NPS Diversity Institute!

Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend the National Presbyterian School Diversity Institute featuring Rosetta Lee. I first encountered Rosetta when we were both presenting (about microaggressions) at the Asian Educators Alliance in 2016, and have been a big fan ever since! I also loved attending a local conference and meeting many early childhood educators who also work in the DC Metro area.

There were so many things to love about this institute. I especially appreciated being able to attend a session for early childhood (PK-3rd) educators, as so many diversity or social justice workshops seem to be geared for middle school and up. There is nothing like being surrounded by early childhood social justice educators to make you feel vindicated for all the times you insisted that third graders (or even fifth graders) are most definitely NOT “too young for this work!”

I also was so grateful for flexible collaborative work time on the second day of the institute and the emphasis on teacher voices and practice. I often attend professional development opportunities and then struggle to find the time to apply what I learned to my own practice, but this institute gave us time and resources to do so by allowing us to work together on our own (or collaborative) projects, questions, or ideas.

Some things I am still thinking about:

• Rosetta’s explanation that we should talk about cultural competency as the ability to do your best work with people who are not you and how it has to start with your own cultural self awareness. I will absolutely use this with families and love how clear, simple, logical, and true it is!

• Jones Model of Cultural Competence: you will never “get there” because it is iterative! The question you should ask yourself is not “are you there yet?” but “are you moving?”

• 6 month olds demonstrate an awareness of race - it is developmentally appropriate to talk about race with young students and sharing counter messages to stereotypes is actually essential before they learn bias from the world around them.

• How wonderfully practical prompts, advice, and tips from the day were. I especially loved the discussion about how to partner with and support families as there were many concrete examples (also from the audience of educators!).

• This incredibly helpful Inclusive Classroom Practices resource Rosetta shared. I hope to use it all this year and ask questions like:

  • Are these in place in my classroom? In my school?

  • Are they in place for students and teachers?

  • What about non-teaching staff?

  • What (relatively) immediate changes can I make in my classroom to be more inclusive?

  • How can I counter my own biases?

I also had a wonderful discussion about thematic Social Studies and how instead of memorizing facts or studying ancient civilizations without any connection to today, we should look for the why in history and think critically about the world around us. I loved brainstorming with other teachers about why is Social Studies so tricky?! I especially appreciated this reminder as I am working on fine tuning our Geography curriculum this summer (and remembering it will always continue to change harkening back to the “are you moving?” question!).

Two last reminders of amazing resources (I hope you are already familiar with them, as I was, but it never hurts to remember how useful and important they are): Teaching Tolerance Anti Bias standards and GLSEN Resources for Educators.

Please comment below with any other resources you use to help you keep moving as an anti-bias educator  - we'd love to hear from you!

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Reflecting on the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action

Now that February is ending (how is it already March?!), we are looking back to the beginning of the month when we participated in the nationwide Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.  When talking about something like Black Lives Matter with third graders, we work hard to make sure that the points of entry and examples are tangible, accessible, and developmentally appropriate.

As we reflected on Dr. Martin Luther King Day, anti-bias education is not something we do just one week (or day, or month) out of the year. It is something we try to do all day, every day as part of our curriculum, teaching philosophy, and classroom culture. The people we highlight and celebrate in our classroom day to day reflect the diversity of our world (just like we the teachers do!).

Image from https://wearoutthesilence.org

We started our BLM week by asking students: What do you know about Black Lives Matter? We showed them the image above and then had them reflect using an I think/I wonder chart on large notecards. We were impressed with the thoughtfulness of our students’ responses. They understand that “Black Lives Matter” needs to be explicitly said because we still don’t have equality (as you can see from a few of their responses pictured above).

We continued sharing images throughout the week as an image is a tangible and accessible way for our students to start a discussion or learn about something new. When showing a new image, we would ask: what do you notice? What questions do you have? What do you think you know?

This is a great way to incorporate social justice work on all levels into your classroom - always start with an image! Ask what students notice. Ask what they think they know. Ask what questions they have. They will often surprise you and will have space and time to think deeply and reflect in a meaningful way.

Later in the week, we read this article from Newsela about implicit bias in teachers and how black preschoolers are 3.6 times as likely to be suspended as white preschoolers. After reading the article, we had students write three statements (responses or questions) after reading it (one student's responses are pictured above), and then had a whole class discussion. This example (black preschoolers being suspended at far higher rates) is really helpful for pushing our students to move beyond the idea of history and past discrimination. It provides a way to explain systemic and institutional oppression through a concrete example. The idea of preschoolers being suspended also really upset our students. Many of them made connections to their Kindergarten Reading Buddies (who they read with once a week) and they were shocked that children so young could be discriminated against and suspended.

Another resource we loved (and are keeping until the end of the school year) was our “Black History Month” book bin! As you can see (above), it is bursting with books. Students enthusiastically asked to read books from that bin and recommended them to each other. Important note: these are obviously not ALL of our books about black peoples (or that have characters of color). We have many that infiltrate all other categories. This was one way to organize some books related to Black History Month and Black Lives Matter that really worked for our students.

We also did a read aloud of Milo’s Museum by Zetta Elliot and discussed the book afterward. During the read aloud, students volunteered to explain why Milo might be feeling uncomfortable, and said it’s racist because the painting is uncomfortable (referring to a painting of a white woman and a black woman who appears to be a slave), she’s the only black girl there, and she’s not in the museum! This was another tangible and concrete example of institutional exclusion. Students connected to Milo feeling upset about not seeing herself in the museum and many of them empathized (either through the read aloud or from their own experiences) with the concept that representation matters.

We culminated our week of action by asking students to write their own statements of what Black Lives Matter means to them, and why it is important. We told our students before they started writing that we would read and combine their responses into one piece for all of us to sign and display on our door with our “everyone is welcome here” sign. The process of taking all of their ideas and combining them into one overall statement is familiar to them as this is how we created our class contract.

After we received all of their statements, we spent some time paring them down and choosing parts that summarized overall ideas and came up with the statement pictured below. Finally, we had an  unveiling of our finished class statement and each student came up to sign their initials in cursive (which was a big deal because we had finally finished learning how to write all of the letter in cursive the week before!).  Some of our students also surprised us by creating their own Black Lives Matter poster as a small group and asking us to “put it up somewhere everyone can see it!” So today we have two posters up outside our door.

Did you participate in the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action? What resources or activities would you recommend? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Teaching Economics to Counter Bias

As part of our Social Studies curriculum, Gabby and I teach Economics to 5th graders (although next year, we are moving to 3rd grade and are developing a brand new geography curriculum this summer - stay tuned!). We are often asked how we do this and how we expect 10 years olds to understand something so complicated that many adults don’t understand fully. Our response: laying a groundwork in elementary school will help our students understand more as adults. Also, challenging and countering previously held beliefs only gets more difficult as students get older so it is essential that we explore the realities of money, poverty, and class while our students are still in elementary school and remain somewhat open-minded.

    Many of the activities we use in this unit sprang from our students’ misconceptions or desires to learn more. When we start this unit, we often hear variations of “people are poor because they don’t work hard” or “if people want more money, they should get a job.” We use a variety of different simulations and activities to try to dispel these myths. First, we simulate the distribution of wealth with classroom chairs, and then with baked goods. It is a lot of fun until the baked treat comes out, and then we hear about how unfair it is (and sometimes see some real tears).

My favorite part of this simulation is hearing the students’ reflections when they realize that we really are only giving baked goods to the students designated as the “top 10%” of the income bracket (everyone else gets crumbs - use the link above to read more details). At first, they think it is a joke or that we are making a point, but will give treats to everyone eventually. No. We are dividing the doughnuts (or brownies, or cookies) the way wealth is distributed in the United States. No exceptions.

This simulation is also fascinating because it encourages students to share how, why, and when they think or talk about money. Many of them share that it is “rude” to talk about money and they worry it might make people uncomfortable. Once we give them some facts, however, they have SO many questions. They are shocked that a household income of $250k means you are in the top 2% and earn more than 98% of Americans (these statistics are from 2010-13, so they are not up to date). While these numbers are confusing and percents are relatively new to ten year olds, we have found that using the framework of If the United States were a Village of 100 People helps clarify the concepts for them.

Our next simulation is the Sinking Ship simulation. This activity has so many applications and teaches so many skills! Students have to think critically, negotiate, debate, argue, organize and so much more. They also realize their own biases when they think about which professions or roles they inherently value (senator, doctor, lawyer) and which roles they quickly discount (nanny, taxi driver, person who is currently unemployed). This activity helps our students think about power, wealth, status, and value. It’s also a reminder that circumstances can always change and humans should not be defined or limited by their experiences. Again, we often hear that the decision making process is unfair or biased. Our response: how does that relate to the real world?

This past school year, we wrote a new simulation inspired by our visit to Alta Gracia in the Dominican Republic last summer. It required a lot of planning as there were so many details to work out, but the end result was even better than we expected. We call it our Factory simulation and had the students in three groups: non-unionized factory members, unionized factory members, and office workers. You can read more about the details if you follow the link, but we found this experience really helped our students overcome the idea that “hard work” conquers all. They also talked a lot about the constant stress they were under and how not having health insurance meant they had extra unforeseen costs that could take their whole paycheck (if only I could lead some of our senators through this activity)! They also learned the importance of organizing before striking or protesting and how a power imbalance only makes those actions more risky and difficult.

Last, but certainly not least, we engage students in our beloved Pom Pom simulation which simulates privilege. We love this activity for so many reasons and it teaches us so many things about our students. They are always outraged with the process and often angry with each other (and us). I’m always amazed at how quickly the “wealthy and powerful” group moves into a defensive position of their role and how any suggestions of redistribution or helping the other groups are quickly quashed. I also love hearing the real world connections students make when thinking about who has power and privilege in our society (and who doesn’t).

    An important disclaimer for every simulation is that these brief experiences are NOT THE SAME as real life and whatever emotions you feel, it does not mean that you “know what it feels like” to experience poverty, oppression, discrimination etc. However, we find that students’ perceptions change after experiencing frustration and getting a (very) small glimpse into another perspective or experience. Our students frequently relate that our Economics unit taught them “things they never heard before” and we hope they take this knowledge and awareness out into the world with them! At the very least, we hope to encourage their capacity for empathy and ability to see others as human beings regardless of their circumstances.

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Why we need to talk about race

"It's personal."

"No one has ever talked about race in front of me so I think you don't talk about it. Ever."

"My parents have only talked about it once in front of me and they were REALLY uncomfortable, so I learned you shouldn't talk about race."

Earlier this school year, we asked our students what they know about talking about race. A few representative responses are quoted above. All of our students also agreed that race is confusing and they don't know much about it. We discussed how when something is confusing or we don't know much about it, the way to learn more about it IS to talk about it, even if it is uncomfortable.

So, this week was "race week" in our classroom. We started with a drawing activity, challenging students to realize stereotypes and expectations they've internalized without realizing, and continue on to learning about institutionalized racism and learning vocabulary and explaining concepts around race.

The drawing activity consists of us reading descriptions of various celebrities (we tried to pick people the kids would know) devoid of any descriptors related to race or gender, and asking students to draw the person they visualized. We give them ONLY crayons to draw with so they are forced to choose a skin color.

One of our student's drawings.

During the reveal process when we read the descriptions and showed them a photo of the celebrity in question, we asked them to raise their hands if they drew someone female/male or black/white/etc. Some students were very nervous even to raise their hands, and insisted they "didn't draw a race." There was a lot of discomfort, nervous laughter, and awkwardly looking away. Some students said they felt "weird" about their drawings. Others only admitted they visualized or drew someone having a particular race only after another student spoke up and said she was surprised that she automatically thought in stereotypical ways.

One student reflected,

"I thought I did not believe in stereotypes, but my drawings showed me I did."

We pushed them to then reflect on WHERE they were getting these messages and images from and reminded them of our Halloween investigation and all of the outside influences on our minds! One student wrote later,

"I used to think I wasn't racist, but now I'm thinking that it is weird that my mind was already being prejudiced beause I didn't think I was."

Next, we learned about racism by watching this video. We bleeped out a curse word and gave the students an outline of the main points to fill in, as well as stopping and discussing and watching the video twice (as they noted, she talks so fast!).  Students had a lot of questions about institutions and the idea of a social construct. We assured them that these are difficult concepts for adults and we would keep thinking and talking about them.  For homework that night, they read a Newsela article titled "For minority students, suspensions begin in the earliest grades" for a practical application of both institutional racism and intrinsic bias.

The finished charts from our "silent conversation." 

Later in the week, we had a class "silent conversation." If you haven't experienced the silent conversation set up before, you should try it and will love it! It is an amazing way to quietly and automatically build in reflection and responding to thoughts and questions of others.  We wrote stereotype, prejudice, race, culture, discrimination, identity, and bias down on sheets of chart paper. Then, we modeled how to have a silent conversation on the board and asked students what they noticed. They came up with: 

Be silent!

Write down your thoughts/reactions to the word on the paper.

Respond to other people's thoughts.

Show you agree with an exclamation point or you don't understand with a question mark. 

As you can see from the photo above, students had thoughtful and complex responses during our silent conversation. One student reflected afterward that writing instead of having to speak up really freed her to think of what she wanted to say as no one knew it was her writing and we were all just thinking of ideas separate from who wrote or said them.

Questions and thoughts students had after our silent conversation:

"I wonder why so many people think stereotypically. Even I think stereotypically without realizing it."
"I wonder how I can detect bias in myself and fix it? Also, I wonder if people naturally have prejudice or if it is something that is taught?"

In past years, we have had to explicitly connect this learning to present day issues, as our students used to think that racism was more of a problem in the past, like slavery or legally enforced segregation. They had learned a narrative that Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement "fixed" problems relating to racism. However, in the aftermath of the recent Presidential election and with frequent news of hateful harassment since Election Day (some in nearby areas), this year they easily made the connections on their own.

 

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SEED 2016: Seattle!

Gabby here!

I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to learn a great deal at the National SEED Project this past week. SEED charges itself with "creating conversational communities that drive change" and then trains facilitators. The newly trained facilitators (now me!) go back to their communities and continue the work of creating a space for intentional conversations.

I had an incredible time spending a week with the facilitators of SEED. There are so many layers to the program and so much that I am processing that I am not currently able to explain.

However, below are some key takeaways that I will be bringing back to my classroom (and life) from all of the amazing people and the awesome work we did at SEED Seattle 2016!

1. "Windows" and "Mirrors"

SEED uses windows as a way of seeing into a perspective that is new to you, and mirrors as getting to see yourself. We used this terminology to reflect on other's stories. Regardless of whether or not something was a window or mirror, taking the space to notice windows and mirrors was valuable and bonded us. It also sparked a lot of conversations within our community. In the classroom, I cannot wait to use this language and framework with the students. We believe good teaching is when students constantly get to see windows and mirrors of themselves and others!

2. Let it get messy (and REALLY LET IT!)

We did so much self reflective work at SEED.  Sometimes the reflection or conversation was joyous, sometimes painful, and always personal. In retrospect, I am so grateful for our facilitators who gave space and modeled leaning into arguments, confrontation, and taking the time and space to try again. I re-learned that while something can feel like a huge mess, that mess is actually one of the most valuable ways to reflect, analyze, and really truly learn something. We did some great learning as a group from the messes we made and then worked through together. More messes, please!

3. Timers.

They are uncomfy, rigid, and a little stressful. HOWEVER, they give space for more voices (or all voices) to be heard, and they can create an automatic space for airtime. Big fan.

4. Serial check ins.

This just means going around the entire group to see how everyone is doing or what they are thinking. These are done before a meeting or class period and end the period as well. I loved serial testimony as a way of hearing all voices. You need a timer for this or the prompt "one word or phrase..." in order for it to be efficient and effective. People can always "pass," but I loved knowing where everyone in the group was at. Sometimes, during a serial testimony, one person would say "Hopeful!" and another person during that same check in would say "Hurt". I found it important for the entire group to be aware of those differences and valuable as a teammate and community member.

5. More check ins.

I am now a huge proponent of setting time to check in with one another, and remind students (colleagues, peers.. Family members!) to circle back to one another.

Check ins can be about anything, for example check in about...

… something they said... (maybe a microaggression or something offensive?)

… consent to hug one another or touch someone's back...

… an odd signal you got from someone..

… how they are feeling...

More check ins all around, please! Check ins promoted honesty, personal growth and reflection, and ultimately more intimate relationships for me at SEED.

Finally, I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the training and Founding Co-director Emily Style's observation in 1981 and 2014 publications that,

"Half the curriculum walks in the room with the students, in the textbooks of their lives"

And that's it for now! 

Sending love out to all the amazing people I met at SEED last week! I am looking forward to co-facilitating a faculty SEED group at our school this year. Check back and see how I am doing and new reflections I have!