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Blog

February 9, 2022 Instruction & Curriculum

Word Games Like Wordle and Mywordle Help Make Language More Accessible for Students

Have you signed up for The Educator's Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism!

Choosing your words sensibly...

Wordle is an online word game and, over the past month, has taken the internet by storm. Josh Wardle developed the game in response to his companion's affection for word games. Now, just a few months after development, it is being played by millions worldwide and was most recently acquired by the NYTimes. Wordle is a word puzzle, and you have six chances to figure it out. The objective is to guess a five-letter word. It sure seems easy enough because five-letter words are common in English.

Word Games Like Wordle and Mywordle Help Make Language More Accessible for Students Click To Tweet

Players are trying to figure out that one word out of the 12,000 plus words used in the Wordle word bank can seem like an intimidating task. But, for some, that is what makes it so fun. That would be amazing if you guessed the word on the first try! If not, you will be prompted by three green, yellow, or grey boxes. The green box will indicate that your letter is correctly within the word. A yellow box shows that you have the correct letter, but it is in the wrong place. Finally, the grey box indicates the letter is not in the word. After your first guess, you get to apply all the vocabulary skills you acquired in elementary school.

Wordle only posts one puzzle a day. Once you play, it's your choice if you want to share your results. The correct word will not show through. The results only show the number of times it took to figure out the word and your average. So, please remember to keep it a secret and try not to spoil the fun for others. It is a fun way to participate in some friendly competition with family and friends. My strategy has been to use words with vowel teams as my first guess and then move on from there. My advice is to take your time, yesterday I did, and I was successful on the sixth try. This morning I was too hasty to complete the game and share my results. As a result, I missed the correct word by one letter. So don't rush, and think about all you know about words and letter placement.

Enhancing vocabulary…

As a teacher, I can think of many reasons why Wordle would be beneficial in education. According to the National Institute for Literacy, "Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively." Building a solid vocabulary in early childhood education is critical to overall academic success. There have been many studies that have shown the benefits of word games. Using word games as learning tools for vocabulary expands oral language and increases student engagement and promotes a healthy learning environment. Playing word games has many benefits and helps readers work on skills of automaticity and fluency that ultimately lead to reading comprehension. An article featured in SWAAY also noted how "Playing word games can improve various brain functions like problem-solving, memory, cognition, and creativity."

Using Wordle in the classroom...

I was excited to try Wordle with my 3rd and 4th Graders, and it was a massive hit with the kids. A small number of students heard of Wordle but didn't have the opportunity to play it yet. It was so great to play with them for the first time. I introduced it as a whole class lesson, and the excitement for the game had some students out of their chairs, calling out their guesses. It was a very engaging and fun experience for them, and with the help of another teacher, we solved the puzzle on the fifth try. The word of the day was PLEAT.  

Creative teachers can certainly incorporate Wordle into their daily lessons. For example, It can be used as a daily icebreaker in your morning meeting or for data analysis in math. In addition, it can also be used in your vocabulary, reading, and writing lessons. The possibilities are there. When planning, teachers should think about the standards and goals of the lesson, while thinking about their students' current vocabulary knowledge. For instance, Wordle may not be appropriate for students who are emergent readers. ELL students who have not acquired a vast number of words in their word bank would have trouble playing Wordle independently. Even though we want to challenge our students, sometimes making a task inaccessible shakes a student's confidence.

Differentiation with Mywordle...

Thankfully, it didn't take long for another gamer to come out with their spin on Wordle. Mywordle is based on the original Wordle but can customize the word or use a random word. You can also generate a link, which will allow you to send it to your students. Mywordle is an excellent resource for teachers because it would enable them to select appropriate words for their specific grade level and lesson. Mywordle allows you to make words of any length, giving teachers flexibility in word choice and making the game accessible to early childhood and ELL students. The great thing about Mywordle is it allows all students to be a part of the current Wordle craze. Teachers can use both Wordle and MyWordle in their lessons to show differentiation.

Having a choice in these types of word games is excellent for teachers who have diverse learners in their classrooms. It makes it easier to differentiate and reach all students in your class. If teachers want to add fun to their daily lessons and increase student engagement, I suggest incorporating Wordle and Mywordle. Both would undoubtedly enhance any lesson.

Researched Articles:

Anon, Word games that can benefit your mental health. Swaay. Available at: https://swaay.com/word-games-that-can-benefit-your-mental-health [Accessed February 6, 2022].

Anon, Put reading First 2006 - ed. Available at: https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PRFbooklet.pdf [Accessed February 6, 2022].

Victor, D., 2022. Wordle is a Love story. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-game-creator.html [Accessed February 6, 2022].

July 8, 2021 Instruction & Curriculum

School Librarians and Teachers Must Work Together To Make School Fun

This past school year was the hardest most educators have faced in their careers. The word “pivot” is honestly a word I would be okay never hearing again, is anyone with me there? This year, my main goal is to make this year as easy as possible for my teachers on my campus as their librarians. It surprises me year after year that teachers do not realize how their school librarian can support them with instruction and make their life easier with less stress. Together librarians and teachers, through collaboration, can not only help create an environment where the school is even more fun for our students but also librarians can help relieve some of the stress of lesson planning for the teachers. 

So how can librarians help teachers, and how together can they make school fun? Through collaboration! The library is the heart of every school, and anytime instruction can move from the classroom to the library is exciting for students regardless of age. Often librarians have a bit more freedom than teachers when it comes to creating lessons out of the box because of the available resources in the library. Most libraries have more access to technology, maker space, print, and digital resources than the classroom, making it easier for lessons with the technology or project-based. Between fun lessons collaborated with teachers and librarians and a change of environment from the classroom to the library, you are on your way to making school, learning, and class fun. 

How librarians can support teachers:

  • Curatining classroom libraries based on units of instruction
  • Co-teaching
  • Lesson planning 
  • Lesson support
  • Curating resources for instruction
  • Collaboration 

With lesson planning, lesson support, and collaboration, librarians can support teachers by creating video tutorials, book tastings, book talks, small group activities, maker space activities, research skills, and lessons on your district-provided digital learning system curriculum content lessons, breakout edu lessons, etc. Recently, with help from another high school librarian in my district, I have started incorporating Google Websites to help create lessons for teachers and students that can be reused and modified year after year for all teachers of that subject.  A majority of librarians are very knowledgeable about incorporating technology into instruction and can teach teachers and students how to use these skills.

Librarians and teachers can collaborate to create lessons that empower students to be ethical creators of their content and projects. Personally, project-based lessons and assignments are some of my favorite lessons to plan and implement. Students are given the freedom to choose and create their content based on instruction, and the library has resources to help and technical skills to help create. Lessons and units are more engaging and fun through collaboration, and with two different educators with different background experiences, you can have a variety of ideas to create with. So many of my amazing teachers and instructional leaders are moving towards projects that students have the freedom to create whatever product they want or have the freedom to do a project over something they are passionate about. With projects like these, I get so incredibly excited! Teachers and librarians can create a rubric, and together, the librarians and teachers can help students have as many resources and points of view as possible. 

With librarian collaboration, librarians and teachers can create lessons based on the instruction that shows students to be connected to their community, state, country, and the world safely. As a result, students will be able to identify reliable resources, learn various ways to spot fake news through research and create skills that will last a lifetime. With how the internet has become such an important part of our lives, it is a vital skill for students to have the skills to identify fake news, and together librarians and teachers can work to have lessons that teach these skills. 

The library is a collaborative space for other teachers and students to use. Using maker space projects in instruction, students can express their creativity and make connections to instruction. Makerspace stations are great for all subject areas to use to add an extra flair to their lessons. In the past, I have had teachers use the legos in the maker space to have students create various things based on their instruction, and I have had teachers use the button maker to create buttons based on a character they most related to. Check out the maker space area that your librarian has and work with the librarian to see what different ways you can use the maker space in your instruction. 

Beyond just providing co-teaching and collaboration with teaching, librarians can also help teachers by providing various resources for teachers to use. Various digital resources can provide for teachers and students like ebooks, audiobooks, databases, research articles, various media resources based on units, and digital magazines. Teachers can discuss with their librarian what their unit of instruction is over and what ideas of resources they would like to use and the librarian can provide! The library has so many different resources available and can find something based on your lessons, and if for some reason they do not have the resources, your librarian can and will find them. 

Overall when working together, teachers and librarians can improve student outcomes. Almost every librarian I know loves to have students and teachers in the library, and they love to collaborate. Be sure to reach out to your school librarian today! If your campus does not have a school librarian, reach out to your district administration and let them know how vital a school librarian can be at your campus and district. School librarians are so important to every campus. I hope that by using your school librarian this school year, you can have a successful year and much less stress than this previous school year. 

February 6, 2023 Ask a Teacher

Ask The Educator's Room: I'm dating a student's dad. Should we tell the school?

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Welcome to The Educator's Room advice column for teachers! Today we're helping a teacher who's dating a student's dad. We're also helping a teacher whose community is grieving. See what our writers have to say, then share your own advice in the comments! You can read a couple of our previous editions of Ask The Educator's Room here and here.

Dear The Educator's Room,

I'm in love with a single dad whose kid is in my class. We've been dating for a year (we looped up), and we're pretty serious. As we discuss the next steps, we're considering going "public."

Other than the stares, is there anything else I should know?

Sincerely,

Dating a Dad

Dear Dating,

If you've been teaching for any amount of time, you can probably anticipate many of the challenges. Students, fellow staff, and other families may have strong reactions to your relationship. But as a teacher, you probably have thick skin too.

My main piece of advice would be to check in with your partner's child. Regardless of how old they are, they deserve to have a say in how this plays out. They are also likely to be affected in a whole range of ways, and they may not have the same coping strategies as you. Ask them how they feel about the school community knowing about your relationship with their dad. Ask them to share any hopes, fears, or questions. Follow their lead as much as possible. It may mean waiting a few months to go public. It might be hard, but as adults, a few months is quite manageable compared to what a few months of unwanted attention feels like as a young person.

Whatever happens, remember that you (and your partner and his child) deserve strong boundaries. Don't let your professional life interfere with your romantic relationship or vice versa.

  • Ruben  

Dear Dating,

First, congratulations on your deepening relationship. I hope that it is fulfilling for you, your student, and your student's father.

You are not the first or last school-related romance, nor are you the first teacher to have their own children, step-children, or the children of friends in their classroom. The longer we teach, the more inevitable all of these realities become.

My primary suggestion would be to discuss the relationship with your administration. They may have guidance as to how to handle the transition to a more public relationship, especially as your students start to take notice of your close relationship with a classmate's parent. If they have concerns about how this might affect the classroom environment or perceptions of the classroom environment, they may have a plan already in place to deal with potential issues.

Yes, it is possible you will have to deal with stares and questions from your students and even their parents, but as long as you have maintained an open environment in your classroom and work to be fair with your students, I suspect most people will move on to other school gossip within a few weeks. 

  • Sarah
Ask The Educator's Room: I'm dating a student's dad. Should we tell the school? Click To Tweet

Dear The Educator's Room,

On Sunday night, one of our students was killed in crossfire; he was an innocent bystander. He was a really sweet kid and wanted to be a pastor when he grew up.

Our school community is devastated. I have never experienced anything like this in my career. Our counselors are ready to help.

As a mother, I can't imagine. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? Besides therapy, what else did you do to help?

Sincerely,

Heartbroken

Dear Heartbroken,

Unfortunately, far too many of us have dealt with student deaths. During my student teaching experience, the community suffered a significant blow when the marching band was in a bus accident that killed two students and a parent and injured most of the other passengers onboard. 

In the years since, I've lost three of my own students. Each situation was different, but nothing prepares you for the loss of life, especially the life of a young person. And as teachers, we are faced with the reality that each of our students is going to deal with the situation differently while we are processing our own grief. 

Thankfully, it sounds like your administration and guidance department have started out on the right path to help the school community cope with tragedy. Students - and teachers - need safe places to grieve and talk about how a death is personally affecting them.

As a teacher, be aware of your students and how they are responding. Grief will happen at random moments, and you cannot predict or fully understand who is feeling what or why. Partner with your school's counselors to get all of your students the help they need. 

In your own classroom, trust your instincts. When one of my seniors died during prom weekend, her classmates asked if they could make a memorial around her desk. Academically, they needed to get ready for the AP exam, but I knew that they needed to start healing emotionally first. On the first day back at school, I shared my experiences with a friend's suicide during my junior year. I let them talk and play games. I put in a Disney movie. And they placed flowers on her desk. We took a day to just breathe. Then we got back to work. But part of that memorial remained until the end of the school year because that was what we all needed. We needed to both acknowledge our grief and recognize that life goes on.

No two tragedies are the same, but I encourage you and your colleagues to share your grief with each other and ask for guidance as you work with your students. Remember that community is necessary for both joy and sadness because, in the end, all we really have is each other.

- Sarah

Dear Heartbroken,

My heart breaks for your student's family, friends, and school community. As a mother, I, too, cannot imagine this mother's pain. As a teacher, I wish I could say that I have not had the experience of losing a student. I don't think society realizes how common this is for educators. 

My first piece of advice is to give yourself permission to be transparent with your grief and even your frustrations. In my experience, students often learn how to give themselves permission to acknowledge and express their feelings about traumatic events when they see that the adults in their lives are vulnerable with their emotions as well. 

Try to find a variety of outlets for students to express themselves. It is good that the school has counselors available, but students might not be ready for that step. Instead, they may want to create artwork that includes a dedication to the student's life. They can write letters to the student who passed away. Students can use journals to write expressions or affirmations. Digital spaces can also foster opportunities to express themselves privately. I always make sure my students are completely aware of my mandated reporter status before embarking on many of these strategies. 

The last thing I will share is that when we lost a student to gun violence nearly twenty years ago, I met with my students and used many of these strategies. We came up with something we called a "Day of Peace and Remembrance." Like yours, our student's death rocked our entire school community. Since then, it has morphed into celebrating the life of the loss of loved ones and friends in any way, not necessarily due to violence. We celebrate family, friends, and others who had an influence on our lives. It is always a powerful and unifying event. Again, there is no one way to grieve, mourn, or honor the lives of students who touch our lives. Do whatever you need to not only be there for your students but to be there for yourself as well. 

- Michele

about the advisors

Ruben Abrahams Brosbe is a former NYC public school teacher. He is currently the editor of The Educator's Room.

Sarah Styf is a 19-year high school English teacher. She lives in the Indianapolis area with her husband and two children. She is passionate about education reform and civic engagement. She can be found on Instagram @sarah.styf and Twitter @sarahstyf.

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. 

Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this article, please become a Patreon supporter by clicking here.

February 1, 2023 Equity

My Union Showed Up for Me, and I'll Never Forget It

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In my 20-plus years in education, the union has been in the background of my career until very recently. I have always known that the union negotiates contracts and would provide support if I needed legal assistance, but I didn’t expect to need my union. Suddenly, a few months ago, I needed their help, along with my department. With their support, we began 2023 with a powerful victory. And the union remains at our side even now, in the aftermath of a difficult legal battle with broad implications about the limitations of administrative power.

In May of last year, Project Connect, our department that serves vulnerable youth, saw a meeting on our calendars for Friday afternoon with HR. Since we all got the invite, we thought it unlikely to be a mass firing. What we walked into didn’t seem much better.

We were told that we would be moved from our union positions into classified roles with new titles and job descriptions. An administrator offered some explanation to our team, but the reasoning remains murky to this day. We would return “in a few weeks” to learn about our new wages, job descriptions, 

We felt angry, shocked, and defeated. We walked into the weekend uncertain of our futures, uncertain about how to continue our work in our year-round positions. Our colleagues asked, “can they do that?” I didn’t know, so I called the union. In our defeated mindset, we wondered if we would hear back and if anyone would know what to do. We kept our expectations low.

Representatives at the highest levels of our union replied with support and expertise that brought us hope, which we deeply needed as we learned that most of our wages would be cut by around 30%, to take effect about two weeks later. Our retirement system would change. We would all be on probation for one year. The most significant change came to be that we left the union oversight and procedures for administration to “discipline” employees.

Concurrently, our union was fighting for a new contract that would, among other things, improve the health and safety of our buildings. Our union had been on alert that we would need advocacy for our contract, but when our membership of over 4,000 people heard what happened to Project Connect, they showed up for us. We all wore our “Solidarity” t-shirts in the 100+ degree heat outside of a board meeting. We knew that we would need each other in the event of a strike, and our colleagues knew they wanted Project Connect to remain strong. I spoke at that board meeting with more support behind me than I could have anticipated. 

"We have much work in front of us.... But we do it with our union..." My Union Showed Up for Me, and I'll Never Forget It Click To Tweet

The union experts at the local and state levels saw a significant violation of labor laws in how the district removed Project Connect from the bargaining unit, so we filed a case with the State Employment Relations Board (SERB). The school board and administration agreed to temporarily keep our pay the same as the other changes went into effect. Our case would not be heard until the fall, with a decision expected in winter. We faced our futures with uncertainty, but instead of our initial desperation, we had confidence–thanks to our union.

We took our fight to local airwaves over the summer when I spoke on a local NPR show about the unilateral decision to move Project Connect out of its bargaining unit. My apprehension about speaking so publicly dissolved when union representatives connected me with kind experts in public relations who prepared me well to get behind the microphone. I became accustomed to the utmost support in this process.

We would eventually strike and gain contractually enforceable language to improve our buildings before it ended. The solidarity as a union held into the next school year when administrators started disciplining members of Project Connect, myself included. They did not follow the procedures that they would need to under union rules, telling us to give up our fight because we would lose our arbitration. They suspended members of our team, some more than once. 

The head of our department testified at arbitration this fall with supporting testimony of a former supervisor. We waited. We worked under the threat of constant discipline. 

Then on our first day back after winter break, we got a call from our union, and from the first sentence, I heard the joy and knew it was good news. I heard the union president in the background clapping as they told us that the SERB had decided in our favor! The district would be required to immediately restore the union status of the positions.

We have much work in front of us to roll back some discipline files, restore retirement money to the correct system, and remedy the situation overall. But we do it with our union, the body we rarely considered for most of our careers but came to need. Fiercely. And they showed up fiercely to protect Project Connect and to protect union jobs, with success. 

Our union shared our fight, our frustration, and now our joy! When we were upset and uncertain, the union handled the situation, brought our colleagues to rally around us, and delivered a departmental and union victory. I truly didn’t think I would ever need the union, and I was glad to discover that when I did, they showed up. They have been there solidly for Project Connect and me for many months. They bring expertise. They bring support. They bring solidarity.

Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this article, please become a Patreon supporter by clicking here.

January 31, 2023 Child Development

Your Students Deserve a Diverse Classroom Library. Here's How to Set It Up.

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Our classroom libraries are in trouble. Just as more teachers are learning that their libraries need books that reflect their student populations, they also have to fight policies at the district and state levels that ban many of these same books from their libraries. Florida, for example, is banning certain materials in classroom libraries and taking away teachers' discretion when selecting the materials for their students. The consequences for breaking this law are severe and can include felony charges. The juxtaposition of outdated, one-dimensional libraries with policies that embrace censorship is extremely troubling for teachers and students alike.

As new laws and regulations threaten our ability to do what we do best (tailor our instruction to our students), we must take every chance we have to support all our students. We have to ensure now that all of our students can access affirming, inclusive stories in spite of these policies.

With a little time and organization, you can revamp your library to include books that reflect the students who are in your class and highlight those who are not.

Look at your students.

Before you even start buying new books for your library, look at your class. Who are they? What are their backgrounds? Are any of your students neurodivergent? What do their families look like? What are their religions? What are their interests? Look beyond race and gender. 

Take all your students' unique interests and features into consideration. Make sure to organize and record your students' demographics and data. Whether you create spreadsheets, color-code index cards, or scrawl ideas on the back of an old faculty meeting agenda, make sure to keep notes on your students.

I taught an athletic boy who loved football. His favorite books were Disney princess books. If I had not asked him about his preferences, I would have provided him with football and sports books. He read every princess book from cover to cover. Boys' interests may lie outside of typical gender stereotypes as well. Don't make assumptions or forget to ask students directly what they want to read.

Another student of mine, an eight-year-old White boy, loved it when he found a book about a squirrel with food allergies "just like him." He is very well represented in children's books regarding characters that look like him, but this character experienced something that he had to deal with in a way that other kids didn't. If representation trickles down to such a nuanced level, we must find books in which all kids can see themselves.

Students also need to see the success of people who don't look like them, so even if you have a relatively homogenous population of students, make sure to include books that focus on other demographics. Children absorb so much of the content they see in all types of media. When children repeatedly see certain groups of people portrayed stereotypically, they are more likely to internalize that representation as accurate. We want students to see those who are different from them portrayed positively. Everyone, especially those who are well represented, such as students who are White, male, middle-class, cisgender, able-bodied, or Christian, needs to see the layers of diversity in society and understand that they are one part of a larger community.

Inventory your library.

If you want to inventory your library yourself, do it in stages and start earlier in the school year (or before the year even starts). Try getting through one shelf or one bin at a time. If you want to be successful at updating your library, don't do it all at once in the middle of the year, or it will likely feel very overwhelming. 

Don't be afraid to ask for help. Ask your students to get involved. They'll get to see what's in the library that they already like, and they will purge things that they don't like. If you start with mini-lessons on genre and other ways to organize books, you can spend a few days giving groups of students baskets or shelves of books to peruse. They can sort the books into piles based on genre, including a discard pile. Take the last 10-15 minutes of each lesson to have students reshelve or replace the books into baskets, along with a new label for the new categories.

Alternatively, you can create a center during your ELA block. You can set out one basket of books a day on the rug or a table and have a group work together to organize them into new genres or categories. Provide new or recycled baskets and new labels for the students to use.

Make sure while you are reorganizing your books that you keep a running list of what you have in each genre so that you can fill in the gaps later. One teacher devised a free, downloadable spreadsheet that you can use to track your books. The easiest way to do the inventory is to sit with each group and record the titles as they place the newly organized books back into their baskets. Students may be able to fill in the inventory for you, starting in third grade.

Compare your class with your library.

Look at the notes you took on your students' backgrounds, religions, interests, families, etc. Then look at the books you actually have. What content and genres are you missing? Start making a list.

"When I brought out Nabeel's New Pants by Fawzia Gilani-Williams, one of my students said, 'This is my culture! Eid is my holiday! Can we read this?!'"Your Students Deserve a Diverse Classroom Library. Here's How to Set It Up. Click To Tweet

Pick ONE area to start expanding.

If you try to update your entire library at once, there's a great chance that you'll feel completely overwhelmed and not finish. It takes work to do it well. Pick just one area or genre to research and update. You're going to have to explore titles from a few different places, so rather than trying to capture the entire spectrum of your class's interests in one fell swoop, make small changes throughout the course of the year. If you have time and the ability to revamp your entire library at once, by all means, try it. But if you cannot do it all at once, tiny changes over time add up. 

For example, if your students are interested in STEM, update your STEM section. STEM is stereotypically a male-dominated field. Instead of reinforcing that stereotype, make sure that you have examples of people from all backgrounds and genders in your books. Not just books about famous people in science and math, but stories with engineers as main characters and how-to books on science experiments. It is beneficial for all students to read about other people (who do not look like them) being successful.

Mix up your books across the board.

When you are trying to make sure students of various races see themselves reflected in texts, balance books where children of their background are the main characters with stories that focus on their specific culture. For example, select a book about fairies where the main character just so happens to be a Black girl. But, also select a book about Black girls celebrating their hair. Mix up books that center on culture with books that happen to contain characters with a certain background. 

You Don't Want a Unicorn by Ame Dyckman is a great example: It's about a boy who loves unicorns. The main point of the story is how much he loves unicorns. It is not about how it's okay for boys to like unicorns or what it's like to be a person of multiple ethnicities. He just happens to be a boy, and his parents just happen to be an interracial couple.

Regarding religion, do not feel like you need to get books that teach about the tenets of various faiths. But kids do want to read stories that revolve around their holidays. The Polar Express centers around Christmas without involving religion. Many Hanukkah books tell stories infused with the magic of the holiday without being religious: The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Daniel Handler and Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel are two examples. When I brought out Nabeel's New Pants by Fawzia Gilani-Williams, one of my students said, "This is my culture! Eid is my holiday! Can we read this?!" Find stories that have religious celebrations as backdrops.

I read Sarai and the Meaning of Awesome by Sarai Gonzalez and Monica Brown with my third graders. The main character is a girl who lived in New Jersey (where I taught) and spoke Spanish. My Spanish-speaking students loved explaining the Spanish words, and I loved their connection with the book and seeing them shine.

Find informational texts, how-to manuals, poetry books, picture books, chapter books, and a plethora of characters and topics for your students to read.

Try these methods to build your diverse classroom library.

There are a few ways to find and fund new books for your classroom library. 

Check social media and blogs. There are lots of groups on social media dedicated to self-published authors - many of whom are writing in order to tell their own stories and increase their own representation. You can preview many of their books for free on Kindle Unlimited. There are also quite a few blogs and groups on social media dedicated to diverse literature and representation. These pages highlight interesting new books that represent children from all walks of life.

Write a grant. Representation in literature is an important trend in education right now, so you could fund a significant amount of your library through a grant. 

Use book fairs and the PTO to help. The points you get when your students order through a book catalog do add up, and if you exchange them for a few new titles every marking period, you can update your library throughout the course of the year.

While new teachers can be overwhelmed with the frequent changes happening in education, and veteran teachers can simply be tired of them, it is easy to want to turn our heads the other way. But our students need to see themselves and their peers in their books. With the increasing frequency and intensity of attacks on diverse children's literature, we have to make sure that we do everything in our power to support all of our students. Building an equitable and inclusive library is critical to the well-being of our students, and the time to do so is now.

Jennifer Chiaramida is a former elementary Reading Specialist with over eighteen years of experience. She now writes for several companies in the edtech universe. She is passionate about literacy, libraries, and all things ELA.

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January 30, 2023 Current Events in Education

You Don't Have to Watch the Tyre Nichols Video, But Be Ready to Talk About It

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"Ms. Lamons, did you hear?" My text messages and social media inboxes were flooded with the news of the release of the Tyre Nichols video. Almost ashamedly, I did not recognize his name. I did not know the backstory. I did not know the video would be released today. But some things I knew for sure. I couldn't watch. I didn't watch. And I won't watch. 

While I knew many of my students would choose to watch it, they might not be thinking about the lasting impact this video may have on their mental health, their personal beliefs, and their perspectives on so many things in life. I reminded some of the students who reached out to me of the potential negative outcomes of watching the video. I also shared some of my personal experiences of unresolved trauma caused by police violence caught on camera.

Nearly three decades later, I still can't get the image of Rodney King's beating out of my mind. In 1992, I was a senior in high school. I have many seniors in my classes today. I know firsthand the negative impact that a violent video, a traumatizing trial, a painful wait for an uncertain verdict, and potential riots can have on one's psyche. This trauma still sticks with me to this day. 

Now I am in the same position as the incredibly strong Black educators I had in high school, and I understand they did their best to answer our questions and provide safe spaces for us. Still, I wonder how they did it. How did they protect their own mental health while vowing to be there to help us process so much that was negatively affecting our own? How did they muster the strength to even walk through the school doors on what seemed like continuous "Mondays after"? 

As I've written before, as educators, "We have to again put on a brave face when many of us are still in the process of dealing with our own emotions, our own responses, and our own trauma." My mentor, colleague, and friend turned sister Tina R. Starks said it best: "There will always be a Monday after." So, how do teachers process yet another senseless killing of yet another Black man in America? Here are some thoughts.

Protect Your Mental Health and Encourage Students to Protect Theirs

I have seen several social media posts encouraging people to give themselves permission to NOT watch the video. I made that decision for myself, and I am going to encourage my students who might be hesitant to watch it to do the same. It is not avoidance or denial to choose to protect your peace over watching something you may not be able to unsee. You can still be outraged about the death of another Black man at the hands of law enforcement without watching the actual video. You can still be called to advocacy and activism by reading about a tragedy without having to figure out how to erase a triggering visual from one's mind. If students do choose or have chosen to watch it, teachers need to have avenues for them to be able to process the aftermath of that decision.

"Whether teachers and our students choose to watch the Tyre Nichols video or not, we cannot avoid its impact." You Don't Have to Watch the Tyre Nichols Video, But Be Ready to Talk About It. Click To Tweet

Provide Outlets for Students to Express Concerns and Ask Questions About the Tyre Nichols Video

While not every educator may have the bandwidth for something like an online forum for students to confidentially have a Safe Space and a Safe Place to vent their feelings, there are other ways we can help students. Schools should set up automatic and mandatory activation of extra counseling and mental health services for students on days like this upcoming Monday. Educational facilities need to have systems and practices in place to make sure that students know they have places to go beyond a few trusted adults to ask questions, express frustrations, and work through their traumas. These added services would not only encourage students to pursue these outlets but could potentially deter instances of outbursts or alterations that often are a result of pent-up anger or frustration stemming from unresolved trauma.

Emphasize the Unified Outrage Over Injustice

While I will not watch the video, the outrage over the latest injustice caught on video has been universal. We need to emphasize this to our students to assure them that this horrific act has been condemned by the masses. It has been refreshing to see the swift and aggressive "full-throated condemnation" of many leaders around my home state of California. Throughout the country, many have shared "widespread horror." The collective outrage has demonstrated shared grief, anger, and inevitable worry. 

I share grief for Tyre Nicols' family, who has to deal with the fact that millions will watch their family member die over and over again. I share anger at the fact that my students will once again have to figure out how to grapple with living in a world where these events are plastered on every news outlet, in every news feed, and on every social media platform. And I also share the worry with many mothers of Black sons. Together we fear for our children who have to grow up in a world where the chances of police violence increase exponentially because of the color of their skin. I will facilitate conversations with my students and be transparent about my own grief, anger and worry. While leaving space for their feelings and questions, I will acknowledge my own righteous outrage over these injustices. 

A "Network of Mutuality" Connects Tyre Nichols to Our Classrooms

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote famously in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly." 

The death of Tyre Nichols and the release of this horrendous video is another tragic incident that is a threat to the equal implementation of justice in America. From Rodney King to George Floyd to Tyre Nicols and so many others whose injustices have not been caught on camera, the "inseparable network of mutuality" puts teachers in a position where we must help our students navigate these trauma-inducing tragedies. 

Whether teachers and our students choose to watch the Tyre Nichols video or not, we cannot avoid its impact. Once again, we are on the front line when it comes to helping the youth of America. Teachers will continue to create space for students to process their emotions, share their reflections, and determine actions they want to take as a result of daily racist traumas.

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January 27, 2023 Child Development

"Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships

Nothing is more exciting than helping a child find their passion – but are the adults ready?

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In twenty years of helping children, families, and schools harness the power of interest-based mentoring, I’ve seen how it provides transformative educational experiences. Along the way, I’ve learned a lot about the nuts and bolts of building a successful program, which I’ll share in my final post.

But I’ve also learned, sometimes the hard way, that it’s critical to slow down and do a readiness assessment before jumping in. It’s one thing, after all, to talk about the power of mentoring; another to actually take responsibility for unleashing a young person into the community to learn with a non-teacher adult. 

So before we start putting up posters and recruiting young people into mentoring, it’s worthwhile asking ourselves a key ideological question: Are we – and our school communities – truly ready to let students lead their own out-of-school learning?

When I became assistant director of an interest-based mentorship program at a charter school in New Mexico, I was certain my answer to this question was a hard “yes.” But I was thrown for a loop when 14-year-old Rachel walked into my office and declared she knew exactly what she wanted to explore for her mentorship.

“I’m going to learn to fly,” she said.

I swallowed. “Any second options?”

Nope. Rachel was dead set on aviation and wanted to know how we could get her flying mentorship started.

I asked her to give me some time and checked in with the director and founder of the program, a visionary educator named Paquita Hernandez. I expected some coaching on how to guide Rachel to an alternative area of interest–one that did not entail a risk of, well, death.

“Aviation!” Paquita exclaimed. “Wonderful! Let’s call the local airport and see if we can find a flight instructor for her.”

When I asked about the risks, Paquita explained it to me this way: If the seasoned authorities who regulated flying were okay with adolescents in the cockpit, then why would a couple of educators who knew nothing about flying get in the way? So we called the airport, learned that Rachel was certainly old enough for lessons (though too young to earn her license), and with the full support of her parents, she was flying within a few weeks. At the end of the year, Rachel proudly shared a video of her and her instructor piloting a small plane thousands of feet above the New Mexican desert.

Nothing is more exciting than helping a child find their passion – but are the adults ready?"Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentoring Click To Tweet

For educators seeking to harness the power of interest-based mentoring, that image of a 14-year-old flying a plane offers a powerful ideological litmus test. We all say we want to help our students soar. But are we ready to literally let them fly?

In my case, it took me some time, and a few more conversations with Paquita, until I felt comfortable facilitating this mentorship. My own schooling experiences as a child had been absent of any sort of risk: a humdrum, safe procession from one classroom to the next, interrupted only by the rare field trip to a museum or other contained space. Unconsciously, I’d adopted the belief that an educator's job was to control the environment so that students avoid any sort of real-world danger. This belief had only been reinforced by professors in my teacher training courses, who were quick to share horror stories of teacher negligence and disregard for the sacred in loco parentis. Allowing Rachel to pursue a passion that was far out of my control was so foreign to my understanding of the profession that I had to unlearn what I understood a teacher to be. 

Slowly, I was able to make the shift. In facilitating these interest-based mentorships, my job was not to control student experiences but to help them arrive at these experiences. I was no longer the tour guide but the bus driver, dropping them off at the destination they chose and wishing them the best. Whereas before, I’d often found myself trying to appease some eager student with that old teacher adage —“wait till you’re older” — I learned now to say, like Paquita, “Let’s make this happen.”

In the years that followed, I would go on to set up young people in mentorships welding heavy machinery, building off-the-grid homes with chainsaws, blowing glass in thousand-degree flames, mountain biking in Moab, snowboarding, rock climbing, doing parkour, and trapezing. In every case, the parents signed off, the insurance company approved the activity, and the mentors, as part of their expertise, kept the young people safe.

To be clear, safety is not the only concern. Young people can get fixated on exploring fields that we, as adults, may not think are best for them, fields that do not match our own aspirations for them and their careers. If we’re dead set on Tommy becoming a doctor, how do we respond when he brushes aside any suggestion of a mentorship in medicine and instead pursues skateboarding or Manga art? What do we do when Andrea, a natural leader who claims she has designs on the presidency, announces her mentorship will be in astrology or pet grooming?

There are, of course, common sense limits to what an interest-based mentorship can be. For example, I’ve had to work carefully to help identify productive areas of exploration for more than one young person who insisted they had zero interest in anything other than playing video games or watching TV. But the underlying pedagogical approach for a successful interest-based mentorship program must be “Let’s make this happen,” even if it appears, to our adult eye, that time and talent are being lost.

After all, the deeper intent of an interest-based mentorship is not to help children get ready for a particular career, though that does happen. No, it is not preparation we are offering young people, but validation. Through these mentorships, we are giving children a real experience with what it means to be taken seriously, to have your voice heard and your dreams supported. We are giving them the opportunity to turn inward, identify what really matters to them, and bring that care and interest into the world. We are letting them learn to know themselves. This type of validation won’t be found in any state standards, but in a world that seems to be reinventing itself every generation, its value cannot be overstated.

Therein lies the true power of interest-based mentorships. As National Mentoring Month comes to a close, I encourage all educators to keep their eye on this prize, this view of mentoring as a pathway to self-knowledge. Because in the end, what bigger gift can we offer our students than the chance to let them fly?

This is the second of a three-part series for The Educators’ Room on interest-based mentoring programs. I’ll be sharing one more posts in the upcoming weeks with tips for helping educators launch their own simple, small interest-based mentoring programs. If you can’t wait till then, you can find some general resources about mentoring at mentoring.org, or feel free to reach out to me at sethbiderman@gmail.com–if the topic’s interest-based mentorships, I’ll always find a moment to share.

A graduate of Brown University (BA) and the University of New Mexico (MA and Ed.S), Seth Biderman is an experienced educator and school administrator. He has worked in public and independent schools in New York City; Cali, Colombia; Washington, DC; and Santa Fe, NM. He has also founded and directed out-of-school mentorship programs to connect young people with areas of personal passion. Most recently he was principal of the 7th and 8th grades and Arts, Languages and Movement program at the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School in DC. 

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January 26, 2023 Adult Learning

Want to Keep Special Education Teachers? Try Mentorship

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"[O]ne of the most vital ways we sustain ourselves is by building communities of resistance, places where we know we are not alone."

-bell hooks

Isolation island seems to be the name of the game when you enter into the special education profession. It's often a sink or swim mentality which results in teacher retention challenges and poor outcomes for students. 

With National Mentoring Month upon us, the Biden administration is pairing children with mentors who can help them navigate these complexities, open up doors of opportunity, and give them the additional support they may need to excel in school and in their communities. We must extend this discussion to the impact of mentoring on special education teachers and students who receive special education services. 

As a Teacher of the Deaf, I know the value of mentorship and coaching for special education teachers. Mentoring and coaching are critical components in the professional development of special education teachers. Research has shown that mentoring and coaching can positively impact teacher efficacy, job satisfaction, and student outcomes. Mentoring and coaching are also ways to build communities so that special education teachers aren't alone. 

Meaningful mentoring provided by an expert in a specialized area of the mentee can play a crucial role in supporting the growth and development of special education teachers. 

When I was in my first year of teaching at the high school level, supporting students who were deaf/blind, I was assigned a mentor. However, my mentor had limited knowledge in the area. While she was able to help me understand areas like district policy, she could not offer support in identifying evidence-based practices for my students. 

By year two of being a special education teacher, I knew I was going to quit if something didn't change. I was transferred from teaching at a high school to an elementary school and given a roster that a more seasoned teacher had created. My students had various abilities and dual eligibilities with limited support. I felt alone when I needed additional support because my peers were too busy with their own classrooms. Eventually, someone was "voluntold" to support me, but it was the same teacher who created my roster. 

I needed support to survive, so I began a Ph.D. program and started to build a community of fellow special education teachers of color. Through that process, I identified my mentor and found that I was more connected. I could utilize the network and my mentor as thought partners when I had challenges or wanted to implement something new. 

"Mentoring and coaching are essential for the professional development and retention of special education teachers." Want to Keep Special Educators? Try Mentorship Click To Tweet

I remember one time I was trying to figure out how to structure a classroom schedule that met my students' diverse needs. I had students who received minutes in a different classroom with an assigned paraprofessional. I wanted to make sure they didn't miss vital instruction from me. At the same time, I needed to set up small groups and 1:1 instruction while my paraprofessional was out of the classroom. One teacher in my network sent me her schedule and talked me through how she structured it. As a result, my confidence improved, and my students made gains. As a result, my confidence improved and my students made gains. Instead of quitting, I remained in the field for 8 years. Not only can effective mentoring increase outcomes for students, but it can also increase teacher retention within the special education field. Having mentorship and community increases the likelihood of special education teachers remaining in the field, which can help to address the shortage of special education teachers.

As a result of my experience and knowledge that there is a need for more coaching and mentorship for special education teachers, I created Coach In A Pocket coaching that includes community and mentorship. It is an app and web-based platform for special education teachers in development that includes community, group and 1:1 coaching options, and a resource library developed by special education teachers. It's an opportunity for special education teachers in diverse areas of special education to come together and receive coaching, mentorship, and commune to grow in practice. 

Mentoring and coaching are essential for the professional development and retention of special education teachers. Curating the space for meaningful and relevant coaching and mentoring positively impacts the teaching and learning outcomes for both special education teachers and students. Special education teachers – and their students – deserve effective mentoring. Amid poor outcomes for students who receive special education services and a growing shortage of special education teachers, we cannot afford to wait.

Felicia Rutledge, Ph.D., serves as a Regional Multi-Tiered System of Supports Coordinator at the University of Nevada, Reno, supporting educators with the implementation of tiered supports. She is a special education consultant and coach, a Teach Plus Nevada Senior Policy Fellow and a Nevada Succeeds InspirEd Global Fellowship Alumna. 

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January 25, 2023 Culturally Responsive Teaching

An Idaho teen who won his school board election has a message for educators

The Educator's Room Interviews Shiva Rajbhandari

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Less than a decade ago, the idea of students serving on school boards was the topic of debate in places like the Atlantic. Jacoba Urist, writing for the Atlantic in 2014, suggested that even if a student member was capable of sitting on a school board, “A single adolescent voice will likely be drowned out by adult members.”

Students across the nation began to seek school board representation anyway.

In 2013 after a massive student-led protest, students placed hundreds of desks across a street in LA in an effort just to get the school board to consider a student member. In a 5-1 vote, the LAUSD school board chose to pass the decision on to their superintendent.

Fast forward to 2022, and student leaders and advocates are still fighting for their right to decide how their education is shaped and by whom. 

But there has been a change. Of eligible districts in my state of California today, 64% have one or more student board members. But California is also the exception to the norm. Among the largest 495 eligible districts nationwide, the number of school boards with student members drops precipitously to only 14%. 

What you may not be aware of is that much of this change has been both grassroots and has been led by students themselves – students like Shiva Rajbhandari. In the fall of last year, just after his 18th birthday, Rajbhandari was sworn in as a full voting member of his school board in Boise, Idaho. Rajbhandari, a climate and gun-control activist, defeated the incumbent adult member endorsed by such groups as The Liberty Dogs. The Liberty Dogs claim to have been founded in response to the rise of Marxism and has promoted book bannings. Rajbhandari is not only the only person of color on his school board but also the first person of color to fill a seat. 

He wants you to know that his voice is never drowned out.

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Rajbhandari. What I learned isn’t just eye-opening. It’s also instructive for those of us who want to see more student representation coast to coast and beyond. If you know of a student leader interested in representing their student body, you may want to share with them what Rajbhandari shared with me.  

The Educator's Room: Shiva, what was the impetus for you to become a school board member in your district?

Shiva Rahbhandari: Actually, it started much earlier for me. In 2019, when I was in 9th grade, I attended a global climate strike in Boise, Idaho held by the Sunrise Movement. Prior to that, I had been struggling on my own with a desire to make a real climate-based change. But when I saw the 1500 students who turned out to support the Sunrise Movement for Climate Justice, I was inspired. I realized that concern could turn into action and that people working together had a lot of power when they worked together.

TER: But that wasn’t enough. 

SR: No. I was compelled by my desire to have climate change education at the fore of schools in my district and beyond. As part of the Idaho Climate Justice League, I helped with a postcard campaign for clean energy. It was huge, and even though the pandemic made things complicated, I began to see that the school district wasn’t taking our initiatives as seriously as they could. That was when I began to think about what student voice outside the classroom, on the school board, could be. I wanted to help foster a culture of empowerment. 

TER: You are the only person of color on your school board. Your opponent was endorsed by an extremist group but never disavowed it. What was it like to run for office in this environment?

SR: There were some things that appeared on Facebook and other places. There’s certainly a lack of understanding of the threat of extremism to our schools. What I cared about most were the issues in which I wanted to see real change. I ran on a platform of mental health, climate advocacy, and supporting teachers. I was able to make my voice heard about the policies that prohibit what students can learn.

TER: What do you feel is the most essential to let other students know?

SR: We did a lot of good. We have lots more to do. But what I think is essential to my story is that there are districts throughout the country right now where students feel as powerfully about issues as I do. Those students can seek election on their school board and fight for change too. There are so many ways to get involved. 

TER: Shiva, somebody reading this right now either is or knows a student in high school who feels like you do about one or more issues. That student may very well not see themselves or their schoolmates represented by their school board. They may, like you shared, feel as though their voice isn’t being heard either. What’s your advice to them?

SR: The truth is that when people say students are not qualified, it’s not the truth. Our voices do not just matter, but they have power. People in these positions are afraid of our voices, and they should be. Representation matters. Teachers and students must be unrelenting in our defense of schools and our communities. We can never back down from extremism, violence, and intimidation. If you’re a student and you’re thinking about representing your community, it’s up to you to make the change you want to see. We have the power when we work together!

If you or a student you know has the type of passion for representation that Rajbhandhari shared with me, here are some tips on how to get started.

"I want teachers to know that students appreciate them and all that they do. We can work together to make real change.” An Idaho teen who won his school board election has a message for educators Click To Tweet

Student School Board Basics

The basic requirement for student school board members is that they are high school students enrolled in their local high school within the district they wish to represent. According to the California School Board Association, student members are considered full members of the board, can receive all open-session materials, and, depending on bylaws, can perform many other functions such as: making motions, questioning witnesses, and attending trainings and conferences. Some are allowed by their school boards to vote, while others are still not. Nevertheless, student school board members like Rajbhandari can make real changes by serving on their school boards. 

A mechanism exists in most states to put a student in that seat, even if one does not exist currently. In order to find out what that mechanism is, begin by contacting your state school board association or contact the Student Board Member Association for your state of residence.

Let's Put More Shiva Rajbhandaris on School Boards

Many young people are not aware of the trends moving toward school boards incorporating student representation. Rajbhandari wants students considering taking that next step to become involved anyway. In California now, for example, the student body can petition the board of education for representation so long as there is a high school in the district. All that is needed is 500 signatures, or 10% of the student body. By law, school boards in California must now act timely to designate a school board student member. Not in California with me? Contact your local State Board of Education or County Board of Education office for more information on how to petition for student members on your district’s school board. Here’s a place to point you in the right direction.

Here at The Educator’s Room, we are teachers, instructional coaches, and school staff of all forms and functions. We are also advocates for the diverse communities of students and families we serve. Those diverse communities have the right to share their voice, and that voice must represent the most important individuals in the educational process themselves, our diverse community of students. 

Personally, talking to Rajbhandari made me reflect on the recent conversations I have had with former students who are now adults. These conversations could have and should have happened a lot earlier. It isn’t just that students can serve on school boards. Students should serve on our school boards.

If you do not have a voting student member on your school board, TER encourages you to write, speak to, or petition your school board to create a voting student position.

As Rajbhandari told us here at TER, “The message I’d most like to send to teachers is that you are appreciated, and we students know what you are doing and fighting for on our behalf. I want teachers to know that students appreciate them and all that they do. We can work together to make real change.”

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January 24, 2023 Equity

Moving Beyond Diversity to Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Lessons from a Sunday Sermon

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Black teachers are leaving education at an alarming rate. What can we do to address this? Recently I gleaned some ideas from a Sunday Sermon at my church.

Mary Stutts, Chief Global Health Equity and Inclusion Officer, author, and associate pastor at my home church, gave a powerful message on a recent Sunday. She began a sermon series on “What Heaven Looks Like.” This series uplifts the importance of increasing diversity in churches. Listening to her compare the need for diversity in the church to her work in helping companies and organizations diversify their workforce automatically made my mind go to the lack of diversity in the U.S. education system.

There has been so much talk about increasing diversity in the teacher workforce. While there is still much work to do to diversify the corporate world, the education system can adopt a few principles and strategies from the corporate world. The ways they approach diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are ones the world of education should pay close attention to. Solutions to address the lack of teacher diversity need to go beyond higher pay or signing bonuses established to temporarily attract people into the profession. Once they enter teaching, how can we keep them in education? As Pastor Stutts explained, this requires us to move our attention beyond diversity toward equity, inclusion, and belonging. 

Policies and Programs for Retention of Teachers

According to The Education Trust, “to increase the racial diversity of the educator workforce, states must create the right policy conditions to support educator preparation programs, districts, and schools in their efforts to prepare, recruit and retain teachers of color.” These are some of the same principles Pastor Stutts referred to in her sermon. However, she argued that diversity is not enough. In fact, she has dropped diversity from her title to emphasize the focus of her work on equity and inclusion. What would happen if the “powers that be” in education did the same? To move beyond trying to figure out ways to solely recruit teachers of color to also focusing on how to retain them once they enter the profession? Would this concept help to stall the mass exodus of teachers of color? 

What Does it Mean to Move Beyond Diversity?

In her sermon, Pastor Stutts explained that recruiting diverse people is just the beginning of the work.

“So here is the learning. You’re not done when you’ve recruited a diverse congregation [or] workforce. These are the things we teach the companies. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. So here’s the thing. What is happening to those people after they join? After they are hired, what is the experience that they are getting there? People…are searching for that inclusion, that validation.”

As a Black teacher, I can personally speak to the never-ending feeling of “otherness.” No amount of pedestals one is placed on, not even multiple teaching awards, can truly ever erase this seemingly constant state of not quite being totally included. Teachers of color deserve to be part of our school communities as well as decision-making processes and to feel validated as more than checking a diversity box. The desire to feel included or validated does not disappear for veteran educators. Everyone wants to feel acknowledged, seen, heard, accepted, and welcomed, no matter how seasoned of an educator they are. The desire for inclusion makes one feel like they not only have a seat at the table but that they are wanted and needed at that table. This is what makes one want to stay at the table.

"Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance. Belonging is wanting to stay at the party." Moving Beyond Diversity to Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Lessons from a Sunday Sermon Click To Tweet

Inclusion is Directly Related to Teacher Retention

Pastor Stutts continues the move beyond diversity to inclusion. This inclusion is imperative for teacher retention. 

“The term inclusion has evolved as the goal. It is one thing to have a diverse organization but is it inclusive? Anybody can hire a diverse person. I’m trying to help you keep them! I’m trying to help you understand about including them in making sure they are getting equitable treatment.”

Pastor Stutts’ work in corporations and organizations is one we could only wish the American education system would look to for guidance. We need to not only increase the teacher workforce and diversity but also, more importantly, learn how to retain teachers of color. The Post-Pandemic Teacher Exodus is going to grow exponentially if America does not first learn to value its current educators of color. Additionally, once one enters this profession, America needs to make sure that teacher experience and expertise are seen for the immeasurable value they hold. Retention begins by creating a sense of inclusion that validates the experts among us. One way to do this is to ask Black teachers for input on more than just ideas for Black History Month or ways to combat racism at schools. Include teachers of color in leadership positions such as instructional leadership teams, school site councils, or as staff representatives at school board or city council meetings. Seek our BIPOC teachers out and let them know their voices are needed and wanted in all spaces. 

Once We Hire Them, Now What?

The most powerful and impactful quote I gleaned from Pastor Stutts was the following: “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance. Belonging is wanting to stay at the party. Creating a sense of belonging is a major focus.”  

Once teachers of color are hired do they feel included? Do they feel like they have a voice? Does anyone ever ask them how they feel about the staff or school climate? Do they feel like they feel a sense of belonging? We can invite BIPOC teachers and even ask for their input. But their ideas need to be affirmed, adopted, and implemented. Only then will the sense of belonging be complete. This could be something as simple as ensuring that all cultural and religious holidays are acknowledged in daily or weekly announcements, or even more, having the teachers share their own cultural or religious traditions with the school community. When teachers of color see their voices are truly impactful, then they’ll want to stay in education.

Pastor Stutts’ sermon calls us to move beyond solely focusing on diversity and implement actionable solutions to retain current teachers of color. Conversations about a sustainable racially diverse teacher workforce should not only focus on diversity. It is time to discuss retention strategies that include equity, inclusion, and a true sense of belonging.

Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this article, please become a Patreon supporter by clicking here.

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