We have heard so much about the need for a culturally diverse, anti-racist curriculum, but the question is, are you willing to pay teachers for their time and energy in writing and implementing it? There are many teachers out there who have seen enough seminars and been to enough conferences to have been inspired to […]
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.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
You Sound Like My Mom: The Reflections of a Teacher Bear
“You sound like my mom.” If I had a dollar for every time a student said that to me, I would probably be rich enough to retire early! I used to laugh when students called me a “Mama Bear”, and smile at some who still call me “Auntie” to this day. These days, I embrace […]
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The Crucial Need for Mentorship in Post Pandemic Education
My mentor teacher was a six-foot two-inch Black Male, who exuded confidence, creativity, and a command of a room I envied on so many levels. He described himself as an Ex-Black Panther “intimate” different than a member, an “intellectual free-raider” who made sure he “always lived to fight another day”. My mentor was a self-proclaimed […]
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Post Pandemic Education: The Transition Back to Brick and Mortar
As a high school teacher, I already struggled with trying to get freshmen out of the “middle school mentality” long before this pandemic. Now, we have a new generation of students who not only have never set foot in our high school but ones who have missed out on that crucial transition period where they […]
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Post-Pandemic Education: What Worked Well with Distance Learning
“The best teachers are like hip-hop producers: study the classics, select the best parts, then add some new flavor” (Chris Emdin, Professor/Author). This quote sums up my journey into distance learning very well. I was fortunate to have some experience in online education, having used it at the college level, but I was not prepared […]
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The Parable of a Teacher’s Post-Pandemic Pause
“I gotta fight every night to prove my love!” I will never forget this scene from the movie The Five Heartbeats when the boyfriend comes back to the table and find his girl with another man. Now, how in the world am I going to relate that line to teaching? For those of us in […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
What Teachers Can Learn from the 2021 Olympic Black Girl Magic
“She doin’ too much!” “Do it take all that?” “Show some humility!” and the ever-trending “She looks like a man!” I purposely quoted, verbatim, a handful of statements about nearly all the Black women currently killin’ the 2021 United States Olympic Trials in multiple categories. What might surprise some readers is that this Black, Female […]
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When You Can’t Reach Every Student: A Different Type of Teacher Guilt
As we close out this school year, I feel overwhelmed with a different type of teacher guilt. Like everything else during this forced time of distance learning, the pandemic has exaggerated many teachers’ missions of the need to reach every student somehow. When we know that we have put forth the Herculean effort, when we […]