Teachers, support staff and administrators from districts in Washington, Oregon and Alaska continue to work together to improve their schools and empower their teachers. As NW TURN enters its fifth year, new district and Association teams continue to step up and move forward, with hopes of engaging Idaho and Alaska locals in the coming year. NW TURN teams continue to focus on efforts to engage early career teachers, promote social-emotional learning and deepen their culture of collaboration in schools and districts.
District teams continue efforts to develop an Eastern Washington cohort to support collaborative school improvement. Wenatchee's superintendent and Association president reported in a letter to all staff progress in helping to enhance the district's culture of "deep listening, mutual respect, and meaningful collaboration." Their work continues to focus on improving communication within the district and school leadership teams through a series of “listening and learning†tours of school sites. Next on their list of goals is addressing a systemic approach to social-emotional learning.
Planning is underway for a November 2-3, 2018 NW TURN meeting in Federal Way, WA focusing on addressing equity issues within our schools, integrating social-emotional and academic learning and strengthening collaborative partnerships in a Post-Janus environment.