OWL About It! (Autumn 2024)

Autumn 2024

CURRICULUM UPDATES!

Thank you for your patience!

Updates from our publication staff:

  • OWL for K-1, 2nd Edition –ALL VERSIONS (secular, UCC edition and UUA edition) IN STOCK!!
  • OWL for Grades 7-9, 2nd edition REPRINT with updates— IN STOCK!!
  • OWL for Grades 10-12, 2nd edition—should be available for pre-order by the end of the year and will be in the NEW FORMAT!

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THIS PAGE FOR UPDATES TO CURRICULUM IN THE NEW FORMAT BEFORE TEACHING

25 YEARS OF OWL!

Join us as we celebrate 25 years of faith-based comprehensive sexuality education and partnership in 2025!
Training calendars are HERE and HERE.

As we are notified of hosts who are hosting IN-PERSON TRAININGS, we update our calendars, so check back often.

For 2025, we anticipate the following IN-PERSON TRAININGS being added:

January
K-1/4-6 and 7-9/10-12 in Atlanta		 June
K-1/4-6 in IL
7-9/10-12 in South Dakota
Levels TBD in Southern US
February
All Adult Levels in South Dakota		 July
K-1/4-6 in South Dakota
March
7-9/10-12 in Northern California		 August
7-9/10-12 and All Adult Levels in Wisconsin
April
7-9/10-12 in Michigan		 November
All levels in Washington State

ONLINE trainings for 2025 will be posted before the end of 2024. These trainings are spread out over 3 weeks (two 2.5-hour Zoom sessions per week, as well as some asynchronous work in between sessions, and a Saturday class to end with). Asynchronous work is front-loaded for before the training begins and the first week of the training. Note: cost for online trainings will increase to $350 in 2025.

NOTE: Spaces are limited, and spots fill quickly.

The UCC and UUA honor church and congregation autonomy while also recommending that when offering in-person Our Whole Lives trainings and programs, please make every effort to accommodate the safety and accessibility of all participants over the comfort of some. This may mean the use of masks and other measures to ensure participation is available to more folks.

FREE RESOURCES!

“Under Your Wing” video series for parents of young children, hosted by Marshall Miller and Dorian Solot, authors of the 2nd edition of K-1 OWL. Under Your Wing: Our Whole Lives Sexuality and Videos for Parents of Grade K-1 Children. Resource list is here.

COMING SOON! Under Your Wing for parents of children in grades 4-6!

UCC version of Parents and Caregivers as Sexuality Educators is available here. UUA version is here. Watch the webinar about this Parents and Caregivers program here.

OWL Taking Flight Webinars!

OWL Taking Flight webinars will resume on January 8th, and the 1st Wednesday of the month after that.

A playlist of past webinars is here. To see resources shared in each webinar:

  • Click on the webinar you’d like to see on the playlist.
  • Under the screen where the webinar plays, where is shows the number of views, you will see a Show More link.
  • Click on that and you will see any resources shared in that webinar.

FAQ: New Format for Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education and Sexuality and Our Faith

Why are some OWL curricula now sold as loose-leaf pages instead of bound books?
Not binding the books means that we can provide you with replacement pages as soon as we learn that corrections, updates, or additions are needed rather than waiting for inventory to be depleted and new books to be printed. This allows us to provide you the most up-to-date and accurate content possible as well as to make changes quickly based on feedback around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

How will I know when replacement pages are issued for my loose-leaf copy of OWL?
Replacement pages will be published online at www.uua.org/re/owl/facilitators and Facilitator Resources. We encourage you to check online for replacement pages in real time as you are planning your workshops. To update your copy of OWL, print out the replacement pages and swap them for the old pages. The curriculum is paginated per workshop to allow new pages to be added without renumbering the pages for the whole publication.

In the UUA InSpirit Bookstore and UCC Resources, I see the OWL curriculum I want but not Sexuality and Our Faith. What should I do if I want the UU or UCC content?
Typically, the secular edition is published first. If you want the religious content, you should wait and order the UU or UCC edition when it becomes available.

Why are some OWL levels in the new format while others are not?
As manuscripts for new editions are completed, they will be rolled out in the new format. Eventually, every OWL level will be published in a loose-leaf format for secular, UU, and UCC editions.

Will there still be entire new editions periodically?
Yes. Every level of OWL will be periodically reviewed and updated for content, but being able to issue replacement pages means that you don’t have to worry that the edition you’re using is terribly out of date.

We continue our work to incorporate a more intentional anti-racism lens into Our Whole Lives curricula and training. This work is an ongoing process. Please see our Anti-Racism resource section for families in this newsletter and check out this video about how comprehensive sexuality education impacts anti-racism work.

If you have questions, please contact Amy Johnson, UCC Minister for Sexuality Education and Justice, at JohnsonA@ucc.org or Melanie Davis, UUA Our Whole Lives Program Manager, at mjdavis@uua.org. We remain in service and in solidarity with you!