WORKSHOPS
Workshops for Educators, Executives & Families
Pollyanna offers a range of presentations and workshops that are designed to help schools, organizations, and corporations engage to help build community, enhance racial literacy knowledge, and support inclusive and equitable practices. These may be delivered live or over video conferences, to small or large groups.
All of our workshops are customizable and can be standalone or part of a series. If you or your community are interested in a topic that is not listed, we are happy to discuss more professional development options with you and create one specifically for your community.
In addition to our workshops, we also offer consulting services and curriculum coaching.
Click here for information about Pollyanna’s 2024-25 Workshop Series. Join us on Zoom or watch the recorded sessions. One price per school for all employees.
Individuals
- Starting With Me: A Four-Part Series towards Racial Justice for White People: This series of workshops is designed for white participants seeking to engage in deeper learning related to racial equity and justice. Through a variety of teaching techniques, including journaling, scenario-based practice, and community discussion, participants learn strategies for addressing privilege, engaging in challenging conversations about race and making commitments to act on behalf of racial justice in their daily lives. No level of “experience” or “expertise” is required for these workshops, only a desire to create a more just and equitable world.
- Race Talk Is Diving Us!: This workshop will help individuals learn accurate concepts related to Racial Literacy and CRT (dispelling distortions and inaccuracies) as well as provide an overview of how Racial Literacy can promote equity and belonging for all.
- Racial Literacy 101: In this workshop, we review key concepts and a common vocabulary to develop one’s racial literacy, such as the emergence of race; what is meant by “systemic racism;” as well as the definition and impact of concepts like microaggressions, implicit bias, and what it looks like to engage in the work of racial justice.
- MaPaGa: The ABCs of Race-Conscious Parenting: This is a 4-part workshop for parents/guardians of children four years and younger. Jacqueline Nelson, former kindergarten teacher, DEIB educator, and mom of a two-year-old, will create connections and community for families with young children and teach the group how to talk about race with each other and with their children.
- Racism, the Brain, and Learning: This workshop focuses on the intersection between racism, neuroscience and the power of everyday actions. Participants consider the physiological implications of racism for students and learn ways to address and disrupt toxic racial stress.
Teachers, Families & School Leaders
- Pollyanna’s K-12 Racial Literacy Curriculum Overview: This workshop will guide your community through a discussion of the framework, key ideas, and objectives of our Grades K-8 lessons, which are designed to help students gain knowledge about race and racism as it has been constructed in the United States. The Racial Literacy Curriculum supports students in acquiring an awareness of their own racial socialization and skills for engaging in productive conversations about race and racism. Attendees will learn about the high school curriculum’s structure, scope and sequence, and preview activities from each of the eight subject areas.
- Starting With Me: A Four-Part Series towards Racial Justice for BIPOC and White Teachers: This series of workshops held in affinity spaces for White and BIPOC teachers. It is designed for faculties seeking to engage in deeper learning related to racial equity and justice. Through a variety of teaching techniques, including journaling, scenario-based practice, and community discussion, participants learn strategies for addressing privilege, engaging in challenging conversations about race, and making commitments to act on behalf of racial justice in their daily lives. No level of “experience” or “expertise” is required for these workshops, only a desire to create a more just and equitable world.
- Racial Literacy 101: This workshop reviews key concepts and common vocabulary to develop one’s racial literacy, such as the emergence of race; what is meant by “systemic racism;” as well as the definition and impact of concepts like microaggressions, implicit bias, and what it looks like to work on behalf of racial justice in schools.
- Race Talk Is Diving Us!: This workshop will help parents and guardians learn accurate concepts related to Racial Literacy and CRT (dispelling distortions and inaccuracies) as well as provide an overview of how Racial Literacy can be integrated into a curriculum to promote equity and belonging for all.
- Words (and Pictures!) Matter – Communicating Your School’s Mission with an Equity Lens: In order to be successful, today’s communications professional must have a deep relationship with the DEIB office that goes beyond approval of public statements on anti-Semitism or an Instagram lesson on Pride Month. Learn about how strategic school communication can enhance feelings of belonging for current and future families at your school. Consider meeting families where they are and stripping away some of the exclusionary language and other communications practices that may be alienating to those who don’t come from our “traditional” applicant pools. More effectively communicate with families where we stand in our equity work, in ways that they can understand and embrace.
- Creating a Justice-Centered School Classroom / Organization: Pro-justice policies, mindsets, and practices are key to creating safer spaces in schools and other organizations. In this workshop, we unpack the concept and continuum of microaggressions to better understand how unchecked forms of implicit bias can be harmful. We explore practical strategies for building inclusive, identity safe classrooms.
- Evaluating the Admissions Process for Equity, Bias, and Inclusion: Admissions professionals and school leaders will review key points in an admissions process where implicit bias and inequitable practices may arise. Once identified, we will brainstorm tangible ways to interrupt these biases and practices. How can we ensure that our process is equitable and accessible for all families? How can we ensure that the process is inclusive and nearly free of implicit bias? This session will examine these key questions and provide tangible ways to evaluate an admissions process and the admissions office as they determine who is “best fit”.
- Elevating the DEIB Partnership: Explore strategic ways teachers, families, and school leaders can partner with the DEI office to move school communities from a diversity orientation towards greater equity, inclusion, and true belonging for all students and families. Through strategic partnership and intentional collaboration, admissions teams and DEI teams can establish shared goals and co-create a school climate that is truly inclusive and embracing of differences of all kinds.
- The Stories We Tell About Ourselves: Using The Pollyanna Assessment Process to Examine DEIB Values and Narratives: Consider the role of the Pollyanna assessment process might play in bridging the gap between explicit and implicit DEIB values in school communities. How do we know if our school community’s values align with how we describe them officially for all the world to see? Can we stand behind the stories we tell about ourselves, particularly with regard to DEIB efforts? We will use the lens of the Pollyanna assessment process to examine these questions.
Trustees
- Board of Trustees Retreat: The Board of Trustees has tremendous potential to ensure that a school moves towards equity and inclusion. We offer a series of workshops to help build a common language, understand systemic and institutional racism, create equitable policies, and more.
- Building Common Language, Implicit Bias Training & Responsibilities of Trustees in the DEIB Space: In order to talk about DEIB topics effectively, it is critical that trustees share a common language. In this training, trustees will review definitions of common terms. These terms include race, racism, structural racism, internalized racism, interpersonal racism, prejudice, bias, and more. After learning some common definitions from a variety of sources, trustees will engage in a conversation about the terms and discuss how language can impact their understanding of the concepts as well as their thinking on how best to move forward in creating more racial justice in their work and communities.
- Toward More Equitable Policies – Considerations for the Board of Trustees: In this training, trustees will consider common Board responsibilities, such as recruiting and retaining a diverse Board, hiring and accountability for the Head of School, reviewing school policies, processes and procedures, and approving the budget with a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. Trustees will learn concrete ways the Board can support the school in becoming a more welcoming, inclusive, and equitable place for students, families, and employees.
- Institutional Racism: Systemic Problems Need Systemic Solutions Trustees will learn how racism is reproduced in systems by looking at examples from housing, criminal justice, schooling, and civic participation. Trustees will learn strategies for identifying institutional racism and how to develop systemic solutions to address systemic problems.
Corporations & Organizations
- Racial Literacy 101: This workshop reviews key concepts and common vocabulary to develop one’s racial literacy, such as the emergence of race; what is meant by “systemic racism;” as well as the definition and impact of concepts like microaggressions, implicit bias, and what it looks like to center racial justice in the workplace.
- Creating a Justice-Centered Organization: Pro-justice policies, mindsets, and practices are key to creating safer spaces in corporations and other organizations. In this workshop, we unpack the concept and continuum of microaggressions to better understand how unchecked forms of implicit bias can be quite harmful. We explore practical strategies for building inclusive, identity-safe workplaces.
- Racism, the Brain, and Learning: This workshop focuses on the intersection between racism, neuroscience and the power of everyday actions in a school environment. Participants consider the physiological implications of racism for students and learn ways to address and disrupt toxic racial stress.
- Board of Trustees Retreat: The Board of Trustees has tremendous potential to ensure that an organization moves towards equity and inclusion. We offer a series of workshops to help build common language, understand systemics and institutional racism, create equitable policies and more.
- Elevating the DEIB Partnership: Explore strategic ways corporations and organizations can partner with the DEIB office to move their communities from a diversity orientation towards greater equity, inclusion, and true belonging for all students and families. Through strategic partnership and intentional collaboration, organizational leadership and DEIB teams can establish shared goals and co-create a workplace climate that is truly inclusive and embracing of differences of all kinds.
- The Stories We Tell About Ourselves: Using The Pollyanna Assessment Process to Examine DEIB Values and Narratives: Consider the role of Pollyanna’s Assessment process might play in bridging the gap between explicit and implicit DEIB values in your organization. How do we know if our community’s values align with how we describe them officially for all the world to see? Can we stand behind the stories we tell about ourselves, particularly with regard to DEIB efforts? We will use the lens of the Pollyanna assessment process to examine these questions.
Contact us to schedule a presentation, workshop or to learn more.
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