AWSP Blog

October is full of many events, happenings, and holidays that are woven into our schools' fabric. Homecomings, spirit days, and Halloween festivities take shape and create a sense of camaraderie, connection, and even fun for students and the community. One tricky aspect of navigating dress-up days and even Halloween festivities: being aware, sensitive, and mindful of cultural appropriation. As you consider your school's community and cultural context, what shifts can be made to ensure dress-up days become opportunities for fun and unity rather than opportunities for pain and harm?

We can only know our own experiences and must be open to learning the stories of others. But learning from others as we are socially distant is difficult. We are always on a journey of learning and discovery. To better support our students and families, we need to hear (and hopefully understand) how this current reality is impacting them.

Welcome to our last AWSP News for the 2017-18 school year, where we discuss feedback for the AWSP Leadership Framework rubric language, examining your cultural competence and racial identity to become the best leader you can be, updates from OSPI, the State Board of Education, and bills from this last session, mental health first responders, more high five goodness, updating your info with us, and Scott says thanks.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss how to handle student walkouts in response to the Florida shooting, the 3rd annual Equity Conference on May 23rd, a great definition of cultural competence, OSPI’s ESSA Implementation 101 webinars and new approach to school improvement, participating in the Washington State Leadership Academy, the Coble Scholarship for under-represented educational leaders, WASA’s new executive director, how to showcase your leadership in your evaluation, how Thrive Washington suports kids and families from birth to five, and our 3rd annual principal appreciation night with the Tacoma Rainiers.