Call for Submissions: Horace Volume 24

CES National seeks contributions to Horace in 2008! Read on for the full 2008 issue cycle and guidelines for writers.

If you are involved in the CES network and want to contribute content, please contact Horace editor Jill Davidson at jdavidson@essentialschools.org or 401-453-1916. Not sure if you want to write something? That’s okay! Please be in touch and we will work together to determine the level of contribution that will work for you.

Horace Volume 24: Themes, Topics and Features

Horace 24.1 – Lifecycles of Educators: Teacher Preparation and Leadership Development
Horace 24.2 – Wellness and the Mind-Body Connection
Horace 24.3 – Politics and Policies: Election 2008
Horace 24.4 – Cycles of Inquiry and Improvement

Horace 24.1 - Lifecycles of Educators: Teacher Preparation and Leadership Development

March 2008
This issue of Horace examines the career directions of educators prepared to be 21st century teachers and education leaders, focusing on the challenge of developing the capacity of teachers and school leaders for CES schools. Particular topics may include:

• The ways that educators develop skills to be school leaders, open new schools, become mentors and coaches, develop as scholars and writers, and otherwise stay within the heart of schools and develop as professionals
• Development of and support for new teachers at Essential schools
• Support for teachers who have made mid-career transitions to CES schools, including those who taught at more conventionally structured schools
• Leadership training and support for CES school leaders
• Parent and student leadership with a look at the role they should play around governance
• A look at the phenomenon of the large number of Essential school alumni that choose education and social justice careers, with a focus on those that become educators at Essential schools themselves
• Related questions and topics that are central to your work

Horace 24.2 - Wellness and the Mind-Body Connection

May 2008
This issue of Horace explores the connection between mind and body that are an essential part of Essential schools. Particular topics may include:

• Food and nutrition: they ways in which the opportunity and responsibility to feed ourselves and our communities intersects with learning, emphasizing connections between food and its means of production to personal and environmental sustainability
• The role of play in learning and schools
• The relevance of organized sports
• The ways Essential schools focus on wellness, personal fitness, and care of the self
• The relevance of time spent outdoors to learning
• Sexuality
• Meditation and spiritual practices
• How school communities attend to emotional needs
• Related questions and topics that are central to your work

If you would like to contribute to this issue, please be in touch with Horace editor Jill Davidson as soon as possible.

Horace 24.3 - Politics and Policies: Election 2008

September 2008
In this issue, Horace looks at civic engagement to understand the ways educators involve themselves in politics and policy creation to create and sustain personalized, equitable, and academically challenging schools for all students. Topics may include:

• Much education rhetoric and argument stems from commitments to creating 21st century schools and learners. From a progressive point of view, what is education for the 21st century?
• What’s the connection between civic engagement and meaningful, challenging, equitable education?
• How have educators, students, family members, and others at CES schools worked with policymakers and politicians to create environments in which their schools are able to survive and thrive? What are your battles and who are your allies? How are young people involved?
• What is the role of teachers unions in the process of creating and sustaining CES schools?
• District strategies – what creates commitment to individual learners and to the entire school within a particular school system? What creates a CES-supportive district?
• Related questions and topics that are central to your work

If you would like to contribute to this issue, please be in touch with Horace editor Jill Davidson as soon as possible. Completed drafts are to be submitted by the start of July 2008.

Horace 24.4 - Cycles of Inquiry and Improvement

November 2008
This issue of Horace collects perspectives on schools and school systems that are committed to continuous improvement, analysis, and refinement. This focus will be on the ways we create cycles of inquiry and action, and collect and interpret evidence and data about a wide range of indicators. Topics may include:

• The CES Benchmarks: What are the ways that school communities and school systems assess their alignment with the Common Principles?
• Where does data come from, and what does it matter? Student work, attitudes, family and community participation, critical friends groups and visits, assessment, evaluation, rates of attendance, graduation, persistence at the next level of schooling, and more – among the endless indicators that we can measure, what matters most, and what do we do with the data once we’ve collected it?
• What do we mean by mastery? What are the opportunities and challenges about the ways that CES schools have chosen to assess mastery?
• Rigor, relevance and deep learning: how do we know they are happening?
• Related questions and topics that are central to your work

If you would like to contribute to this issue, please be in touch with Horace editor Jill Davidson as soon as possible. Completed drafts are to be submitted by the middle of September 2008.

Guidelines for Writers

If you are interested in contributing original writing, or if you believe your school community or one with which you’re familiar has a story to tell and want CES National to know about it, please contact Horace editor Jill Davidson to discuss next steps. We can determine the form your contribution can take. Be in touch if you’re interested; email jdavidson@essentialschools.org or call 401-453-1916.

Writing for Horace is a collaborative process, with coaching and support. We invite both experienced and novice writers; if you have not written for publication previously but believe you have something to contribute, don’t hesitate to be in touch to explore your ideas and work with Jill Davidson to develop a writing and editing process that will allow you to achieve your writing goals. Your ideas, insight, curiosity, and experience qualify you to contribute to Horace.

Writing for Horace: Tips and Pointers

• Be prepared to produce multiple versions of your writing over several weeks or months. Be prepared to discuss your ideas with your school community, interviewing others as needed and getting the critical feedback you need from your colleagues.
• Be prepared to provide photos to illustrate your article.
• Be prepared to work hard and take risks.
• Be prepared to be a thought leader in the CES network following publication. Many Horace authors use their Horace contributions as springboard for Summer Institute and Fall Forum workshops, as well as presentations and workshops at their schools and at other conferences.

Finally, if you know your school or schools that you work with have a contribution to make but you are not sure you or others want to take on the joy and challenges of writing, don’t hesitate to be in touch with your ideas. Email Horace editor Jill Davidson at jdavidson@essentialschools.org or call 401-453-1916 so we can explore ways to incorporate your experience creating Essential schools and the larger environments that support them.