2020 Training Camp Recap

The Nora Project just wrapped up an incredible month of learning, reflection and community building with over 130 educators from 50 schools, 6 states, and Canada. As you might remember from our post introducing Training Camp in late June, our staff quickly pivoted from a 2 day, in-person training camp program to a month-long, combination self-paced and live seminar virtual offering. And while originally we’d planned to center training camp around the theme of Equity, we transitioned to a theme of Allyship given the political momentum right now around transformative social justice.

While we missed the opportunity to be together in the same space, I can say with confidence that this year’s Training Camp was a resounding success.

Meeting virtually provided Nora Project staff members the chance to develop relationships with each participating teacher individually, because ed tech tools like Google Classroom and Flipgrid allowed each participant to share their reflections and aha moments with us personally throughout the month. Our staff members read and provided feedback on every module our participants completed, and it really helped us get to know participating teachers in a deeper way than we’d believed possible in a virtual setting. Our teachers agree:

“I loved the feedback on the assignments and being able to write back to you all. It just was a great way to have a conversation.”

“I loved how clear the assignments were and how responsive TNP staff was! It is awesome having a support system!”

“I'm blown away by all you and the team have done...amidst a pandemic...to make training camp so rich and meaningful. THANK YOU!”

The theme pivot served our community as well, with many teachers reporting that the content helped them gear up for what we all hope will be a transformational year ahead: 

“I really liked the theme of Allyship.  It is a great synthesis of the goals of TNP and the reality of our times.  I think we all need to open ourselves up to accepting what we know and what we don't know, and learning to improve our standing as allies.”

“Our world needs more allies, and this professional development and training have given me so many connections, resources, and positive affirmations to push me to want to be more than an ally to so many.”

In addition to the self-paced modules in Google Classroom, which included presentations about allyship and a panel discussion covering a range of topics with a diverse group of individuals with disabilities, we hosted a live event each week of Training Camp. These live events offered participants and staff an opportunity to learn together in community, share reflections in Zoom breakout groups, and send big smiles to one another from across the country. We learned about different models of disability from our Keynote Speaker, Torrie Dunlap of Kids Included Together. We learned about the intersection of race and disability and the anatomy of allyship for social justice from Nady & Porsha of Conscious Roots LLC. And we brainstormed ideas for how to approach a unique return to school at our Program Q&A sessions. To wrap up the month, singer-songwriter Gaelynn Lea provided an incredibly memorable performance at our closing cocktail hour concert event (on Zoom, of course!). 

We want to extend another round of thanks to our incredible sponsors that made this month of learning possible, and to all of our featured guests who contributed content. 

The best way to express the success of Training Camp is to hear it straight from teachers. We collected these sentiments from teachers’ reflections throughout the month and are so humbled by the positive feedback.