We’re a week away from returning to in-person teaching for the new school year and the obvious anxieties and fear about being back at school, where the spread of COVID-19 feels inevitable and is on everyone’s minds. This year, teaching will take on new challenges and risks, and no amount of mental preparation will make […]
Jheanell Lumsden
Jheanell Lumsden is a young, black educator who hails from Jamaica but is currently working in Toronto, Canada. She is dedicated to ensuring her curriculum is diverse and reflective of stories from all over the world and from groups that are typically left out from English curriculum. Furthermore, she works to create a revolutionary classroom in which her students are critically thinking about the world and seeking to enact real change.
5 Things I’ve Learned as a Student this Summer
It’s been a while since I was a student-specifically 4 years. However, I decided to take a course this summer to get qualified to teach Social Sciences, which has been a goal of mine for a while. With the current state of the world, this summer was the right time to take the step to […]
It’s Time to take Social Studies Seriously in Schools
Quick request: Raise your hand if you took a Social Studies course in high school. Next, think about whether it was a required course or an elective. On June 1st, 2020, The Educators Room Instagram Account (@theeducatorsroom) reposted a post from Rachel (Goan) Turner’s Twitter account (@ChattanoogaChat) who tweeted about the future of Social Studies […]
Wait! Is Your School actually Taking a Stand Against Racial Injustice?
This past week has been a combination of frustrating and strange. For the past month, there have been continuous protests asking for justice for unarmed Black people who have been wrongfully murdered by the police in the United States namely George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, among many many others. One of the […]
Saying ‘See You Later’ to our Kids in 2020: It feels different this Year
We’re about 2 weeks out to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, and the end of the semester feels so different this year. Teachers know the bittersweet moment of saying goodbye to the students that we bonded with throughout the year with, while also anticipating the summer to enjoy time for ourselves & families. […]
Teachers & School Administrators: Check On Your Black Co-Workers & Black Staff
To be frank, I’m tired. Just this week, I saw George Floyd, get murdered by police and within the past 3 weeks, both Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor have been murdered at the hands of people in authority. As a black woman, these deaths have weighed heavily on my heart. After experiencing a whirlwind of […]
A Conversation With Words: The Importance of Annotating
In high school, when I first learned the skill of annotating, I was hooked. I couldn’t stop; my books were decorated with a rainbow of different highlighters and my pages were weighed down by insurmountable notes. It became an addiction – I would test myself with how I could “out-annotate” my last literature book. As […]
How do we Support Students Who Are At-Risk During COVID-19?
It’s been my first week of teaching online and it’s been an interesting experience. In addition to being stressed out by having to quickly change all my lesson plans, and readjust my overall trajectory for the rest of the school year, I’ve been very anxious for my students. As a 25-year-old-year-old teacher, this has been […]