February Strategic Plan Update: Expanding our Anti-Bias Programming to External Audiences

This month, we update the community on the progress of the following initiative: Expand offering of anti-bias and anti-racism programming to external audiences so that community members and educators from other schools can learn about SGS, learn useful knowledge and skills to support young people, and do their own personal work and growth.

Seattle Girls’ School works to continuously improve the training and professional development of our new and current faculty and staff.  We are now extending the powerful work we do to external audiences.  As a result, SGS will be hosting two workshops for educators: the Cultural Competency Lab for Teachers in August 2024 and the Affinity Group Facilitator Institute in October 2024.

When teachers join SGS, whether they are new to the teaching profession or have been teaching for decades, they participate in a new faculty orientation that focuses on cultural competency training. During this orientation, there is reflection on the individual identity journey, an exploration of inclusive classroom practices, and an application of a cultural competency lens to scenarios of interactions with students and colleagues. We are now generalizing this training to educators from schools beyond SGS, with the workshop taking place over two and a half days. As the timing of this training aligns with our summer STEAM camp, participants will be able to observe classes and reflect on how their training applies to a classroom setting. Rosetta Lee and other members of the SGS staff will be leading a series of workshops over these two and a half days which will address cross-cultural communication, creating safe and inclusive learning environments, and engaging in courageous conversations, including interrupting with care. Information about our Cultural Competency Lab for Teachers can be found at: https://www.seattlegirlsschool.org/cultural-competency-lab-for-teachers

The Affinity Group Facilitator Institute will support educators at schools with an existing affinity group structure. With SGS’s strong affinity group program, we continuously have new faculty and staff serving as adult facilitators. This one day workshop will involve affinity group leaders learning a four pillar framework for building strong affinity groups and sharing practices and ideas with affinity group leaders from different schools. Information about our Affinity Group Facilitator Institute can be found at: https://www.seattlegirlsschool.org/affinity-group-facilitator-institute