We hope you have had an opportunity to visit our newly designed website – a place for us to showcase our work and highlight new developments happening at the Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child (CRTWC). The design has been organic and surely it will continue to evolve in the future.
Similarly, the creation of the Social, Emotional, and Cultural Anchor Competencies Framework was a labor of transformation brought about through collaboration, reflection, and a willingness to iterate and adapt. We called upon and engaged with experts in the fields of social-emotional learning and culturally responsive/sustaining teaching practice, as well as teacher educators, education leaders, and cooperating teachers to form the basis of the Framework. Throughout the process, we continually reflected upon and questioned how best to capture the essential competencies and mindsets that every teacher and child needs to ensure academic, social, and personal fulfillment.
We thought deeply about the foundational goals of the Framework – goals of equity, support, optimism, and responsibility. As we consider the global and national challenges we face today, we invite you to consider which of the Framework goals (below) resonate for you and for your “why” as an educator.
A safe, brave and supportive learning environment
Equity in teaching and learning
Resilience and a sense of optimism
Academic success
Responsibility for the greater good
Going a step further, we encourage you to reflect on and write down responses to the following questions:
What are your goals and values as an educator?
What are your strengths? How do these strengths support or help you to reach your goals?
How do the strong competencies that you possess support building and sustaining powerful relationships?
How are you taking care of yourself as an educator?
We would also like to share a few resources with you to support your social, emotional, and cultural practice and reflection, especially as it relates to your “why” and maintaining a sense of optimism. This month, our CRTWC team member, Linda Hutcherson, shares insights on this topic and offers two resources that support her social, emotional, and cultural lens in her teacher educator practice.
“As a CalStateTEACH faculty adviser, I have participated in several professional development opportunities including book clubs and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion trainings. I embrace each experience as an invaluable perspective to deepen my teacher educator instructional coaching conversations. I register to receive weekly newsletters and podcasts. I always walk away feeling hopeful and invigorated in my personal and professional goals of infusing optimism and equity in all areas of my practice. Maintaining a sense of optimism requires intentional self-talk, inspiration, and focus. There are many books, podcasts and blogs that serve as tools to create positive growth mindsets and a sense of optimism. Two of my favorite resources provide free weekly newsletters and podcasts:
Elena Aguilar, The Bright Morning Team
Elena Aguilar has several wonderful books on the “The Art of Coaching”. Her latest book, “Onward—Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators” addresses how as educators we can “build the resilience of adults” through our “intentional” instructional and coaching practices. In one of her recent Bright Morning Weekly Wisdom Newsletters, Elena shares insights and a link to her “Identifying Your Core Values” resource. Consider how your values are foundational to ‘your why’ and your social, emotional, and cultural goals. I encourage you to visit the Bright Morning website and check out Elena’s podcast (link below)!
https://www.brightmorningteam.com/podcast
Dr. Sheldon L. Eakins, Leading Equity Center
Dr. Sheldon L. Eakins compels us as educators to activate through our ‘sphere of influence.’ You can check out his recent book: Equity–Becoming an Advocate for All Students” and his website. His podcasts also have served to ignite the passion I possess for being an ‘equity warrior’. As a teacher educator, I have often shared many of his free resources with my teacher candidates and colleagues. Please explore his podcast (link below)!
https://www.leadingequitycenter.com/podcast
In ‘Joy’ for the ‘Work’….
The CRTWC Team
