June 2025: Newsletter

Dear friends and colleagues,

As some of you already know, I am retiring from active involvement with the Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child (CRTWC) as of June 30, 2025 (today), after serving for the past year in the capacity of Strategic Advisor. Dr. Rebecca Baelen, who some of you have already met or worked with, took over the role of CRTWC Executive Director in May 2024.

As the Founder and Executive Director of the Center over the past 15 years, I am extremely proud of the breadth, depth, and power of our work, and grateful for the contributions so many of you have made to support this work. CRTWC has led the efforts to focus on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for adults as well as children; to integrate SEL with culturally responsive/sustaining teaching practices; to bring social, emotional, and cultural competencies to teacher preparation; and to encourage focus on the professional development pipeline as essential to building and sustaining systemic change. Our reach has extended across the country and internationally, providing a framework that is helping teacher educators to bring a social, emotional, and cultural lens to their work with teachers, administrators, and children.

In addition to our 7 year-long Teacher Educator Institutes, that have been offered to university faculty across the country, CRTWC has worked with:

• San José State University’s teacher preparation program

• Sunnyvale School District, providing a professional development program for their cooperating teachers

• Faculty representing every teacher preparation program in Oregon (through a year-long Teacher Educator Institute)

• California State University’s CalState TEACH program, integrating the CRTWC Anchor Competencies Framework within all courses and the field experience (they graduate approximately 2,000 candidates each year!)

• Minneapolis School District, embedding the Framework within their unique district-based teacher preparation pathway that prepares Special Education teachers to bring a social, emotional, and cultural lens to their work with children.

My colleague, Dr. Suzanne Bouffard, and I also published a book that documents our work (Teaching with a Social, Emotional, and Cultural lens: A Framework for Educators and Teacher Educators, Harvard Education Press, 2020), and is serving as an important resource for teacher educators and teacher candidates throughout the country. Finally, we have been excited to see that several doctoral candidates have completed dissertations using the CRTWC Framework as a foundation for their research.

Along the way, I have been incredibly grateful for the support of several foundations without whom we could not have kept this work moving forward – the Morgan Family Foundation, Applied Materials, the Packard Foundation, the Ashoka Foundation, Hopelab, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation, to name just a few.

We have accomplished a lot, but there is still so much more to do! I’m thrilled to see that CRTWC, under Rebecca’s leadership, is already extending its reach to new programs and state-level work. Rebecca is doing an outstanding job of continuing our mission, obtaining funding, and taking the Center in exciting new directions.

While I have retired from my position at CRTWC, I will continue to do some small projects in the field. My next steps include co-presenting with Dr. Dawn White and Dr. Eric Moore at the December 2025 Learning Forward Conference, and gathering data on the impact of the CRTWC Teacher Educator Institutes over the past several years. Beyond these projects, I am going to “refresh” and look forward to exploring new opportunities.

I wish you all the very best and hope that you get some self-care time this summer that includes laughter and good health.

It has been an honor…

Warmly,

Nancy

Celebrating a Grant from the Sauer Family Foundation to Support Our Work in Minneapolis Public Schools

Readings to Inspire Reflection and Curiosity This Summer:

• Critical Reflection Matters (Tips for Teaching Professors): “Explore why critical reflection is essential for growth, perspective, and intentional decision-making in the classroom.”
• Why Deep Listening: The 8 Steps to Revitalize Any Conversation (Big Think): “Most of us think we’re good listeners, but we’re wrong – and it’s ruining our relationships.”
• Teaching for Curiosity (Zaretta Hammond – ASCD): “Curiosity is the ‘launchpad for learning.’ It fuels engagement and activates cognitive processes that support deeper understanding and retention.”
• Team Teaching Reduces Turnover Compared to Solo Teaching (Penn GSE News): “As schools across the nation grapple with the challenges of hiring and retaining teachers, a new study led by renowned researcher Richard Ingersoll (University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education) and Lennon Audrain and Mary Laski (both of Arizona State University) sheds light on an innovative approach that could help address this crisis.”
• How to Relax and Still Be Productive This Summer (Edutopia): “These ideas for staying productive as you reflect and recharge can help you be more engaged when you return to school.”