Educator Advisory Board-Year In Review

The Nora Project launched an Educator Advisory Board (EAB) this school year with the goal of inviting teachers into the process of innovating and providing feedback on programming, mentoring other educators, and acting as ambassadors of The Nora Project mission. This first class of EAB members was selected in a highly competitive application process, and contains teachers, administrators, counselors--an array of educators with a diversity of experience and perspective. We could not be more proud of the work this group has done this year, and that work has inspired us to continue to grow this group and engage more educators in the future.

This year, the EAB met monthly and worked on a variety of projects. They reviewed and provided feedback on new curriculum and curriculum revisions, shared ideas with Nora Project staff about how to better engage educators in all of our participating schools, supported our first-ever student fundraising campaign, helped us host a virtual open house to showcase our programs, and contributed ideas to our website redesign and brand refresh processes. This group always provided thoughtful feedback that helped us make decisions that would best serve the teachers in all of our participating schools.

A highlight of the year was definitely our February Retreat. Together with Nora Project staff, the EAB engaged in two days of learning and personal growth. We studied storytelling with some amazing guest speakers, like Kevin Kling, and worked on crafting our own “Stories of Self” with Christina Sanchez. This experience brought us all closer together, and helped us think about how we want the future of The Nora Project to come to life.

Zoom screenshot of 20 people in a video call all smiling.

This summer, our EAB members will be mentoring other TNP participating educators as they move through our virtual Training Camp, helping create community and online networks of support as we embark on yet another unprecedented school year. We are so lucky to have such an impressive group of dedicated educators working with us on our Educator Advisory Board, and we look forward to welcoming more members to the board in the fall.