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“The Jam felt like a beginning to me. I have spent so long in the daily grind of my job feeling disconnected from myself and from my dreams and goals. Particularly during Covid and remote work, it is difficult to connect with students and coworkers and difficult to focus on anything outside of fear and uncertainty. The Jam was a space to remember the original reasons I wanted to work in education and to feel myself beginning to reopen to larger possibilities.”
– Laura Hillebrand, 24, assistant director of Cornerstone Community, New York, NY
What Is the YES! Education Transformation Jam?
The YES! Education Transformation Jam (Ed Jam, for short) is a unique gathering for folks engaged in education. We bring together about 30 leaders and visionaries from across the oft-divided education world: public, private, independent, and charter schools, unschooling, homeschooling, learning communities, youth empowerment, youth activism, leadership development, adult education, early childhood, community college and higher education, and more.
The Ed Jam creates opportunities to explore our experiences and visions of education, build lasting and collaborative relationships, deepen our perspectives of challenging questions, share places of growth, struggle and healing, and have a lot of fun. It weaves the personal, interpersonal, and systemic together — from the deep motivations of why we are called to be in this field, to the challenges and community that race, gender and class diversity offer our learning spaces, to imagining and manifesting the full possibilities of what education can be in this emergent and ever-changing world.
Unlike many education conferences that focus on systemic questions and rarely weave together connections to our own life journeys — or personal retreats that focus on self-transformation and leave out systemic issues — the Jam seeks to address both of these levels, as well as the very vital area of interpersonal connection, learning and healing. All fields of transformation are brought together in a shared space co-created by all of the participants.
The Ed Jam will make space to listen and learn from each person present, engage in new synergies, find inspiration and rejuvenation, and build towards a common vision with each of our own unique contributions. Though some dialogues about education end up being debates about “the right way forward”, the Jam connects people from very different educational approaches to share our fields’ strengths and challenges and to explore our ‘unknowns’ together. We not only explore the ways education can be a place of empowerment for young(er) people, we also co-generate opportunities for you to explore your own journey of transformation as a co-learner and co-creator. We invite you to join us!
“Thank you for giving me space to breathe. To be silent. To go deep into my heart and soul. I felt a sense of love and belonging from the beginning. The people who are attracted to this space are rare souls. It really touched my heart to see how willing people were to be vulnerable and open up to strangers even in the digital space. I’m grateful for this container and to be part of a community with a beautiful legacy.”
– Jasmine Barnes, 24, Partner, FuelEd, Chicago, IL
“I literally feel like I have more room to breathe in my body. Thank you for inviting me to stretch. I came looking for support with transformation and in my transition, in becoming a better educator and human being. I received both in expected ways – new tools for thinking, dialoguing, listening – and unexpected ways – eye contact, time, songs, gifts, the beauty of nature, fire, games, and play…I leave you with a vision of education that includes compassion, joy, love, art, laughter, play, intellect, challenging reflection and conversation, listening, movement, and breath.”
– Miyo, 33, high school teacher, New York City, NY
Why the Education Transformation Jam Now?
One year into the COVID-19 pandemic we are faced with a massive reckoning: a need to practice community care and radically shift systems to meet the needs of those most vulnerable among us. At the same time that air is rife with the excitement of historic new possibilities of precedents for life, wellness and justice, we are also in deep mourning and yearning for relief from ongoing violence, white supremacy, militarism, colonialism, environmental destruction, patriarchy and corporate greed. As educators, the role we continue to play in ensuring that seeds of knowledge and care can still be planted in this uneven soil has been met with great burden and urgency in these times. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed, take on too much and hold a lot of weight in our minds, hearts and bodies. Internal overload can lead to external conflicts with friends, family, the people we work with, and others, which can lead to more isolation and fatigue. It can also hinder the creativity and collaboration we so deeply need and want for transforming the way we practice education.
The Jam creates space for us to slow down. On a personal level, we get time to reflect on what’s alive for each of us and tune into deeper sources of information from within and outside of us. On an interpersonal level, we deepen relationships across differences, to see and support each other, to play together, and to have challenging and truthful conversations while rooted in curiosity and love. On a systemic level, we share our work and build our collective vision of the education that our communities and this world needs to meet this moment and carve pathways forward.
“I entered this experience with so many questions, so many hesitations and so many nervous anxieties, and I left with even more questions, but less hesitation and anxiety. I got to see a model of how true connection and grounding can happen even when we are not physically together, and I got a lot of ideas for how to connect with my students when we start again in the fall. I could feel the love and genuine kindness of all the participants and facilitants and it reminded me that I’m not alone in all of this. Thank you for giving me something to work towards, to think about, to connect with and through, and to take forward into my life.”
– Catherine Strauch, 28, music teacher, Amherst, MA
“In a sense, the jam was a refuge, but not a place where I hid. A place where I could unfold…I learned so much about the incredible work that is being done to foster real, holistic learning and I finally understand what a group of change-makers looks like. I am confident that the change that I want to see is not only possible but unavoidable…You have taught me that change is powerful no matter what the scale. I am excited to go forward loving myself and nurturing my body, soul, and mind in a way that will make me be whole and allow me to be present where good work is needed.”
– Laura, 21, university student and youth mentor, Philadelphia, PA
What Happens at the YES! Virtual Education Transformation Jam?
Over the course of the whole Jam, we will have time to engage with many questions, such as:
- When you think about re-opening in a “post-COVID” reality, what is an education worth dying for? What is an education worth living for?
- What does equity in education look like?
- How do we engage after a year of isolation from friends, family and colleagues?
- What have you been leaning on within your educational communities during this time? What are you missing and want to bring in?
- If we’re not going back to a “pre-COVID” reality, how do we move forward? How do we want to be together?
- What are you learning, unlearning and uplearning right now? What are your growing edges, cliffhangers and pivot points? What sources are we turning to for guidance?
- How does your heart fully enter and sustain your work?
- What is your personal story around education? How have your experiences informed the path you have chosen to take?
- What have been your triumphs and your traumas around education? How are they shaping your work in the world?
- How are you creating and implementing your systems and visions of education?
- How are you approaching building bridges within and across diverse identities, like race, class, gender, and sexuality, in your education work?
- How are you living the values and world you are trying to create?
- What are the opportunities and challenges you are facing in transforming education?
- What kind of support do you need to help come into deeper alignment? What kind of support can you offer others for their journey into deeper alignment?
What are your questions?
Bring all of them to the Jam! They are essential for all of us to learn, grow and dream further.
This is a Jam and not a workshop or seminar. Each Jam is co-created by everyone who attends in multiple ways. We like to say that “the Jam is always on.” Facilitators offer sessions each day that engage the common themes from participants’ applications with a variety of activities using body, heart, spirit and mind. These sessions shift and change based on what emerges from the group. Outside of the sessions, even in a virtual jam space, we make time and space for resting, playing, scheming, reflecting, connecting, exercising and the Fine Art of Hanging Out — whatever the Jammers present choose to do.
Everyone co-creates the jam through a variety of learning modalities – small group dialogues, whole group conversations, movement and bodywork, systems thinking, storytelling and myth making, visual and performing arts, and more. There will be time for silence and for connecting with nature. The Jam will unfold to make space for our whole selves, for our spirits, for one another, for our highest dreams and our deepest fears. All of it will be welcome.
As with other Jams, we are prepared to be surprised! One hope is that people will have the opportunity to integrate their learnings and carry them home, to be able to find and connect with people who have the heart, spirit, skills and knowledge that they are needing for the next steps of their personal journey and the next steps of our collective journey.
“Thank you for all you have given me. I appreciated meeting educators who work outside of the traditional classroom setting and those who were classroom teachers like me. I was most moved by how open everyone was, both facilitants and participants. I was initially intimidated by the group, but the organizers created a beautiful, judgement-free zone and I felt connected to everyone. The Jam is about connecting and that is so important to me, and I loved being in an environment where everyone shared similar values. Thank you for hearing me, seeing me, and helping me find my voice again.”
– Neemu Reddy, 43, English Teacher, St. Andrew’s School, Middletown, Delaware
“I am healed and transformed in ways that are fueling so many concrete, tangible, and lasting changes in my work. What I want to make clear is that not only have I been healed (which makes the way for more healing) within myself, in my relationships, and in my role in the systemic world of institutions and social systems, but my day to day work will never again be the same.”
– Angela Sillars, 32, early childhood educator and PhD candidate, Los Angeles, CA
I’M INTERESTED! What about Costs and Logistics?
Since our first virtual Jam in 2020, we have decided to continue Jamming virtually, for now. And someday soon, we hope we can gather in person in real time.
The 7th annual YES! Education Transformation Jam will take place from August 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th, and 14th, from 9 am-12 pm PST / 12-3 pm EST on Zoom. (No fixed session on August 12th for space for rest, integration, and participant-led sessions).
You are welcome to join from anywhere in the world! And, we invite you to think about the whole week as the Jam, as we will have lots of fun things happening outside our main session timing too. The more space you have, the more you will be able to JAM. We’ll send more details, and feel free to ask us any questions.
We offer the Jam for a sliding scale of $100-$400, and ask you to contribute what you can. If it’s available, we encourage you to access your institution/organization/school’s professional development budget to help to cover some of these costs.
After you apply to the Jam, if you like, we can share with you a customized letter that focuses on the professional-development benefits of the Jam that you can then share with your institution/employer.
Who Is Putting This On? More about the Organizers and Facilitators
Joy George, born and raised in the Bronx as the daughter of Nigerian diaspora, has found herself at the intersections of love, transformation, restoration and social change in her work and activism. A graduate of NYC Public Schools and Swarthmore College now working in the state of Maine at Mindbridge and the Restorative Justice Institute of Maine, she is working towards planting and watering the seeds of restorative culture. After serving as a counselor at Seeds of Peace International Camp in the summer of 2019, Joy attended the 2019 North American Leadership Jam and found herself blessed with radical healing, truth and community– and now she is back again for more!
Hyoyoung Minna Kim has found herself back in her home-state of Maryland, after teaching in elementary public schools for six years, in New York City. She has also worked with youth and young adults in other capacities, such as facilitating yoga and mindfulness experiences for teenagers and inquiries of social justice in an undergraduate business course. During her last year in a social work graduate program, she has worked to bridge partnerships with immigrant merchants and residents of disinvested, predominantly Black communities of Baltimore City. Recently, she has initiated an exploration of grounding her mindfulness practices in a restorative justice framework. She is a big believer of radical honesty, body-wisdom, community-driven initiatives, and children’s literature. Last but not least, Minna started getting her Jam on at the 2017 Education Transformation Jam and has since been a part of the planning team for the Wellness and Healing Justice Jam and the Asian Diaspora Jam – she can’t stop, won’t stop!
Shilpa Jain is currently rooting herself in Oakland/Berkeley, CA, where she serves as the Executive Director of YES!. YES! works with social changemakers at the meeting point of internal, interpersonal and systemic change, and aims to co-create a thriving, just and balanced world for all. Prior to taking on this role, Shilpa spent two years as the Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds and ten years as a learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, based in Udaipur, India, where she served as coordinator of the Swapathgami (Walkouts-Walkons) Network. Shilpa has researched and written numerous books and articles, and facilitated workshops and gatherings on topics including globalization, creative expressions, ecology, democratic living, innovative learning and unlearning. Her publications include A Poet’s Challenge to Schooling, Reclaiming the Gift Culture, Other Worlds of Power, Paths of Unlearning, Unfolding Learning Societies, Vimukt Shiksha (“Liberating Learning”) and the Swapathgami newsletter “Making Our Paths of Living and Learning”. She is also co-author of “Connect. Inspire. Collaborate”, a highly sought-after facilitation manual. Shilpa is passionate about unlearning and uplearning — all towards unfolding our full potentials and living in deep relationship with the earth and each other.
Jonathan Peck, former President and CEO of the Tucson Urban League has over 23 years experience working within the community development field facilitating projects, coalitions, and alliances at the neighborhood, citywide, national and international levels. Jonathan received a BA in African African American Studies and Political Science from Earlham College. Jonathan worked as a community organizer, and later as Associate Director, of the Southwest Youth Collaborative (SWYC), a Chicago based organization dedicated to the development of low-income youth of color. Jonathan Peck is married to Zelda Harris and has two beautiful sons, Jonathan Russell Thanh and Wesley Chapman Danh Harris-Peck. Jonathan works to impact the lives of children, youth and families through his commitment to criminal and juvenile justice initiatives, education and social services and economic and community development initiatives. Jonathan is passionate about sports, arts and culture and positive youth development and has over 23 years of experience in the community sports and youth development field. Jonathan has extensive international experience most notably, but not limited to, in Southern Africa and Latin America.
Jen Lazar is a co-founder & director of the Field Academy, a traveling high school program that strives to make learning and life indistinguishable for both students and educators. She is also the Education & Outreach Coordinator at 350VT. Prior to her current work, Jen helped run the DREAM Program where she co-created mentoring and adventure programs with college and high school students from affordable housing communities throughout Vermont. She also served as a public school commissioner in Burlington, Vermont for three years. She loves to cook brunch, play Capture the Flag, and revel in the outdoors in just about any weather.
Eric DeMeulenaere lives in Worcester, MA where he teaches in Clark University’s Education Department. Prior to joining Clark University’s faculty, he taught middle and high school social studies and English in Oakland and San Francisco, CA. In 2004, he co-founded and directed an innovative small public school in East Oakland that focused on social justice and increased academic outcomes for youth of color. Before opening the school, Eric completed his graduate studies in the Social and Cultural Studies Program at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. He consults with urban school leaders and teachers nationally and internationally to transform their organizational school cultures and address social and racial inequities. Eric co-founded and directs an innovative new major at Clark: Community, Youth, and Education Studies, which engages undergraduates in community-based activist research. Eric is the co-author (with Colette Cann) of two books Reflections from the Field: How Coaching Made Us Better Teachers (2013) and The Activist Academic: Engaged Scholarship for Resistance, Hope and Social Change (2020).
We would love to have you apply for the Education Jam online here. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so the sooner you apply, the better!
If you have any questions, please contact our participant liaison, Joy George at <EducationYESJam@gmail.com>
Looking forward to Jamming with you!
– Joy, Jen, Jonathan, Minna, Eric, and Shilpa