the ways that white privilege and white supremacy work symbiotically to create the overall structure of whiteness in the United States, and in turn how that structure serves as the foundation for the maintenance of racism. To be clear, this session has no use or time for evoking white guilt and shame from white participants, and instead focuses on how the system of white privilege and the ideology of white supremacy have infected and damaged everyone while working to maintain the structures of racism in U.S. society as a whole, and specifically in U.S. education. Specific attention will be paid to curricula, staffing processes, and school policies in applying this content. Session Three: Deep Vision, Radical Healing, and Racial Justice in Our Everyday Lives (December 12) This workshop builds on the two previous sessions while introducing new content regarding the nature of social change, healing justice, and modalities of ending racism that serve to liberate and benefit everyone. The workshop will slightly be more hands-on and discursive than the previous two and will focus on direct application to schooling for much of the latter half of the day. Participants will be asked to bring concrete materials from their professional areas to this session for application and analysis.

300:301 Advanced Racial Justice Series Presenter: Heather Hackman

Cultural Competency

Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: January 25, 2015 and Saturday, March 12, 2016

Location: WMEP Professional Learning Center, 4825 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 100, Golden Valley, MN 55422

Prerequisite: Beyond Diversity and 3-Part Racial Justice series. Logistically, participants must have attended the 3-part series in its entirety (each session, for the entire session) and must attend both portions of this series as well. Target Audience: All staff

Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $360 for the 2 day series*

* This includes course materials

Heather Hackman 14

Description:

This two-part series is designed for those who have gone through the initial 3-part series offered by Dr. Hackman on Race, Racism and Whiteness. This series builds on that content in two primary ways: first, it provides a deeper analysis of race, racism and whiteness, and second it offers a more critical exploration of how this can be applied to participants’ specific work in education. Session One: The first session is designed to more deeply address the components of race, racism and whiteness by exploring the history of the creation of race in more complex ways, the multiple iterations race has taken over the course of U.S. history, and the complexity of race today in the U.S. This is then followed by a critical examination of the core processes by which racism operates in the U.S., how it specifically applies to education, and how those dynamics get internalized by folks of color (known as “internalized racism”) and the connection of this to education and the race-based achievement gap. The final component for this session is the critical exploration of whiteness, how white privilege and white supremacy currently operate in the U.S., and how they manifest in the lives and bodies of white people in this society and particularly in education. There will be a “homework” assignment from this session that will help participants take the content from the workshop and learn how to apply it to their lives and work in education in order to further the “lens shift” described in the previous three-part series. Session Two: This session is focused on the application of the previous session’s content beginning at the individual level, then moving to the social identity group level (racial identity groups), and then finally to the level of our work in education. On the individual level, participants will be introduced to a range of complex concepts that more deeply explain the impact race, racism and whiteness has had on their material, emotional, and physical lives. Moving then to the level of group analysis and awareness, a portion of the session will be spent in caucus groups based on racial identity, followed by a report-out and critical dialogue based on caucus discussions. And the final portion of the session will be spent in either district groups or parallel grade level / work groups (depending on the composition of the participant group) in order to begin to construct systematic plans for addressing race, racism and whiteness in an ongoing and critical way.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Hackman has been teaching and training on social justice issues since 1992 and was a tenured professor in the Department of Human Relations and Multicultural Education at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota for 12 years before she began focusing full time on consulting. She has taught courses in social justice and multicultural education (pre-service and in-service teachers), race and racism, heterosexism and homophobia, social justice education (higher education leadership), oppression and social change, sexism and gender oppression, class oppression, and Jewish oppression. She received her doctorate in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2000 and has taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Westfield State College, Springfield College, St. Cloud State University, Hamline University, and the University of St. Thomas. In 2005 she founded Hackman Consulting group and consults nationally on issues of deep diversity, equity and social justice and has focused most of her recent training work on issues of racism and white privilege, gender oppression, heterosexism and homophobia, and classism. She has published in the area of social justice education theory and practice, racism in health care (with Stephen Nelson), and is currently working on

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two books, one examining issue of race, racism and whiteness in education through a model she calls “cellular wisdom”, and another addressing anti-racism professional development training for E-12 professionals. In 2009, she was awarded a Research Fellowship with the Great Place to Work Institute and has developed corporate training rubrics that combine her social justice content with GPTWI’s “trust” frameworks. She has sat on the board of Minnesota NAME as president, the board of Rainbow Families, has served on numerous committees committed to multicultural and social justice work, and since 2012 has served as a member of the Advisory Council for the White Privilege Conference. Her most recent research and conference presentations have focused on climate change and its intersections with issues of race, class and gender. hackmanconsultinggroup.org

Cultural Competency Equity Leadership

100:401 Intercultural Leadership Development Presenter: Amer Ahmed Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: October 22, 2015 Location: WMEP Professional Learning Center, 4825 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 100, Golden Valley, MN 55422

Prerequisite: None Target Audience: Any person interested in equity leadership Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $200* * This includes course materials

Description:

People of Color have consistently been bombarded with Eurocentric conceptions of leadership that focus on positional and individual achievement. These approaches to leadership typically reinforce the message that People of Color should assimilate and give up their own ways of being and living in the world in order to advance and succeed. What happens when we begin to conceive of leadership in a fundamentally different way that accounts for the intercultural skills that People of Color have as a result of shifting and adapting between multiple contexts? Is it possible to engage leadership development in a less Eurocentric way that elevates decentralized collectivism and intercultural competency skills as implicit in

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effective 21st century leadership? This program will reframe the whole discussion on leadership in order to guide individuals on a path that honors our ancestors and values all of who we are as diverse and dynamic human beings.

About the Presenter:

Amer F. Ahmed is an individual with an eclectic personal and professional experience. As an intercultural diversity consultant, college administrator, facilitator, poet and Hip Hop activist, he channels his diverse experiences into work geared towards effective change serving to create mutual benefit for all. Born in Springfield, Ohio to Indian Muslim immigrants, Amer has dedicated his life to engaging and facilitating diversity across human difference. His studies in Anthropology and Black Studies have been enhanced by powerful study abroad experiences in South Africa and Nepal. His education, world experiences and his Indian-Muslim-American upbringing helps him understand the need for respect and dignity of all people. Amer has served as Director of Intercultural Programs at Loras College in Dubuque, IA and Concordia College in Moorhead, MN before moving on to University of Michigan and later to Swarthmore College. His professional experience provides him with unique perspectives on Diversity and Inclusion policies and practices in Higher Education and numerous other professional contexts. Amer is also a prominent national speaker invited to numerous campuses, conferences and institutes to speak on his diverse areas of expertise. Among on his many areas of expertise, Amer has most prominently been engaged to address issues related to Islam, Islamophobia and interfaith issues through his engaging multimedia presentations. He also has been featured on MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris Perry” show and in “Cracking the Codes,” a documentary film on racism directed by Dr. Shakti Butler. His writings have appeared in numerous publications. Throughout his career, Amer has consistently addressed all forms of marginality that impact how individuals experience institutions and issues of social justice that continue to face traditionally marginalized communities. In addition, he bridges this work with the field of Intercultural Communication emphasizing developmental approaches to Intercultural sensitivity. Such approaches have been useful in his work on Organizational, Leadership and Student Development and Assessment as well as in Workshop facilitation and Public speaking. Amer is continuing this work as a member of SpeakOut: Institute for Democratic Education, Faculty at the Summer and Winter Institutes for Intercultural Communication and Dean of the Sophomore Class and Intercultural Director at Swarthmore College. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Adult and Higher Education at University of South Dakota. Amer’s is deeply rooted and committed to the empowerment of young people through unique approaches that seek to unlock their creative potential. Through engagement with new and social media, arts and facilitation; Amer is committed to lifting voices of the youth to create transformative change in the world. speakoutnow.org

Intercultural Leadership 17

Practices & Strategies 100:801 NUA - The Instructional Coach Presenter: Kati Pearson Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: October 27, 2015 Location: WMEP Professional Learning Center, 4825 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 100, Golden Valley, MN 55422

Prerequisite: All staff

Target Audience: Primarily K-12 classroom teachers

Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $200* * This includes course materials

Course Description:

The NUA Instructional coach is someone whose chief professional responsibility is to bring evidence-based practices into classrooms by working with teachers, students, and other school leaders. In the NUA, we focus our small group support for instructional coaches and school leaders around the Pedagogy of Confidence and its seven High Operational Practices (HOPs). The HOPs support literacy strategies and the instructional coaching process with the goals of increasing student engagement, improving student achievement, and building teacher quality in schools. The practitioners benefit from the experience of colleagues and interactive modeling. At any given time instructional coaching involves the classroom teacher, his or her students and the coach. Coaches work with teachers and students, providing guidance, training, and other resources as needed. Together, they focus on practical strategies for engaging students and improving students’ learning. The NUA Coach utilizes the HOPs in the classroom with teachers and students as a way of developing and NUA Classroom. The 5 Areas of the NUA Classroom are: • Classroom Climate • Culturally Responsive Teaching • Student Motivation and Engagement • Focus on High intellectual Performance • Self-direct Learning The NUA Instructional coaching session will use text-based discussions to reflect on the growing consensus about what constitutes high-quality professional development for teachers. It is job-embedded, and will address issues teachers face daily in their classrooms. It is aligned to state standards, curriculum, and assessment. The goal of the Instructional Coaches session is twofold: improved instructional practice and improved student learning.

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About the Presenter:

Katie Pearson currently works as the Director of Teaching and Learning in Lake County Schools, FL. Her department leads Differentiated Accountability, School Improvement Planning, English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS), which includes Response to Intervention (RtI) and Positive Behavior Support (PBS). She taught several years at the elementary and secondary school level, spent several years as a Literacy Coach, then worked as a district level Reading Specialist. She has also served as a district level administrator in several capacities including Curriculum & Instruction and Corrective Programs & AYP. She is a graduate of Florida A & M University (B.S. in Elementary Education) and then earned a M.S. degree from Florida State University and an Ed. S. in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. Ms. Pearson has a passion for teaching and learning and believes in the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen: “Continuous Improvement”. She holds teaching certifications in Elementary Education, Language Arts, English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Educational Leadership, and also a K-12 Reading Endorsement. She was selected by ASCD for the 2013 class of “Emerging Leaders” program, which recognizes and prepares young, promising educators to influence education programs, policy and practice on both the local and national levels. After coming full circle as a struggling inner-city youth herself, Ms. Pearson believes that her work with the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education is her true calling. She is an avid reader of adolescent literature and has at least one bookcase in every room of her house to accommodate her many treasured texts. She currently resides in Orlando, Florida. nuatc.org

Practices & Strategies

100:801 NUA Revisited Presenter: Kathlene Holmes Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: December 15, 2015 Location: WMEP Professional Learning Center, 4825 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 100, Golden Valley, MN 55422

Prerequisite: All staff

Target Audience: Primarily K-12 classroom teachers

Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $200* * This includes course materials

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Course Description:

Educators who have past NUA training will benefit greatly from the highly interactive, digitally enhanced session that looks at how personal narratives allow students (and teachers) to share their life and their feelings with others and vicariously experience the things that happen around them. The job as the narrator is to put the reader (or listener) in the midst of the action letting him or her live through the narrator’s experience. Creating one’s own personal narrative is a great way to improve one’s thinking skills. Once students begin the process of narrating their own life, the world of self-directed learning and amplifying their voice will be at their fingertips. The participant will use NUA strategies that he or she can immediately replicate in the classroom, for students to formulate answers to questions such as: • What does being the person that you are, from one day to the next, necessarily consist in? • How do you narrate your own life? • Why is it important to be confident and start from your strength when narrating your own story? • How do I see the world and how does the world sees me? Further, the session will utilize popular youth culture to determine the beneficiaries of our school system with an eye on moving the students to amplify their voice, become self-directed learners, and start from their strengths to leverage areas that need improvement. Structurally, the school is a snapshot of a society fraught with inequities. Participant will look at ways to ameliorate these in the lives of students at school. The NUA believes that: • Intelligence is modifiable • All students benefit from a focus on High Intellectual Performances • Learning is an interplay of culture, language and cognition. To this end, education for all students is best achieved through a systemic approach, with attention to multiple contexts. With the student as our central focus, with the most to gain, participant will apply research-based strategies and practices. According to researchers who study learning, instructional practices that address issues of culture and language hold the greatest promise for helping culturally and linguistically diverse learners to become successful readers. Literacy is constructing, communicating, and creating meaning in many forms of representation. The challenge for today’s teachers is to include those elements of curricula that will optimize learning for students while maintaining their cultural identity. In order for culturally and linguistically diverse students to reach their full potential, instruction should be provided in ways that promote the acquisition of increasingly complex knowledge and skills in a social climate that fosters collaboration and positive interactions among participant. Such classrooms are inclusive in their emphasis on high intellectual performances and outcomes for all students, including culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Important features of such settings include building a relationship, integrating prerequisites, providing for enrichment, and situating the learning in the lives of students.

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About the Presenter:

Kathlene Holmes began her career in education as a kindergarten teacher. After serving in a variety of roles, such as grade level and equity staff development co-chairs, she saw the need for increased teacher dialogue and the sharing of best practices and became a Professor of Education at Florida State College at Jacksonville. During her tenure at the state college, Ms. Holmes transitioned from the classroom to administration and led education programs as Interim Dean over alternative certification as well as the bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. Ms. Holmes firmly believes children deserve a quality education that prepares them for their own future endeavors. She is particularly passionate toward initiatives embedding multimodal and culturally relevant practices in social studies and literacy education. An avid traveler, Ms. Holmes continues to learn about diverse cultures and infuse it in her teaching methods. Her interests in these areas have led her to work with the National Urban Alliance and mentor urban public school teachers. Ms. Holmes is currently a PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin (projected graduation spring, 2016). She received a BA in Elementary Education and M.Ed. in Early Childhood Intervention and Family Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She credits her family, university professors, and undergraduate cooperating teacher, Shyvonne Steed-Foster, as major influences on her success as a teacher. nuatc.org

100:501 Elegant Racism: Everyday Perpetuation of Racial Inequality by Well-intentioned White People Presenter: Debby Irving

Cultural Competency

Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: November 5, 2015 Location: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Prerequisite: None Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $200* * This includes course materials

Elegant Racism 21

Description:

While harsh words by Paula Deen, Ronald Sterling, and Cliven Bundy have rocked white America in the past year, these isolated events reflect an older, more tangible form of racism. Meanwhile, the more powerful antagonist, modern, or ‘elegant,’ racism goes largely unnoticed. Waking Up White, a new book by racial justice educator Debby Irving, provides critical context that allows white people to quickly grasp modern racism’s inner workings and enter into conversations with new awareness and skill. Waking Up White functions as both a “Racism 101” for white people and a rare exposé on whiteness for people of color. The workshop, based on her book, is a catalytic kickstarter that provides people of all colors and levels of racial awareness with the language and tools necessary to enter into cross-racial conversations about race within a less threatening context. “When I finally came to understand the way racism worked,” she explains, “I spent a lot of time thinking about what might have enlightened me earlier. I decided it wouldn’t have been an academic book, an essay, or a book from the perspective of a person of color -- it would have been another white person describing their own awakening, with some humor, poignancy and drama in the mix. What I needed was a memoir so irresistible that I would have read it even if racism weren’t on my mind.”

About the Presenter:

Debby Irving brings to racial justice the perspective of working as a community organizer and classroom teacher for 25 years without understanding racism as a systemic issue or her own whiteness as an obstacle to grappling with it. As general manager of Boston’s Dance Umbrella and First Night, and later as a classroom teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she struggled to make sense of tensions she could feel but not explain in racially mixed settings. In 2009, a graduate school course, Racial and Cultural Identities, gave her the answers she’d been looking for and launched her on a journey of discovery. Debby now devotes herself to working with white people exploring the impact white skin can have on perception, problem solving, and engaging in racial justice work. A graduate of the Winsor School in Boston, she holds a BA from Kenyon College and an MBA from Simmons College. Her first book, Waking Up White, tells the story of how she went from well-meaning to well-doing.

Cultural Competency

200:210 My Brothers’ Keeper: A Courageous Transformation of the Plight of Black Males As We Journey Back to Love, Engagement and High Achievement (Formally Black Males Seminar) Presenters: Luis Versalles and Tony Hudson Learning Opportunity: Workshop Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: January 28 & 29, 2016

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Location: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Prerequisite: Beyond Diversity Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $400* * This includes course materials

Description:

The “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, launched by President Obama, has challenged the nation to intensify the support and development of young men of color, particularly black males. The data detailing the plight of black males continues to re-inscribe the inherent harm, neglect and division from which this plight arises. “And the worst part,” the President laments, “is we’ve become numb to these statistics. We’re not surprised by them. We take them as the norm. We just assume this is an inevitable part of American life, instead of the outrage that it is.” The challenge is for schools to not reflect and perpetuate the inequities, but to eliminate those inequities. Garrett Albert Duncan, in his powerful research, offers that black boys are “Beyond Love” as it relates to their experiences in school. By creating the space for, surfacing and learning from their voices, this seminar will explore and assess how Duncan’s concept is manifested through institutionalized practices that marginalize, criminalize and ostracize black males. Participants will examine ways to transform school environments into places that nurture the spirit and infinite potential of black males by fostering high-level engagement and achievement.

About the Presenters:

A first generation Cuban-American, Luis Versalles was born and raised in Bloomington, Minnesota. His bilingual and bicultural life experiences have fueled his passion for fostering racial, linguistic, and cultural equity in education for all students. After completing his public school K-12 education, Luis went on to complete a Bachelor’s degree and Master of Education, with emphasis on Second Languages and Cultures, from the University of Minnesota, becoming the first college graduate from his family in the process. This experience motivates his work in coaching school leaders to better understand the complexities of families of color in navigating both the K-12 educational system and higher education, in his work as Director of Leadership with Pacific Educational Group. Versalles began his professional career as a teacher of Spanish and English as a Second Language in his hometown of Bloomington and its neighboring district, Richfield. His teaching career provided experiences at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. Following his teaching career, Luis launched into the field of administration, working first as Magnet Programs Grant project coordinator for the Richfield Public Schools and later as program coordinator, assistant principal, and principal of Richfield Dual Language School. Luis was instrumental in the community outreach, feasibility study, and coordination required to bring into existence Richfield Dual Language School, the first suburban two-way immersion school in the history of the state of Minnesota. On the strength of his leadership experiences in two-way immersion education, Luis was awarded the Joyce Bilingual Preschool “Bridging Gaps, Bridging Cultures” award in 2008, which recognizes educational leaders in the Latino community of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. He has presented on several occasions at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisitions

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(CARLA) Summer Institute on the topic of “Immersion Principal Leadership Competencies” and has also presented for the Louisiana Department of Education on the same topic. Versalles, along with researchers from the Center for Applied Linguistics, and teacher leaders from Richfield Dual Language School, has presented on the topic of “Fostering Racial, Linguistic, and Cultural Equity in Two-Way Immersion” at the La Cosecha National Conference of Dual Language of New Mexico. He serves on the Executive Board of the Minnesota Advocates for Immersion Network. Tony Hudson was born in Omaha, Nebraska on the North Side. North Omaha is part of one of the most racially segregated metro areas in the United States. The first racial equity champion in Tony’s life was his mother Rose. Growing up, Tony watched his mother enact racial consciousness, courage, and cultural capital to steer her children through K-12 education, and to interrupt racism toward herself in her own workplace. Having his mother as a hero for racial equity was key in the formation of his passion for organizing learning communities for racial equity in K-12 education and beyond. After completing his public school K-12 education, Tony went on to complete Bachelor’s and Master of Educational Leadership degrees. In his post-Master’s studies Tony became a licensed principal and is completing a Doctoral degree. Tony is the first college graduate from his family. Hudson has spent the majority of his career in school leadership for racial equity. Tony progressed through K-12 leadership as an assistant and head principal at the elementary and secondary levels, where he maintained a passionate and persistent focus on racial equity. Under Tony’s leadership his school was ranked as a top school in the state of Minnesota for its growth in eliminating racial disparities for children of color, students receiving Special Education and English Language Learning services. Within four years his school was transformed and known as a model of racially conscious professional learning communities, hiring, academic achievement, and parent engagement. As a result of his persistent challenge of the larger school system to engage in systemic racial equity transformation as well, he was promoted to serve as director of educational equity for the Osseo School District, in Minnesota. Under his systemic leadership Osseo engaged in innovative partnerships with community based racial justice organizing groups to make significant headway toward the elimination of the racial cradle-to-prison school discipline pipeline. Tony led the development of a systemic racial equity transformation plan for his former school system that included the restructure of his department to include highly trained system racial equity coaches, the development of two Freedom Schools, and leadership coaching for racial equity for system leaders. As a central office director Tony led his department, state Achievement and Integration legislation implementation, and the systemic racial equity transformation plan. In addition to his school and system level racial equity leadership, Tony developed deep experience as a volunteer engaged in community organizing for racial equity transformation in education and beyond. Tony has been a leader in organizations such as Isaiah Minnesota in campaigns to end the racial cradle-to-prison pipeline in school discipline and mass incarceration. In addition, Tony has partnered with African Immigrant service organizations to create school-community partnerships focused on building racial equity in education. Tony’s experience in school district leadership and community organizing for racial equity in education informs his coaching of school leaders toward transformational partnerships with families and communities of color in his work as an Equity Transformation Specialist with Pacific Educational Group. pacificeducationalgroup.com

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200:401 & 200:402 Dare To Be Real I & II Presenters: Dr. Patrick Duffy and Anthony Galloway Learning Opportunity: Workshop Dates, Times and Locations

200:402 August 17 & 18, 8:30-3:30 pm, Linwood Monroe, 810 Palace Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55102 200:401 October 22, 1:30 pm-8:30 pm and October 23 (Saturday) from 8:30 am-3:30 pm, See Keep Certified for location information

Practices & Strategies Cultural Competency Equity Leadership

Prerequisite: Beyond Diversity Target Audience: This session is for any educator (teacher, support staff, administrator) that wants to

explore authentic ways for White Students and Students of Color to develop their leadership skills, engage in collaborative inquiry, and examine the impact of privilege, power and prejudice through a racial lens. Registering a team of two or more from your district or school site is highly recommended.

Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $360* for sessions I & II St. Paul Staff: Contact Jill Scholtz ([email protected]) for pricing* * This includes all course materials

Description:

In this follow up to D2BR I, participants review the ten tenets of systemic student leadership development for racial equity and will engage in activities and discussion around the three basis staples of the Dare 2 Be Real student leadership curriculum framework. Essential questions for these frameworks ask participants to explore identity development and its role in developing youth, community, and particularly anti-racist leadership. Critical pedagogy from this session will be linked to student development programming and potential formative and summative assessments that can be used in classrooms and retreat settings to develop the racial consciousness and cultural proficiency of students in grades 6-12 and the adults who guide and teach them. This session is for any educator (teacher, support staff, administrator), that is currently supporting or teaching student leaders for racial equity or is seeking more authentic ways for White students and Students of Color to develop their leadership skills, engage in collaborative inquiry, and examine the impact of privilege, power, and prejudice through a racial lens. Registering a team of two or more from your district (including one administrator) or school site is highly recommended due to the collaborative nature of this session.

About the Presenters:

Dr. Patrick Duffy earned his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota and graduated summa cum

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laude with a major in history, later earning his Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and his Doctorate in Educational Policy and Administration. Patrick also holds certificates of advanced study from the Fundacion Ortega y Gasset in Toledo, Spain and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Patrick’s career spans 17 years as a teacher, principal, and district administrator in suburban and urban K-12 schools where he has worked to develop systems, teachers, students, and principals. Patrick also developed Dare 2 Be Real, a systemic student anti-racist leadership development program which was featured in a co-authored chapter in the book, More Courageous Conversations About Race (Singleton, 2012). Dr. Duffy serves on the board of directors for the Minnesota Education Equity Partnership (MnEEP). In 2013, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) honored him as one of three national finalists for dissertation of the year based on his critical ethnography on high school leadership for racial equity. Patrick has presented regionally and nationally on racial equity, leadership, and organizational development. Anthony Galloway is an actor, storyteller, and student learning program lead for the West Metro Education Program. Anthony has worked in experiential learning and community engagement for over 15 years. While Traveling to South Africa for the 10-year celebration of the election of Nelson Mandela, he was part of an American student delegation studying the effects of Apartheid on the new South Africa. It was here that he found a passion for multiple perspectives on race and ethnicity after interviewing more than 20 people who worked and were imprisoned with, Nelson Mandela. Recently, he worked with Dr. Patrick Duffy to create a regional network of anti-racist student leaders, and the work is featured in a co-authored chapter in the book, More Courageous Conversations About Race (Singleton, 2012). Anthony Galloway also works as a conductor and historian for the Underground Railroad simulation. As a young man Anthony worked on the Kare 11 “Whatever” show in addition to starring in several local theatrical productions of “Kumbaya: The Juneteenth Story.” This led him to be one of the founding members of the Voices Merging Poetry Collective, the largest and most diverse student organization at the University of Minnesota and only open forum for poetry, music, and student experiences on campus.

200:501 Depicted, Despised, and Dismantled: How Urban Schools Are Failing Black Boys Presenters: Kevin Bennett and Mike Elston Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Practices & Strategies Cultural Competency Equity Leadership

Time: 8:30-11:30 am Date: November 19 Location: WMEP Professional Learning Center, 4825 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 100, Golden Valley, MN 55422

Depicted, Despised, and Dismantled 26

Prerequisite: Beyond Diversity Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP member district staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $80* * This includes course materials

Description:

Deficit thinking currently drives educational decisions about black males, and it must be disrupted. Examine how leadership based in equity must confront the beliefs and systems that continue to depict our black boys as problems, teach them that they are despised, and ultimately dismantle their human identity. Develop the skill and will that is necessary to lead courageously, using the Compass, the Agreements, and the Conditions of Courageous Conversation™ (Pacific Educational Group). Understand how bold initiatives like ending non-violent suspensions positively impact the lives of our students of color and transform the educational spaces into places where humans are built up rather than torn apart.

About the Presenters:

Kevin J. Bennett is an award-winning educator, leader, speaker, consultant and a constant advocate for children. In 2013, he started KB4Kids, an organization that unites his focus on academic success with valued opportunities for children and families. His leadership role in education is varied and active. He is the current principal of FAIR School Downtown, an award winning magnet school in the heart of Minneapolis, where he has created a robust community partnership development. Bennett was honored as MetLife/MASSP’s Minnesota Middle School Principal of the Year in January of 2012. He provides innovative leadership through his creative program development, visionary strategic planning, and enthusiastic commitment to equity and excellence in education. He recently wrote a monthly blog through the Teaching Channel, a national nonprofit that showcases inspired and effective teaching practices and provides a forum for educators to connect. Michael Elston is an educational leader with a passion for engaging youth. He believes in leveraging the power of community partnerships to create real and relevant experiences and opportunities for youth to discover and pursue their passions and develop their strengths. Currently, Elston directs community partnerships as a Teacher On Special Assignment (TOSA) for The FAIR School, a public fine arts magnet school in Minneapolis Minnesota. In his ten plus years in education, Elston has had the opportunity to teach social studies at both the middle and high school level, as well as serve in numerous leadership capacities including participation in district and school level Equity and Anti-Racist committees. Mr. Elston is an active consultant to educational entities and non-profits and has presented numerous times at both the local and national level. He holds a Masters degree in Educational Leadership, and was awarded the TIES Teacher of Excellence Award in 2008. Mr. Elston is currently pursuing his Minnesota K-12 administrative license.

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100:601 Exploring Impacts of Race, Privilege, and Poverty in School Settings Presenters: Dr. Nekima Levy Pounds

Cultural Competency Equity Leadership

Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: December 4, 2015 Location: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Prerequisite: none Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $180* * This includes course materials

Description:

This workshop will enlighten and challenge participants to explore the role that racial bias may play in uneven educational outcomes for students of color in public schools, with a specific emphasis on African American students. We will examine the role of unconscious bias, historical inequities, socio-economic issues, and a phenomenon known as the school-to-prison pipeline in creating barriers to equitable outcomes for low income students, students with learning disabilities, and students of color. Prepare to be awakened, energized, and called to resist the status quo on behalf of children in need.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Nekima Levy-Pounds is an award-winning professor of law at University of St. Thomas School of Law and the founding Director of the Community Justice Project, a civil rights legal clinic.  Dr. Levy-Pounds is also a civil rights attorney, legal scholar, media personality, blogger, and nationally recognized expert on issues at the intersections of race, public policy, economic justice, public education, juvenile justice, and the criminal justice system. In 2015, she was named one of 40 Under 40 by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.  In 2014, she was named Attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer and recognized as one of 50 under 50 Most Influential Law Professors of Color in the Country by Lawyers of Color magazine. She has a heart for the people and works toward achieving justice for those whose voices are often unheard within society.

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200:211 Echoes of the Past, Voices of Today: A Courageous Indigenous Conversation About Making the Invisible Visible in Education Presenters: Ramona Kitto Stately and Dr. Rev. PM Crawley Hillstrom

Cultural Competency

Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: February 1 & 2, 2016 Location: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Prerequisite: Beyond Diversity Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $400* * This includes course materials

Description:

Understanding the American Indian educational experience and perspectives has profound implications for both policy and pedagogy when transforming systems to educate all students. Through counter-narratives shared by American Indians, learn about the rights, responsibilities, and misinformation surrounding Indigenous people and education. Apply the Courageous Conversation protocol to interrogate the presence and role of whiteness; recognize and appropriately address the American Indian students’ struggles and emotions connected with educational assimilation; and understand the concepts of “invisible identity” and “walking in two worlds.”

About the Presenters:

Ramona Kitto Stately serves as Program Coordinator for Indian Education and the Success For the Future Program in Minnesota’s Osseo Area School District. She is an enrolled member of the Santee Sioux Nation and an accomplished artist who creates Plains-style moccasins. She has a BA degree in Dakota Art and Culture and is an MEd candidate, focusing on teacher leadership. Her life and career truly model her belief that “As indigenous people today, we have to walk in two worlds and be successful in both. If we use our native identity and traditional values as a foundation, we can walk forward into the future with confidence and success.”

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Ramona is a dedicated educator whose “classroom” extends well beyond the traditional school, as she is continually engaging the students of her Indian Education program in learning experiences that empower them in their racial and cultural identities. From a family oriented drum and dance program, to trips to shared cultural events with a variety of Indian Nations throughout Minnesota, to interactive performances that empower Indian students to educate non-natives about their culture, Ramona has worked tirelessly to bring about equity. She also reaches beyond the school to welcome parent participation with an open mind and heart, making her an equity leader not only in the Osseo Area Schools, but in the community as a whole. Within her district, Ramona’s leadership in culturally relevant teaching practices has built the Indian Education program to remarkable success. For the past eight years, students in the program have had a 100% graduation rate – and this in Minnesota, the state ranked lowest (50th out of 50) for outcomes for American Indian students. Ramona’s commitment and dedication truly ensures that future generations can stand strong in their indigenous identities and “walk forward into the future with confidence and success.” Dr. Rev Hillstrom’s undergraduate studies in Music and American Indian Studies at Augsburg College gave rise to his Masters’ studies at Bethel University in Ethnomusicology and eventually lead to a Doctorate in Teaching and Learning from the University of Minnesota. As an educator, he blends his creativity and culture into a transformative learning experience for ALL students. Rev incorporates varied learning styles and techniques into curriculum so that students of all races, ethnicities, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds have the opportunity to be lifelong learners. His indigenous world view, artistic talents and sincere generosity engage students of all ages and abilities at their very core. Hillstrom’s approach to education connects his own intuitive insight with intrinsic values of participants to create deep, rich learning experiences. From kindergarten to graduate school, Rev has shared his gifts, challenging students to grow in their understanding of who they are, and what their relationship is with the world around them. As a leader in equity & education Dr. Hillstrom currently serves Saint Paul Public Schools as the assistant director of the office of teaching and learning. He also promotes racial equity and educational excellence by serving with regional organizations including North Hennepin Community College, the Minnesota Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Global Learning Advisory Board for the Minnesota Department of Education, the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, and as a consultant for the Pacific Educational Group and World Savvy. Dr. Hillstrom’s recent work includes presentations at several national conferences and the recent publication of his book Educational Settings Impact on Minnesota American Indian Academic Proficiency. pacificeducationalgroup.com

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Practices & Strategies 100:601 Inviting Culture into Your Classroom Presenter: Wren Walker Robbins Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Cultural Competency

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: February 4, 2016 Location: WMEP Professional Learning Center, 4825 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 100, Golden Valley, MN 55422

Prerequisite: None Target Audience: K-12 teachers, curriculum directors Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $180* * This includes course materials

Description:

This one-day experiential workshop invites teachers to take a journey across cultures into the perceptual intersections of Native and Western cultures with the intention of broadening their ability to engage the diverse worldviews of their students. In the morning, we’ll use storytelling to introduce participants to Native perceptions of the feminine in a way that questions and provides a point of departure to popular culture images Native girls and women and develops a set of cultural proficiency tools to set educators on a path to effectively teach and mentor students from underserved and underrepresented communities. During the afternoon participants will break into small groups to deconstruct and reconstruct lessons and curriculum using the tools developed in the morning session. We begin to invite our students’ cultures into our classes. The workshop provides a foundation for developing culturally proficient, differentiated instruction that supports accelerated academic achievement for students of color.

About the Presenter:

Wren Walker Robbins is director of Changing Communities [2C] Consulting, an organization that provides professional development for equity and access programming to STEM-oriented organizations. Her workshops engage educators through provocative, positive, hands-on experiences to help them meet the needs of every student. She is President of North Star AISES [American Indians In Science & Engineering Society] Alliance & Professional Chapter. She is a pipe carrier, a member of the Mountain Spirit Lodge Society, and a member of the Kunsi Keya Tamokoce Sun Dance community. Wren holds a Ph.D. in Cell Biology with research fellowships at Harvard and The University of New Mexico Medical School. As a former middle school teacher and college faculty member she has worked with students from many different cultural backgrounds in private state, tribal, and institutions. temconsultant.org

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Practices & Strategies 100:501 Curriculum Design Through a Racial Justice Lens Presenters: Heather Hackman & Marie Michael Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: June 13, 2016 Location: WMEP Professional Learning Center, 4825 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 100, Golden Valley, MN 55422

Prerequisite: Any WMEP 200 level course Target Audience: K-12 teachers, curriculum directors Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $180* * This includes course materials

Description:

This workshop is best suited to participants who already have a solid awareness of issues of race, racism and whiteness and want to take a deeper dive into that content and how to use it for curricular design. A participant must have completed any 200 level Cultural Collaborative workshop as a prerequisite for this 300 level course. The session begins with 30 minutes of foundation work, approximately 90 minutes of “reminder” work regarding race, racism and whiteness, and then spends the remaining five hours introducing a Racial Justice Curricula Rubric (RJCR), sharing examples of racially just content and processes across a range of subject matter and grade levels, and giving participants time to wrestle with their own curricula through a critical race lens. While the workshop is designed for classroom teachers, it is still very relevant for folks who are not classroom teachers but who have some connection to C & I in their buildings or districts. Please bring actual content you would like to work with in the session.

About the Presenters:

Heather Hackman’s biography is listed on page 15. Also, view her website at hackmanconsultinggroup.org. Marie Michael is a PK-12 Chair of Equity and Instruction at The Blake School In Minneapolis. She has been a classroom teacher for 16 and has been in her current position for four years. Marie presents on racial justice in education at local and national conferences and has 21 years of overall experience in P-12 education.

Curriculum Design 32

Cultural Competency

200:215 Beyond Diversity II Presenter: Courtlandt Butts and TBD Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Dates: March 15 & 16, 2016 Location: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Prerequisite: None Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $400* * This includes course materials

Description:

Beyond Diversity II is an advanced level seminar designed to deepen our understanding and personal progression in racial identity development; to examine and practice a protocol for converting Courageous Conversation into courageous leadership; and to explore the concept of racial transcendence and the characteristics of a post-racial school and society. This intensive two-day seminar is for individuals who have completed the Beyond Diversity foundation seminar (prerequisite) and who are grounded and practiced in using the Courageous Conversation Protocol the Agreements, Conditions, and Compass. Enrollment in this advanced seminar is indication that you are poised for more rigorous inquiry into your own personal investment in confronting racism, and that you are seeking greater accountability around your professional leadership for racial equity.

About the Presenter:

Courtlandt Butts began his education in the Philadelphia Public School System before moving to Orlando, Florida, where he completed his early schooling. He attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education. He continued his education at the University of Northern Iowa (NIU), earning a Master of Arts in Education, with an emphasis in Educational Technology and Media. During graduate school, he worked as Project Director for an international youth services program that led him to work abroad, primarily in Spain, Japan and China. Courtlandt’s commitment to educating children of all races and differing abilities led him to work at the Gretchen Everhart School for Exceptional Children in Tallahassee, FL, where he recognized the critical benefit of parent engagement and community outreach in building healthy children and communities. He was involved in developing community and family initiatives aimed at promoting student achievement

Beyond Diversity II 33

through tutor programs and community activities. He later became an Assistant Professor in the Education Department at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, which placed special emphasis on urban education that promoted advocacy, culturally responsive pedagogy, professional teaching, and dispositions. Courtlandt is currently the Director of Equity Transformation at Pacific Educational Group.

200:213 Sp/ELLing Out Institutional Barriers to Equity and Excellence for Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners Presenters: Luis Versalles & Deborah McKnight

Cultural Competency

Learning Opportunity: Workshop

Time: 8:30 am-3:30 pm Date: March 17 & 18, 2016 Location: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, 10500 Hillside Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55305 Prerequisite: Beyond Diversity Target Audience: All staff Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* Non-member District Staff: $400* * This includes course materials

Description:

Participants will be lead through a process of transformation rooted in adaptive leadership principles that will build toward effective interdepartmental collaboration. The strengths and expertise of special educators and ELL educators will be leveraged to work in deep and meaningful collaboration with general education in order to provide a more rigorous, culturally relevant and empowering mainstream experience for Sp/ELL students, as well as the necessary differentiation based on students’ needs.

About the Presenters:

Luis Versalles is a first generation Cuban-American, Luis Versalles was born and raised in Bloomington, Minnesota. His bilingual and bi-cultural life experiences have fueled his passion for fostering racial, linguistic, and cultural equity in education for all students. After completing his public school K-12 education, Luis went on to complete a Bachelor’s degree and Master of Education, with emphasis on Second Languages and Cultures, from the University of Minnesota, becoming the first college graduate from his

Sp/ELLing Out Institutional Barriers 34

family in the process. This experience motivates his work in coaching school leaders to better understand the complexities of families of color in navigating both the K-12 educational system and higher education, in his work as Director of Leadership with Pacific Educational Group. Versalles began his professional career as a teacher of Spanish and English as a Second Language in his hometown of Bloomington and its neighboring district, Richfield. His teaching career provided experiences at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. Following his teaching career, Luis launched into the field of administration, working first as Magnet Programs Grant project coordinator for the Richfield Public Schools and later as program coordinator, assistant principal, and principal of Richfield Dual Language School. Luis was instrumental in the community outreach, feasibility study, and coordination required to bring into existence Richfield Dual Language School, the first suburban two-way immersion school in the history of the state of Minnesota. On the strength of his leadership experiences in two-way immersion education, Luis was awarded the Joyce Bilingual Preschool “Bridging Gaps, Bridging Cultures” award in 2008, which recognizes educational leaders in the Latino community of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. He has presented on several occasions at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisitions (CARLA) Summer Institute on the topic of “Immersion Principal Leadership Competencies” and has also presented for the Louisiana Department of Education on the same topic. Versalles, along with researchers from the Center for Applied Linguistics, and teacher leaders from Richfield Dual Language School, has presented on the topic of “Fostering Racial, Linguistic, and Cultural Equity in Two-Way Immersion” at the La Cosecha National Conference of Dual Language of New Mexico. He serves on the Executive Board of the Minnesota Advocates for Immersion Network. Deborah McKnight has a BA in Elementary and Special Education from the University of Charleston in West Virginia. She also received her MS Ed in Learning Disabilities and Behavior Disorders from Buffalo State College at State University of New York. And she holds credentials from California State University for Educational Administration and Policy Studies. She is currently a consultant in Special Education for Pacific Educational Group. pacificeducationalgroup.com

100:701 Culturally Responsive Teaching Presenter: Rachel Hatten and Jackie Roehl

Learning Opportunity: Online Course Time: Flexible Date: October 2015-May 2016 (eight modules, once a month) Location: Online

Cultural Competency

Prerequisite: None Target Audience: All staff

Culturally Responsive Teaching 35

Cost:

WMEP Member District Staff: Free* (except for materials, individually purchased) Non-member District Staff: $400* * This does not include course materials and college credit fees

Description:

This online Culturally Responsive Teaching workshop is designed for all K-12 educators who want to encourage high intellectual performance for all of their students. Participants will be exposed to a variety of strategies for vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and critical thinking as well as explore various philosophies of culturally responsive teaching. Specifically, course participants will learn the philosophies and strategies from the following books: The Pedagogy of Confidence by Yvette Jackson, Visual Tools for Transforming Information Into Knowledge by David Hyerle, and Thinking Strategies for Student Achievement by Denise Nessel. Participants will need to procure copies of the books; all are available on Amazon as either new or used copies for minimal cost. As part of the course, teachers will share photos of student artifacts showcasing the strategies learned in this course. Also, for the final product for the course participants will share how they planned and implemented a lesson for a class that they teach that embeds the strategies learned. Participants will need access to the Internet to engage in this online seminar.

About the Presenter:

Rachel Hatten taught high school English in Minnesota for twelve years before becoming the English Language Arts curriculum specialist for the Northwest Region of Pasco County schools in Florida. She is a graduate of St. Olaf College and holds an M.A. in Literacy Education from the University of Minnesota. She has presented at international, national, and local conferences on several topics, including culturally relevant pedagogy. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Critical Literacy and English Education from the University of Minnesota. Jackie Roehl is the 2012 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and teaches 10th and 12th grade English at Edina High School, having worked there since 1998. She holds an M.A.T. in Education and a B.A. in English from the University of St. Thomas, and is working on her Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in Curriculum, Innovation and Instruction at Walden University. Roehl is a certified NUA coach, committed to identifying and developing strategies for actively engaging all students at their highest levels. The importance of education was instilled in her from her mother and aunt who were both teachers.

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Cultural Collaborative Presenter Photo Gallery… Tonicia Abdur Salaam

Courtlandt Butts Gretchen Baglyos Anthony Galloway

Amer Ahmed

Wren Walker Robbins

Ramona Kitto Stately

Deborah McKnight

Lee Mun Wah

Sharroky Hollie

Tony Hudson

Peter Gerdts Devrae Hudson

Dr. Patrick Duffy

Dr. Nekima Levy Pounds Kati Pearson

Heather Hackman

Kathlene Holmes Dr. Patrick Duffy

Kevin Bennett

Questions? Check our website (wmep.k12.mn.us – Professional Development page) or contact Jill Scholtz, professional development lead ([email protected]) or Kara Richardson, program lead ([email protected] or 612.752.7204) 37

West Metro Education Program 4825 Olson Memorial Highway Suite 100 Golden Valley, MN 55422 wmep.k12.mn.us 612.752.7200

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