School Supplies: Resources for the Reflective Educator

I live across the street from my school and many of my students live in the blocks surrounding my home. I see them after school, on the weekends and throughout the summer and the decision to be both an educator in and member of this community has been a choice that I have never regretted but one that I think about often. It is clear to me that though I am acquiring the language of east Denver and though I can navigate conversations around violence, poverty and inequity within my school and my community I will never truly know what it means to live as many of my students do nor will I ever pretend that I completely understand how life works in this community for them.  It has become apparent to me that my students and myself share the same street name but we live in very different neighborhoods. My neighborhood is one of proximity to amenities, rising home values and a future full of choice for my own children while the neighborhood my students live in is often underserved,  o...

Meeting invitations, calendar requests and to-dos filled my email this afternoon when I checked it for the first time since late December. I was not at all surprised when I saw these requests the morning because busyness to initiate a semester is one of the very typical rhythms of a school year but the shotgun blast of school-based reforms that occur in January can become band aids if they are not based on all the work already done throughout the first semester. The first five months of a school year are completely different than the second five months and the students that we met in August and the classes we established connections with in September are completely different than they are now. All too often educators in all positions create, change and recalibrate in January with the intention of doing better by students and even in that work end up with the same pitfalls and problems just weeks into the second semester. The answer to this issue is not more action but more reflection...