AWSP News for January 29, 2021

Hey, I’m Jack Arend, one of the Associate Directors here at AWSP. Welcome to another edition of AWSP News! As we turn the page on a busy January, AWSP wants to recap what has happened already in 2021.

First of all, we’ve had some terrific professional development from world class inclusionary practices experts like Dan Habib and Shelley Moore. If you weren’t able to attend these incredible sessions, don’t worry...you haven’t missed out. You can still view recordings for these events, all for free, thanks to our inclusionary practices grant with OSPI. You can find all of these recordings on our learning management system.

That’s right. How many of you know we have a, relatively new-ish, learning management system? Our Learning Management Systems has tons of great classes and resources for you to check out, most of them are completely free. Head to pathlms.com/awsp and start exploring. Many of the free items you can just start watching, but if you want to track your progress, just sign in with your AWSP account.

Speaking of your AWSP account, we want to thank those of you who logged in to purchase AWSL’s “I Am, We Are” Martin Luther King Day assembly. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s a brief clip of what you missed from James Layman’s keynote.

Wow. The AWSP staff watched this together and were completely blown away. Guess what? If you didn’t purchase this for your MLK celebration, it’s not too late. Many schools are planning to use it to help celebrate the upcoming Black History Month or even future diversity weeks. Not only do you get the keynote, but you also get AWSL’s Student Equity Guidebook, Schoolwide discussion and family engagement questions, and an implementation guide if you choose to do an assembly. There are versions for elementary and secondary, and James will personally support you and your school through the process.

We’ve also got you covered here in Olympia when it comes to advocacy. The Legislature is in session and things look a little different this year in more ways than one. On our end, we’ve folded our Legislative Update newsletter contents into Principal Matters. We know you’re buried in email, so we didn’t want to send you two newsletters every Friday during session. You can also find those updates on our blog. And if you want to make your voice heard, you can do that now with remote testimony. Check out a Legislative Update blog post or Principal Matters for instructions on how to do that.

The 2021-22 Intern Grant Application is now open! This state funded grant is designed to support aspiring leaders with partial release time and professional learning as they complete their administrative internship. Learn more and apply on our website.

Great school leaders look to include student voice in all they do. AWSL and AWSP are proud to present a new collaborative workshop, “Turn Up The Volume On Student Voice.” Join us for this four-part virtual series that will help you bring culture, systems, and learning together in the spirit of what’s best for kids. Find more info in Principal Matters and on our website.

That’s it from us here at AWSP. Keep up the great work for kids and we’ll see you next time.