INSPIRE! Sessions
INSPIRE! Sessions are highly interactive 25-minute “speed innovating” opportunities designed to share ideas and foster small-group discussion
INSPIRE! Session I: Wednesday, June 23, 1:55-2:20 p.m. EDT (UTC-4)
1+1=1: A Middle East Perspective of Leadership and Systemic Change
During this session, you will learn the meaning of 1+1=1 and how a unified village, staff, parents, students, government, and community came to share the vision of transforming PreK-12 Middle Eastern female students from being individual, passive followers into an inclusive student body who used their voices to promote leadership and belonging. Following the story of our school’s journey, you will be asked to share your interpretation of 1+1=1, how it could relate to your situation, and current forms of evidence that perpetuate the belief that building belonging through student voice and leadership can lead to sustainable, systemic change.
Presenters: Bridget Justen, Retired Head of Al Mizhar American Academy | Dubai UAE, Al-Mizhar American Academy, and Marilyn Helpenstell Ph.D, Consultant and Educational Advocate
Creating a Culture of Restoration and Equity
Schools’ written and unwritten rules define their culture. This session will target how educators and school leaders define their school’s current culture and can take steps toward creating restorative justice initiatives focused on students, staff, and the educational system.
Presenter: Regina Coley, Executive Director | Leading Ladies of Legacy Inc.
Do I Belong in This Classroom? Teaching History With Women in the Spotlight
The dearth of women (especially women of color) in history textbooks and standards poses a significant challenge to educators at all-girls institutions, where representation fosters cultures of belonging, inclusivity, and empowerment. This presentation will explore instructional strategies for focusing American history curricula on the breadth and depth of perspectives and experiences of women. Attention will be placed on primary sources written by women and that reveal women’s perspectives and how these sources can be utilized to create cultures of belonging in the classroom. Participants will be given access to primary source resources and PBL unit materials to modify for use in their own classrooms.
Presenter: Bridget Riley, Middle School History Teacher | Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart
Do the Work: Antiracism for Schools
In the past year, educational institutions across the country have adopted antiracist language in their publications and mission statements. But what does that actually mean in practice? This session will explore concrete ways schools can bring antiracist action into both the school community and the building itself. Additionally, participants will examine ways to “make their case” to their schools about taking antiracist action through the examination of data and successful case studies. Lastly, participants will be able to identify the positive impact antiracist policies and practices have on all community members and the ways antiracist action can bolster student mental health, strengthen interpersonal relationships, and empower our young women to be social justice advocates.
Presenters: Emily McKenzie, School Counselor and Diversity Committee Co-chair, and Jen Hawes, School Counselor and Diversity Committee Co-chair | Holy Names Academy
A Global Academy: Supporting our International Students
This session will reveal how two small schools on opposite sides of the United States partnered to provide a community of support and belonging for their international students learning from their home countries. We used our shared mission to develop new curriculum and support systems—and ended up creating a new pedagogical approach that will continue to be a permanent part of our schools. This session will also include open discussion about how to find (and build upon) the silver linings and unexpected opportunities available to us—even in times of constraint and unknowns.
Presenters: Jessica Campbell, Director of the Center for Global Studies | Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart, and Courtney Caldwell, Director of Teaching and Learning | Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart
Healthy Competitive Communities: How Title IX, Coaches, and Teachers Can Empower Without Dividing
With the 49th Anniversary of Title IX taking place during this year’s NCGS Conference, it is an opportune moment to celebrate one of Title IX’s key impacts: increased athletic participation of women. As the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team’s fight for equality with their male counterparts demonstrates, work remains to be done, but clearly athletics have empowered and continue to instill confidence and boldness in young women. Why? Many of the best pedagogical practices supported by cognitive science take place in the athletic realm, and these practices can also be equally embraced in the classroom. This session will explore best practices that create communities within our schools where girls can be competitive, can celebrate their voices, and can still feel they belong.
Presenter: William Forteith, Head Rowing Coach and Middle School English Department | The Hockaday School
Her Voice Matters: Art + Computer Science
Responding to a crucial need in the education landscape, HER (Her Educational Revolution) Academy is involved in the design, test, and establishment of a game-changing K12 Computer Science curriculum for girls. Through cross organizational collaboration with the Columbus School for Girls, we have developed classes that excite girls to participate. The girls’ voices have led the development of curriculum where girls become more than users, and instead designers and creator of their world. This will enable girls to achieve their full potential in a technology led world, regardless of their intended field of study.
Presenter: Lena Furci, Founder and Executive Director | HER Academy
Making DEI Part of Your Faculty’s DNA
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and other racial injustices last year, schools know how critical it is to further their faculty diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming in order to build an anti-racist culture. While DEI sessions and training are not new in schools, this session will highlight the ways in which embedding DEI into every faculty meeting fosters greater interest, support, and confidence in putting their training into action. This approach, combined with large-scale DEI initiatives will make attaining necessary cultural shifts achievable and benefit our students and communities.
Presenters: Lara Wulff, Director of Upper School, and Andrea Byrd, Upper School DEI Coordinator and Assistant to the Dean of Students | St. Catherine’s School
Politics Across the Pond: Cultural Exchange in the Age of COVID
Learn about our experience of working collaboratively with students in a virtual exchange designed to engage and develop understanding of political issues in the UK and America. We will share our case study of the collaboration between The Baldwin School in Pennsylvania and Royal High School in Bath, which took place September through December 2020. We will explain how the project was planned, delivered, and the positive impact it had on developing the girls’ appreciation of perspectives on global politics.
Presenter: Harriet Pagnamenta, Head of History and Politics | Royal High School Bath, and Athan Bliss, Upper School History Teacher | The Baldwin School
Student-Run Organization Building Community through Service and Leadership Workshops
Hear from the 2020 Moulton Grant team as well as student leaders of Culver’s Leadership Committee for Africa on how they modified their workshops as travel restrictions prevented them from visiting their partner school in South Africa. The student leaders have practiced and implemented workshops on Compassionate Listening, Leadership Strengths, Team Building, and Communication with their peers on campus. During the session, they will share examples of lesson plans, activities, and their strategies to build community as well as how they have continued to support with fundraisers and donations.
Presenter: Angie Strobel, Residential Curriculum Team Leader; Ally B., Student, Class of 2022; Maya J., Student, Class of 2022; and Maddie T., Student, Class of 2022 | Culver Girls Academy
What Makes Us, Us: A Strengths-based Approach to Centering Global Diversity
As the only school in the country designed to meet the needs of refugee girls, Global Village Project (GVP) holds a unique position in that global diversity is not simply a feature of our school community, but a fact of its making. This session will take GVP as a case study in how centering diversity drives practices that empower students to recognize and celebrate their individual funds of knowledge. Participants will gain an understanding of how a strengths-based approach can be applied to language instruction, social and emotional learning, various subject areas, and community-building to foster an inclusive, empowering sisterhood.
Presenter: Elizabeth Elango Bintliff, CEO & Head of School | Global Village Project
INSPIRE! Session II: Wednesday, June 23, 2:35-3:00 p.m. EDT (UTC-4)
Come to Cambridge! Launching a Summer Program for Girls in July 2022
Focused on students from North America, St Mary’s School, Cambridge has devised an inspiring summer program that mixes academic challenge with cultural experiences. Located in the heart of the historic city of Cambridge, England, the girls will live and learn in beautiful and safe surroundings, immersing themselves in a program that will offer new perspectives, challenge their existing understanding, and provide opportunities for growth and reflection. There will be lots of fun too! This session will explore how the program was devised and the challenges the school has faced to date, as well as providing an opportunity to engage with the program in the future.
Presenters: Charlotte Avery, Headmistress, and Hannah Helliar, Director of International Education & Partnerships | St Mary’s School, Cambridge
Conversations About Race: How Children Will Impact the Future of Our Society
This session is meant to be an in-depth conversation about how we, as a society, attack racism at the smallest level, beginning with courageous conversations with children. This session will delve into strategies that can be implemented to get those conversations started and maintained. It will also address how we, as adults, can hold a mirror to ourselves and reflect on the biases that we harbor, how holding onto those biases impacts our children/students, and how we can begin to remove them.
Presenter: Jennipha Ricks, Assistant Principal | Young Women’s Leadership Academy, San Antonio
Cultural Competency: Theory Into Practice
Cultural competency is a buzzword that has been floating around in education for the past couple of years. But what does this look like in our classrooms? In this workshop, we will share best practices for creating an anti-bias classroom and work through case studies that will help put theory into practice. These case studies will present instances of micro-aggressions in the classroom and participants will learn and practice different strategies and language to address them.
Presenter: Gabbie Álvarez-Spychalski, MS Spanish Teacher, Grade 7 Dean, and MS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Co-Chair | The Baldwin School
Fostering Belonging Through a Culture of Questioning
This session will focus on how creating opportunities for thinking and questioning within the elementary classroom creates a sense of belonging for students. By valuing students’ funds of knowledge and their questions, educators can facilitate the building of a learning space and community that bends to students’ interests and identities, all while connecting to the curriculum. This session will help educators foster a culture of questioning that welcomes divergent ideas and critical discourse. We will demonstrate how questioning extends beyond subject matter and course material into areas such as classroom norms and expectations through allowing space for consensus decision-making.
Presenters: Melody Barclay, Grade 5 Teacher, and Savannah Barker, Grade 6 Teacher | The Linden School
A Freshman Transition Program That Builds Connections for Success!
This session will provide detailed information on how to prepare students for success in the classroom and beyond by helping students build caring relationships and providing a holistic support system from the first day they are admitted to your school. We will discuss how enthusiasm for education is built by authentically connecting new students with the school community through intentional interactions with peers, teachers, and staff. Building connections for new students can help to promote positive attitudes, increased attendance, less attrition, and higher achievement for some students.
Presenters: Shelly Sonner, Freshman Transition Coordinator and Advisor, and Margot Paine, Learning Specialist and Academic Services Coordinator | Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy
Guiding Conversations Through Community Norms
The foundation for cultures of belonging lies in the relationships built amongst the people within the school. We know that in this time in history, as well as within the development of girls at the high school level, how a conversation is started and progresses can make or break an idea, a relationship, and/or understandings among one another. Learn how one school collaboratively identified and documented cultural norms that continue to guide conversations and are embedded in the total culture of the school.
Presenter: Jennifer Sudekum, Principal of Academic Affairs | St. Joseph’s Academy
The Healing Power of a Student Survey
This case study reviews an unusual approach to soliciting student feedback that went beyond informing teacher decisions by building trust, empathy, and greater resolve among the very students it studied. Recognizing patterns of disengagement, exhaustion, and despondency as a result of restricted classroom learning, one teacher created a dialogue that helped his student reclaim their grit. This session will review the pre-survey environment, along with the unusual way in which the survey instrument was developed, delivered, assessed, and most importantly, presented by to the students. Post-survey reactions indicate a new recognition among students, giving them the courage to move forward.
Presenter: Tom Biggs, Teacher | Ursuline Academy of Dallas
Living-and-Learning Residential Experience: Positive World Change
Explore a residential living-and-learning experience for students who are interested in justice, equity, diversity, sustainability, and community engagement. In 2014, I piloted the first year of this program, which evolved into a highly coveted application-based year-long immersive experience. The foundation of the program is the concept of “positive world change.” The goal is to help students explore their beliefs about how the world should be, and then to help them discover tangible ways to align those beliefs with their actions. We focus on three tenets: care for people, care for the earth, and fair share for all. Through the lens of those three tenets, we explore topics related to equity, human rights, environmentalism and sustainability, racial justice, socio-economic disparity, and all forms of oppression (and their inherent interconnectedness.) We achieve this through seminars, guest speakers, experiential self-governance, field trips, and retreats. The program culminates with a spring semester trip to Washington, D.C., where students have explore the curricular topics through museums, organization visits, meetings with government officials, and other unique opportunities. Students leave the program with a confirmed sense of their own beliefs and an understanding of their unique role in helping move the world one step closer to what they imagine it should be.
Presenter: Gemma Halfi, Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | Emma Willard School
A More Perfect Union: The Social Justice Journey in the U.S.
Learn about A More Perfect Union: The Social Justice Journey in the U.S., a program that will be offered in March 2022 by longstanding NCGS partner Grand Classroom. A More Perfect Union was developed to provide a more in-depth and profound understanding of the U.S.’s historical and ongoing, arduous journey toward equality, fairness, and dignity for all human beings. By creating experiences that delve deeper into the personal stories surrounding all aspects of social justice—institutionalized racial discrimination, disenfranchisement, segregation, wealth, and access disparity—students will develop a more intimate understanding of, and appreciation for, the cause of justice and equality for all. Hear more about the full program itinerary, which was developed exclusively for NCGS member schools with a particular focus on the role of women and girls in moving this work forward.
Presenter: John Raymond, Vice President of Sales and Marketing | Grand Classroom
On the Pulse: Bridging Differences Begins Through Dialogue
On the Pulse is a lunchtime program (after school via Zoom during the 2020-2021 school year) offered to students in grades 7-12. During each session, students are invited to bring their lunch and partake in a dialogue about a current event. Prior to the session, the History Department emails the student body articles offering differing viewpoints on the scheduled topic. The purpose of the program is twofold. It allows students to learn and discuss the events impacting our nation and world. More importantly, it teaches students the importance of understanding differing viewpoints, the value of dialogue over debate, and provides tools for students to find common ground.
Presenter: Nicole Johnston, Upper School History Teacher | Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child
Putting Barbie on Trial: Accepting All Body Types and Skin Tones
Middle school girls come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. How do we as teachers inspire them to embrace these differences while also celebrating others? Is it even possible to have these discussions? Enter: The Barbie Trial. Our students examine the pros and cons of Barbie, and her 60-year history through a series of articles, in order to decide: is she responsible for the self-esteem issues of young girls? Takeaways and discussion will include ideas for transforming the trial to fit in your classroom, advisory, or small-group sessions.
Presenter: Callie Hammond, Teacher | Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart