NEA President: Educators Are Finding Unique Ways to Reach, Teach and Inspire
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools, the work of public school educators didn’t stop. It went into overdrive as they figured out ways to feed students who rely on school meals, provide creative ways to keep instruction going (online and offline, when necessary) and make regular check-ins with students and families they knew were struggling. For families and communities across America, schools continued to be their anchor.
“Educators’ swift creation and launch of virtual engagement classrooms and opportunities for students to both maintain skills and provide students and families with a sense of continued engagement and community has been nothing short of extraordinary,” said NEA president Lily Eskelsen García at a June 22 keynote address for Rise Up for Equity: A Virtual Summit on Community Engagement and Family Engagement, a joint conference of the Community Schools National Forum and the National Family and Community Engagement Conference. “They are finding unique ways to reach, teach and inspire.”
NEA is a partner of the Institute for Educational Leadership and the Coalition for Community Schools, the sponsors of the event, and is an advocate for the Community Schools model that adapts to the needs of individual schools’ students, families, staff and communities.
The virtual conference has connected nearly 4,000 participants—everyone from students to school district leaders, community organizers to elected officials, early childhood educators to university faculty. It is a month-long event that began June CONTINUE READING: NEA President: Educators Are Finding Unique Ways to Reach, Teach and Inspire
