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In this episode, Jeanette Shorey and I co-create a unit using my unit planning process. This one’s for music teachers (or any teacher wanting to incorporate music into their classroom), and would be great for the beginning of the year as the class culture is being developed.
Jeanette Shorey is National Board Certified music teacher with over 2 decades of experience teaching general music, choir, Orff ensembles, and group guitar. Jeanette is an Arts Integration Specialist, an instructional coach, a National presenter and a mentor. In this episode, we apply a step-by-step unit planning protocol to dream up a new unit where students co-create a supportive class culture and express the pursuits of identity, criticality, and joy through music! Unit Planning Step 1: Context/Spark We’re creating the first unit of the year where we develop class culture and explore, celebrate, and normalize different genres of music. The unit will take about 8 weeks, seeing students once a week for about 30-45 minutes per class. Unit Planning Step 2: Pursuits (from Dr. Muhammad’s HILL Model) Identity: How will our unit help students to learn something about themselves and/or about others? Students will see themselves as a whole person, with all of their identities affirmed. They’ll also see themselves as a person who contributes to and works positively with the class as a whole. Importantly, Jeanette wants students to feel confident in their identities as creators. This includes students feeling comfortable sharing ideas with the confidence no one will laugh at them. Criticality: How will our unit engage students’ thinking about power and equity and the disruption of oppression? Each class has a different personality and a different way of working together in addition to classes spanning multiple grades, which means addressing power, equity, and how to disrupt oppression may require different approaches unique to each group. Joy*: How will my unit enable, amplify, and spread joy? *Joy is: beauty, aesthetics, truth, ease, wonder, wellness, solutions to the problems of the world, personal fulfillment, art, music Jeanette’s goal is that students always find joy in Music class. She wants them to say, “That was my most fun class all week!” The goal is for students to cultivate a love of music, and for music class to not feel like a struggle for students. Unit Planning Step 3: Project Question What would it look like if we created music that shows how fabulous we are? Unit Planning Step 4: Summative Project (Publishing Opportunity and Possible Formats) Student music can be published as YouTube videos on the school’s private YouTube channel. The music would likely be played on non-pitched percussion instruments. (Jeanette likes ukuleles!) Unit Planning Step 5: Unit Arc Hook (2 lessons) Story book lesson: All Are Welcome Here by Alexandra Penfold. Story book lesson: Your Name is a Song by Jamila Tompkins Bigalow. In this second lesson, students can do a Circle activity with the following rounds:
Build the Base (approximately 1 lesson) Teach 4-measure rhythm. (The goal is for students to be able to create a 4-measure rhythm for any concept with lyrics and play it on any one of 4 instruments.) Case Studies Create a 4-measure rhythm on: First Case Study Lesson:
Second Case Study Lesson:
Third Case Study Lesson:
Project Work Time/ Peer Feedback (2 lessons) Students rehearse and record YouTube videos. Stay Connected You can find Jeanette on her website and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @thehappymusicteacher. You can email her at [email protected]. Her awesome podcast is The Happy Music Teacher. Books Mentioned: To help you be a happy music teacher or incorporate music in your class, Jeanette is sharing her Lesson Plan Sampler (includes a lesson plan for All are Welcome along with another storybook lesson and a fun outdoor music activity) with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 134 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 below. Quotes:
TRANSCRIPT Welcome to another unit streaming episode where we have Jeannette Shore on today, Jeannette Shore is a National Board certified music teacher with over two decades of experience teaching general music, choir orf ensembles and group guitar. Jeannette is an arts integration specialist, an instructional coach, a national presenter and a mentor. She has studied arts integration at the Kennedy Center through their C ETA program and has completed ORF levels one and two. She is presented at meas all over the country and mentors music teachers to the Happy Music Teacher Academy. Jeannette is the author of resource books, stories that sing and stories that sing too. I am so excited for you to hear from Jeanette in our unit dreaming episode today. Let's get to it. I'm educational justice coach Lindsay Lyons. And here on the time for teacher podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice design curricula, grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings. 00:01:09 If You're a principal, assistant superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nerd out about co creating curriculum with students. I made this show for you. Here we go. Jeannette. Welcome to the time for teacher shift podcast. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I am so excited too because this is gonna be so fun. We're gonna merge curriculum building and music and our two like passion areas. So this is gonna be really nice. Excellent. Yes. My, this is, this is totally where like my zone of genius. So I'm really excited about it too. Yay. Awesome. Ok. So do you want to share kind of the impetus or the context for something that you're thinking about or just share kind of like the setting in which or the grade band in which you taught? And then we can kind of come up with a spark for the unit we're gonna create today. Like I know, for example, in your podcast, we talked a little bit about like ways to design and structure units that might not be around, for example, holidays, which might be like a traditional way you would structure unit but instead around um like other more deeper things that you wanted to capture and then pulling in like a bunch of genres of music around that deeper core concept or thing that we wanna capture. 00:02:24 So, um one of the things I've been thinking about um right now is because I'm designing some lesson plans for music teachers to develop classroom culture. And one of the things that I love to do is I have this one story book that I almost always started with and it was called All Are Welcome. And I've sort of designed my curriculum for the first eight weeks around building classroom culture and accepting people's differences. And in the process of that, excuse me, in the process of that, I would pull in just different genres of music, music from different areas. Uh, because, you know, when Children hear music that they're not traditionally used to hearing, they automatically start giggling and it, it's like this nervous giggle. Like, what am I listening to? So I find that it's really important from the get go to start getting them to hear different styles of music, different genres of music, different music from different places in the world so that they're used to hearing those sorts of things and they get beyond that nervousness about, oh my gosh. 00:03:45 This sounds so weird to my ears and they're, they're really used to hearing all kinds of different music. So, and I think in today's, uh, in, in today's society we are, it, it feels like music is so homogenous. Like there's, there's so many different genres out there and our Children are not listening to them and I, I just think it's important for them to hear it. It's, it's important for acceptance, you know, it's a it's a stepping stone for getting Children to accept different styles of music, getting to them to accept the differences in each other, to the differences in culture, that sort of thing. Yeah, absolutely. I, and I, so I think that actually connects to my next question, which is what you would want students to be able to kind of pursue. And I, I think about, I say pursue specifically because I'm referencing Dr Goldie Mohammed's framework. And she talks about three things that I love, which are identity, criticality and joy. 00:04:49 And so specifically, I am thinking that the identity piece that you just spoke about, the thing you just spoke about reminds me of identity and how she talks about it. So she says like, you know, how is this gonna help students both learn about themselves, like their own identities but also someone else's identity that's not their own. And so I think there's, there's something there, I also think it's it's helpful for the, the criticality piece. So she, what she defines as criticality is like, really how is the lesson or the unit in our case, engaging students thinking about power about equity, about disrupting any sort of oppression that we see. So we're not just like noticing that things are bad but like, what do we do to like you're saying kind of create that class culture that is beyond that, right? That, that remedies that um potential oppression or like the the giggling that might be harmful or you know, whatever and, and then also joy, which I think music is such a well connected to joy, right? Like so thinking about identity, criticality and joy in those ways. 00:05:52 What comes to mind as you're thinking about like a class culture? Maybe this is like a start of the year unit. We're thinking, yes, yes, this would be first eight weeks of school. OK, great. Thank you for giving us a boundary to. I love thinking about how often, oh, and how often do you see your students? Would this be weekly? I see my students, I saw my students once a week for 45 minutes. But most teachers, most music teachers traditionally see their students once a week for 30 minutes or sometimes they're on a rotating schedule of like every six days, every eight days, that sort of thing. Ok. So roughly we could estimate about once a week, maybe conservatively like 30 minutes if we were. And so as you're thinking about these eight weeks and the goal of kind of building that class culture, that goal of appreciating and valuing all different types of music and, and that all are welcome kind of grounding. What comes to mind when you think about identity, criticality and joy when you're thinking, ok, at the end of this unit, I want students to make sure that, you know, they, they hit these things or they pursue these things over the course of these eight classes? 00:07:01 OK. So when you say identity, I just wanna clarify a little bit. Are we talking about the the personal identity of the student or am I misunderstanding? That's a great question. I see identity as like a bunch of things. So I see it as like personal and then we have multiple axes of identity. A lot of times when people think about identity, they think about kind of like one thing, for example, like just a person's race or just a person's gender or just a person's language. And it's like all the intersecting aspects of that. So there's like the personal way that all of my axes of identity intersect. But then there's also the fact that I am connected to a group that also holds those identities. So I think it's kind of like both the personal and the group kind of connections that are, that are part of that. I don't know if that helps to answer it, but I, I see identity in a lot of ways, linguistic, nationality, race, gender class. Um It could be ability like, so we're looking at like neuro diverse composers or something like that. 00:08:04 I mean, it could be a, a range of things. Um Yeah, all the stuff there. So I think uh identity wise um I, I want there to be the identity of the student as a whole person. Um They, you know how they see themselves, um how they see themselves working with their class and especially because they're going to be composing and creating music. Um, together, I, I want them to feel confident in their identity as a creator and it's, it's really tricky because, you know, in our elementary realm we, we're really in school in general, we tend to give our students a lot of, you know, cookie cutter. Um, I don't know how to say it because that doesn't sound right, but we don't give them a lot of, I don't think they have a lot of time to be creative and then they get into the music classroom and they're like, you want me to do what, you know, so it's like, so they, they need to feel that confidence in themselves, not only as a creator, but the confidence that they're working in a safe space where everyone around them is also working as a creator and they're, they feel comfortable sharing ideas and they feel comfortable that no one's gonna laugh at them and no one's gonna think their ideas are, are bad or, or silly or anything else. 00:09:39 If that makes sense, that makes total sense to me. I definitely think right? Sometimes things aren't always like purely comfortable, but we certainly can like when we're creating and trying something new, but I definitely think we can have the kind of assurance or the confidence or the comfort in knowing that we are not to be picked on for sharing our ideas. Right. I think that's beautifully put, that no one will laugh at me. Right. That's exactly what we want. Awesome. And I think part of that too, in speaking to the multitude of identities and the different genres of music and how that connects to identity definitely comes in supporting each individual student as a creator, especially if they hold an identity or affiliated with a group of people who are not typically held up as like brilliant composers or this genre of music is super important. And you know, I think that um kind of ties to that criticality piece as well. I don't know if there's anything you wanted to speak to on the criticality or joy side, if if anything else was sticking out for you. So I think um if I understand the criticality that you push portion of it, I think that it would be important for the class, every class I see is a different personality like literally, and this happens every year, that part of the personality is formed by the teacher that they're working with the classroom teacher they're working with. 00:11:01 But also they have their own unique personality and as they start working together, that's one of the really cool things about teaching all students and teaching all classes is, you know, they have this identity within themselves and but they also have this like the way that they work together and not all students work well together other. So you know, depending on the class, sometimes it's gonna be more difficult for me as the teacher, as the leader of, you know, the, the creativity to kind of, you know, I, I really have to change up the way I do things depending on the class and as I get more involved and, and the year goes on, I, I really get a sense of that class's personality, but also in the beginning of the year you're kind of waiting in blind because even if you know the students really well, you don't know them together as a unit. So I, I think it's important to, um, you know, think critically about what the students are presenting to you and what they, how do I say this, what, what they're responding to because every class is going to respond in a different way to what you have to say if that makes sense. 00:12:26 Yeah, it does. And it makes me think about the idea of nervous giggling and like, you know, how we address that and, and maybe each class gets that addressed differently but the be the ability to unpack or I'm thinking, you know, again, at the end of the unit, what are students getting out of this? Like that idea that like there is a reason we're giggling because there's some sort of dynamic at play and on underneath that. And I mean, again, depending on their age, you're gonna address this in different words. But it probably is still a relevant thing to address. But like that idea of there is some sort of power dynamic happening, right? So like we you are in a space where you hear as a child, whatever music is around you and that is normalized and then what is not normalized? And then now why is it, why are we laughing because it's uncomfortable? Right? And so there's kind of that dynamic of power that uh Doctor Mohammad talks about in criticality is like addressing that power and then disrupting that like uneven power that is there by normalizing all of the music. So I think that's, that's brilliant to be able to think about. And then I also love that you're bringing to the table, this idea of just like the idea of the class as a whole operating kind of in their own identity and ways that power and equity kind of show up in different ways and how we would address that for the different group dynamics kind of shifts for each class. 00:13:49 And because you have so many classes versus, you know, a an elementary teacher, for example, who has one like in a core content area, um that really is an important consideration. So I appreciate you naming that. I didn't even think about that. Absolutely. And then as far as joy, my goal as an elementary school music teacher was always that my students found joy in what we were doing. And if it looked to me like it was a struggle for them and they weren't enjoying it and they weren't getting anything out of it. Then I was going to revamp so that they did find joy because my goal was that they left my classroom and they were like, that was my most fun class all week. That's where I want to come back to. And then, you know, when they, when they go on to middle school, they're gonna be like, yes, I'm definitely doing music. I can't decide band or choir, but I'm definitely doing music because it was always so much fun, you know, and, and to make things easy for the students and I don't mean that I'm not challenging them, but I would try to find a way to make things easy for them and fun for them so that they were learning, but it wasn't a struggle, like whatever they were learning was not a struggle for them. 00:15:15 And again, that goes back to every class has a different personality and every class has to sort of, you know, you, you, you really have to work with the individual classes and go well for this class. I know that this lesson plan is not going to work but for this, you know, and, and I may have to, you know, water it down a little bit or um I may have to, to make it a little bit more intricate depending on the personality of the class. I love that and I love thinking about, yeah. How do we, like, keep the challenge but make it easy so that it's not the struggle. And I love the takeaway of like, that was my most fun class all week. I just think if every student said that about every class, that would be so great. I know. Wouldn't it be amazing if they, they came home from school and they were like, my day was awesome, right? Like I can't even begin to describe how cool it was, right? So OK, this is beautiful. I'm loving where this is going. So the next thing I'm gonna do is think about a project question. So a project question is what I used to call a driving question and and really this is kind of like thinking about the culminating activity. 00:16:24 So if students are gonna be creators, for example, I'm hearing like that there might be some creation happening, like what is the thing? And this is kind of paired with the the next question. But what's the thing that this unit will culminate in like what's the big kind of application activity where students are kind of taking what they learn and doing something very creative with it and what will house that project? And the question that students will want to be thinking through each lesson and and what we'll want to be thinking through as we plan each lesson is really that what that project question is so examples of project questions that I've seen are like, kind of like, might be like, what's the best formula for a fun music class or something? Like where students get to, like, say, like, well, it's a little bit of hearing a different kind of music and it's a little bit of me getting to create or play around with the music or, you know, or it could be like, um you know, is this type of music X or Y and like having some sort of concept that you're teaching them and they get to categorize like, OK, this type of music is placed in this category. 00:17:25 Um So I think a lot about like the formula for or does this music or this piece, do X or Y, what would it look like? If is another like, let's envision, you know, a a, there's an example of uh someone who came out on my podcast earlier that was talking about how in response to a current event, students created a um piece, a musical composition and they actually sent it to the families of Children and, and this is in a Parkland shooting and they, they sent it to the families and the families um were like, took comfort, I suppose or, or something like found it so, so helpful or so poignant that the students had created the piece in response that they like wrote back to them. And, and so for example, like something that, that would be like a project question for that unit might be something like, you know, what, what is the best thing we can do in the wake of X, you know, event or something? Um So that was just a lot of rambling on my part. Anything that comes to mind in terms of the, the start of a project question, I don't think you have to have it fully flushed out. 00:18:29 Um So I like the idea of what would it look like if, and um you tell me if I'm on the right track because I'm not 100% sure. But what would it look like if I worked with the students in my classroom to create a piece of music? Or um let me think about this. Uh What would it look like if I worked with the students in my classroom? And we each used our strengths and our differences to create a piece of music or to create a, a composition that expresses our differences, a composition that expresses our strengths. Um because the whole idea of those first eight weeks of school is to acknowledge each other's differences, to acknowledge each other's strengths, to acknowledge each other's. 00:19:36 Um like, what do you bring to the table as, as a student in this class? And how is that different? And how can we use your strengths and how can we use those differences to um create a, a wonderful piece of music. I love this. OK. So I, I think that what you have for now it, to me is a very teacher facing question in the sense of like, what would it look like if I created with my students? And like, you're kind of thinking through all the things that you want students to kind of pull out during the unit, which I think is perfect for like a planning lens. What I'm thinking for a student facing project question might be even more succinct. It could be like, what would it look like if we created a piece of music that showed how awesome we were or something? You know what I mean? And then it was like, like that you really like, then it would be like you pulling out from them. Well, our differences make us awesome and our strengths make us awesome and, and each of you bring something to the table. What is that? OK. So then how does that go into this piece of music? So that kind of idea that there's like a back end teacher question that's like here's the things I'm going to pull out from them or make sure I'm like tying to in each lesson and then there's the student facing often in very student friendly terms that are maybe more simplified. 00:20:48 Um But yeah, what, what do you think for the student vising one? I, I love what you just said. I love you. I remember either? Awesome or Fabulous. I, I fabulous. I love Fabulous. Ok. So what would it look like if we created? And so there's the collaboration I think inherent in like we created, right? As a class, a piece of music or composition. What's your preference? Um If we're, if we're talking about students, we, if we created music, just say if we created music that, what was the next piece that shows how, how fabulous we are? Oh, I love it. OK. What would it look like if we created music? That shows how fabulous we are so good. And I'm just imagining too the value of having so many classes here is that you could then have like a whole album because there's so many classes where they're each caring so much. Cool. OK. So then the project itself, I like to think of this in terms of publishing format. 00:21:54 Like where does it go once it's created? So if students are creating, for example, a piece of music, then like, how do family members or how do other school stakeholders or maybe the local community? Like, how do people, people hear it? Um Like where did the, is there like either a concert or are you creating, you know, like a playlist on Spotify or something? You know, like how does it go out? And then also what are the kind of various formats that you're envisioning for this unit? Is there a particular type of instrument or something that you're thinking here's kind of the container for what this could look like. Or could students choose like any type of music, any genre of music, any instrument that they want to use? I think um it would need to be for, for ease of organization for the teacher. I think it would need to be, for example, um non pitched percussion instruments. So um or, or instruments. So I would think you would want to choose one type of instrument or ukuleles or guitars or whatever it is that you have in your classroom that you really love to teach. 00:22:57 That would be um For me, I love to start with non pitch percussion instruments in the beginning of the year. Um It gives me a chance to, you know, kind of review them and all that sort of thing and the kids love to play them. So for me, I would probably choose non pitched percussion, percussion instruments. Awesome. OK. I love it. And then in terms of publishing, do people, how do you want people to experience or get this music? I would want them to see the video of um the, the final product and that would be probably our, our private youtube channel. I love that. OK. Super cool. And then you see, and they can hear because I think there's value in being able to see Children perform music and you know, just, just the, the excitement when they're creating something that they're excited about and they're playing something that they're excited about. It is like, you can just feel it when in the expressions on their faces and, you know, it's, it's different than just listening to it. 00:24:04 Oh, I love that. That's so true. That is so true. So, as we start to think about, OK, this is eight weeks. So we're talking maybe eight lessons. I usually think about kind of three phases that I like to build out. And then I like to also have some like work time for students to actually like be working on this actively, maybe for a full lesson or two. And then also an opportunity for students to kind of test out maybe their, their ideas or share with a peer and get some feedback on it before it's like presentation ready or youtube video ready. And so the first three that I like to think about are kind of like the hook, like how do we get students to just engage in this conversation from the beginning? And I know you um you often use story books. And so maybe that's like the storybook lesson and then I build the base, which is like, what are the core ideas? So it might be core content ideas in terms of inclusivity and celebration of difference or something like that. But it also might be um a musical, right, a musical concept that we're working on throughout the unit or something. What's that kind of like core thing. 00:25:07 And then from there, I like to look at key studies. So I don't know, you are the music expert. So I don't know if this will make any sense. But I'm thinking like, OK, so let's say there's kind of a build the base that's like a core musical concept. And then we look at case studies of where this musical concept lies in this genre of music or this genre of music or this genre of music. And so each day is kind of like a dip into a different genre or a different type of music in some way, but it all kind of ties back to whatever that core music concept is. I don't know if that would work or is if that's typically how you would play in your lessons. Um So the hook would definitely be a storybook. Um We, there's a couple that I'm thinking of off the top of my head. One is all are welcome here by Alexandra Penfold and that is uh set in a classroom on the first day of school and the parents are there and the students are there and the students are um literally, they all look different. They, they all um some, there's one little boy in a wheelchair, there's one little girl who's blind, there's or um that's the wrong word, visually impaired. 00:26:17 Um And you know, so, and, and it's all about uh how while they eat differently. They um live in different places, et cetera, et cetera. Everyone's welcome. So, I love that book. That's usually my, my second lesson of the school year is that book. And then we do some um musical elements to it. But if I was designing um something like this, that would be my starting point. And so that one and then there's another one called, your name is a song and that is by Jamila Tompkins Bigelow, I think. Um, and that one is all about a little girl who goes to school for the first day and she says her name gets stuck in her teacher's mouth and her mother is like, well, tell your teacher that your name is a song. And so I think that names are so important to, to Children to really, to everybody and, you know, sometimes people are very accepting of, ok, well, you can just call me, you know, me or Mylene or, you know, whatever. 00:27:30 But to me, I'm always like, I want to pronounce your name the way your mom or your grandmother or, you know, your loved ones pronounce your name. So, you know, I think there's, um, there's a lot of power in names. So those would be two possible starting points and, and they really would take us in different directions. But, um, you know, depending on, on uh what we chose. I love that. I think about this probably won't work for a music class. Maybe it will, I don't know. But I, I always do story of my name as one of the first like week of school kind of activities where we literally sit in a circle and every student gets to hold the talking piece and just literally share anything they want about who gave them their name, what their name means to them. Do they hate their name? You know, are they named after someone, anything regarding our name? Because there's no prior knowledge required, right? And every student has a story to share. And so I'm wondering if there's even something with that that I'm sure you already have a lesson in mind of like what you would do after reading that storybook. 00:28:31 But you know, this idea of, um having students maybe incorporate some of that name piece as like uh in the music itself that, that they end up creating or like as kind of a starter activity where they're playing with the music that best represents their name or something. Yeah. Um, so I, one thing that I love to do is I love to go around and have them, you know, say their name and we echo back their name, but I love the idea of they say their name and then maybe, um just a little bit about their, their story of their name. So, and we, we could go around the circle like that and then, um I could have them, you know, do it in rhythm. So for example, um you know, I can't think of a good example but um I'm Jeanette. Um my name is French. I don't know, something like that. Um So, you know, you would, you would start it with just like tell us one or two sentences about your name, the story of your name. 00:29:37 And then um now make it into one, you know, 11 measure sentence, 11 measure sentence and and do some rhythm with it. So I love this so good. OK, so then what would your build the base be in terms of a core concept, either musically related or related to the kind of ideas that you want to teach? Tell me again about build the base. Yeah. So this is like, I like to think of it as like if students learn one thing from the entire unit, like what would it be? And given that it is a music class, like I think ultimately we want students to learn about like the idea of all are welcome, right? In, in this idea of class culture. But I imagine there's also some music stuff that you do in a unit like this or, right? So if there was like one musical concept that you're like, OK, let's say I only have like four units for the whole year or something, right? This is one of the four things that I want students leaving the year. Absolutely knowing they have to know it, it is present in a bunch of musical genres, like they, you know, whatever it is. 00:30:39 And so the build-up base is like the one, maybe two lessons of this core idea. Um So I am, I am super like my chorus teacher, my piano teacher would be really ashamed of me, but like this idea of like, I don't know, maybe like a, like the whatever that is like the four beats, like the quarter notes or something, right? Like something like really basic that students would be able to kind of pick up in different genres because then like what we do after the build the base is like, OK, now, where does that concept appear in different types of music? Um So that's, I don't know if there's a particular musical concept that you would teach early on in the year or that would go with the idea of like a lot of different genres. So one of the things that I like to do a lot is I like to have students build rhythms. And so um maybe a um four measure rhythm, like if I gave them any concept, they would be able to create a four measure rhythm with lyrics and they would be able to play it on, we don't want to say any instrument in the classroom, but um on any one of four different instruments in the classroom. 00:31:55 So like that to choose the four instruments that they knew how to play. Um, because they forget, you know, they're only with us once a week. So, um, you know, for the, for me to say every instrument wouldn't work but probably any student could pick up four different instruments and know how to play them. Awesome. Oh, I love this idea because there's so much you could do with it. Right. Once you have the form as a rhythm, like, create for any concept, like anything. So you could do just a preview, like our a session, right? Like the idea of like taking a current event and adding song to it or something and as a response as an emotional response to something happening in the world, like there's so many things that you could do. And then I'm wondering, OK, so for key studies now how we take that and actually like bring it to life, one thing I was thinking was like genres. So we could do genres or we could do like nations or, or something like that. But I'm also wondering if we would want to yes, do those things but maybe have something else that centers or becomes like the case um for each of those days. 00:32:56 And so what I'm thinking here is like, you know, your uh students response to like core values or or experiences of life, like maybe students are kind of co creating what the case study topics are like. I'm just thinking about this idea of identity and criticality and joy, right? Like maybe those are even the case studies. Like what is like, you're creating a four measure rhythm for your identity, you're creating a four measure rhythm for um what it means to like, hear someone be offensive or interrupt that someone being offensive or you know, what does it mean to be joyful, create a four measure rhythm about that? Like, I don't know if that's resonating, but I'm just thinking about all the possibilities here of how you could organize those case studies. What do you think? I mean uh all of those sound amazing. I, I would say um one of the things that comes to mind right away is create a for measure rhythm on how it feels when someone disrespects you and then um or create a for measure rhythm on how you react in a positive way when someone disrespects you um how, how you react or, or how it feels when someone is um doesn't understand your differences. 00:34:22 Um doesn't understand you as a person. I don't know. I'm just like throwing out ideas here. I love this. Yes. OK. So we got how it feels when someone disrespects you, how you react, when someone disrespects you and how you react when someone doesn't appreciate your differences. Mhm mhm Awesome. I'm wondering about um because these are kind of, I think entered on the criticality domain of like identity, criticality, joy. Are there, are there some that could be focused on like the name. I mean, we could even do that. You could even do that in like the hook one of the hook lessons where you are doing your name, like create a four measurement for your name, but you haven't quite introduced it yet because build the base comes after. But um I'm wondering if there's an identity one that we could do and then a joy one, something related to joy. Um So an identity one. I mean it could be as simple as um design your name. Hi, it's Lindsey just popping in here to tell you about today's episode. Freebie Jenette is sharing her lesson plan sampler. This link will give listeners the lesson plan for all are welcome the storybook along with another storybook lesson and a fun outdoor music activity to grab that. 00:35:33 Go to Lindsay Beth lions dot com slash blog slash 134. Back to the episode. What do you want us to call you? And why? Ok. Cool. And then for joy, what would be a prompt for creating a forward measurer then related to joy when you feel happy? What does it look like? What is the one thing that comes to mind that makes you happiest? Um If we want to tie it into music, what kind of music do you listen to? That makes you feel happiest. I love these. Ok, super cool. So I'm wondering so I have seven. I think you could maybe combine them to maybe there's like some that would go, you know, into the same lesson. But I'm wondering if you chunk them even like, so we have maybe like two lessons for like the hook, maybe like one per storybook. Are you thinking storybook, lesson, storybook, lesson circle about their name. Would that be three lessons? Usually when I do this kind of a thing I would do storybook and then lesson and, and the lesson would center around the storybook and then I would go into the next storybook and a lesson for that. 00:36:54 All right. So the hook would probably be two lessons, like two kind of books. Yep. And then build the base. Would you teach a four measure rhythm in one lesson? Depends on the grade level. Um You know, if I'm talking second grade, I, I probably wouldn't do this kind of activity lower than second grade. But if I'm talking second grade, um, we probably wouldn't do a four measure rhythm. We do a one measure rhythm and we wouldn't call it a measure because they're not at a lot of times they're not at that concept yet. Depends on the school. But um, yeah, so I would say, um the base would be kind of a progression, you know. Um And, and maybe we would start it with like my fifth graders, my fourth graders, you know, they're gonna know that right away, create a four measure rhythm. They're gonna be fine with that. Um, 2nd and 3rd grade, we probably would have to work together. I'd have to do some modeling, that sort of thing. 00:37:57 Ok. So if we said like, on average, maybe it was one lesson then it would be like, maybe a little bit more for some, maybe a little bit less for others. Yeah. Yeah. Ok. Cool. And so then we have five left so we could do maybe like three for case studies and then have two for students to just like, either create something new or I'm imagining if they're creating during the case studies, maybe it's just their recording time. Like they, they already created it but they're just putting it into youtube or whatever that would be. I think that would work best is to have three that way. And then how many, how many lessons do we have? We're doing, we've got 3456. I think we had thought about eight initially and now we're up to six. Yeah. So we would have two left for the, yeah, I would say two for, for recording time for, for like rehearsal time and recording time. And of course, when you're doing this whole thing, you would want to be really careful to give them a time limit because I, I know for probably all teachers if you don't give them a time limit, like, ok, we're gonna set the timer and you've got three minutes to come up with your 44 measure rhythm, that type of thing because otherwise they're gonna spend the whole class on it and I learned the hard way. 00:39:15 Absolutely. And so I think this is a beautiful like outline for a unit. And I, I'm so excited. How are you feeling? Like, how did this process feel? How are you feeling about the unit in general? I'm really liking it. It's first of all, great to talk through something like this with someone and that, that's one of the things that I really want to have in my community. The happy Music teacher academy is the ability for music teachers to meet up together and do something like this because, you know, we're, um, there's a, there's a music teacher out there who calls us on music teacher Island. And, um, that is a true fact. And so, you know, you're, you're trying to come up with wonderful creative lessons for your students and it's really hard because it's just you. So just to like, be able to bounce the ideas off of you and you give me suggestions and vice versa. It's like the most amazing process ever. Oh my gosh. That's so heartening to hear. Thank you. And I think that's a perfect segue for you to tell people about all of the things that you do and the space for any music teachers listening to be able to go find you online and like, how do they do that? 00:40:23 I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I run a, uh, community for music teachers. It's called the Happy Music Teacher Academy. And you can go in there and first of all have professional development. I have a couple of, uh, courses that teach you how to use storybooks in your classroom and to, to use them to teach music skills, that sort of thing. I also have a course that tells you kind of teaches you the music teacher lingo if you will. So that the connection is really very vivid between the classroom and the music room. And it, it really just adds a whole level of um just, just another level of, of uh I can't think of the word um like a level of respect um among the students because when they, when they hear that you're using the same lingo, it, it's really good for them and, and it, it also shows them that connection. So there are two courses in there, couple more courses on the way. 00:41:26 And then the biggest drive for the music teacher academy is that I want there to be a community among music teachers. And we just really don't have that ability, especially in the elementary realm. So, um where can you find me? My website is stories that sing dot net. And you can um if you wanted to see a little bit about what I do as far as developing lesson plans, stories that sing dot net forward slash lesson plan sampler. And if you wanted to hear more about the music teacher, Happy Happy Music Teacher Academy. It's stories that sing dot net forward slash join the Happy Music Teacher Academy. Brilliant. Thank you so much, Jenette. Also, Jeannette has an awesome podcast. I don't know if you want to talk about that, Jeanette. Oh, yes, I do. I have a podcast. I meant to mention that it's called the Happy Music Teacher. And I dramatically changed the way that I was teaching and the just kind of my whole drive and my whole purpose as a music teacher about maybe seven or eight years ago. 00:42:34 And I, I sort of just reset my mind and, and just, I, I just really approach things from a very different perspective. And I found that I was a lot happier in my job after that and I was a lot happier as a teacher and my students, I saw a lot more smiling faces and I saw a lot more engagement and interactivity. And so I've, I just have been thinking for a long time about ways to help other music teachers be happier in their jobs because it is a hard job. And, you know, I think a lot of times people don't realize because they're like, oh, they're just in there singing and dancing and it's so much fun and yes, it's so much fun. But if you are an elementary music teacher or a music teacher. Of any kind, you know that it is also a hard job. So, um my goal is to just give you tips and suggestions and help you to kind of wade through all of the garbage that comes along with your job. 00:43:38 So if you, if you'd like to check that out on any podcast format, um it's the happy music teacher. Awesome Jeannette. Thank you so much for spending time with us today and for doing this kind of episode. I know it's a little daunting to kind of just jump in there and you created something beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I thank you for having me. I really thoroughly enjoyed this process. Yay. Oh, I'm so glad if you're leaving this episode wanting more. You're going to love my life coaching intensive curriculum, boot camp. I help one department or grade team create feminist anti racist curricula that challenges affirms and inspires all students. We weave current events into course content and amplify student voices which skyrockets engagement and academic achievement. It energizes educators feeling burns out and it's just two days. Plus you can reuse the same process any time you create a new unit which saves time and money. If you can't wait to bring this to your staff, I'm inviting you to sign up for a 20 minute call with me. Grab a spot on my calendar at www dot Lindsay beth lions dot com slash contact. 00:44:41 Until next time. Leaders continue to think. Big act brave and be your best self. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better podcast network better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there, explore more podcasts at teach better dot com slash podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode.
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In the episode, the amazing Angela Watson and I talk about how teachers can thrive alongside students, how we do best as a community of specialists, and what it looks like to be working in a flow state. If teacher retention and staff well-being is important to you, this is a must listen!
Angela Watson is a productivity and mindset specialist, author, and motivational speaker for educators. She has supported countless teachers in making teaching more effective, efficient, and enjoyable, including on her amazing podcast, Truth for Teachers, which I truly enjoy. In this episode, Angela talks to us about her vision for empowering teachers and students and creating classrooms centered on authenticity and flow. The Big Dream Angela envisions a place where educators and students can co-thrive together, with their needs not being pitted against each other. By focusing on the strengths of students and working collectively as a community, we can create an educational environment where everyone feels accepted and supported in being their authentic selves. Alignment to the 4 Stages: Mindset, Pedagogy, Assessment, and Content In order to achieve this dream, teachers can shift their mindset, adopt new pedagogical approaches, embrace innovative assessments, and ensure that content is relevant and engaging for students. Angela emphasizes the importance of empowering teachers and students to create change in their classrooms and tap into student motivation and engagement. Mindset Shifts Required Teachers do not need to be all things to all students. Instead, let’s work collectively as a community. A strengths-based approach helps staff and students! Angela says: “It's not possible to be good at everything and teaching. You cannot be a subject area expert, a developmental appropriateness, pedagogical kind of expert, explain things well, good at curriculum planning, good at parent communication, good at data entry, good at explaining yourself in IEP meetings…there's so many different things. You're going to be better at some than others, and I would love to see schools be a place where we work as a community to have all the needs met. So, instead of every individual having to be good at every single thing or, let's be real, to be excelling…What if we thought about it as a community effort? So maybe I'm really good at preparing activities and you're really good at the relationship piece with students and they feel like they can trust you and come to you…Partner together instead of trying to be all things to all students, which is just a recipe for burnout.” How do we make this happen? Work with Others Angela says, “It's much harder to dehumanize or demonize…people who don't share your values if you have accomplished something with them. If you've worked to get an extra recess break with people who have different viewpoints than you, it's much harder then, when we're talking about book banning, to be like ‘You're a monster who hates kids.’ Clearly you're not, because you just worked with me to get more recess time. So are there ways that we can work towards things that we do have in common, to create a positive change? And then, can we just find this small cadre of like minded folks to to push the envelope a little bit towards the things that are maybe not what anyone agrees on?” Pedagogically… Amplify student voice and belonging Follow students' lead and interests, allowing them to be more engaged in the learning process. Create a space for students to feel vulnerable, fostering a sense of belonging and connection. Build a toolbox of strategies to support a flow state Instead of “on task”, aim for a flow state. The state of flow (Csikszenthmihalyi) is where you're so absorbed in a task that you lose track of all time. Angela says, “It's one of the peak human experiences, and the optimal way to experience a flow state is when you're being challenged.” We can support student flow by emphasizing that we're learning alongside our students and there's no judgment around not being able to concentrate. “It's not a bad thing. It is a morally neutral thing And we don't need to load it down with all this baggage and guilt and shame….We all experience things and we're just not motivated. Challenges? It can be hard to find the time for reflection and personal growth as educators and overcome feelings of inadequacy in teaching these skills if we haven’t mastered them ourselves yet. (But we can learn alongside students!) One Step to Get Started Start by noticing and affirming the strengths and interests of your students. This simple act can have a profound impact on their engagement and motivation, ultimately contributing to a more fulfilling educational experience for both students and teachers. Stay Connected You can find Angela on her website. Also, check out her 40 Hour Teacher Workweek program and Finding Flow Solutions curriculum. To help you find the time and energy to implement some of the ideas we discussed today, Angela is sharing her and her students’ wisdom with you during The 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Online Summit! (This was free for live attendees July 10-11, but you can still access the recording for $19.) And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 133 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 below. Quotes:
TRANSCRIPT I'm so excited for you to hear from Angela Watson today. I have been listening to Angela's podcast for years and now you get to hear from her on this show before I tell you all about her and you may already know all about her. We recorded this episode on June 6th and she shares many opportunities like her 40 hour teacher work week program. The cohort date for that is going to be different than what she shared given that we recorded in June and then this is airing in September. And you may be listening to this at any point in the future after September 2023. So she has regular openings of that. Just check her website, which we will link to in our blog post for this episode for the correct dates. Also, she shares a July 10th and 11th event which is free at the time of recording. Don't worry, you can still purchase access to it for $19 which again, we will link to in the blog post for this episode. Now let me tell you about Angela. Angela is a productivity and mindset specialist author and motivational speaker for educators she is a National Board certified teacher and has a degree in curriculum and instruction along with 11 years of classroom teaching experience and over a decade of experience as an instructional coach through her website, books, podcasts, courses, curriculum and professional development services. 00:01:10 Angela Watson has supported countless teachers in making teaching more effective, efficient and enjoyable. Let's get to this episode. I cannot wait for you to hear from Angela. I'm educational justice coach, Lindsay Lyons. And here on the time for teacher podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice design curricula, grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings if you're a principal assistant superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nerd out about co creating curriculum with students. I made this show for you. Here we go. Angela Watson. Welcome to the time for teacher shift podcast. Thanks for having me, Lindsey. I am so excited for this conversation. I have been listening to your podcast for so long and that I'm so happy you're on this one. And I'm curious to know if people haven't been listening to your podcast, you know, what can, what can they know about you or what it's important for them to keep in mind for this conversation we're gonna have today. 00:02:19 Sure. So my background is um 11 years in the classroom and then I've spent over a decade doing instructional coaching. Um I have a podcast called Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers. I have a writers collective where I feature the voices of those who are currently k 12 teachers. Um I have the 40 hour teacher work week, which is our signature course and a bunch of curriculum resources as well. So um kind of all over the place, but everything is centered around teacher mindset, support, encouragement, productivity. I really gravitate to your 40 hour teacher work week because I just feel like without that ability to just like figure out what is most essential and how do you kind of do this in a productive, sustainable, like way that centers well being, then you're just like ready to quit. At least I was like you without that. Yeah, I think it's so important to ground the work in that. And so I love starting with the question of freedom dreaming. Doctor Bettina, love talks about this in, in a wonderful way. She talks about it as dreams, dreams grounded in the critique of injustice. And so I'm wondering what is that big dream when you think about freedom dreaming in that context for you. 00:03:27 And I specifically like thinking about it in curriculum instruction terms, but feel free to, to share it in any terms that you'd like. So my freedom dream is and I love that you just jump right in there with the big deep question. We're not gonna do any kind of small talk, any, we're gonna go right in there. What is my big freedom dream? Um Because I mean, these are the kinds of conversations that, that I like to have and I think if we're not focusing on the bigger vision and the bigger, why, then what is it all for? It's just a whole bunch of teaching ideas and nobody needs more ideas of things to just do. Um So my freedom dream is something that I feel like I'm still sort of articulating and I feel like it changes over time, which is probably true for a lot of people. But I envision a place where educators and students can co thrive together. I feel like a lot of times right now their needs are pitted against each other. Um You know, and we need to find the overlap between what's best for teachers and what's best for kids because I don't think they're at odds nearly as often as, as they're made out to be. 00:04:31 And I think there are a lot of things that are good for teachers and horrible, horrible for kids. And there are things that are um really good for kids, but they're completely burning teachers out. We're asking them to do way too much, but there are things that work for both. And so in, in, in my freedom dream for schooling. It would be a place where both teachers and kids can thrive and to feel accepted and like and supported in thriving. Exactly as they are so many times, I feel like students are pressured to be good at things that they're not necessarily interested in, not necessarily skilled in. Um And we focus so much on the weaknesses rather than how do we play up their strengths? How, how do we help them utilize their strengths? Um If they're really good in this one particular area, are we getting support to help them succeed in that area too? And not just focusing on all the things that they're not able to do. And I feel like the same could be true for teachers too because all teachers have many, many strengths. 00:05:34 Um but the skill set required for teaching effectively is so broad, it's not possible to be possible to be good at everything and teaching like you cannot be a subject area, expert, a developmental appropriateness, pedagogical kind of expert um explain things well, good at curriculum planning, good at parent communication, good at data entry, good at explaining yourself in IEP meetings. Uh Like there's just, there's so many different things you're gonna be better at some than others. And I would love to see schools be a place where we work as a community to have all the needs met. So instead of every individual having to be good at every single thing or let's be real to be ex excelling. You know, we have to have like 100% um achieving mastery in every single area. What if we thought about it as a community effort? So maybe I'm really good at preparing activities and you're really good at, um you know, the, the relationship piece with students and, you know, they feel like they can trust you and come to you, like, can we partner together instead of trying to be all things to all students, which is just a recipe for burnout. 00:06:45 Um I just think in so many ways, teachers are left alone to figure out all of the the solutions and they just don't have the support and resources for it. And I want to see a place where not only are those supports and resources offered, but also where kids feel like they can be whoever they are. And if they have trouble concentrating, there's nothing wrong with them. If it's difficult for them to get their work done on time, you know, we can provide supports for that and we can help them tap into their own motivation. And right now that's something that is again, just being thrown on the backs of teachers, like teachers are supposed to just figure it out and it's too much for one person. So in my freedom dream, it would be a community effort and we would look for needs to be met collectively rather than just individually. Oh, wow. I love that. That is so good. And I, I think about this too, I think it connects to kind of your, your work in the sense of like, I think there's often this mindset of teachers, right? That we have to take it all on. Like that's part of the job is we have to be perfect and we have to be all things to all students, like you said, like I, I think that is so ingrained in like even teacher school and just kind of like the way that we approach the the profession. 00:07:57 And so I'm wondering that takes a real mindset shift to go from. Here's what I think of teaching and here's what I think needs to be on my shoulders to this more beautiful, like strength based community, collective goal achieving thing that you're describing. How do you help folks to get from that one space of like not greatness to this other kind of freedom dream that you're describing. So, I mean, ii, I definitely refer people back to Doctor Betina Love. Um And, and, and talking about that, I think she does a, a really awesome job with it. Um You know, a part of liberation is being able to imagine something better. And if we can't imagine something better that we can never have it. And I think because there are so many limitations and systemic issues in education, it's easy for teachers to say, well, you know, this is, this is just never going to happen. It's completely unrealistic. Um And I think that stems from them being asked to do the impossible. 00:09:01 Right. If you're constantly being asked to do more than you actually can, then when someone's like, I know, let's have this collective vision and where we all support each other. You're like, yeah. Right. Like, you know, I can't even manage what I'm already doing much less that. But I think it's important not to lose that space for dreaming because um if we wait for someone else to have that vision, it's not necessarily going to be what we need because I don't think anyone knows your classroom as well as you as a teacher and no one knows your community, your school, your demographics, as much as you. Um And so I think we need teachers and parents and students and other stakeholders to all have a voice in this streaming and to be able to dream together without saying like we're gonna go implement this in this three step process tomorrow. I mean, the thing about freedom dreaming is that you can't systematize it, you cannot standardize it. You cannot look for this. Um You know, the a a consultant to just come in and make it happen for you overnight. 00:10:03 Like it's something that everyone has to be collectively invested in. It happens over time. It's shaped by the individuals there. What's gonna happen in one school is not gonna be what's happening in another. So I wanna say that I understand that dreaming of something better can feel unrealistic and it doesn't necessarily mean we're gonna go implement it right away. There is value in the vision, there's value in dreaming imagining um working towards something in your mind, even if the system isn't cooperating in terms of actually being able to implement it, it does have to be a collective effort, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a top down thing. I think that a small group of um teachers, particularly teachers can align with parents because a lot of times parents tend to have more influence on what's happening in the schools and teachers for better or for worse. Um If you can align with just even a handful of parents, we've seen, um you know how a handful of rowdy parents at a school board can push a whole agenda through. And I think that folks who are really thinking about what's best for, for teachers and kids need to be doing the same thing in the sense of recognizing the power of a minority that you don't have to um get everyone on board in order to create change. 00:11:18 You can find like minded folks um and band together and, and work to create change and look for things that you have in common with people who oppose it. So there may be certain issues that you're just never gonna all agree on. But, you know, maybe everyone agrees that kids need more recess time. So, you know, there's very few people I think in terms of like teachers or parents who would say I want less recess for kids. Like I think we've all kind of gotten to the point where we understand now, physical movement and, and creativity, fresh air, all these things are very important. So are the things that we can actually band together in and accomplish together and then you're more allies. It's much harder to dehumanize or demonize the quote, other side, people who don't share your values if you have accomplished something with them, if you've worked to get an extra recess break with um people who have different viewpoints than you, it's much harder than when we're talking about book banning to be like you're a monster who hates kids clearly, you're not because you just work with me to get more recess time. So are there ways that we can work towards things that we do have in common um to create uh a positive change? 00:12:25 And then can we just find this small cadre of like-minded folks to um to push the envelope a little bit uh towards the things that are maybe not everyone agrees on, but that something that could be maybe brought into existence because a lot of people are not freedom dreaming, they're not envisioning something better. Um They don't actually have a plan and I think that's something we've seen at these school board meetings too. They don't actually know what they want. They're just, you know, have vague fears around certain things that they think might be happening that they don't want, they don't have a clear vision one. It's like, ok, so what harm do you think is being caused? They, they're not telling you that and then when you say, ok, so what should we teach instead? They don't have a clear answer for that too. So if we can have clear answers, if we can be really clear, this is exactly what we want to do. This is why we want to do it. This is how it's going to affect kids. This is how it's gonna affect different demographics of kids. This is our goal. Um It's much harder to argue that down with like vague, you know, feeling oriented things. 00:13:27 Well, I'm just afraid somebody might feel bad if they hear this, they might feel bad about themselves. I think that we can come in with that, that freedom dream formulate into something that could actually be doable and articulate that plan. And I think when you have a clear plan like that, it's just much easier to get change accomplished. So none of this obviously is easy. None of this is overnight. None of this is vigil and I don't ever want to put more on the backs of teachers because I think those of us who are not in the classroom also need to be leading this kind of work or uh assisting, supplementing this kind of work, amplifying this kind of work because it can't be another thing just for teachers to do. But I do want teachers to feel like you don't have to wait for help to come from the outside that you have power, you have influence and you know what those students need better than anyone else because you're the only one who's in a, in a group with them parents know their individual Children. They don't know the whole class. They don't know what these other kids are going to. They don't know what their families are like. Their upbringings are like their, their personalities, their likes, their dislikes, the teacher knows that. 00:14:30 And so I think really drawing on those strains um we're creating change can make a big difference. Oh my gosh, I, I love this concept of it like, I mean, all the things, but one of the things I, I really gravitated to is the less likely to dehumanize people when you've accomplished something together. Like yes, to finding that common thing that you're like, yes, we love kids, we're doing this thing together. That is so not, not easy by any means, but just so doable. I think in some ways and some people I think are seeing like the entrenchment into like this group versus this group and not seeing the possible of like recess time here we go, everybody be able to get like that's so beautiful to be able to paint that possibility of like alliance and cooperation and community and that space to then ultimately not dehumanize someone. I just, that is brilliant. I just like echo that, that is great. And I think you're talking a lot about, you know, the, the individual teachers not needing to wait for, for folks on the, on the outside or um you know, also the, the, this idea that it's not a standardized process. 00:15:35 And I know you work with so many teachers and like you've said, you've done 40 hour teacher work week, you have some curriculum resources. I'm curious to know for a teacher who might be like, OK, so I have this kind of vague vision of what I want for my class or I know that I want students to feel like a sense of belonging or whatever it is. Are there are things around either pedagogy or assessment or like the, the content, like we're talking about book banning the things that we're teaching, the stories, we're teaching the histories or history or perspectives that is helpful for teachers to think about as like a starting point or in the work that you've done things that you've seen maybe in those areas teachers doing and, and getting a lot of traction around. That's an attraction. It's a great question and I'm trying to think of a way to answer that doesn't sound like I'm just repeating student choice student buy in. Um But that really is so much of it. Like the kids have to feel connected to the teacher, feel like they can be safe and feel vulnerable um in order to give that kind of input in, in and in order to get the kind of engagement that you want. 00:16:42 And so maybe the piece that I would say about that is um don't underestimate following your students lead because a lot of times they have even better ideas than we do. They see possibilities that we don't see and they can think of things that are going to engage their peers that we might not think about. So some of the most powerful, powerful things happening right now in schools, I think are very much student driven um and kids um really kind of leading the way for teachers. And it's, that's a tough thing to replicate because at the same time that this is happening, we also have this whole wave of apathy, right, where we have students who are disengaged, um They feel hopeless about the future. They um don't see the point of education, it's very difficult to get them to do anything. Um And so I think this is where the the collective really comes in and drawing on strengths together. 00:17:46 Not every kid is going to be an activist and um not every kid is going to be super engaged through every step of their school year. I mean, I've talked about how I was their school career. I was a terrible student, uh, completely disengaged and was just like a pain in the butt. Always, like talking when the teacher was talking. So if you had been my teacher, then you would have thinking she's hopeless. Like, what is she gonna, like, she's not doing anything with her life clearly. Like, II, I feel very certain that I had a number of teachers, particularly in high school who felt that way and look. So, you know, like sometimes when you have kids who are not really um engaged with what you're trying to get them to do, that doesn't mean that once they tap into their own inner motivation and they find their own thing and it may be long after they leave your class, they may not be in their twenties or even thirties um before they really kind of get themselves together. But that this is where I think the strength based thing is so important where you're looking at as Dr Byron mcclure says, what's, what's strong instead of what's wrong? 00:18:49 Um And thinking about um you know, what is the student bringing to the table and capitalizing on that? Affirming that noticing that as much as possible. I mean, just noticing, you know, like, hey, you II, I didn't know that you knew how to do that or um I think that's so cool the way that you were able to talk about this. I didn't even know that was an interest of yours. One little comment like that can make a huge difference, can change the trajectory of a kid's life. Just an adult noticing and affirming something about them. So I think that's one of the most powerful things that you can do. And once kids feel like they're really being seen by you, they, some of them, not all of course, will open up more and you'll see more and you'll be able to, to kind of follow their strains and then hopefully follow their lead and um they can lead each other as well. Again, it shouldn't all be on the teacher to try to figure out what needs to be done. If you have a handful of kids in the class, you know, who are really passionate about something and who are able to kind of take charge of it. 00:19:51 They can help bring their friends on board and their enthusiasm can be contagious. Yeah, I, that's, that's so great to think about that student voice perspective. And I, and I, I just think about so many answers where our friends and, and people, I was listening to a podcast the other day where someone was saying this like that one comment from a teacher absolutely does change the trajectory of their lives, right? Like it is, that's because we kind of think as teachers, right? We have 30 students in a class or whatever or in a high school level, right? We were teaching hundreds of students and those moments, we don't always remember each individual moment with each individual kid because we have so many. But as students ourselves, right? We often remember these like very salient moments as like a conversations with teachers that we had. And that's so important to remember. Thank you for reminding us of that. And I'm wondering what would you suggest in terms of action steps for someone who's like, ok, I would like to do the student voice thing. It feels a little overwhelming to have maybe 30 students in a room and they all have different things and I can start with the small comments, maybe of like the noticing. I love that as an action step. Is there something else that you would recommend like as a place to start that a teacher could do? 00:20:55 I think we often say things like choice boards, but it sounds like you're talking about something that's like even deeper, right? Like even even like more strength based and not just like which do now would you like to accomplish? Yeah. Yeah. And, and yes to choice boards and yes to everything there too. And I think that teaching kids to understand themselves is even more powerful than the teacher working to understand them because yeah, there, there's no way you're gonna get to know them all, particularly if you teach multiple classes. Um, it's just it's very difficult and, you know, I taught at the element entry level and even with, you know, just 20 some kids in the classroom, it was still hard because I had so much curriculum I had to quote cover, you know, there was so much we had to be doing all the time that, like, you know, we weren't just, like hanging out in the library corner, like reading books and, you know, talking all the time. Like I had to really be very intentional about it. So it's, it's difficult for the, for the teacher and maybe disempowering in some ways for the kids to rely on an adult telling them what is, what is special or what is good and particularly with younger kids, you'll find they can get very addicted to that and everything becomes like, look at me, look at me, look what I can do. 00:22:06 So the the counterbalance to that is to help them notice things about themselves and to understand what works best for them and what helps them thrive. So, one of the things I'm working on right now is called um finding Flow solutions. And it's about flow in the classroom, which is um Mihai Cheeks at Mihai's research. Uh He was a Hungarian American researcher who was talking about um you know, the state of flow where you just, you're so absorbed in a task um that you just lose track of all time. And I thought this is so much better of a goal for us in class than like being on task like, oh my gosh, like who wants to be told, get on task, you know, like get your work done, finish the assignment. Like being in a flow state is like, it's um it's one of the peak human experiences and the optimal way to experience a flow state is when you're being challenged. It's not when you know, if, if you're just scrolling through tiktok or playing a video game or watching Netflix, you can lose state of, you can lose track of time, but that's not really a state of flow because the state of flow is um when you are actively involved in it. 00:23:13 And so being in a challenging situation can really add to that and we're in challenging situations all the time in schools, we're always, you know, trying to get kids to stretch themselves and grow and to learn. And so it really is the optimal place to experiment with that. So I like the idea of helping kids figure out like what helps them find their flow, what things do we do in school that they find so engaging that they don't want to stop when they're done. And it might just be one thing particularly, you know, as, as kids get older and middle and high school. Um you know, it, it can be more challenging for them to think of stuff that they really enjoy. But certainly everybody I think has had an experience in school where like, oh man, we have to stop now and thinking about like, what was I doing at that time? Was I working alone or with other people? What subject was it? Was I concentrating very hard? Um Was I writing? Was I drawing? Was I doing something with my hands? Was I standing? Was I sitting like, really starting to notice what are those things? Because it's very individualized. It's not gonna be the same for every person and just teaching kids how their brains work, teaching kids. 00:24:15 Um you know how different energy levels happen at different times of day, how the amount of sleep that you get impacts your energy levels and your ability to focus how, what you eat impacts it. Um These are all like very empowering things just to expose kids to, I mean, you don't have to do, you know, you've got a lot of other things that you need to be teaching and again, it shouldn't all be on teachers have to do this, but I find it really helpful just to even mention it because I mean, Google exists like kids can go find more if you tell them that, you know, eating, you know, this, this sort of, you know, less processed foods, more vegetables, whatever can help you focus more or staying hydrated, really helps your brain function. And so it's really good to have a water bottle that's quick, you can just say that really quick and they can always go learn more if they want to like, it's, it's very easy for them to find more information. So, um you know, I don't think you have to be totally um immersed in all of the latest research and all of these things, but just sharing these kinds of things with kids and talking about um your own challenges with, with productivity. 00:25:16 How, you know, I was really tired this morning. I really did not want to come in and teach today. Here's what I did to get motivated or, you know, I really did not feel like reading grading those papers last night, but I knew I needed to get the feedback to you. So here's this little, you know, trick that I use, I use the P Medora method where I work for 20 minutes and then I take a break for five and maybe that's something that you might want to try when you have homework, you have it a try tonight like that sort of thing. So kind of presenting these things to kids is like, this is part of the human experience. This is not just you being immature, which is sometimes how I think we frame it for kids. Like you need to just like buckle down and get it done and like grow up, you know, like, you know, you can't get away with this in the real world, but in the real world. We do all still struggle with getting our work done. We do all still struggle with concentrating and focusing and it's not getting better uh with technology and just with the way the world is changing. So what if we approach it as an experiment is something that we're learning alongside our students and there's no judgment around it. It's, it's morally neutral, not being able to concentrate is not a fault isn't a bad thing. 00:26:18 It is a morally neutral thing and we don't need to load it down with all this baggage and guilt and shame and, you know, cajoling and nagging like it's just, it's a thing. We all experience times and we're just not motivated. So what can we actually do? What things actually work and, and building a toolbox of strategies that you can go to so that you have different options to choose from. You know, maybe this one thing works for a math assignment and this other thing works better after lunch when you're a little sleepy. And maybe this other thing works at night when you need to finish something up. So just teaching kids to notice their own, um, things that help them basically, rather than the teacher figuring it out for each student and telling every single student, um, just present different things to them and then help them apply it and then they can share it with you. They can say this really works for me. Or I didn't like that one at all. Please don't suggest that one to me again. And then, you know, um and, and you're not having to, to be like the apathetic student whisper, you know, and, and figure it all out on your own, let them experiment and let them tell you and then you can also share your same things with them so they can learn from your experience. 00:27:25 Yeah, I love this idea of flow. I I'm a huge fan of chicks in my high like working. So I think that's like brilliant to bring that in. And it also connects, I think to what you were talking about. Teachers and students both being able to co thrive. Like if we can have that for teachers that flow as well as the students. How cool. And I think I'm hearing in that like that space for reflection, like the noticing is important but as the teacher creating that space for yourself and for your students to actually do the noticing to share back with the teacher, like, what are you seeing? Oh my gosh, that would just be a game changer and like it would take 30 seconds right at the end of the day to ask that question and get that like noticing happening, which is just so cool. And so I'm I'm wondering in all of this and all of the work that you do in instructional coaching and all of the thinking about how we find that state of flow. What do you think is the biggest challenge for teachers in doing that work in, in trying to, to make all of this happen for themselves and for their students. Hi Lindsey. Just popping in here to tell you about today's episode resource to help you find the time and energy to implement some of these ideas we're discussing today, Angela is sharing her and her students wisdom with you during the 40 hour Teacher Workweek Online Summit. 00:28:36 Now we recorded this episode in advance of this. So it was free for live attendees, July 10th or 11th. But you can still access the recording for $19. We'll link to it in the blog post for this episode at Lindsay beth lions dot com slash blog slash 133. Back to the episode. Well, I could say finding time for it. Um That's pretty obvious. So I won't speak to that too much. Um I, I think another one that maybe is less obvious is feeling like how am I supposed to teach this to kids when I haven't mastered it myself? And I think, I mean, maybe this actually ties back to the time management piece. The reason we haven't managed figured out for ourselves is because we're exhausted and we're overwhelmed and we're trying to focus on too many different things. So we don't even have that reflection time for ourselves. So the more that I, yeah, actually now that I think this through, I think the two things could be sort of integrated. So if we have our own reflection time, which would be, you know, evenings, weekends breaks, summer, like, really taking that time to be, um, apart from school to not think about school and not do anything, uh, school related. 00:29:44 So that when you come back to thinking about it, you're fresh and then also taking some time, um, to really reflect on what's working, what's not, what do you need? Like, what do you actually need to thrive? What is actually missing for you right now? And how can you get more of it? Because sometimes it's not as big as what we think it would be, you know, like you think, oh, I need, like, I need a whole month just to catch up on everything. But the truth is like, if you just, like, had like an extra hour in the evenings that could make a big difference for you or if you just had time to do this one particular hobby or you just had time to exercise, it would change everything for you. So, really thinking, doing that reflection piece alone and thinking about what you, um, what you really need, I think is, is important and that can help give you back some of that time so that, um, you don't feel like that's such a barrier. Um, and then that will also address the, the part about feeling like you're not good enough at this to be teaching it to kids. I mean, my hope is that Finding Flow Solutions is a curriculum that makes it really easy because you don't have to master it ahead of time. 00:30:46 But as you're saying, it can be like super simple quick things. You don't actually have to have a whole curriculum for this. You can certainly just embed this into um your way of teaching and experiment alongside of students. So this is one of the areas where, you know, we always talk about, you know, God on the side instead of sage on the stage. And it's difficult to do that, particularly at the middle and high school level because you do know so much more about, you know, earth science or geometry or whatever it is that you're teaching than your students. So it's hard to be in a position of learner. But when it comes to productivity, that's something we're all still learning mindset is something we're all still learning and we're all still always learning about ourselves. I hope to be learning about myself till the day that I am not here anymore because I'm always changing and growing. And so no matter how much more you know about your subject area than your students, um how much older you are, than them, how much more experienced in life you are than them. You're still a learner in this area. And I think it can be really um really empowering for kids to see the teacher step into that role and say I don't have this mastered either. 00:31:53 I mess up with this all the time. I'm not quite where I wanna be with it and I'm still trying different things out modeling that for them rather than saying, ok, this is the standard that I expect, which is the way that I think school is done a lot of times like I expect you to always be on time. I expect you to always turn in everything on time. Ok, I'm late sometimes. Personally, I don't meet every deadline. Like, uh you know, I spaced on this podcast interview with you, we had to reschedule. So, you know, like stuff happens, we're, we're all human and that doesn't mean necessarily making excuses for it. But um if we are striving for always showing up perfectly, that's not gonna happen. So we need to have strategies for what to do. How can we be resilient in those situations where we weren't able to do everything that we wanted to do. And um modeling that for kids rather than trying to be the person who's already mastered it, I think helps them be more vulnerable. 00:32:54 And I think you also learn more too because you're learning alongside the students and, and getting ideas from them and they can get ideas from you. Absolutely. And I, and I'm just thinking about I, when I worked in this um international network school. We, we have this thing principal, I guess we called it uh one learning model for all. And it was, it was very much that the teachers are doing the same activities as the students. And the students can see that like, the students might pop into a PD or something or a teacher time after school and like, notice that we're doing the same like rose thorn or, you know, whatever it is and just be like, oh, that's really cool that we are learning alongside you. And we're literally doing that in our team time and our PD and our staff meetings. And I think that's such a great opportunity to do some of the things they're saying where we're experimenting alongside and like for leaders listening, you know, like that's such a cool thing I think to be able to do with your teachers. So it's not, I think it's very great to reflect outside of school. But also like, is that some, you know, is that an additional task that we need to put on teachers if we can embed it in the school day too, to just give teachers time to be able to think and reflect and do that thing? I think that would be so cool. And then the other thing I was thinking is you talk a lot about fewer things better. 00:33:58 And so like that piece too, like, do I need a month to catch up? Like, well, what can actually go and what can I actually just prioritize to be able to not actually have to do all of the things and like, what are the most essential? I think that is really helpful as teachers are kind of thinking about. Ok, like what do I literally do in terms of putting the stuff into practice? Um I just think you just bring so much wisdom in your podcast that if people aren't listening, you need to have the link to listen more. Thank you for that Lindsay and thanks for also bringing out the piece about how school leaders can embed this more and then you can have this collective reflection time together with other teachers that's so powerful. Yeah, I think there's so much leaders can do to, to really leverage this and like not standardized but like just make this a common practice, right? A community practice that's not just for students. Um II, I want to move to respect your time to, to kind of our closing questions here. What is something and this is just for fun. So it does not have to be education related. But what is something that you have been learning about lately? I know that you talked about like, you just want to constantly be learning about yourself and you're just kind of like this, always learning, what is something that you wanna share with folks that you have been learning lately? 00:35:08 Um OK, so this is totally random, but I've been reading um I've been learning more about the dust bowl and what happened in that era. Like, I, I get fixated on these like certain areas of like certain aspects of history. And I'm really always fascinated by daily life. Like, I don't want to know about the battles and the famous people. I want to know like what was actual daily life like then. And it has been so fascinating to see the parallels between um what happened then and, and what happens now about how, you know, when you try to force the land and the animals to exist in a way to serve you rather than working yourself into the environment. Um The catastrophe that that comes from it, the suffering that comes from it. It has been really, really interesting. So that's, that's totally random. But it, it's something that kind of helps me think um outside just our current moment in time and recognizing patterns between what's happened um in the past and making the parallels till today. Like, I feel like that always helps me think more deeply. 00:36:12 That is super insightful and I love the random ones. They are the best. So my final question to you is just where can listeners learn more about you? I think they're gonna listen to this and be like, yep, I'm on the podcast. I'm doing all the things I'm doing 42 hour teacher work week. Where can people get in touch. So the easiest way is just truth for teachers dot com. So from there, you can see a link to the 40 hour Teacher Work Week, which is opening to new members. Um, this summer. Um You'll find out about the 40 hour Teacher Work Week online summit, which I'm really excited about. That's July 10th and 11th where our members are sharing their best time saving ideas. Um, and it's totally free. So I'm, I'm really excited for you to watch. I've seen all of the presentations and they're phenomenal just to see like what they're doing in their classrooms, to streamline grading lesson planning, all that kind of stuff. So you can see links for that at truth for teachers dot com. Um as well as my other curriculum resources, the finding flow stuff that I mentioned and my social media handles. So I'm not super active on social media, but I do have a presence and I do like to, you know, DM with people and interact there. 00:37:16 So um feel free to, to reach out, be in touch. I would love to hear your ideas. And definitely, um if you, if you like Lindsey's podcast, you will love Truth for teachers too. I think so. I think we're very sympathetic in a lot of ways. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Oh, my gosh, Angela. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and sharing your wisdom with us. Thanks Lindsey. If you like this. Episode. I bet you'll be just as jazzed as I am at a coaching program for increasing student led discussions in your school, Shane Saer and Jamila Dugan. Talk about a pedagogy of student voice in their book Street data. They say students should be talking for 75% of class time. Do students in your school talk for 75% of each class period. I would love for you to walk into any classroom in your community and see this in action. You're smiling yourself as you listen right now. Grab 20 minutes on my calendar to brainstorm. How I can help you make this big dream of reality. I'll help you build a comprehensive plan from full day trainings and discussion protocols like circle and Z Socratic seminar to follow up classroom visits where I can plan witness and debrief discussion based lessons with your teachers. Sign up for a nerdy no strings attached to brainstorm. Call it Lindsay lions dot com slash contact. Until next time, leaders think big act brave and be your best self. 00:38:22 This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast Network, better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there, explore more podcasts at teach better dot com slash podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I coach teachers on addressing unplanned issues in class:
9/11/2023 132. A Framework for Teaching Structural Racism in US History with Ayo Magwood M.ScRead Now
Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
In this podcast episode, Ayo shares her innovative approach to teaching structural racism and fostering civic consciousness in the classroom. Discover how using data inquiries, historical context, and value tensions can empower students to think critically, engage in national conversations, and shape a better future.
Ayo Magwood, M.Sc., (Uprooting Inequity, LLC) specializes in evidence-based, apolitical, and solutionary training on understanding and remediating structural racism. She is passionate about fostering cross-difference cooperation towards realizing equal opportunity for all. Her superpower is her ability to synthesize a wide range of research, data, primary sources, and abstract concepts and weave them into engaging narratives and diagrams. Ayo was recently recognized as a leading expert on social justice education. She has a B.A. from Brown University and a M.Sc. in applied economics from Cornell University. The Big Dream To provide students with the historical context and understanding needed to engage in national conversations about structural racism and policy issues. Ayo’s Election Unit Ayo created an election unit that focused on historical context and understanding rather than candidates. Designed to equip students with the knowledge they need to engage in national conversations and shape a better future, Ayo focused on teaching historical through-lines that explain racial inequality, racial tension, racism, structural racism, income inequality, and political polarization. She encouraged students to think critically, ask questions, and discover the truth for themselves. Ayo’s Framework Ayo uses data inquiries for students to uncover the existence of structural racism on their own. By distinguishing between empirical issues and opinion/policy issues, she ensures that the classroom stays focused on the evidence while promoting civic consciousness that “benefits the common good.” This approach allows for respectful conversations in the classroom and helps students understand and take informed positions on policy issues, working together across ideological differences. Focus on structural racism over bias. Ayo says, “I feel that it's more important as a US history teacher to teach that historical context and about structural racism. They have 100 chances to learn about interpersonal race outside that classroom, but they will have very few chances to learn that history and about structural racism outside the classroom. And…that historical structural racism will set them up to learn about bias.” Framing structural racism as an empirical issue, she minimizes disruptions and parent concerns while creating a learning space where students can think critically and make evidence-based decisions. Challenges, Or Where Things Could Go Wrong Two ways classroom conversations about race are disrupted by students or parents include:
Action Steps Introduce Value Tensions Invite students to identify what’s going on underneath a political disagreement and encourage students to move away from extremes, instead asking students to position themselves on a continuum. Examples: individual rights vs. common good; civil liberties vs. national security. Data Inquiries Give students space to investigate and draw their own conclusions from empirical data. Implicit Practices Model that we all make mistakes and learn from them. Foster an “equity-conscious identity” or a “we” identity. Get Started! Read! You can start with Ayo’s Psychology Today article. Survey your students and ask for feedback on your lessons. Get Ayo’s free lesson on perspectives consciousness and start introducing values tensions in your class. Stay Connected You can find this week’s guest on her website, Uprooting Inequity. To help you introduce value tensions and perspectives consciousness in your classroom, Ayo is sharing a free lesson with you! And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 132 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 below. Quotes:
TRANSCRIPT Listeners. This is gonna be a great show. Io Magwood MS C, founder of Uprooting inequity. LLC specializes in evidence-based alit and solutionary training and understanding and remediating structural racism. She is passionate about fostering cross different cooperation towards realizing equal opportunity for all her superpower is her ability to synthesize a wide range of research, data, primary sources and abstract concepts and weave them into engaging narratives and diagrams. I was recently recognized as a leading expert on social justice education. She has a B A from Brown University and a Master's in Science and Applied Economics from Cornell You University. Now I have used a lot of what I always has taught me in my own practice and I have to say it is brilliant. I cannot wait for you to hear from her. Here we go. I'm educational justice coach, Lindsay Lyons. And here on the time for teacher podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice design curricula grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. 00:01:07 I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings if you're a principal, assistant superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nerd out about co creating curriculum with students. I made this show for you. Here we go. I welcome to the time for a teacher shift podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Oh, thank you for inviting me. I'm excited. Yes. And so I cannot wait for our conversation. We're just gonna kind of dive in here. We were just talking before we hit record. Normally, the first question I ask is, you know, what do we want able to keep in mind as we jump into our conversation? And you were telling me about an election unit, you taught that was not actually about candidates but about kind of what people needed to know to understand what was going on. And I just thought that was brilliant. Do you mind starting there and just talking to us about that unit? Sure. So I had a, it started because I had a um student debate on affirmative action. And of course, I understand that people have different positions on it, uh uh ideological position. 00:02:14 So I was prepared for that, but I was not prepared for the uh a lot of the reasoning behind uh both arguments. Actually, they were uh very uninformed, they were coming, this repeating sound bites often. Um And reflecting on it, I realized that they were missing uh a lot of historical context and, and, and contemporary uh demographic and, and socioeconomic content. Um, and then I wasn't teaching it and even though I'm a US history teacher, I, I somehow just assumed they knew it and, and, well, I was teaching a more traditional uh curriculum and of course, it, it has, it contains very little uh historical uh uh history on the anti-black racism, you know, a typical um US history class. There's not a lot uh beyond uh the, you know, after the civil rights uh uh movement, then, then you, they jump to Obama's. So and red lining is maybe mentioned very briefly. Um hardly anything on income inequality and political polarization. So the next year um was also the 2016 elections. 00:03:20 Um And I decided that my goal was that they would be able to um participate in the national conversation that was occurring around uh that campaign and that from an important position this time, not just this is the right thing to say for based on my ideology. Um So I basically taught all of the historical concept um for them to be able to understand the, the policy issues so that they could participate in the conversation and discussion. So I moved the 19 fifties to the present or 19 thirties to the present unit to the beginning of the year because of course, that's when they needed to know it in the fall. Um And I revamped my, that, that unit uh uh or units, I just took out the, the foreign uh relations part. And we taught, I mean, uh uh I taught that at the end of the year. Um and we uh I, I just sort of reorganized things and added things. So we're looking at the, the, through the historical, through lines to that explain um racial inequality, racial tension, racism, structural racism today. 00:04:29 Um A second one was in income inequality, which is, you know, also a huge um a factor behind uh many of the policy issues and finally, the political polarization, that was the, the shortest part. Um So I just, you know, taught a lot of the same history but uh you know, and, and concentrating on, on those uh factors. And then at the end of the six week unit, I had um I, I invited parents of family members, uh uh adults uh to a uh a discussion. They, I broke the kids up into groups of mixed groups of, of adults and, and students uh in several different classrooms. Um And I had uh several uh you know, questions but the, the, the, the questions, but again, they were, they weren't like right or wrong questions. They were like um just wondering, right, exploring, analyzing and the parents were, were floored at how well even when they got, were presented with novel issues, they were able to, to connect and, and apply what they had learned. 00:05:32 Well, that was because I intentionally did that because I kept telling them throughout the the unit, I was like, remember the point is that that not just not that you learn these memorize these historical events, but remember the point is is that, you know, 15, 20 years, you hear about something new, a new issue or a new policy that you're able to identify the patterns. Um you know, look below it and see what the tensions are, but between it and be able to make an informed and the historical context and be able to make an informed decision on where you stand on it. Um So I emphasized that I emphasized the pattern, like one of the things I did was um that before we started, uh each unit, then, um I would present uh what I call value tensions. I made them up. But um for example, individual rights versus the common, good, uh civil liberties versus national security and they were on a continuum, they're not right or wrong, but on a continuum, we did a lot of um take a stand activities for example. 00:06:35 And I would, in the beginning of the unit, I would give them start out with very easy, easy, very, you know, something very obvious issues in, in, in their world around them, not national politics where you have that tension. Um And then I would have them stand on a continuum and, you know, for several different ones until they, they they got, they were able to identify, see how all in all these issues we have there the same or similar tension underneath it. Then we would, uh do the history of the unit, the, the historical and again, each time, every time a new, um, uh historical event is I help them see the, the patterns. And then at the end of the unit, we would go back to the present. But this time with a more meaty controversial, you know, issues that are actually in the news. Um And then the same thing based on what you've learned in history and based on your understanding of those tensions, what can you tell me about, you know, what insight does that give you into this issue? 00:07:36 So they had tons of practice each repetitive. Um And so at the end, they, they were able to, to do that. Um So, but that's my emphasis is on teaching historical and structural racism as opposed to interpersonal bias. I almost don't touch um interpersonal bias. I think that's first of all, that can be very ideologically uh laden. Um You, especially without, if you don't have that historical context, then if you're, it becomes very emotional and contentious and very ideological. But also I feel like I would be imposing um a AAA position on them like this is the right thing, you know, this is the correct answer. So this is the right position. This is, this is how you be race that are not racist. You know, and I, II, I do that with myself and my son but, um, it, it's, I think it's inappropriate in, in the classroom but I find that, you know, as long as you, you, you, you know that history and you have the evidence and you're basing your opinion on that evidence. 00:08:42 Um, then I, I found that the positions were, uh, you know, they could be very different uh ideologically liberal and conservative, but you don't have anybody saying something, you know, crazy or, or, or racist, right? You know. Um So one of the ways I did that was a key way that I did that is um in the beginning of the uh of the unit, um I had them, I asked them the question, you know, does structural racism exist? Like just the, the, the start of the section on, on race? Um And I said this is, and I, because I don't, I'm not gonna tell them that structural racism exists. That's um you know, first of all, as a, as a black woman, I'm definitely not gonna say that to um a predominantly white classroom but any, but anyhow, it, it's just not good teaching, right? You know, that that's basic teaching is you don't need the students need to find out for themselves. Um So uh they looked at the data so they, they did what I call a data inquiry instead, you know, instead of using historical um inquiries are based on text, right? 00:09:46 Primary sources, text, sometimes images. This one was based on data, it's all data. Um And, but I did say this is an empirical um inquiry uh like you have in science uh or, but um not in, not in opinion and, and not just in science and in social science, right? So in economics, sociology, you know, the human geography, it's an empirical issue that you're trying to figure out. So look at the data and then uh at the end I say, OK, what you're trying to figure out is the structure exist. What, what did you find? And they're like, oh my God, it not only does it exist, but it is so much worse than we imagined. They, they, I knew structural racism existed because they told me, they taught me that is not good teaching, right? Um But the there and also not, not only should you not be telling, you know, that the students should be looking at the data themselves, but also it was interesting that, you know, once they saw the data, they saw it was so much worse than they imagined because their imagination is, you know, if you just say structural reasons this without that, you know, them seeing the data themselves, they, they imagine it to be much smaller than, than it is. 00:11:06 And, and then, and then they could see also very specifically how some of the ways it plays out, right? So then, um I presented them with a, a framework for the entire unit. Um I said we're going to distinguish between empirical issues and opinion slash policy issues. So, empirical issues are not up to debate. Um You know, we don't debate uh whether the holocaust occurred, we don't debate whether it's um um you know, of what, what temperature water boils or, or freezes or whatever it is. Right. So, um and does stricter racism exist, as we saw, it's an empirical issue, it's very, it's pretty straightforward to measure it, you know, in different ways, it's broken down, you know, how does stricter racism a affect, for instance, racial disparities and asthma, racial, you know, um and, but there's tons, tons and tons of evidence, right on that. Um So we, we don't, it's not appropriate to debate it. We assess the, the, the evidence on it and you should definitely be given the opportunity to assess the evidence on empirical issues before you just make a decision or, you know, based on so what you think. 00:12:18 Um And, but then we're gonna separate that from policy questions because that's opinion and, and that's, that's gonna vary a lot. Uh not just individually, uh not just your identity but also your ideology obviously, right? You know, uh more government intervention, less government intervention that is, we are not uh uh uh suggesting that one is better than the other if you're against affirmative action. I totally respect that. I can, I, you know, that's, that's an ideological opinion but, you know, that's, it, it's not the structure of race that's not up for, for debate. And what that did was, um, it, it greatly minimized, it pretty much cut out most the vast majority of ways that classrooms are disrupted by conversations on race. Um, and the vast majority of, uh, parent concerns because, um, most of the racism is going to enter the classroom when uh a student uh says, um you know, strict racism doesn't exist, you know, not, not based on evidence just because they, they haven't personally observed it in their um 90 a 95% white community. 00:13:34 They have not, never personally observed it. So strict racism doesn't exist but they can see racial disparities. So, oh, but the racial disparities are due to black people just not working hard enough or are due to uh being low income, right? And then that is not gonna go over very well with the black students or Latino students or even, you know, people, other progressives, right? So that's gonna be one source and then the other source of, of the classroom disruption of uh these conversations going wrong. Um Is what if a conservative student says, for example, um you know, I'm against for uh I don't agree with affirmative action which is a completely valid concern, but then, you know, uh they get called racist or you know, they, they get that push back. So if you have that distinction between purple versus policy and uh you look at the evidence and strict racism exists, it, it does impact, it does not determine racial disparities. Clearly, individual effort in there obviously also play a role in not too, but it, it certainly impacts that you have to consider the impact of that on racial disparities. 00:14:44 But then once that's established, um people can have different opinions on what to do about it. That is very different. Um And I would present that very, just transparently to the students. And it would be interesting because, uh you know, first there was an outburst and it was usually on progressive students, progressive students would um shout out what you didn't allow people to say that affirmative action is better. I'm like, yep. You know, that is an opinion, right? And then, oh, it always went the exact same way and then they would, then they'd be silent for like a minute and you could almost see the cogs being, you know, turning in their minds and they're like, wait a second, wait, that, that works. That works. Yeah. Yeah. With that, you know, um and it, it, it allowed for, it really reduced the tension and then allowed for much more respectful conversations, respect for each other. 00:15:49 That also remember combined with those value tensions, right? Because uh you know, I had, I had ordered that was at the same time simultaneously, you know, teaching them that, you know, the, the, those other people aren't stupid. It's not that I'm right. They're, they're wrong. I got it right. They're stupid. But rather that they're valuing a different, you know, that they're, they're on the other, you know, that they're having a different value in that value. Tension. Um, and all of all of us agree that both of those values are important. Both everybody agrees that individual rights and the common good are uh are, are good things and, and, and based on the context, there are also foundational uh you know, part of our constitution, they're foundational um values, same thing, civil liberties, national security, but we disagree on and we are on that continuum, you know, what balance we're on. So that combined with the empirical versus um policy framework plus some other work I did with um uh for example, I do deliberations into the debates also, you know, it's not, I'm right or wrong, but we have to listen to each other, respect each other and come to a um you know, uh a final solution that is that, that benefits the common good. 00:17:10 But again, only policy issues, no, only policy issue, right? Not empirical issues, right? Um And so, and, and I also emphasized, um you know, the, that the co the goal was also the reason why I wanted them to be able to understand and take informed positions on policy was so that they could work together across different racial difference, ideological difference, whatever um worked together. Um and, and uh deliberate together to find um you know, solutions that, that, that benefit the common good that all of us are, are um you know, the benefit of the country because that was also a concern of mine that we're so politically polarized. Um Anyway, I talked a lot. No, this is beautiful. I feel like this was like the majority of like everything we needed to hear. So I'm so glad you went through all of that. I just wanted to highlight a few things that stuck out to me of just like this idea of how it looks in practice because you took us kind of from the, the, you took us through the framework and the vision, but you took us through it through the lens of an actual unit or how you would lay this out for students. 00:18:19 And so some things I'm just thinking if a listener is thinking, OK, how do I coach a history teacher to kind of do some of these things? I love the idea of kind of that. And I talked about it on the podcast here before. And you were the one who introduced me to this theory or this, this concept of kind of the empirical or the policy, right? I think mcavoy and has right to like talk about these things. And so that is fascinating, right? So we can not, we don't debate the empirical, we do debate the policy, we can have a continuum. I love that idea. It's either or you can be on a continuum on policy issues. Right. Yes. Great point. And then also that it benefits the common good. I think that grounding is like really central to the conversation and that's how you get through those two challenges that you raise. Right? If a, if a teacher is just kind of going in and saying, we're gonna have these debates about policy issues, but the the grounding isn't in that it, your answer has to benefit the common good. Then you probably could get a lot of like racism and, and things coming out. But that grounding just makes it so that we eliminate. Like you were saying a lot of those concerns we may have and honestly concerns that teachers often, those concerns are so daunting for teachers that they don't even start the conversations because they're afraid of what might happen and they feel ill equipped. 00:19:31 And I think these are logistical things that you can do in a classroom to have a generative conversation that respects the dignity and honors the dignity of everyone and still enables for disagreement and like an authentic deliberation. So I just wanna say thank you because that is amazing. Yeah, I might even, I came to us history after teaching um civics and, and government for um uh for several years. So I had that background. So, civic discourse um and uh was, was important to me that um that makes sense to me. And I already had um a lot of civic activities, like for instance, the deliberation, you know, the, the take a stand. I had already, I had already done the value tensions. II, I transferred them over. I invented that I came up with that when I was teaching us government and civic. So um I, I sort of adapted it to, to, to the history, the history setting. I love the value tension. So honestly, I, I just was working with the US history team who was developing some new units. 00:20:32 And my favorite one that they developed was or they didn't frame it in that exact way like a value tension. But it basically was like, is it more important to have this value or this value? And that was like the key question and I just envision a world where like us history units are taught where like each unit is a value tension and then we just go back in history to explore like the both sides of those tensions. And then we use it to like you were saying, bring it to the modern deliberation, like what's going on now because I love your goal of like, how do we get students today to understand what's going on today? Using kind of history and that grounding to um really be able to participate in the national discourse. Like I, I love that, I'd love to see that everywhere. Thank you. The value, tensions have several um goals or uh benefits. And one is like you said that the respect on um uh you know, of other positions, ideological positions, but also it, it also encourages them to, to move a little bit towards the, the well off the extremes. 00:21:37 I don't care where they are, you know, they don't, I don't, it's not like I want them all to be exactly in the middle, but the, the extremes are usually not very healthy, right? Um So it, it, and stop thinking it as a binary, but it usually alludes them to have a position that's at least slightly, you know, off of the, the extremes on the continuum because that's what a debate does. A debate encourages you almost forces you to be, you know, 100% this or 100% this, um, the whole package, right? Um, but that allows them to think more critically. It's also encourages more critical thinking, right? Because you're, you're able to weigh it and, and you can say, well, you know, this, but that maybe actually this part can be further on and this part, yeah, it uh it, you break down the components and really weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Um which makes you, which helps you, like I said, it helps your critical thinking skills and also it really helps you have a, a more reform position rather than just, you know, uh the talking points. 00:22:40 And then the other um advantage of the, the value is that's what allowed me, allowed them to draw the historical through lines or not all by itself, but it really helped them to draw the historical through lines. And also again, to, to be able to understand the, the present day issues because they had two, they had two resources or um one was that historical context, right? Um For example, terms that are used in, in politics, right? They're historically la they have the, the they say historical connotation, they have, you know, lots of the terms we use law and order and on and on and on, right? They have deep historical connotations that kids don't know. Right. So they have that historical context and historical connotation. Um And then they have that value test and those two things will allow them to make an informed decision. And I also yet another thing is um to all everything else that I've said so far was explicit, very explicit and very uh that I taught the kids. 00:23:44 One thing I did not um explicitly share with the kids is that I indirectly um uh I modeled well, first of all, I modeled uh uh that, you know, we're, we're, we're learning, right? We're growing, we're constantly making mistakes and if that's OK, you know. Um so I, I would tell them, for example, I'm wearing my teacher hat, right? So, I mean, you can't say something completely, uh uh obnoxious and, but it, but if you, this is your chance to ask all those questions that you are scared to ask because this is a learning space, a learning space. And then once you, uh, so that you don't make those mistakes or you feel more confident when you go out and have these conversations elsewhere. But also I modeled uh in the very beginning when we started that. Um I, I almost, I very don't talk about bias very much. Uh I, I feel that it's more important as a US history teacher to teach that historical context and about structural racism um into teaching about bias and interpersonal racism. 00:24:51 First of all, it's hard to do without being uh teaching uh progressive values, right? Uh which is not inappropriate class when we should be non ideological. And it, it's very much telling kids, you know, how you should the Yeah, what you should do. If you don't believe this, then you are a racist, then this is the right position. It, it, I don't know, it's, it's hard to, yeah. And, and also that the US history, right? That's the historical context is that, that history and that the con contemporary structure, racism, that, that's my job, right? Um And also uh they can learn, it's pretty easy to learn about bias outside the classroom and they, they have 100 chances to learn about in uh inter race outside that classroom. But they will have very few chances to learn that history and about structuralism outside the classroom. And finally, that historical structure of racism will set them up to learning about bias. Because from what I've seen a lot of ways that these conversations and discussions on bias go wrong is like how my my students, you know, when they discussed affirmative action, right? 00:26:01 Uh because they're, they're not aware that that not those, those um positions on bias or interpersonal racism are not informed bias. So I see my role as, you know, setting them up. Um But anyhow, the, so that, but so I would model that uh that the, the 11 of the few times I talked about bias is at the very beginning to, you know, set the tone in the classroom. So the, the one thing, you know, this is, you can't say it in something obnoxious, but you can ask questions that you would be afraid to ask somewhere else. And then the, the, the, the, the second thing is I would um model look, I'm, I'm a, you know, 50 year old African American woman and, and I, and I, you know, step in it all the time mess up, right? Um You know, with other, I say things that are, you know, offensive to other people. And I gave an, an example, actually, I gave an uh an actual example uh that involved a, another staff member. But when we, I didn't name them, I forget. But, um, and I say, I, I'm continue learning, I'm, you know, I, I said, like, hold up, I apologize. 00:27:07 You know, I inform myself so I, I won't do that at least particular thing again. II, I said that's part of, it's just a natural part of living in a diverse uh country and it has tons of benefits. I love living in such a, a, a diverse, uh community. But, um, my responsibility as a resident, a citizen is that I need to educate myself on it and I'm gonna make mistakes along the way, you know, I mean, it's not like you say check. I, I don't have any more biases. I was like, it's, it's like I don't say check. I am a, I learned how to be a good mother, right? So, or, um, you know, you don't take check. I learned how to be good Christian Jew or Muslim. Right? It, it's a, it's a con or check. I am the perfect, uh, partner, spouse, right? It's a constant process and you're going to mess up, you are going to inadvertently offend your, your spouse or your child. 00:28:09 Right. What do you do? You just apologize, inform yourself, keep on going. And so I think that helped a lot. And then the final thing is that I helped, I was, again, I didn't say it but, um, I, I made comments along the way that helped them see themselves as a we, we, I I fostered a we identity, equity con I call it equity conscious. We identity. I told them, you know, like the, the six firemen who touched the elephant in different parts, we're, we're living on different parts of the elephant. We're not just touching different parts of elephant. We live on different parts of elephant. So our Americas look very different. We each see of an experience, a very different America. Um So we gotta talk but so just like this explain, we got to talk to each other so that we can move the elephant forward together because we're, you know, even though we're in different parts of the elephant, we're also on the same elephant and it benefits us all to move it forward. 00:29:11 So you gotta figure out how to, you know, how to look at empirical evidence and how to talk about policy issues and and listen to each other so that you can figure out solutions that benefit the common good, which is the whole elephant to move it forward. So we were constantly, I would, I would say uh you know, you guys have to learn these skills, you have to learn the skills of looking for evidence. I also taught them how to read data graphs. Of course, they've learned that in math class, but it's different for, you know, social science issues. We looked at, you know, learning how to data learning. Uh you learn how to use, go to evidence and then, you know, you learn how to deliberate, learn how civic discord. You learn how you're learning all these things so that when you go out in the world, you know, you can, you can help. Uh I told them us adults messed up, right? We've created this world with, you know, racism and uh um structural poverty, structural uh racism, extreme political polarization. 00:30:17 We can't even pass any laws because Congress is so divided. We adults messed that up. But you, we I I'm I'm counting on you, you guys have the opportunity to use these skills to move the alpha forward to, to pass, to vote on policies that will improve the country and, and bring us back together that will reduce racism for racism, reduce strut for poverty and, and and pass laws that improve the common good. Um So you noticed what I was doing? There is, first of all, I'm fostering that we identity, you know, we identity with many differences but um and you can work together, right? Um But the second thing also is I'm taking away the shame and blame, right? You are not, no, none of you as young people are responsible for what was in the past, but you are collectively responsible for improving the future. 00:31:19 You see that, that difference. Um And then I would say, you know, 30 years from now when I'm in that old age, old people home. Don't let me find out that you guys dropped the ball. I, we are counting on you to work together and move things forward and, and fix a little bit of what we messed up. So I didn't, I didn't tell them what was behind that. That was the only, I didn't tell them what was behind that, but I was fostering that, that um those feelings or a disposition. I should say that is amazing. Thank you for sharing all of that. I think as we move too close, I think people have been listening have probably been like, yes, I wanna do all of these things and I, I'm wondering if there's one thing we can share as a place to start for either a teacher or someone who is kind of coaching teachers, history teachers to kind of do this better. Where what's kind of step one? What's kind of the thing that gets the momentum going if you had to pick one? Hi, it's Lindsay. Just hopping in here quickly to tell you about today this episode. Freebie Io talks about in this episode, her lesson plan where she uses the metaphor of the blind men and the elephant to teach about important structural racism concepts. 00:32:31 That lesson is going to be available to you for free. Thank you. I, and that will be located on our blog post for this episode. That's at Lindsay beli dot com slash blog slash 132 back to the episode. Um That's kind of hard because they definitely worked in. Um I would not do one of those alone. Um That, so I guess you could divide it into, let's see, two parts, right? Two in basic. It's that, you know, same thing, the empirical. So for the, you know, teaching that history teaching that structural racism. So, unfortunately, I had to, um I had to invent that. Um basically, uh I had to teach myself a lot of it too. And then I had to create resources and figure out how to teach it to get because teaching about ST and structural racism, you know, is hard. Um I do have a um uh a short article in psychology today that summarizes um that because I train now, II, I now train teachers uh how to do this, but it's I, I would tell them you cannot do them separate. 00:33:39 So you have to, on one hand, you know, teach that historical structure of racism with tons of data, not just primary sources, but data, et cetera. Um on one hand and, and I, I came up from bad experiences, but what I did is after every time I would try something new or after the unit, I was constantly sending out um Google Monkey Forms anonymous, but they had to specify their race and their ideology and I would pour through those. Um And then say, oh, I need to adjust it, you know, and I adjust it next, the, you know, the next, for the next year or sometimes if I, if I could see it did not go well in the classroom, I come back the next day and say, I'm, I'm sorry, I apologize that that did not go well, I'm gonna restart that. So I, um but anyhow, um yeah, so that, that, that's one set of skills and resources that teach about structural racism and they don't really exist. Um And then the other part um is the more civic part. 00:34:41 So that includes the value, tensions. Um And that uh I, I, the, basically the, the per I call it, it's perspectives, consciousness or being able to take perspectives, taking, they call it. And I use the blind men and the elephant framework. We, I would simulate it um with the students, students would simulate the blind men and the elephant. Um I have that lesson is free on my website, by the way. Um So the, on the very, very first day school, they would, I have them, I would blindfold, you know, three volunteers. And I brought out this old sculpture of a beer that I found in the store, art room storage. Um And then I put a different part into each of their hands. They would, I say, describe the shape, not the text of the field, but the shape, of course they disagreed. Um And then, um I would share the, the parable metaphor to them and they got, they got it right. Everyone has different perspectives on the issue. And I said, OK, I'm gonna take it one step forward and I gave them, um, maps of the racial maps of Washington to see where I was. 00:35:46 And you could see the stark segregation of both. I gave them three maps, racial, um, political ideology or who voted for in the last election and also income. And I said, OK, what does that, how does that connect? And they were working in pairs? And usually you take them a while, but eventually each year one of the kids would say, oh my God, we're not just touching different parts of the elephant. We're actually living on different parts of the elephant and we're experiencing different Americas and, and I said, yes, so the experiencing different Americas, that's the empirical issues, right? Um in, in, in large part, right? Because um because you, you, you, you have students say who look at a graph of national graph and say no, that's not true. You just because it, yeah, you, you see that map right there, you see that, you see that neighbor right there, that's 99% white, you know, and high income. Yeah, you live in that bubble. You don't see the rest of the world. This is national averages, right? 00:36:49 You know. Um so that living on different parts of the elephant is more like that empirical and then the touching is, is more like a policy, you know, the different opinions based on your identity and stuff. And I, I put that, I blew up that poster and have it on the wall all year long and we would refer to it and, and the kids would refer to it. Like if they're having a discussion, not, not even about race about the year and they're having a discussion about whatever. And when the kids gets entrenched in their, in their position, the other kid would point to the wall and say, remember the elephant, you know, um it got to where the English teachers came to me and were like, so what is this elephant that the kids are talking about in English in my class? So, you know, but um so yeah, those two parts, the two, they have to be uh you, you have to do them in Tanda. Um That makes so much sense. 00:37:51 Yeah, because you, because if you just like present the structural racism without first of all giving them that freedom to have different opinions on political issues, you could see how that doesn't go well. Um And also without training them to work together, you know, to respect each other's differences on different parts of the, all that, you know, is they work together and, and then also vice versa. I would not do all any of the civics part unless they had the historical and economic um evidence too. So they worked together. But I do have um so that's what I do now, iii I train teachers um how to do that. And I also um I developed uh I have like huge um huge data uh base of uh not data. I have these huge power point um of just slides of different data points, different historical resources, primary sources. Um And that's part of the package. 00:38:53 If I, if I train um teachers, they get um they, they get that just treasure trove of tons and tons of, of uh yes slides with uh data graphs with the uh the results of of different research, um you know, primary sources, et cetera. Um And then, uh you know, they can pick and choose, of course, you know, based on their curriculum, based on their interests, based on uh whatever they, it, it, it makes it easier for them to, to feed it into their given into their own curriculum, you know, they can take to enhance. Um So, yeah, and I, I was gonna say you're leaning me into my, my final question of just like where people can learn more about you. And of course, we'll link to all these things of psychology today article. Um That, that lesson you were saying will link to your site and the lesson on perspective consciousness. Um where can people who are a lot of people who listen to our leaders and if they're interested in bringing you to their school for training, like how do they get in touch with you and, and where would you want them to go to? 00:39:55 Connect? Yep. Um My uh consult consultancy is named Uprooting Inequity. So the that's intentional, it's uh the Uprooting is uh it is reflective of my um my focus on getting to root causes, right? So when they're looking at policy issues, when you're looking and also on the institutional level, right? So if you have, if you're trying to address, for example, inequity on the institutional level, as school administrators, you know, let's get down to, let's drill down to the root causes and some of them may be historical, some of them may be behavioral science. I'm, I'm a huge nerd. I, I eat, I eat a peer reviewed journal articles for breakfast. Um So I'm always, so, you know, the historical roots, economic roots of behavioral science, um and as in addition to uh evidence based strategies, so I'm always like, let's get to it. So that's essentially the, the same thing with the, the policy issues, right? I'm telling the kids, you know, don't vote on it or take a position because this is the right way. 00:40:57 But, you know, let's get to the root behind the policy issue which is, you know, historical and structural racism or whatever the equivalent is. So that's, that's why I'm Uprooting inequity um instead of addressing uh on the top and I have a website Uprooting inequity dot com. Perfect. I thank you so much for being a guest on this show today. It's been a pleasure learning from you. Thank you for having me. If you like this episode, I bet you'll be just as jazz as I am about my coaching program for increasing student led discussions in your school, Shane, SA and Jamila Dugan. Talk about a pedagogy of student voice in their book street data. They say students should be talking for 75% of class time. Do students in your school talk for 75% of each class period. I would love to walk into any classroom in your community and see this in action. If you're smiling yourself as you listen right now. Grab 20 minutes on my calendar to brainstorm. How I can help you make this big dream of reality? I'll help you build a comprehensive plan from full day trainings and discussion protocols like circle and Z Socratic seminar to follow up classroom visits where I can plan witness and debrief discussion based lessons with your teachers. Sign up for a nerdy no strings attached to brainstorm. 00:42:02 Call it Lindsay by clients dot com slash contact. Until next time. Leaders think big act brave and be your best self. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast network. Better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there, explore more podcasts at teach better dot com. Slash podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I show you how to create an intellectual ancestors tree:
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Wow, we’re entering the 4th season of this podcast! Each year, it has evolved to better your listening experience. I’m so excited to tell you what’s coming in the new season!
More Unit Dreaming What started as a series has generated a lot of enthusiasm from listeners and unit dreaming guests alike. Additionally, the department teams I work with for my Curriculum Boot Camp events always crave more examples of unit outlines. So, unit dreaming episodes will be a regular feature of the show. I plan to start with one per month, and we can always expand from there. For more “What does this look like in action?” support around unit planning and building, my YouTube channel has a “Unit Planning in Action” playlist dedicated to designing sample units. If 5-minute walkthrough videos of examples is your thing, check it out! If you like a good challenge, follow or connect with me on LinkedIn, where I share a #UnitDreaming spark at the start of each week. Add a comment to tell me how you would build the spark into a unit or coach a teacher to build a unit around the spark. Or use it as a private journal prompt and develop what Dr. Gholnecsar Muhammad calls “curriculum fluency.” (Here’s our episode with Dr. Muhammad.) Don’t worry about missing previously posted #UnitDreaming sparks, you can check out all of the past sparks here. More Guests Now that I have a walkthrough/mini tutorial-style YouTube channel, I would love to make more space for the brilliance of guests on the show. Many guests record 4-6 months (or more) in advance of the episode air date because there’s so many awesome people to interview. Furthermore, I have declined to interview prospective guests because of my narrow focus on curriculum design during season 3. While I will continue to focus on things that will really move the needle for you within the topics I specialize in, I also want to bring back a focus on student voice and co-creation in the realms of unit design, yes, but also on “voice” in classroom discussions as an instructional practice as well as “voice” in co-creating school policies and participating in school governance alongside adults (which is my research background). More Flexibility I also want to be less rigid in my scheduling. I used to alternate solo shows and guest episodes in an every other week cadence. This season, I want to create solo shows as I have something important to share, and not feel like I need to record a solo show just to fit the schedule I made. This may mean some months have 3 solo shows and others have none. We’ll see how it goes! I want to hear from you! What do you think of this plan? Nothing is set in stone. (See “More Flexibility.”) And ultimately, I want this podcast to be as helpful as possible to you! I know there are podcasts I listen to that I think “I want more solo shows from the host!” and others where I want more guests. So, tell me what your ideal ratio of solo:guest shows are, share the topics or questions you want to be addressed. Feel free to reply in the comments or send me an email at [email protected]. Just so you never miss an episode…make sure you click or tap “Follow” on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for continuing on this beautiful ride with me. Here’s to Season 4! If you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 131 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 below. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02 - Lindsay Lyons I'm educational justice coach Lindsay Lyons, and here on the time for teachership podcast, we learn how to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice, design curricula grounded in student voice and build capacity for shared leadership. I'm a former teacher leader turned instructional coach. I'm striving to live a life full of learning, running, baking, traveling and parenting, because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings If you're a principal assistant, baking, traveling and parenting because we can be rockstar educators and be full human beings If you're a principal assistant, superintendent, curriculum director, instructional coach or teacher who enjoys nerding out about co-creating curriculum with students. I made this show for you. Here we go. In this episode, we are talking about what to expect in season four. I cannot believe it's season four already and I am so excited to talk to you about what will stay the same, what we'll do a little bit more of and what might shift a little bit. Welcome to the season four premiere. We are talking about new ideas, talking about how to do more of the good stuff, and I am just going to get right to it. I say this will be a short episode, but I sometimes ramble after I've said that and that makes that untrue, so let's see how it goes. So more things. I really just want a lot of more. So first, I want to do more unit dreaming episodes. This started as a series for the summer and it generated a ton of energy, excitement, enthusiasm, both from the guests themselves who were like, wow, this was such an incredible experience and now I have this really cool thing but also from people who have been listening, people who have had early previews of the episode before they've gone live. Additionally, the department teams that I work with in my curriculum bootcamp events. They always crave more examples of people going through this process. So we go through it as a department, but they're like I want to see either sample copies of unit outlines or I want to see people kind of grapple with these important questions that we're grappling with. I want to be able to trust the process, but I'm not sure that I can come in and do that like right away, same day. So maybe give us some pre-work and share an episode with us, share a variety to choose from that kind of thing. So I think this really will both support you as listeners, will support I say both three ways. Here we go. Both of them were you as listeners. Support the guests who come on and actually get to develop a unit with me and the, the paying clients just get like an extra boost and extra bonus. So I think this is like a three-way win here. And so unit dreaming episodes, I think, will now be a regular feature of the show. I plan to start with about one per month and we can always expand them from there. But I think having at least one per month gives us that consistent example or case study of what this could look like. If you are a fan of what this could look like in action kind of things, you can definitely look at my YouTube channel, which has a new playlist that I'm calling unit planning in action. This is really dedicated to me going through the process of designing sample units and parts of units. So, let's say, part of the backwards planning approach is like rubric development from standard. So how do I take a standard and develop a really cool rubric? Okay, then from there, maybe I get to a unit arc, and so I'm like, okay, well, I talk about the phrase build the base. What does a build the base, part of a unit arc? And so I'm like, okay, well, I talk about the phrase build the base. What does a build the base part of a unit arc even mean and how is it different from the hook or the social studies one I need? You know, I need a math one. I try to span a lot of different departments to just kind of scroll through and look at the different subjects. I also do think that the process is content agnostic. So even if you see an example of one that is not your subject area or a subject area of someone you coach, totally still relevant in terms of the process. So if you are a person who are like yeah, I listen to this podcast sometimes, or I like the podcast but I just don't have time for it all the time, I am more of like a five minute video tutorial person Definitely check out the YouTube channel. If five minute walkthrough videos are your thing like, absolutely go ahead and check it out. Another thing that I think you might like that is related to this. This is kind of like podcast plus. If you like a good challenge or want some interactivity where we can kind of get into the weeds with like what might this look like? Let's do a little mini practice. I have been sharing on LinkedIn under the hashtag unit, dreaming, all one word. Little sparks of inspiration. Maybe it's a podcast. I listened to an article. I read an image, a quote, something like that, and I'm like, hey, I think this would be a great unit. Someone go for it. Like, tell me what it is. And a lot of people have told me they're a little shy, they just want to like it. Or maybe do a private journaling with themselves. Like what would I, might I do? The spark is helpful for me in thinking about it, but I know that I want to comment so far and that is totally okay. So if you are a person who wants to comment, please tell me how you would build the spark into a unit, or how you might coach a teacher to build the unit around the spark that I've shared. Or you can totally use it as like a private journal prompt and kind of think to yourself what could this look like in my dimension or my role? And really what you're doing there is you're developing what Dr Goldie-Mohamed calls curriculum fluency, and I'll link in the blog post to this episode to the episode we did with her, which is just, she's so brilliant and fantastic. If you are a person who has a little bit of fear of missing out and you're like what this has been going on. I need to go scroll through all of the previous posts. You can absolutely do that. I will link to that as well in the blog post, or you can go to LinkedIn and search for the hashtag unit dreaming. Now, another thing that I want to do in season four is have more guests. Now that I do have the space on YouTube for the walkthrough mini tutorial style stuff for the unit development, I think I want to use the podcast space to just interview more brilliant guests, because people bring their brilliance to this. I mean, I learned so much selfishly from all my guests, and many guests honestly record like four to six months, sometimes even more, in advance of when the episode airs, and sometimes that's really inconvenient for them, and the reason is because there's so many awesome people to interview, but I've been using this kind of every other cadence and so we can only record so many, this kind of every other cadence, and so we can only record so many. Furthermore, I have had to decline, or have chosen to I should say, decline to interview prospective guests or people who get pitched to me as guests, because I want to preserve my focus on what's going to be most helpful for you. I will continue to focus on what I really think is going to move the needle for you and within the topics that I've historically covered right and the topics that are kind of in my wheelhouse and that I specialize in. For season three it has been really curriculum design and that focus will continue. But I do want to expand a bit back to my research background, which is in student voice and co-creation. So, specifically, we've talked about this a little bit in terms of the realm of unit design and unit planning protocols and how do we plan to really co-create the ultimate unit with the students. But how do we plan in advance so that we can have that space for co-creation? We've kind of done that. But what I've done in earlier seasons of the podcast like one, two early on, and I want to bring back and I also want to bring back honestly in my professional practice as well I'm really looking forward to working with some districts on amplifying voice in class discussions, for example, as an instructional practice Like what does it look like to do, you know, have a pedagogy of student voice, as Shane Zafira and Jamila Dugan talk about in their book Street Data, where 75% of the class time is students talking in a very deep, meaningful way. Right, the learning is deep, the sense of belonging is present, where everyone feels like they can participate all that kind of good stuff. As well as what my research background in terms of my dissertation research was co-creating school policies and participating in school governance alongside adults. So how do we get that for youth? And I would love to kind of expand that back out a little bit. And finally, I just really want to be more flexible, I think in all parts of my life, but in terms of the scheduling of the podcast, I used to do that alternating solo show, guest episode every other week, cadence. This season I want to create solo shows when up with something just to kind of fit the schedule that I myself made. I think sometimes, you know, this might mean that I have a lot to say or a lot of questions have come up with the people that I've coached and I want to share that with you. And and I think that is honestly where the best episode ideas come from is when it's like, okay, this is generated by people who are doing this work and it has been authentic and I want to just kind of bring the learning and extend the learning outward and bring it to the show. So some months may have like three solo shows and others might have none, right and we'll. We'll just kind of see how it goes and and I just want to let go of that like rigidity, and so I'm hoping that, listeners, you will be okay with the fact that it might not alternate every other. I'm sure very few people other than me even care about that. But I also, I think, as a last point, want to really I want to hear from you because I want to know what you think of the plan. So nothing is set in stone, right, as we just talked about, and ultimately, I want this podcast to be as helpful as possible to you. I listened to a lot of different podcasts and some of them I have been like man, I just want to hear more from the host. Like I love their solo shows and I get so much from them and I think they're trying to balance the you know, the solo with the guests and they just they. I sometimes think they're brilliant. It's just more in the solo shows and others it's like no, you have great guests and you have great conversations with the guests and that generative conversation where you build off of each other is the thing I want. And so, like it just depends, right, it depends, I think, on the listener, and so everyone might be different, but it also depends on the host and the type of show and the content and all of that. So I want you to tell me. You can email me hello at lindsaybethlyonscom. You can drop a note in the comments section of this blog post at lindsaybethlyonscom, slash 131. And, as a final note, as you're listening in your little podcast platform right now, if you could just hit that follow button on your podcast platform, that will make sure that you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for continuing on this beautiful ride with me. Here is to season four. Let's do this. If you like this episode, I bet you'll be just as jazzed as I am about my coaching program for increasing student-led discussions in your school. Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan talk about a pedagogy of student voice. In their book Street Data they say students should be talking for 75% of class time. Do students in your school talk for 75% of each class period? I would love for you to walk into any classroom in your community and see this in action. If you're smiling to yourself as you listen right now, grab 20 minutes on my calendar to brainstorm how I can help you make this big dream a reality. I'll help you build a comprehensive plan, from full day trainings and discussion protocols like Circle and Socratic Seminar to follow up classroom visits where I can plan, witness and debrief discussion-based lessons with your teachers. Sign up for a nerdy, no-strings-attached brainstorm. Call at lindsaybethlyonscom. Slash contact. Until next time, leaders, think big, act brave and be your best self. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast Network Better today, better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there. Explore more podcasts at teachbettercom. Slash podcasts and we'll see you at the next episode.
See how you can unit plan using math and justice connections in this video:
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AuthorLindsay 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. Archives
March 2025
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