In January, 826LA welcomed its first Educator Advisory Board to the writing lab for an evening of brainstorming. Teachers and educators from King Middle School, Hollenbeck Middle School, New Heights Charter School, Gabriella Charter School, and LeConte Middle School all gathered to talk about what makes for a good 826LA experience, how to support students even better, and collectively shared best practices from the wealth of their individual experience.

We want this to be a place for 826LA to connect with our partner teachers and educators and allow them connect with each other too. We’re hoping to create a space to share strategies with each other, to talk through writing projects and ideas, and to support each other through the challenges and successes we face as educators in Los Angeles.

At the top of the roundtable discussion, King teacher William Page shared that “826LA has become an incredibly special place to me. The space itself engages kids. They walk in and students want to be creative. It’s a setting that is novel, that’s not the classroom, and not about being right, and they walk out with a tangible end product.”

As this Board forms more wholly and evolves, we’re excited to see how writing and 826LA programs can be—and are—affecting LAUSD students in positive ways, and to learn how we can deepen our support of teachers and students who walk in and out of our writing labs, our tutoring spaces, and the classrooms running 826LA projects even better throughout the year and into the future.

If you are a LAUSD teacher and want to get involved with 826LA, email Kenny Ng (at our Echo Park location) or email Mike Dunbar (at our Mar Vista location).