Lindsay Lyons
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3/20/2023

107. High School Students Take Over the Pod!

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Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
  • ​Apple podcasts​
  • ​Google podcasts​
  • ​Spotify​
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About 30 high school students at the 6th Annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit hosted by MIAA/MSAA created their own podcasts during a one-hour breakout session. This episode showcases their voices.

Student Groups Discuss…

Gentrification 

Creating Inclusive Sports Communities

Unified Sports Programs 

“True Intentions” 

Misconceptions of Teenagers

Gendered Issues at School (and Student Activism)

Racism at School 

“Accepting” Others (with a focus on LGBTQ athletes)

Perspective

Lack of Representation in School 


Note: These topics are in order of how they appear in this podcast episode.  


Stay Connected

You can follow the MIAA and MSAA organizations, which put on this event on Twitter. You can also listen to the podcast of one of these brilliant students (she was in the last segment), The Shy Girl Speaks.
​

To help you bring podcasting to your students, I’m sharing my slide deck from the conference breakout session with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 107 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 


Quotes: 
  • “If you’re not going to let us [say the word ‘period’]…We’re going to hang up the posters anyways…at the end of the day, you know whether something is appropriate or not and saying the words ‘period’ and ‘menstruation’ aren’t inappropriate words.” 
  • “The only way to understand a certain topic fully is by understanding different perspectives on that topic.” 
  • “I think the issue is that you can tolerate so much of this hatred that is going to these students who aren’t white, but the second that it comes to students who are white, it’s a huge deal…You’re so afraid to make this one specific group of people uncomfortable, that you make everyone else uncomfortable.” 
  • “I am the only brown student in my…class…It is uncomfortable because then when you feel when you want to say something you can’t because it’s this fear that everyone’s going to see you as a bad person or you’re sensitive or you can’t take a joke…”
​
Click here to see the "Let's Make A Podcast" Slides
Interested in making a student podcast your summative assessment as a civic action project? Check out this new video where I share the top takeaways from DESE's 80-page document on the Civic Project requirements...in just 5 minutes:

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3/13/2023

106. MINDSET: Coaching Intensives vs. Workshops

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  • ​Apple podcasts​
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  • ​Spotify​
  • ​Stitcher

The term “coaching intensive” is uncommon in the educational professional development space. So, in this episode, I’m sharing what it is, why it’s better than standard workshops, and how you can implement intensives in your school or district.   

What is an intensive?
An intensive is the name I use for any full day workshop that is hyper-focused on creating a usable product by the end of the day(s). It’s kind of like a “design sprint,” which is a term used in the tech world. It’s different from your typical workshop because there’s less talking at you and more building with you. And there's a finished ready-to-use product at the end!   



Why intensives?

Reality: We often don’t implement PD because it requires additional time within our typical work day, which we typically don’t have. 

Brain Science: We lose hours switching tasks. We want to create the space for teachers to get into the task and a productive and joyful state of flow. 

Practical: Intensives make changes in practice more likely to be implemented! 

How?

Make space for it. Set aside a whole day for teacher teams to work on an intensive task together. This requires creative allocation of funds (e.g., for substitutes). You may want to use your existing Professional Development days for this purpose. Get creative with ways to make this possible. (More ideas in the episode!) 
 
Specify what you’re creating. By the end of the intensive, what will participants have created? Consider what tasks are the highest leverage creation tasks. My top choices are: a shared protocol bank and unit arc, priority standards and a department-wide rubric, driving questions and projects for units, and lesson-level unit creation. 

Develop the process. Refine as you go and get feedback. Tip: Invite an enthusiastic team to try it out first and give you honest feedback. Then, refine the process based on teams’ feedback. You can reuse the task-specific process with all teams, each year (or each time they will need to create a similar product). For example, my Curriculum Boot Camp program has a clear step-by-step process for creating a new unit. Bonus: Once a team has gone through the process for one unit, the next unit is much faster to design. 

Final Tips 
If it’s impossible to do a full day, treat each week’s team time as one hour of a 5-hour intensive. If you do this, make sure the team has nothing else but the focus task to work on for 5 weeks in a row. It would also be helpful to create an online training course with videos and templates that gives teams the most essential need-to-know information and support in bite-sized pieces so they can continue to create each week. (Taking my own advice, I recently re-designed my self-paced Curriculum Boot Camp online course for department teams to be able to use it in this way!) 

If you are hiring an external consultant, co-create or clarify with the facilitator what the ready-to-implement products participants will create by the end of the time with them. 

Want to facilitate an intensive for your staff and need an agenda template? Get my Intensive Agenda Template here.

If you’re stuck on how to make the time for intensives, grab my Make Time Quick Guide for Leaders. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 106 the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 


Quotes: 
  • “As you walk away from this intensive, you’re ready to put something into practice like the next day.” 
  • “In a typical PD [workshop]...Many times, if we’re not creating in the session itself, we don’t actually implement what we learned even if we learned awesome things.”
  • “An intensive creates the space, creates the container, for a focused time…where you can enable educators to get into a state of flow, so something that may have taken…40 hours to do is now possible in maybe 10 hours.” ​
​​
Stuck on figuring out how to make time for your intensives?
Get the Make Time Quick Guide For Leaders Here
Eager to hear more about unit design and planning for success? Check this out below:

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3/6/2023

105. Genius, Justice, and Joy with Dr. Gholnecsar Muhammad

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​Dr. Gholnecsar Muhammad has held many roles in education from teacher to curriculum director to school board president to associate professor. She studies Black historical excellence in education, intending to reframe curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Muhammad’s books Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy and Unearthing Joy are two of my favorite educational books of all time. 

In this episode, we talk about her latest book, Unearthing Joy! 

The Big Dream 

Our children, teachers, and communities deserve genius, justice, and joy. 

Defining Joy 

It’s more than happiness and parties. In studying what joy was for the ancestors: Happiness is more immediate. Joy is long-term, it’s sustainable. Joy is what you have when adversity continues to strike and you retain your happiness. The ancestors define joy as wellness, as healing, as abolition, as working toward a better humanity for all. Joy is the beauty, the aesthetics we recognize within ourselves and within humanity. It’s centering love and music and art in our learning experiences and our childrens’ voices. Joy is doing things as a collective. It is wide. 

There’s a beautiful relationship between justice and joy. Joy offers solutions and hope. We don’t get to joy if there’s no justice.

Creating a culture of joy is anywhere from the way we greet students and what’s on the walls and the room’s colors, but it’s also how we make it a prominent goal, almost like a learning standard, in our curriculum and instruction. 


Teacher as Artist

We are artists! We create from the world around us just like any other artist. We read the word, the world, and we create. Our art is our curriculum.  

I worked with Bisa Butler and saw how she creates. I watch my husband create music. I do the same things when I write curriculum! 

I get inspiration from everything. Even silly Netflix shows! 

I ask myself: What issues are most urgent to be taught right now? Out of all of the things, what must I teach? Sometimes I start with a text I read. Sometimes a learning standard. Sometimes a theme or concept. I try to create and design around our social times and what our children need today. 

A metaphor for cultivating teachers’ curricular fluency: fashion designer! 

We have to believe in the genius of our teachers. They’re not often given the time to do the work. Sometimes I’ll just share the model and give teachers 20 minutes to go into groups and create. The work that comes out of that is exhilarating! What I learned from that is teachers need time and space and each other to do this work. There’s joy, energy, and transformation when we collaborate. These spaces create possibilities and we hold one another accountable for teaching criticality, multiple identities, and justice. 

We need to give teachers more time. We still do education like we did in 1638 in this country. The way we schedule, train, prepare, and teach. It’s time for an overhaul. 

 
On Resistance 

We want to be excellent, we don’t want to be okay or basic. In response to resistance, I always respond with love. For the most part, people are against this work because they don’t know or they’re afraid.  

This is not new work. Black Americasn have been doing this work since the 1800s. We have to build our capacity. Get uncomfortable. Lose our egos. Stop being so mean. 

Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz says this requires an archeological dig of the self. It starts with critical love and critical humility. Step back and listen, learn, and heal. 

We shouldn’t hire educators who don’t have a record of anti-racism. Hire people who are ready and prepared or at least willing to do this work. Then we don’t have to keep fighting folx who don’t want humanizing practices.    


One Step to Get Started 

Don’t just wait for something to pop up on the news. Do your work. Read. Be a scholar of education. Engage with multimodal texts (like podcasts!) and don’t rely on just one person for information. Also, use multimodal texts with students. 

For a joyful experience, dig into Unearthing Joy. There are songs, artwork, poetry, and coloring book pages.  


Stay Connected

You can find this week’s guest on @GholdyM on Twitter and Instagram. 



To help you start building your curriculum designing capacity, I’m sharing my Curriculum Boot Camp Planner with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 105 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  •  “[The ancestors] define joy as wellness, as healing, as abolition, as working toward a better humanity for all…the beauty…we were able to learn and recognize within ourselves and within humanity…love and music and art in our learning experiences…childrens’ voice…”

  • “We don’t get to joy if there’s no justice.”  

  • “We are artists! We create from the world around us...We read the word. We read the world, and we create. Our art is our curriculum…” 

  • “I ask myself: What issues are most urgent to be taught right now? Out of all of the things in the world, what must I teach? I really start with that question.” 
​
  • “I try to create and design around our social times and what our children need today.” 
 
  • “We want to be excellent, we don’t want to be okay or basic.” 
 
  • “I’m also pushing that we don’t hire folx that don’t have a record of anti-racism. We want to hire people who are ready and prepared or at least willing to do this work. So we don’t have to keep fighting folx who don’t want humanizing practices.”
​​
CBC Planner
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I do things like walk you through how I approach student-centered, culturally sustaining unit design.  

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2/27/2023

104. MINDSET: “DEI” and Curriculum Cannot Be Separate

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​​​Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
  • ​Apple podcasts​
  • ​Google podcasts​
  • ​Spotify​
  • ​Stitcher

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is often siloed as something separate from the day-to-day curriculum and instruction that occurs in schools. This doesn’t work. Curriculum needs to be designed with justice and belonging at the core.  

Why?

DEI is too often siloed from curriculum and instruction. It must be embedded in our curriculum work to be sustainable and make lasting change. Too often I see educators using the “add  diversity and stir” approach (to go off of Sandra Harding’s “add women and stir” critique from the 1990’s.  


Here are 3 ways to bridge the current gap between “DEI” work and curriculum design…
 
Develop a pedagogy of student voice. Dugan and Safir talk about this in their amazing book, Street Data. They write, “Equity work is first and foremost pedagogical” (p. 4). They explain student agency is critical to healing from and transforming oppression, and they cite research that shows agency is one of the most significant factors in restoring well-being for marginalized groups (p. 104). I share an overview of their 6 “rules” in the episode, but I’ll highlight one key point  here: learners should be engaged in conversation with their peers a minimum of 75% of each class time. This should be a district-wide “look for.” To help make this a reality, we can help each team define and refine the highest-leverage discussion-based protocols they use.    

Design Driving Questions and Projects That Advance Justice. Our unit questions (or driving questions) and summative assessments should have a purpose beyond the grade and an audience beyond the teacher. To make sure students are interested in the topic or project, co-create the projects with students. Invite students to creatively apply what they learn in class to actually advance justice in their communities. 

Curate Resources and Content that Affirms Students’ Identities. In doing this, make sure students’ multiple, intersecting identities, experiences, aspirations, and (hi)stories are reflected and affirmed. We want to avoid treating demographic categories as monolithic, and represent various intersections with depth—beyond a “single story” (Ngozi Adichie). We can also invite students and families to share resources or their own expertise as part of the curriculum. Note: this should be an invitation, not an expectation. We don’t want to put our work on our students or their families.    

Final Tips

Curriculum Directors or Assistant Superintendents of Curriculum and Instruction, partner with your DEI counterparts (e.g., Assistant Superintendent of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). Share funding sources, and co-plan professional learning experiences. 

Don’t separate the DEI Task Force and Curriculum Committee meetings. Every committee should be a DEI committee. At the bare minimum, if it must be separate, each committee—including the Curriculum Committee—should have a member on the DEI committee. 

Remember: Sustainable, embedded approaches to what we do (i.e., curriculum and instruction) will go so much further in advancing educational equity than one-off initiatives. 


If you’re ready to audit your curriculum for justice, sign up for a complementary Curriculum Audit from me or choose to DIY it with my mini course. If you’re interested in the book, Street Data, you can get it here. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 104 the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  • “DEI and curriculum…are often siloed…Curriculum must be designed with justice at the core. With belonging at the core, with educational equity at the core. It cannot be separated if it wants to be sustainable and actually advance justice in a meaningful way.” 
  • “We have seen…this siloing of DEI from the bread and butter of what we do—which is curriculum and instruction—as educational institutions just not get anywhere, not make actual changes.”   
  • “We can’t just ‘add diversity and stir.’ We can’t just sprinkle in a couple of texts from a few authors who are racialized as Black and Brown and call it a day. That doesn’t advance justice.”
Head to my home page for a free curriculum audit
Want to learn more about justice based curricula? Watch this video below:

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2/20/2023

103. Starting a Confidence Movement with Namita Prasad

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Namita Prasad is a confidence educator. When times were tough in her life she has had to rely on the “why not” or “Confident Mindset” approach that her father instilled in her as a child. She and her team created a school program so that all children understand how to become confident. Today, we talk about her approach to teaching confidence! 

The Big Dream 

Educators and caretakers will believe and adopt the approach that, “No one is born confident, but anyone can become confident.” She’s excited for this dream to turn into a reality within a few years! 

Namita found confidence means different things to different people. So, she and her team define confidence as: A feeling that you don’t start out with. You get the feeling after actions of practice. 

Alignment to the 4 Stages: Mindset, Pedagogy, Assessment, and Content

A culture of relationship-building is a good foundation for this work. Namita suggests a quick, powerful practice called the One-Word Check-In. Adults can ask each child as they enter the school or class or home how they feel in one word. Additionally, the culture should foster 3 pillars: courage, character, and commitment. 

Student voice is a major part of Namita’s ACM (A Confident Mindset) Program. In the program, students self-evaluate and tell adults their strengths, areas for growth, and fears. They develop their action plan and create their own Circle of Confidence (in step 6), which includes identifying people who are their “rocks” and “champions” and asking if each of those people are willing to be part of their Circle of Confidence.     

ACM’s 6 Steps: 
  1. Believe in Yourself 
  2. Face Your Fears
  3. Be Good to Yourself 
  4. Be Good to Others
  5. Practice
  6. Get Better through Feedback

Namita’s tip for giving feedback: In 2 minutes:
  • Address the child by name
  • Share one glow and one grow
  • Help the child identify a person who can help (have students identify areas they can help others and put this information on the wall, so you can reference it here) 
  • End with a one-word check-in 
 
Namita believes A Confident Mindset is critical for us to be able to face the challenging realities of the world. She says it’s most effective when we all take this approach as adults and children in all areas of our lives.  

Challenges

Adults often put lots of pressure on ourselves and think we can’t help children be confident if we are not confident ourselves. That’s not required! We can learn with our children. 

Another challenge is thinking we are too busy to do this work, but it’s actually a one-time “forever change,” in our mindset that we can keep practicing in all the things we regularly do. 


One Step to Get Started 

Ask yourself: What is YOUR “Why not?” 

Then, go practice! Remember: Mindset comes before skill set. First, have a confident mindset or a mindset that’s positive and then try to learn a skill set. 


Stay Connected

You can find this week’s guest on her website and Facebook. 


To help you implement A Confident Mindset, Namita is sharing tons of free resources with you. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 103 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  • “This is not an extracurricular activity. This is part of who you are, the essence of the school, the fabric of the school.” 
  • “Believe in yourself, have the courage, have the character, and have the commitment, and you can make a school-wide change, a classroom change, and hopefully a personal change.”  
  • “Let’s unlock your unmet potential by discovering your ‘Why not?’” ​
Namita's Page of Free Resources
If you enjoyed this episode, you may also want to check out this video on student voice in decision making:

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2/13/2023

102. CASE STUDY: Math + ELA + History Interdisciplinary Unit Idea

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​​​Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
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I love the idea of inviting listeners and readers to share an idea for an interdisciplinary unit idea. If you’re interested in sharing a topic, question, or resource you want to develop a unit around or coach teachers to develop a unit around, let me know in the comments below or reach out via email. This episode is a glimpse into my own brain’s process of taking a unit idea from a text I heard (and loved) to a full unit outline.   

Why support the design of interdisciplinary units?  

From the research (and from practice), we know interdisciplinary units deepen understanding and nurtures students’ creative genius. Interdisciplinary unit questions and projects enable students to make connections and innovative applications relevant to their lives. This means learners are more engaged than in a siloed curriculum. Finally, it presents a wider range of options for students to advance justice in different areas and supports what Westheimer and Kahne call “justice-oriented citizenship.”  


Inspiration to Interdisciplinary Unit Outline: What is the process? 

Note: For context, I’m envisioning a Math, ELA, and Social Studies interdisciplinary unit, so I’ll brainstorm with those content areas in mind. 

Step 1: Inspiration. I was inspired by a poem by 2018 MacArthur Fellow, Natalie Diaz, called, “American Arithmetic.”

Step 2: Brainstorm Initial Connections to Subjects. ELA: Literary choices and connections to lived experience and emotion. Social Studies: Histories and present day perspectives of indigenous people, the origins of the concept of race, and systems of governance and equitable representation. Math: Students’ experiences of math. 

Step 3: Essential Question. This is a year-long question that is relevant in all of a year’s units, even each lesson can connect to the EQ. Possible EQ: Is math more likely to mask injustice or make it visible?  In a math class, we can visibility to statistics, geometry (e.g., gerrymandering), algebra (e.g., intersectionality). 

Step 4: Driving Question. This is a unit-specific question. In an interdisciplinary unit, this is  used in all classes. Possible Question: What is the most powerful strategy to advance justice for indigenous peoples: math, language/poetry, or history? This enables students to create an argument for the subject area they most gravitate toward. 

Step 5: Project Idea. The project is the way students can answer/address the DQ. Possible idea: Performance poetry with math visuals in background. (I’m thinking something similar to how Hasan Minaj used visual graphs and images to do political commentary on his show, Patriot Act. 

Step 6: Lesson-Specific Activities or “Texts.” I aim for one “text” (resource) and one protocol (activity) per lesson. Possible text ideas: clips from Hasan Minaj’s show Patriot Act (use for project medium inspiration); Dr. John Littlewolf’s poem (he read this on episode 34 of the podcast); research on the longstanding injustice of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls; and Native-Land.Ca to have students research the land their community occupies.   


Final Tip

Coach each teacher to develop a student-centered unit arc first. This will make it much easier to create new curriculum and build interdisciplinary units. 

  • Freebie: actually an invitation to submit a topic/resource/question you want help with re: creating a justice-centered unit AND I might feature it on an episode (or invite you on!) 


In lieu of a free resource, I’m inviting you to share a topic, resource, or question that you want to think through. Share your idea or question in the comments below. I might feature it on an episode (or invite you on, if that’s your jam!) And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 104 the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  • “I would love to be able to invite listeners…to share…here’s the question or topic or resource that I’m interested in developing a unit around or coaching a teacher to develop a unit around…do an episode on this or bring me on and coach me through it.” 
  • “This episode is going to be around the design of a unit that is based on a resource that I came across and thought ‘hey, this would be a super cool unit for someone to do,’…I’m just kind of brainstorming…as I…highlight the process of…unit creation.”   
  • “This really deepens students’ understanding and it nurtures creative genius in students. When we ask students to do…creation-based projects that really ask them to synthesize a multitude of content areas, this is gold.” ​
Click here to share an idea for a unit
Want to continue learning more about curriculum development and implementation? Watch this video on how to develop district curriculum that challenges, affirms, and inspires:

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2/6/2023

101. Teaching History for Justice with Dr. Kaylene Stevens and Dr. Christopher Martell

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Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
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Former social studies teachers, current university professors, and co-authors of the book "Teaching History for Justice: Centering Activism in Students' Study of the Past,” Dr. Kaylene Stevens and Dr. Christopher Martell talk about how and why we need to teach justice, activism, and movement building in schools. They jump right into the conversation by giving credit to all of the teachers they’ve researched and learned with. I absolutely loved their book, so it’s no surprise I also loved this conversation.  

The Big Dream 

The values of our country will change if we teach for justice! Survey data shows that the majority of people in power in the United States think everything’s okay (i.e., race, gender, and class-based oppression are not issues.) Most teachers are still white despite most students being students of color, so there’s hope that white teachers can be activists and antiracists. 


Alignment to the 4 Stages: Mindset, Pedagogy, Assessment, and Content

Mindset is foundational for all of the other stages. Each of the stages are like buckets. The book is intended to be practical, offering a “how” to teach for justice, which is often overlooked in academia. Kaylene encouraged educators to think deeply about the content addressing justice and joy. Chris pointed out these 4 buckets can be done in an anti-oppressive way or an oppressive way. So, educators can be self-reflective and thoughtful about our positionalities. Their framework also supports a problem-solving pedagogy (Freire). 

Given oppressive laws and book-banning, it’s important to know the context in which you work and identify allies to do this work collectively. We can start local! We want to teach our students to be activists, but we don’t necessarily need to tell them what to care about. It’s about teaching students to use the levers of democracy to make changes. Teachers can be renegades (Agarwal-Rangnath) or subversives depending on the context and limitations of your state’s legislation. Teaching is a political act. It doesn’t need to be partisan. We do this for the students!


Action Steps 

Step 1: Communicate with families and caretakers. If families are concerned, listen to those individuals. After a conversation, families often realize   

Step 2: Create or join a community of educators/learners. Reach out to others who are doing this work. Listen to BIPOC teachers. Pick one text a year on a topic that you don’t know a lot about. Get students out in the community (e.g., field trips, invite community members into class as guests, family/community interviews). Research shows one of the biggest ways to combat “-isms” is exposure.   

Step 3: Trust students. Students can use the tools of doing historian work to make the world a better place. We should try to get schools to look more like life than machines. We need to be comfortable with students wanting to change our society’s systems. We can invite debate-oriented pedagogy and give students a chance to bring their own opinions into the class. 


One Step (or Two) to Get Started 

Figure out where you are and go from there. Read one of the recommended books below! 

Think about the complexity of our social identities (and the intersectionality of these identities) as we plan curriculum and do this work. 

Stay Connected

You can find this week’s guests on the following platforms: 

Dr. Kaylene Stevens: 
  • Email: kaylenes@bu.edu 
  • Twitter: @kaylenestevens

Dr. Christopher Martell: 
  • E-mail christopher.martell@umb.edu
  • Twitter @chriscmartell
  • Mastodon: @chriscmartell@mastodon.social


Referenced Links and Recommended Readings:

Teaching History for Justice book 
Racial Literacies and Social Studies book
Critical Race Theory and Social Studies Futures book
Intersectionality Matters podcast
Visions of Education podcast episode with Dr. Kaylene Stevens
Bettina Love website  


To help you implement teaching for justice, I’m sharing my _____ with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 101 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. 

Quotes: 
  • “We want to teach our students to be activists, but we don’t necessarily need to tell them what to care about…It’s about teaching students to use the levers of democracy to make changes.”
  • “We trust students. We need to give them more credit...We want them to do history because then they can use that as a tool when they’re making the world a place they want the world to be.”  
  • “Your classroom should mimic movement building. In movements, there’s not one voice that’s dominant. In movements, you listen to the other people who are forming the movement with you. And that’s what I really hope classrooms are like”

Curriculum Boot Camp Planner
Want to continue learning more about teaching history for justice? Watch this video on culturally responsive and sustaining education:

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1/30/2023

100. My Favorite Moments from the Past 100 Episodes

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​We did it! 100 episodes later, the Time for Teachership Podcast is still here and stronger than ever. Thank you to all my listeners, all who are new to this community and all who have been here since day one. In this blog post, I will be sharing all the links that connect to the references I made in episode 100. Enjoy!

Here are my top episode recommendations by category!

Episodes on a Culture of Coaching
Ep 1: Creating a Culture of Coaching with Romain Bertrand
Related Mindsets...
  • Ep 4: Learning as Leading
  • Ep 10: What is Teachership
"How To" episodes on this...
  • Ep 2: Getting Started with Personalized PD
  • Ep 29: Instructional Coaching with the GROW Model
  • Ep 31: Co-creating Observation Look Fors

Episodes on Mindset Shifts around Historically Marginalized Students
  • Ep 5: Shifting from Assimilationism to a Multilingual Habitus with Kholood Qumei
  • Ep 83: Inclusion as a Process with Kevin Schaefer

Episodes on Discourse
  • Ep 45: Safety is at the Core of Discourse with Dr. Cherie Bridges Patrick (This episode is a must listen if you’re questioning if/how to talk about current events, race, or injustice at school)
  • Ep 6 Pushing Back Against “Teacher Neutrality” 
  • Ep 16 How do we talk about the attack on the Capitol with white students?
  • Ep 13: Talking to Young Kids About Racial and Social Justice with April Brown
  • ​Ep 25: Building a Flexible Curriculum That Regularly Embeds Current Events
  • Ep 35: How to Teach for Justice When the Facts Don't Seem to Matter
  • Ep 90: Designing a Unit Around the Dobbs v Jackson Decision

Episodes on Shared Leadership in Action
  • Ep 32: Inclusive Campus Leadership Teams with Taryn Givan
  • Ep 43: Creating Structures for All Stakeholder Voices with Darcy Fernandes
"How To" Episodes...
  • Ep 55: LfJ Series: Inclusive Data Streams: How Do Our Students Experience School?
  • Ep 56: LfJ Series: A Justice Centered Process for Justice Centered Policies:  How to Create Shared Governance Structures
Also Related...
  • Ep 57: LfJ Series: Normalizing Critical Reflection: An Adaptive Leadership Approach to Data Analysis
  • Ep 8: How to Do a Root Cause Analysis

Episodes on Curriculum and Lesson Planning
  • Ep 79: How to Use the Work Less Teach More Planner
  • Ep 38: Curriculum Series 2: Developing a Course-Long Rubric
  • Ep 40: Curriculum Series 4: Crafting a Compelling Driving Question
  • Ep 41: Curriculum Series 5: Establishing Reusable Unit Arc

Episodes on Curriculum in Action
  • Ep 24: Using Music to Teach for Justice with Christopher Schroeder
  • Ep 27: Developing Students' Criticality with my Media Critique Project
  • Ep 42: Who Tells Your Story?
​Related...
  • Ep 68: Hyperpredictable Classroom Routines with Mitch Weathers 

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Episodes That Will Make You Feel All the Feels
  • Ep 34: Teaching Poetry? Take Away the Rules with John Littlewolf
  • Ep 66: Be Fearless and Teach With FIRE with Mark Taylor
  • Ep 76: Human-First "Withness" with Jaz Ampaw-Farr
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​
Episodes from the Students
  • Ep 52: Listen to the Students with Rachel Tugutu and Eliel Koudognon
  • Ep 59: School That is Fun and Interesting with Choices and Freedom with Guille, Eden and Nico from LearnLife Nature Hub
  • Ep 71: Genuinely Valuable Members of an Intergenerational Learning Community with Skylar, Rhys, Amelia and Sam from Springhouse

Episodes Featuring Bold Visions
  • Ep 58: Vitality Centered Education with Dr. Jenny Finn
  • Ep 74: Education is the Front Line of the Civil Rights Movement with Sean Priest
  • Ep 80: "Think About What Kind of School You Really Want" with Dr. Kevin Ahern
  • Ep 81: "We Have an Education Debt" with Abbie Korman

"How They Did It" Episodes On Leading District-Wide Curriculum Change
  • Ep 89: Five Components of Real Buy-In with Dr. Samuel D. Nix
  • Ep 93: Transforming Curriculum in 3 Years Through a Culture of Coaching and Joy with Chris Chappotin and Alisen Adcock
  • Ep 95: How to Facilitate District-Wide Teacher-Led Curriculum Development with Dr. Steven Weber
  • Ep 97: Developing a Short List of High-Yield Instructional Strategies with Dr. Edward Small 

Click here to watch my workshop on building and sustaining a culture of belonging
Did you know I have a YouTube Channel? Dive deeper with teacher PD by watching this video below:

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1/23/2023

99. Building Skills and Stakeholder Capacity with Dr. Erik Youngman

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​​Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
  • ​Apple podcasts​
  • ​Google podcasts​
  • ​Spotify​
  • ​Stitcher


​How are we effectively educating students through a lens of equity and inclusion? 
And how are we preparing students for a future filled with unpredictability?
These are two of the questions that framed our recent conversation with Dr. Erik Youngman on episode 99 of The Time for Teachership podcast. As an educator, a father, and an author, Dr. Youngman draws from years of diverse experience to pinpoint some of the important goals and directions for educators today. 
We covered a lot in this interview, so make sure you have a listen. Here are some of Dr. Youngman’s key insights that educators should take note of. 

Preparing Students for an Unknown Future
Dr. Youngman’s big dream for education is to see all students develop important life skills. He names a few of them: kindness, curiosity, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and continuous learning. 
Why these skills? Two reasons: 
  • They can be developed at any grade level and through various disciplines in a school setting.
  • They provide students with the necessary abilities to face an uncertain world after graduation.
The pandemic showed us that the future is uncertain. Just think about a concept like remote work becoming normalized in a short period of time—no one predicted that. So, are we preparing students to face those changes and challenges that are inevitable to come? 
By focusing on skill development like critical thinking and problem-solving—through disciplines of social studies, math, science, and everything in between—students are better equipped for their futures. 

Bringing Equity to the Classroom
There are two equity lenses that are important in the classroom. Dr. Youngman discussed equity of learning opportunity and justice and equity-focused curriculum. 
The first, equity of learning opportunities, is related to strategic decision-making, grading practices, and curriculum delivery. The key question here is: Are all students equally able to learn, contribute, and have a voice? 
Consider the difference between a talkative student who always speaks up in front of class and one who doesn’t—do they both have equal voice? Centering student voice is essential to effective education, so think through how you are providing equal opportunities for all. 
The second discussion on equity relates to championing justice and equity in the classroom. Dr. Youngman emphasized the importance of defining and using terms correctly and not simply throwing “equity” around as a buzzword. 
Instead, it revolves around the concept of empathetic understanding to create belonging. It’s about ensuring all voices are heard. And it’s about asking the question: who’s story is being told through the content that’s being taught. 

Effective Planning and Grading
​
To grade or not to grade—the much-debated question in any educator’s circle. Grading, in Dr. Youngman’s perspective, is essential to track progress and provide objective standards. 
But grading is not about the grades. It’s about the learning.
So, how do you set up your grading system, rubric, or method that promotes learning, encourages, growth through “failure,” and doesn’t penalize students as they grow. 
One example Dr. Youngman provided was giving students “zero” on an assignment—what’s the purpose? It skews their grade so dramatically and effectively penalizes them in the trial and learning phase. Instead, think of ways you can give students another chance to promote their learning and engagement with the material, rather than demoralizing them and halting progress. 
--- 
As you can see, we covered a lot on the podcast with Dr. Youngman! Make sure you listen to his full interview to capture all the nuggets of wisdom he provided. You can also follow him on Twitter at @Erik_Youngman, where he’s very active, or check out his website. 


Quotes: 
  • 8:17 “The pandemic has been awful, but one of the things that it did highlight was the importance of relationships. And I think that schools and educators and families were reminded that it’s a critical part, so we’re making more time for that.”
  • 22:20 “The better questions we can ask up front, that can guide some of our decisions. We really do want to be future-focused—if we’re talking about preparing students for jobs that aren’t even available right now, we need to think a little bit differently. 
  • 29:38 “Maximizing the capacity and capabilities is critical. How can we maximize the capacity of our teachers and also of our students? They may have different trajectories, but how can we look at their skills and abilities and continue to help them to grow?”
​​
Click to see Erik's most recent blog posts
If you enjoyed this episode, I'd highly recommend you take a look at this video on getting teacher buy-in.

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1/16/2023

PRACTICE: An Assessment Tool to Measure Curriculum Implementation Success via Student Voice

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​​​Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
  • ​Apple podcasts​
  • ​Google podcasts​
  • ​Spotify​
  • ​Stitcher

​Have you ever wondered whether your new unit or curriculum was successful? 
Or, more basic--how can you even measure success? 
Educators often design and implement new units without a clear idea on how they’ll measure its success. But without knowing that, there’s no room to improve. And there’s no affirmation that it’s met the learning goals you want to meet. 
That’s why I’ve developed an assessment tool that measures curriculum implementation success. It’s framed by listening to student voices and soliciting feedback from your class about the unit. 

Why Student Voice Matters for Assessment 
Some units will “land” with students and others won’t. Or, within the same unit, you might have some who loved it and others who couldn’t keep up. But how will you know this information? 
You’ve got to ask. 
It’s simple: asking students for feedback on a unit will give teachers insight and understanding into the success of that unit. Teachers can then take their feedback and incorporate it into the next time they teach the unit or their next unit plan. 
Student voice is the essential piece to this. So often we ignore student voice or don’t consider it important for the assessment of teachers. But their opinions and feedback on the units are some of the most important data points we can ever collect about how we’re doing.

​Assessment Tool to Measure Curriculum Implementation Success 
To effectively assess curriculum implementation success, you need to first facilitate a youth-adult partnership mentality among staff. I love how Michael Fielding calls it “radical collegiality,” or the idea that students and staff are partners in learning. 
Once that is established, you can move on to implementing this tool with your staff: 

1. Coach teachers to create their next unit plan
Start by coaching your teachers to develop their next unit plan. If you don’t personally coach them, provide support by way of mentorship or a course. This unit should meet three criteria: 
  • Appropriately challenge students
  • Affirm students’ multiple identities
  • Inspire them to create something new

2. Create a feedback culture
After implementing the unit, teachers should invite students to reflect and provide feedback on the unit. This should be more than a one-time thing but become a culture of reflection that always happens on the last day of the unit. 
This is where my assessment tool comes in. It’s a simple questionnaire that can be tweaked or adjusted to what you need and is designed to elicit honest, open, and useful feedback from students. 
The questionnaire is designed to reflect on pre- and post-unit feelings or outcomes. It’s helpful to know how students felt about their learning before this unit and how they feel after it. 
Here are some of the questions: 
  • How often did your teacher take time to make sure you understood the material before the unit? (Before this unit and during this unit—same for all) 
  • How high are your teacher’s expectations for you? 
  • How often are you asked to challenge usual ways of thinking or explore how underrepresented people experience a situation?
  • How much do you feel like all your identities are affirmed? 
  • How excited were you to go to this class? 
  • How much difference did your work make in the community? 
Then, there are some open-ended qualitative questions. This is where student voice is really amplified, as they’re encouraged to give honest feedback. Some examples are: 
  • What was helpful about this unit?
  • What changes would you make?
  • How can your teacher make sure the curriculum is affirming, inspiring, and challenging in the future? 

3. Synthesize and share class themes
After collecting feedback, you want to synthesize the class themes and share it back with students. Get curious about what they’re saying by seeking clarification on certain points. 
Then, assign yourself (and teachers) homework by taking up the action points the students provided. If you can’t act on a suggestion, be transparent about why that is. This process is integral to showing your students that their voice matters and will impact how teachers move forward teaching them. 
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This entire process has to do with curiosity. Curiosity about how unit implementation is going and how students are receiving it. With this feedback, teachers can move forward with confidence knowing what works and doesn’t work and how to adjust things for the future. 
To access this assessment tool, simply click here. You can download the tool and adjust it based on your context. And, if you’re looking for more information and some examples on how to use it, listen to episode 98 of the Time for Teachership podcast, where I cover it in-depth. 



Quotes: 
  • 5:37 “Facilitate a youth-adult partnership mentality among staff. Michael Fielding in the student voice literature calls this radical collegiality—basically seeing students as partners in the learning process.” 
  • 7:30 “Coach teachers to create a unit that is focused on, appropriately, challenging students, affirming students’ multiple identities, and inspiring them to create something new. These are the big hallmarks of a fantastic curricula.”
  • 9:25 “Create that culture of, ‘we invite student reflections at the end of each unit … And it’s okay if it takes an entire class period to do this … an entire 30, 45, 60 minutes. Because we’re saying, ‘we value this.’”
​​
Get the Post unit perception survey here
Want to continue learning more about curriculum development and implementation? Watch this video on how to develop district curriculum that challenges, affirms, and inspires:

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    Lindsay Lyons (she/her) is an educational justice coach who works with teachers and school leaders to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice, design curricula grounded in student voice, and build capacity for shared leadership. Lindsay taught in NYC public schools, holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the educational blog and podcast, Time for Teachership. ​

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