A Conference Focused on Girls

This year at Saint Mary’s is my first year as an all-girls school educator. I have always thought all-girls and all-boys education was a valuable undertaking, but attending the National Conference on Girls’ Education in Philadelphia from Feb 7-9 was the first opportunity I’ve really had to explore girls’ education on a deeper level.  This was a tremendously valuable conference for me on so many levels.  I heard one participant passing by say, “I’ve learned as much about myself as I have about educating girls at this conference” and I think I could say the same thing.  It’s can be difficult to decipher the ways gender plays a role in a variety of settings, but this conference helped illuminate this topic and I was able to learn about so many innovative and effective ways that educators across the country are working to support girls.

Online School for Girls Certification Kick-Off
To kick off the conference I got to spend the first 3 hours with others who are undertaking the 7-month long certification process.  Our cohort was treated to a presentation by members of the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives called Positive Risk Taking & Technology in All-Girls Schools.  The powerpoint below covers the main points of their talk.
We then did the Marshmallow Challenge which is an activity I was considering doing as an ice breaker for my class next year.  I think we will be doing this as a school during STEM week, but it’s really valuable for getting students to think about the process of creating and innovating instead of being focused on the end result.  We then spent some time learning about the expectations of the course and getting to know one another a bit better.
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Keynote Speakers
I couldn’t believe how inspiring and diverse the keynotes were that I attended.  The opening keynote was given by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who is a passionate advocate for women’s rights.  In her keynote she basically  laid out her Opportunity Plan for what needs to happen in our country for women to be supported.  The following day I saw a keynote from UCLA professor, Linda Sax entitled, The Gender Gap and STEM:  Progress and Challenges.  What stood out to me in her keynote was her personal story of how she left a major in Engineering after her experiences at Berkeley and has spent most of her career in the social sciences exploring why women leave or don’t enter STEM fields.  I appreciated also that she articulated succinctly the reasons it is so important to get women in these fields:

• Women’s economic independence (this is where the jobs are)
• U.S. global competitiveness
• Inclusion of diverse perspectives that can contribute significantly to innovation
• Global demand for individuals with computer science training (valuable in any field)

Then there was the unforgettable Irshad Manji, NYU professor of Moral Courage, whose keynote, How to Turn Girls into Gutsy Global Citizens blew the audience away.  What an articulate, engaging speaker.  It is like she has oratory super powers.  Though there were many books at the bookstore I wanted to buy, I was able to resist the temptation to buy all except Irshad’s book, Allah, Liberty and Love:  The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom.  I had her sign it for my in-laws, though I do plan to read it first.  Her Keynote was followed by an incredibly touching video called Stand in Our Shoes (the video is on the side bar of this page) by the Young Women’s Leadership Network that left everyone in the room in tears.
On the final day of the conference, we were treated to the hilarious, Peggy Klaus, whose book and keynote, Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It demanded that we create a personal “bragalogue” which was both fun and unnerving at the same time.  Only someone with the charisma of Peggy would be able to get a ballroom full of tired educators to do this activity at this final breakfast keynote.

Workshops
I tried to hit workshops that dealt with a range of topics around girls’ schooling.  I attended a couple of tech-oriented workshops. The first one, Using the SAMR Model to Transform Online and Blended Teaching, was presented by two technology directors, one from Atlanta and another from Palo Alto who had just finished the Certification program that I am starting.  This workshop was their final project for the program and an enjoyable presentation of how to use the SAMR model to get teachers to think about how they are using technology by first having students develop projects then think about where those projects fall on the SAMR model. I also went to a workshop presented by technology specialists at the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem called the “Maker Faire” Approach to Technology for Girls that allowed me to learn a bit about Google Coder and the Raspberry Pi.
One of the most inspiring workshops I attended was presented by faculty of  a Washington D.C. school, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart called Service, Girls and Self-Esteem through Social Action. Although you wouldn’t know it from the title, this presentation reflected the most powerful example of promoting leadership in a school that I have ever witnessed.  At this school, every other Wednesday is devoted to service projects and they have developed this tremendously thoughtful program that requires girls to be leaders on so many levels.  They distilled the process of social action to three distinct steps: Preparation, Action, and Reflection and it is embedded in all that they do…they even have reflection leaders!
Finally, I must mention the two-part workshop that I attended on Sunday morning that provided an amazing story of one school’s transformation to a 21st Century Learning Community. In the first half, the head and assistant head of Bishop Strachan School, the oldest all-girls school in Canada, shared the strategic approaches and difficult choices the administration made over a 10-year period to dramatically change the culture of the school to make it more inclusive, diverse, and innovative. The second half involved the faculty discussing how they used protocols with much of the time spent involved in a Project Tuning Protocol where feedback is given to a teacher on a project or process, they want to assess or improve. I LOVED this process as it provided such a rich environment for improvement, community building and dialogue, and I believe it is a direction our school is going to take which I am excited about.

Inspire! Sessions
In lieu of a workshop, each session offered Inspire! sessions around a specific theme which involved 30-min roundtable discussions where you are able to attend the presentations of two different groups.  I went to the Leadership Track Inspire! Sessions and I chose two that dealt with global leadership. I learned about a wonderful program at Havergal School called Ready, Set, Dream that provides a forum for girls to take problems in the world that are bothering them and formulate a plan to do something about it. One program that was talked about extensively involved a group of student athletes who worked with a group of student athletes in Ghana to run sport camps there for young children. I thought it would be a wonderful concept to bring to my boxing gym. I would love to have students at the gym be involved in a program like this. The second session was presented by Saint Mary’s School in Memphis and dealt with global conferencing. They actually do a one semester course that involves online study in the Spring semester followed by travel in the summer.
Philadelphia in the winter isn’t so bad when you get to go to a phenomenal conference that opens your mind to a community passionate about girls’ schooling.