Several district staff members from our Equity Department facilitated workshops at the 2017 Courageous Conversations Equity Summit in Detroit, Michigan earlier this month.  Below is a snapshot of each workshop. 

Krischanna Roberson, Supervisor of Equity, along with equity specialists Tracy Myers, Christian Paige and John Eklof presented about the BOOM & SHOUT Experiences.  During the workshop, district staff shared about Bellevue’s BOOM and SHOUT events, including the impact on student learning and how it ties into the greater work the district is doing focused on equity.

ELL Curriculum Developer Nicole Shimizu facilitated a session around the origins of the Shikata Ga Nai mentality and discovered how this mentality in the context of white culture created a culture of silence.

Roberson, Myers, Paige and Eklof also presented a workshop focused on the evolution of literacy from Steinbeck, Hughes and Lamar.  Those in the workshop were invited to Courageous Conversations through four different pathways: 1. Analyzing the role and presence of whiteness in how we define literacy; 2. Engaging students using oral tradition and culturally responsive techniques while allowing them to learn as their authentic selves; 3. Building the capacity to blend student’s lived experiences with content being taught in the classroom; and 4. Understanding how utilizing the student perspective can create authentic comprehension of literary content.

At the same event, Krischanna Roberson, BSD Supervisor of Equity and Student Success, was the recipient of The Honorable John W. Buckner Leadership Award.

To learn more about the Summit visit the Courageous Conversations Equity Summit webpage.

The Bellevue School District acknowledges that we learn, work, live and gather on the Indigenous Land of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Duwamish and Snoqualmie Tribes. We thank these caretakers of this land, who have lived and continue to live here, since time immemorial.