Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Does anyone else find themselves looking at the calendar and beginning to freak out that the end of summer break is approaching faster than a deadline for end-of-term grades I haven’t started to calculate? Recently I watched “The 7 […]
Michele Lamons-Raiford
Michele Lamons-Raiford is a hearing American Sign Language (ASL) and English teacher at Pinole Valley High School in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. She has been a High School teacher for the past twenty years, as well as an Adjunct Instructor at Solano Community College for the past fifteen years. She has a BA and MA in English from Cal State University Sacramento, and teaching credentials in English and ASL from Cal State University East Bay. She is a devoted wife, a mother of a beautiful Neurodiverse Son, and a lifelong Advocate for ASL, Deaf Culture, Students with Special Needs, Culturally Relevant, Culturally Affirming, Anti-Racist School Cultures, Climates, and Diversity in Educational Institutions and Organizations.
The Five Love Languages for Teachers
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! “I don’t know how you teach! I couldn’t take it!” I had heard this statement so many times I decided to ask the very next person who said that to me a question. “Take what?” My come-back sounded much […]
What Teachers Have in Common With Steph Curry and the Warriors
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! As a “die-hard” Golden State Warriors fan, over the years, I have learned what it means to be a “real” fan when we were continually “dying hard.” After decades of supporting a team that had not seen success since […]
A Conversation With My Deaf Quadrilingual Student
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! In the summer of 2018 I learned that I would be meeting my first deaf[i] student in my American Sign Language (ASL) Class. After a decade of teaching ASL the majority of my students were hearing students. Only a […]
I Thought This Would Be the Year “After” COVID, But I Was Wrong
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! I sat in front of the computer, thinking about what I could come up with to keep my students engaged for this last week of school. The computer screen began to blur reminding me of the metaphorical “blur” of […]
A Safe Space, A Safe Place
Finding New Ways to Build Student Relationships Built on Trust Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! It all began when I started to meet students one-on-one in breakout rooms during the pandemic. I wanted to “become more in touch with the mental health of some […]
You Showed Up: Reflections On Another School Shooting
Reflections On Yet Another School Shooting Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Like so many others, I found myself sitting in my car in the school parking lot a few minutes longer than usual Wednesday morning. I didn’t know how to describe what I felt […]
The Exhaustion of Black Educators on Another “Day After”
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Rage. Grief. Fear. I felt a plethora of emotions as I watched, listened, and read about yet another racially motivated mass shooting. Something as simple as a “normal” day of shopping on a beautiful and seemingly peaceful Saturday afternoon […]