April 3, 2020 Equity in Education: An Examination of Practices in the United States Are you interested in learning ways that you can address equity in your classroom as an educator? Join Steven Almazan on April 8 for the webinar, “Equity in Education: An Examination of Practices in the United States.” About Educational equity is impacted by many contributing factors such as race, gender, socio-economic status, language proficiency, learning disability status, and other social and cultural factors. Students who hold unique identities should receive an adequate amount of resources, human capital, instructional time, and social support to ensure that they are learning and growing at their fullest potential. What can teachers and administrators do to promote equity in schools and classrooms? What practices should be examined and challenged as inequitable? In this webinar, presenters will explore a variety of policies and practices that aim to address the foundational challenges of achieving educational equity in the United States. They will also highlight ways educators can address equity in their school systems. This webinar will be of particular interest to pre-k through middle school teachers and school and district leaders and administrators. Time for questions will be included. Registration To register and learn more, visit the event webpage!
July 24, 2019 For Student Success, We Need To Remake Learning As technology continues to be integrated in the daily lives of our region’s youth, the landscape of learning and workforce readiness is evolving. With this, youth are utilizing what some may call “non-traditional” methods to purse knowledge, seek support, and develop their identities. To ensure their long-term fulfillment personally, academically, and in the workforce, we need to “remake learning.” About Remake Learning Remake Learning is a network that ignites engaging, relevant, and equitable learning practices in support of young people navigating rapid social and technological change. Established in 2007, the network is an open group of interconnected, creative, and innovative people and organizations in the greater Pittsburgh region. Their purpose is to spark and share best practices and new ideas, make it easier for neighbors and colleagues to help each other, reduce duplicative efforts in the region, and leverage resources collectively for greater impact. With this, they seek to ensure that learning is engaging, relevant, and equitable to ensure that all youth in our region have access to learning experiences that reinforce their long-term success. Why It Matters Just as it’s important to utilize developmentally appropriate strategies with our youth, it’s important to consider that fact that the traditional, repetitive learning structure is, as Remake Learning puts it, “a relic of the bygone factory era: a time when efficiency and repetition were valued above all, with a focus on basic knowledge and skills.” As the needs of society develop over time, so do the needs and requirements of our youth and the workforce. However, many schools and programs are still relying on the traditional learning structure, making only small adjustments to incorporate a taste of technology. And, as displayed through stagnant or declining test scores across the years, this structure isn’t working. Establishing Learning Values In their mission to ensure that learning is engaging, relevant, and equitable, Remake Learning encourages the following learning values: Activate skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, communication, and collaboration so learners are prepared for an increasingly technology-driven future. Doing so will empower students to identify and solve problems; to fail, try, and learn from mistakes; to express their creativity in authentic ways; and to both struggle and have fun. Challenge learners to question, examine, and dissect social systems; to develop the confidence to address and deconstruct inequalities; and to construct a more just and equitable world. Connect all the places learners live, work, and play, including schools, libraries, museums, parks, clubs, community centers, centers of faith, home, and online. Encourage learners to explore and play and support them to follow their curiosity using varied tools (including, but not limited to, technologies). Establish deep and caring relationships between learners and their families, peers, educators, and mentors. Connect learners to their communities and, in an interconnected world, help learners develop cross-cultural understandings that unlock opportunities to thrive both within and beyond their own communities. Become A Member Are you interested in supporting Remake Learning’s mission? Consider signing up to become a part of their network! Remake Learning members reside in the greater Pittsburgh region, including the counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Mercer, Washington, and Westmoreland in Pennsylvania, as well as parts of north-central West Virginia. *Information provided by Remake Learning
April 26, 2019 Harnessing the ‘Power of Play’ to Build Equitable Cities When planners and community stakeholders are hashing out asset inventories and needs assessments to figure out the state of neighborhood amenities, a few things are sure to almost always make the list: more access to green space, safer crosswalks, more parking in business districts, gateways, and wayfinding signage. When planners design communities to be safer, healthier, more sustainable, and more walkable, how often do those efforts make a community more playful? The Power of Play Play is powerful. In the sphere of early childhood education, experts recognize the unparalleled importance of play in learning and development. In business, play is seen as a gateway to greater creativity, collaboration, and breakthrough innovation. In society, communities that play together stay together. Isn’t it time we embraced playfulness as a quality worth designing into our urban spaces? Perhaps the trouble is that the word itself seems just too playful to be taken seriously. We need more words for play. More Words for Play The Finnish language has no shortage of words for play. For Finns, playing a game is different from playing a sport, which is different from playing music. There are distinct Finnish words for children’s play and the play that adults engage in. There’s even a Finnish word that means both “work” and “play.” This rich vocabulary shows that in Finland, play is a valued part of life that isn’t confined just to kids’ stuff. Where else would we see play show up in our plans, if only we had the words for it? What would we call the kind of play that brings strangers together? What would we call playing around with ideas and possibilities? It’s questions like these that motivated a coalition of public and private sector partners to start the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative and organize a citywide movement to expand the presence of play in every community. As a mid-size, post-industrial city in the midst of dramatic changes spurred in large part by new development, we see a mandate to build greater public demand for play as an integral part of the city’s future. Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative Locally in southwestern Pennsylvania, the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative is working to make play a part of the urban infrastructure. Since 2013, members of the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative have been working together to find and remove the barriers holding communities back from experiencing the social benefits of play. These efforts have brought together leaders and representatives from the city’s parks and museums, human services and municipal agencies, arts and sustainability nonprofits, and community development groups. Along the way, we’ve encountered distinct manifestations of play that we really wish had their own name. Learn more about the work of The Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative and read the full article from the urban planning magazine Planetizen. (shared via Planetizen)
