Friends Forward

Do you struggle to find the time and resources to fully transmit Quaker practices to your colleagues? Are you interested in learning more about best practices from your colleagues? Would you like to participate in an initial attempt to gather and publish those practices in a resources that could be used by every Quaker school? If you've answered affirmatively to these questions, please join us!

*This workshop will also be held Thursday, July 9 3:15-4:15PM (Workshop 3).*

The Logistics and Life-Impact of Senior Internships - Elyse Wilson, Friends Select
In Quaker education, we strive to prepare students not just for college, but for lives of purpose, service, and action. Friends Select's Senior Internship Program serves as a bridge between the classroom, the city of Philadelphia, and the broader world.This 3-week program intentionally cultivates critical life skills, providing students with a safe environment to practice workplace professionalism, personal accountability, email etiquette, and clear communication.
This poster provides a comprehensive look at a successful Senior Internship Program, demonstrating how experiential learning can be rooted in Quaker practice while building highly practical professional skills. It is designed to offer fellow educators both inspiration and replicable frameworks for their own schools.

Beyond SPICES: Centering Quakers in the Curriculum - Toni Vahlsing & Diane Pecknold, Abington Friends
An Upper School History Teacher/ Librarian team will share some of their projects that center Quakerism or explore some of the complexities of Quakerism.  

Discipline to Support Growth and Responsibility: Introduction to Restorative Practices - Ida Trisolini, Carolina Friends/Peaceful Schools NC
At Peaceful Schools NC, we believe that when students mess up, it's an opportunity to learn and grow. With the support of a trusted teacher, the process can even be transformative. We believe that a shift in mindset from punitive punishment to logical consequences, can ultimately lead to self-discipline. This poster session will inform you about our practice of working with schools, especially with Friends Schools. 

Middle School Quaker Culture: TORCH, SPICE Squad, Worship Shares - Jane Ellis, Greene Street Friends

Seeing the Inner Light in every child takes on extra significance for complex learners such as those with learning differences.  Merging Quaker values with well-trained expertise in understanding and teaching these complex learners is often life-changing.  In this session, we’ll start by looking at how to recognize and appreciate learning challenges, including those you might see in “neurotypical” schools. You’ll hear from three Quaker LD (Learning Difference) schools: Delaware Valley Friends School, Stratford Friends School, and The Quaker School at Horsham.  We’ll discuss how we use our dual missions to support these exceptional students, and we’ll share some best practices that can improve the learning of all students, regardless of profile or diagnosis.  We’ll focus particularly on Executive Functioning strategies that our expert faculties use and that you can take with you for your students. 

Do our classrooms reflect courageous conversations rooted in our Quaker SPICES with our youngest learners? In this workshop, participants will engage in “hard” topics such as race, racism, ethnicity, and identity and explore how to incorporate these truth-centered conversations into our Quaker curriculums and practices. Rooted in Quaker principles of equity and honoring the Inner Light in everyone, this work calls us to be responsive in engaging with these complex topics, embracing the responsibility to guide even our youngest learners through these important conversations with courage and care.