Teachers who establish meaningful relationships with their students should be celebrated and modeled after. However, social media has a way of turning any narrative on its head; making teachers overnight sensations for sharing...
Tag - Black teachers
For many schools, having a Black man in their buildings often means having a disciplinarian in their school to supervise Black students, particularly Black male students. Sometimes, schools specifically hire Black men to dole out...
The late, great John Thompson contributed more than college basketball wins. Much more. Black educators are incredibly important to the success of Black students. Black students who have had at least one Black teacher are...
George Floyd, gasping for air, uttered a desperate final plea that was heard around the world: “I can’t breathe.” The image of a black man dying under the knee of a white cop is horrific — and symbolic of the racism...
Dear Freedom School Literacy Team 2020, Across the nation, we started the summer of 2020, lighting up the streets with rage. We rage for George Floyd’s senseless strangulation. We rage for Ahmaud Arbery, who was hunted...
If you take the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, add the massive Black-white wealth gap, and then mix in America’s ungodly lack of social safety nets; Black families are about to be served a hellacious helping of...
Late this winter, just before the world turned upside down, we sat down with two people we admire. Sharif El-Mekki, 26-year veteran educator, founded the Center for Black Educator Development. Mario Shaw, newer to the game but...
Teaching is one of my greatest gifts. Seeing my mother’s life’s work as a teacher in Dekalb County created my blueprint for what the life of a “game-changer” looks like, and the many influential teachers I experienced...
Pennsylvania’s teacher roster is the least diverse in the nation; less than 5 percent of Pennsylvania’s teachers are people of color, according to the state Department of Education. Yet evidence regularly points to the...
Have you ever sat in a staff meeting where the tension was so thick you can cut it with a knife, where you were not sure if a comment would spark an all-out race riot amongst teachers? Well, three years ago I sat in...