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What does instruction look like for the hybrid model  (students online and in school ) ELA block for teachers that need to teach both at the same time?

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What does instruction look like for the hybrid model  (students online and in school ) ELA block for teachers that need to teach both at the same time?

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This is an informative website that shares tools, articles, and videos that support changes in Structural Racism in our school communities, culture and curricula!

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Racial Equity Tools offers tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working for racial justice at every level -in systems, organizations, communities, and the culture at large.

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I am wondering how to connect with teachers and help them experience success when they struggle to move beyond: the idea that this year will not open traditionally,  or that they may be required to record video lessons, etc.

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I am wondering how to connect with teachers and help them experience success when they struggle to move beyond: the idea that this year will not open traditionally,  or that they may be required to record video lessons, etc.

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The schools are closed for the foreseeable future, even the rest of the school year in some places. Distance learning has suddenly become our way of life, and students need to continue learning even though they're at home. You may think that reading workshop only works in a classroom setting, but this post will tell you how you can use reading workshop for distance learning.

Reading Workshop for Distance Learning

If you're not familiar with the structure of a reading workshop lesson, check out this post to learn more about how it works. We are going to talk about how to set up each part of your lesson for distance learning.

Mini Lesson

The first part of your reading workshop lesson is the mini lesson. This is where you deliver new content to your students or review something they've already learned.

Find out more about planning a mini lesson.

How does this work for distance learning?

You can deliver the mini lesson to your students through a Facebook Live video or a Zoom session if you want them to be able to interact with you live. You can ask them questions and they can type their answers in the comments or the chat box.

Another option would be to record your mini lesson using Screencastify and upload it to Google Classroom or whatever platform you're using to deliver assignments to your students.

Just create an anchor chart showing the reading strategy you want to teach. Then, choose a picture book to model the strategy. Deliver the lesson just like you would in the classroom. Your students will love seeing you, and sticking with a familiar routine will be comforting for them.

Independent Reading

The next part of reading worskhop is independent reading. This is where your students will read a book at their level to practice the reading strategy you taught in the mini lesson.

At the end of your mini lesson, tell your students to find a comfy spot to read at home. They should read for at least 30 minutes a day. This reading time is so important even while school is closed.

While they are reading, they should practice the strategy from the mini lesson. You can send them an assignment through Google Classroom where they share how they used the day's reading strategy. You could also have them create a video on Flipgrid telling about the work they did during independent reading.

One challenge to independent reading is the fact that your students might not have a lot of books at home. Here are some ways to solve this problem:

Epic! Books - Epic! Books is a website that is completely free for teachers. There are thousands of books your students can read from home. Just set up an account and enter your students' names. Invite their parents, and they will be able to access the books anytime at home.

Reading A-Z - If your school has access to Reading A-Z, you can assign your students leveled readers to use during independent reading time. That way, you can make sure that their books are "just right" for them.

ReadWorks / Freckle - Both of these websites have articles your students can read to practice the reading strategies.

Remember, the goal is just to have your students reading while they're at home. Whether it's a full book or short articles, the more reading they do while the schools are closed, the better prepared they will be when we go back to school.

Conferences / Strategy Groups

Normally while the students are reading independently, you would have conferences with individual students and strategy groups with small groups. This is the hardest part to recreate for distance learning.

Here are some ideas:

Zoom Meetings / Google Hangouts / Microsoft Teams - Through these platforms, you are able to meet one-on-one or in small groups with your students. Set up a time and schedule a meeting with them. During that time, you can work with them on a specific reading skill.

Screencastify or other video recording software - Have your students create videos of themselves reading aloud and discussing the reading strategy. Then you can send them written feedback or a video telling them what they did really well and modeling something they can work on until their next conference.

Even if you can't do the conferencing and strategy groups part of reading workshop from home, the mini lesson and independent reading time will help your students progress with their reading skills and keep them from sliding backwards during this time away from school.

Share

The last part of the reading workshop lesson is the share where your students tell their classmates about how they applied the reading strategy. You can create a discussion thread in a Facebook Group, in Google Classroom, or through Flipgrid videos where your students can share their work.

To find out more about using reading workshop for distance learning, join the Rock the Reading Workshop Facebook Group.

What Do You Think?

What resources are you using for distance learning?

Let me know in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this post and think your teacher friends will, too, please click the button to share it on your favorite social media platform.

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How to Use Reading Workshop for Distance Learning | Teach Without Tears

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The schools are closed for the foreseeable future, even the rest of the school year in some places. Distance learning has suddenly become our way of life, and students need to continue learning even though they're at home.

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Aside from her plugging her TpT products, a lot of what she says makes sense.  This would ease lots of minds--whether it just affirmed current practices are effective, while offering some new and vetted strategies.  

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Aside from her plugging her TpT products, a lot of what she says makes sense.  This would ease lots of minds--whether it just affirmed current practices are effective, while offering some new and vetted strategies.  

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"How do you do reading workshop with distance learning?" This was actually a question I got recently in a text from a colleague. We had just been informed that we were moving to online teaching and were discussing what's on the minds of many of us these days. How will it all work?

When I told him that I wasn't too worried about delivering daily lessons to my students, that's when he asked the question about online reading workshop. Not a problem, I told him. Living in Canada, where we get lots of days off due to snow storms, I've had some practice keeping kids working at home.

This situation is more long term than a snow day, but I'm confident I could use what I've learned to move reading workshop online. Here's what I'd do:

(Note: I know that not all students will have Internet access. What follows is for those who do. Any of my students who are not online will get packets of the handouts I usually use in class).

Access to books at home:

First of all, let's deal with a pretty important issue: access to books. If your students don't have books at home - or a way to get them - reading workshop online is not going to be easy. Luckily, my district has all of our workshop selections available in e- and audiobooks, so my kids can still get lots of great titles online. If you don't have something like that, there are companies that have waived their monthly fees and students can sign up without inputing credit card information. SCRIBD is one of them, and they have a wide variety of titles that kids can access. Newsela is also offering free access to teachers if you want to use nonfiction articles.

Compacting Outcomes: zero in on what's important:

With online reading workshop we can't do all of the things that we did face-to-face, so we need to decide what to drop and what to keep. Hopefully your district will be giving you guidance on this, but if they are not, you just need to think about the skills you want your students to have for next year.

For me love of reading tops that list, and bogging students down with too many tasks is not going to foster that. I think this is very important to consider when they are at home and we can't motivate them with some of our usual classroom activities.

So I plan to replicate the workshop format but to do so in a way that keeps everything simple and focused. Every day I will ask the kids to read, and a couple of times a week, I will give them a writing prompt to do based on their reading. (I've converted my Writing Prompts for Independent Reading to Google Slides so if you own those, you can download again to access that option. I also have a digital option for my Independent Reading Stations).

I will provide short mini-lessons that focus on one skill or concept; then kids will be instructed to read their novels and apply the skill. After several lessons spanning over two weeks, I'll give them an assignment to do.

Use slideshows or videos that kids can read/view at any time

I'm going to keep my online reading workshop pretty low-tech and use my slideshows to replace me. In my mini-lessons the text will be my voice, and the kids can click through them at whatever rate works best for them. In a way, it's better than a face-to-face lecture: those who "get it" can click through quickly and get to the task; those who need a little more time to absorb and think about the instruction and examples can do so. They can also do these on their own time, rather than all of us meeting at a certain time of day.

Once students have gone through the mini-lesson, they will read and do a task based on the lesson. The slide above is from one that focuses on how writers use dialogue to develop character. Students will have to read for fifteen minutes and note places where this happens in their book.

They will also get a slide that explains what I want them to do and then submit, as well as ones with examples of what that looks like.

Each of my lessons will focus on a different way that writers develop character: the way they speak, their thoughts, their actions/reactions, and what others say about them. By the time they work through each one, they will have an excellent understanding of how a character is developed in their novels. You can check out my lessons here.

After our look at character, we will start to look at how writers use them to develop themes - as well as the many other ways they get messages across to their readers.

What if the kids are all in different places in their novels?

That's an excellent question - and I'll answer it the same way I do with face-to-face teaching: it doesn't matter! All of my lessons are designed so that kids can do them no matter where they are in their novel. If I do a lesson on how point of view affects our understanding of a character, students can read and look for examples of this whether they are on page ten or 110.

What about conferencing with distance learning?

Do it if you need to - or if you want to. If you feel like it's the best way to keep your kids accountable, then you can set up online meetings using whatever technology you are comfortable with. Or, you can give yourself and your students permission to let this part of workshop go. I know it's an important one, but it may be harder to make work from home. It's ok. These are special times and we have to adapt.

If you do choose to have an online conference, just keep on doing what you did in class. Get the kids hooked up digitally and have a chat. It's also a great time to connect and make sure they are doing ok.

And book talks? How do I do them?

You can no longer stand in front of your students and enthusiastically promote a book you are holding in your hand. However, you can still do that on video. But what if you don't have anything new at home? Find reviews on Goodreads or Amazon, choose a few and record yourself telling the kids about them and why you think they sound intriguing. Send them the link if you can find it on SCRIBD and they can immediately add it to their collection.

Another thing you can do is ask kids to write or record book talks that they can share with the rest of the class. This can double as an assignment so you can kill two birds with one review.

You can also get kids to gather in a virtual group to talk about the books they are learning. Facilitate and join a Google Hangout or Zoom meeting where you can observe their discussion. You can give them specific tasks to discuss or, with a more independent group, just let them go to it!

If my kids were in class, I'd be putting them in groups and using these task cards. However, now that we are doing everything online, I would post a document with the topics from the cards that I want the kids to use.

If using something like Zoom or Google Hangouts just won't work with your students, you can create a Google Doc and ask them to "chat" about their books on there.

Assignments and Assessments:

I'm not feeling stressed about this because I will still have my students pass their work in through Google Classroom. However, just like in the "old" days, I won't be grading everything. They will get completion grades or feedback for doing the daily (or weekly) work, and then they will have an assessment at the end of the unit. And these units will likely be much shorter than they have been in the past.

Let me show you how I think it will work (The reality is that I won't know for sure until we've done it!)

At the beginning of the week I will send my students the series of lessons on character and ask them to do three a week for the next two weeks. They will have to submit the work for three of the lessons by Friday. I considered asking them to do them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I thought I'd like to offer more flexibility. Mine is not the only course they will be working on, so maybe they will want to do a little bit of English each day, or devote one day to reading and doing all of the assignments at once. By asking for the work on Friday, I give them options.

At the end of the two week unit, I'll ask them to choose one character trait and then write a one page analysis of how their author develops this trait, using multiple methods of characterization. They will be able to use all of the evidence and quotations that they collected over the previous days - so the daily lessons are a form of scaffolding to get them to the assessment that counts.

You could also instruct your students to use what they've learned to write a short narrative that develops a character if you prefer that they do some creative writing.

Preventing Copying & Cheating:

If I had the answer for this, I'd be a gazillionaire. Unfortunately, the Internet has made it infinitely easier for kids to copy and cheat. Expecting them to do this all on their own at home is probably going to increase the number of those who do. We just can't change that. I've spent many hours stressing about this in the past, but for this very special situation we are in, I'm just going to have to let it go. There are other things I need to spend our time and energy on.

That doesn't mean that I won't address it. I plan to "speak" to my kids and explain to them that I trust that they will make wise choices and to do what's best for them. We all need to work together to make our way through a bad situation, and if they cheat and take the easy way out then they are only hurting themselves even more when it comes to being prepared for next year.

I'll leave it at that and hope for the best. I'll control the things I can right now.

I hope this long post has helped answer some of your questions about online reading workshop. If it hasn't feel free to reach out and I'll try my best to answer! Take care and stay safe!

Other Products That Could Help with Online Reading Workshop:

Writing Prompts for Independent Reading If you already own this, the option to use it via Google Drive has been added to it.
Informational Texts for Distance Learning
You can also sign up for other remote teaching ideas (all free!) here.

If you would like to get my characterization mini-lessons for distance learning, you can check them out here. They are also now part of my Literary Elements Lessons and Reading Workshop Bundle , in case you already have them. OR, if you would like a whole pile of lessons, activities, and strategies that you can use to run your reading workshop, whether it's face-to-face or online, you can sign up for my new membership. It will be released sometime in July 2020 and you can sign up to be notified here.

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How to do Reading Workshop with Distance Learning - Learning in Room 213

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"How do you do reading workshop with distance learning?" This was actually a question I got recently in a text from a colleague. We had just been informed that we were moving to online teaching and were discussing what's on the minds of many of us these days.

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I am also really focused on how best to support literacy best practices using virtual and/or hybrid format. Thinking deeply about what resources to share, model workshop lessons to offer a concrete example, and finally how to run tailored PD to this new style of teaching and learning.

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This blog post from Jan Burkins talks about how even face-to-face learning is distance learning this year: https://www.drjanburkins.com/blog/virtually-face-to-face-its-all-distance-learning

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I am wondering about integrating SEL with literacy instruction to meet students' emotional and academic needs.

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How can coaches, administrators, and school-based mental health professionals provide for teachers' emotional needs so teachers can be present for students?

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I bet some of you are reading this thinking I've lost my mind. Prioritize myself? But, we're in a global pandemic! I'm a teacher! I must prioritize my my own children, my elderly parents, my students! Now is the time to take care of others! I'm fine. Well, I now have a different take on it.

Image: Huddart Park, Woodside, CA. Lyrics by Linda Creed, 1977, made famous by Whitney Houston, 1985

When we prioritize ourselves, we're not only modeling self love and self respect to those around us, but we're also better equipping and positioning ourselves to take care of our children, parents, students, and even other members of our community. When we don't prioritize ourselves, we can potentially develop unhealthy stress, unhealthy habits, and even an unhealthy mental state. In March and April, I actually fell into a really difficult, painful, unfamiliar mental space, which I learned was a type of adjustment disorder. Because of this, I realized I was not fully capable of taking care of others, so I needed to make a big change. Indeed, learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all. But, even though it sounds beautiful, it's just not that simple. It's not easy to get there and stay there- in fact, it is extremely difficult and often requires uncomfortable commitments and outside help, which eventually helped me. If it seems overwhelming or impossible, I urge you to seek help outside of yourself. It made a huge difference for me. In addition, perhaps reading about my mistakes from the spring may help a bit.

Mistakes I Made in the Spring of 2020

As soon as our shelter in place was called back on March 13th here in California, I jumped into what I thought was productivity mode. I sent my classroom families daily emails, spent hours trying to create perfect instructional videos, monitored my classroom discussion board at all hours, called my own parents to lecture them about staying home, and joined every single social Zoom to which I was invited.

I eventually learned those daily emails to classroom parents became more of a burden on them than a help, the videos I tried to perfect were actually more effective the simpler they were, my students were not using the discussion board at all hours so my constant monitoring was unnecessary, my parents were already making good choices for themselves- my frantic calls only frustrated them, and that I needed to pick and choose which Zoom events to join- Zoom fatigue is real!

I completely burnt out, and in doing so I left no space for self love and joy for myself, let alone for those around me. During the past couple months, I've been taking a new approach, and will continue that approach as the school year starts.

What I'll Do Moving Forward As the School Year Begins

There are three simple steps I've adopted and will continue to apply to show love to myself as I officially start the school year on August 10th.

NUMBER 1: Start each day doing something I love and put a HARD STOP on the work day to fully engage in other aspects of life. For me, this means brewing a pot of coffee and going for a quick 15 minute walk or run in the neighborhood before I do anything else for the day. I find I am happier the more I move. I'll be teaching full distance come August, so intentionally moving before sitting down at the computer each day is critical. Plus, walking into the house to the smell of fresh coffee after a short workout is just heavenly. Running, walking, and coffee is not for everybody. What brings you joy? What might something you love to start the day look like?

Also, working until after 8, 9, sometimes even 10pm did nobody any favors in the spring, including myself. So, I made the intentional choice to put a hard stop on my school work day at 3pm. My workday starts at 7am, so putting a stop to it at 8 hours is more than reasonable. Of course flexibility will be necessary to accommodate occasional meeting needs and other events, but for the majority of each week, my work day will stop at 3pm, and I'm not hiding it. Stopping the work day at 3pm will allow me to better take care of myself, enjoy my family and friends, and engage in the things I love outside of work. Plus, it will also keep me refreshed and allow me to be my best self for my students at the start of each new school day. Later in this series, I'm going to discuss time management and how I will actually make my 3pm hard stop a reality. Look for that post on Tuesday, August 4th.

NUMBER 2: Say no and own it. One of the most effective ways to practice self love is to embrace the act of saying no. For many teachers, myself included, saying no to a request is extremely difficult. The last thing we want to do is let anyone down. However, saying no to the things that may drain our energy or use up precious after-school time will only open up more possibilities for the things we value and love.

For the school year ahead, I have personally promised myself that I will say no to the the following in order to open up space for more things that I love.

I will say no to...
- Any requests to sit on a district-wide committee- after all, I have other smart colleagues who will gladly fill in.
-School work on the weekend- whatever it is can wait until Monday.
-Any social events that might be more of an energy drain than an uplifting renewal- I'm looking at you, Thursday afternoon Zoom happy hour.
-Any favors or extras for those not in one of my inner circles: family, close friends, trusted colleagues, etc. I know I cannot be all-things to all people, so I won't even waste my precious energy trying.

Much of this may sound harsh or uncaring to some, but that's ok. I'm trying to focus on loving myself so I can be the best teacher, daughter, friend, sister, colleague, and self that I can be. I'm ok with saying no, and the people who matter the most to me will be ok with it, too!

NUMBER 3: Name what brings me joy, what drains my energy, and act accordingly. The simple act of writing down the things that bring me joy and the things that drain my energy has been incredibly helpful. I placed my simple t-chart list in a space where I will see it often. I'm consciously making an effort to do more of the things that bring me joy and less of the things that drain my energy.

When we were first ordered to stay at home, I spent way too much time on the things listed here than drained my energy. Not only that, but I allowed myself to feel guilty when I indulged in the things that brought me joy. As soon as I decided that guilt had no place in my life, I started feeling much better. Now, I have no issues with sitting in the backyard for hours at a time reading, binge watching The Walking Dead (there's something about a zombie apocalypse that oddly makes me feel better about our current situation), or going for a hike with my phone turned off. Creating my joy and energy drain list really changed things for me. I highly recommend making a list of your own- and, I'd love to see it!

My joy/energy drain list. I'd love to see your list as well!

As the school year is quickly approaching, it is more important than ever to to completely love yourself by not working obscene hours, embracing the gift of saying no, and naming/acting upon what brings you joy and drains your energy. After all, learning to love yourself, indeed, is the greatest love of all (cheesy, I know, but it's true!). As soon as we can embrace loving ourselves, we will have so much more to offer the other people in our lives as well- our family, our friends, our colleagues, and our students.

Further Resources

Post #2 is coming up tomorrow! Tomorrow's writing will explore the mistakes I made in the relationships with my students this past spring and what I plan to do to build positive relationships with my students once the new school year starts in just a few weeks' time.

All posts in this blog series will be housed here: 15 lessons learned for the 2020-21 School Year, July 20-August 7th Click on the follow this blog link to have the posts delivered to your inbox each day, or check back tomorrow!

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15 Lessons Learned for the 2020-21 School Year: #1 Prioritize Myself

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I bet some of you are reading this thinking I've lost my mind. Prioritize myself? But, we're in a global pandemic! I'm a teacher! I must prioritize my my own children, my elderly parents, my students! Now is the time to take care of others! I'm fine.

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Prioritizing Self-Care While Working From Home

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Prioritizing Self-Care While Working From Home

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Teachers adjusting to teaching from home while schools are closed may need to work out new routines to stay grounded.

atracurium_ / Alamy Stock Photo

As a teacher of online courses for many years, I've grappled with working from home. Whether we're planning and teaching virtually or managing projects, working from home for extended lengths of time can be challenging as work time blends into personal time. It's too easy to slip into being on call 24/7 as we tackle emerging challenges and requests from learners anywhere and at any time.

But setting boundaries that separate work time from personal time is only a first step. To help and support others, we must become avid caretakers of ourselves.

Tending to our personal health seems important but also really difficult in situations like the current pandemic, when our time feels consumed with urgent work issues. We may feel that if we don't get a task done, our students will suffer or programs will fail. However, if we become mentally exhausted, overtired, or drained of energy, we risk a complete shutdown mentally or physically-and at that point, no tasks will get done.

Fortunately, there are many ways that we can take care of ourselves so that we can meet the needs of others from home. The following are my suggestions for personal care and sharing with others. They are just suggestions: The most important thing is to think about the three areas-physical, mental, and social care-and do what works best for you and what you know you'll be able to do regularly.

Physical Care: Sleep and Exercise

Tending to basic needs is important for managing stress and replenishing the energy reserves needed for tackling tasks. Numerous studies reinforce the value of adequate sleep-seven to eight hours a night for adults. One value of sleep is that it helps " maintain many vital functions " of the body, giving cells and tissues worn out by daily life time to recover, according to a research review by the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Pair sleep with good eating habits and an exercise routine. It's no secret that exercise can promote good sleep, as well as provide the energy needed to perform throughout the day.

Maintain a routine that includes a consistent bedtime. Plan to get the rest you need so that each day you can better address your students' needs.

Explore sleep apps that offer real-time data regarding your sleep hours and patterns. Apps vary in accuracy, but they may capture a picture of your depth of sleep and wakefulness. The site Tom's Guide offers an updated list of sleep apps. Sleep Cycle is my current go-to. Some fitness bands include sleep tracking.

Establish an exercise schedule. This could include quick successes such as a walk or bike ride. I sometimes walk up and down the stairs in my house for 30 minutes or ride a stationary bike. Too busy? Set aside 15 or 20 minutes a day to walk or pace inside or outside.

Try out fitness apps like DownDog and Peloton, YouTube videos, or fitness console games like Just Dance or Ring Fit Adventure. An extra feature of many fitness apps is the ability to document your food intake, which can be important especially if you're concerned about stress eating.

Simple ideas for getting better sleep and regular exercise include:

Mental Care: Mindfulness and Learning

Set up blocks of time for work and family-but also for yourself. Loved ones see you at home working and naturally want your time. Share meals and walks, or other breaks from work, but while family and work colleagues both need your attention, protecting some personal time can help you recharge and be present for them.

Schedule activities that promote calm: meditating, growing spiritually, doing yoga, completing puzzles, or playing digital or physical games. I play Minecraft to relax and subconsciously generate ideas for creative learning. There are helpful apps that support a Zen state of mind-my favorite is Calm.

Try to keep learning by reading articles, listening to podcasts or favorite playlists, and watching instructional videos. Growing your professional practice and hobbies is valuable to rejuvenating yourself.

Social Care: Stay Connected With Others

Teachers are generally very able to keep track of time in the classroom, but we may be more challenged when working at home. Between lesson planning, researching learning experiences, and attending professional meetings, it's possible to forget to eat and stay connected with friends and family. Since a strength of virtual learning is access to the world, use those same resources for personal growth.

Stay in contact with family and friends by using video conference tools like Zoom, Google Hangout, Skype, WhatsApp, and FaceTime. Video meetings are better than a phone call-when you have a good connection-because you can see the people. Communication is more than voice-it benefits from facial expressions and other visual cues.

Have meals and conversations online with family and friends. Every Tuesday, my family has lunch with my parents using FaceTime or Zoom on a phone or tablet. Seeing each other and sharing updates really lifts my parents' and my kids' spirits. There are other avenues for socializing at a distance: Participate in discussion groups or book clubs. You might really benefit from seeing a smile, even if it's just on the screen. Social distancing doesn't have to mean social isolation.

We are role models for our students and our children, and we can set an example and practice what we teach about lifelong learning-which is now more important than ever. Managing our physical, mental, and social well-being can give us the energy to be present to those we are responsible for and set an example for them of how to cope with our tough current situation.

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Prioritizing Self-Care While Working From Home

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Teachers adjusting to teaching from home while schools are closed may need to work out new routines to stay grounded.

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What support structures can coaches put in place to be that "sounding board" for teachers in what is shaping up to be a stressful fall?

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What support structures can coaches put in place to be that "sounding board" for teachers in what is shaping up to be a stressful fall?

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How do hierarchies support or detract from learning in a community? Are there historical roles teachers take on that could be shifted. [Thinking about Self-directed education, democratic education, Childism] 

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How do hierarchies support or detract from learning in a community? Are there historical roles teachers take on that could be shifted. [Thinking about Self-directed education, democratic education, Childism] 

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by Kassandra Minor

As a white educator who works to build inclusive spaces with many teachers, students, parents, and shool leaders, I grapple with the concept of critical humility: the paradox of knowing and not knowing at the same time (European-American Collaborative Challenging Whiteness 2005). I accept that my knowledge is partial but continue moving forward with the body of information and experience around teaching and learning that has carried me where I am today. But it's hard. It's hard to be critical and humble when the kinds of systemic change our students need is urgent. It's hard when the folks I am coaching, teaching, and learning within the realm of equity and inclusion are trusting me, a white woman, to guide them toward affinity, understanding, and actionable steps. I'm supposed to . . . know.

As I move forward and back throughout the Black spaces in various school communities I've worked in, as well as within my own family, and continue to permeate the spaces I work in governed by whiteness, I find myself asking, How much do I know? How much do I not know?

One thing I'm sure of: I have not always questioned my actions as deeply as I should.

Recently, I ran a restorative circle with a group of student teachers who were taking a course on positive behavior management. It was the fifth day of the institute, and I was the guest instructor for the day. They were open and inquisitive and eager to think about how they might shape their future classrooms. Shortly after we began, I spoke about how the power of restoration is rooted in our own mindfulness, and that when it's continuously practiced throughout our own lives and in our classrooms, it is deeply connected to the types of learning our students will experience.

As an introductory concept, we started with a restorative circle. I instructed the student teachers to follow typical restorative circle proceedings: deep breath, relax, talk only when holding the talking piece. I showed the group three prompts I had carefully constructed, hoping to surface the influence of teachers' decisions on students' positive and negative memories of schooling.

What are some of your fondest memories of school?

Name a teacher with whom you associate positive feelings. Why?

Talk about a time you shared with a student or young person you are not proud of.

Five participants shared, and everyone talked about their fondest memories. I leaned in, smiled encouragingly, and took a deep breath; I knew I had to model what it looked like to be vulnerable in front of students. I shared a story that shows all the things my young, white teacher self might have talked a lot about but most certainly did not know.

A few years ago, I taught Rashid (name has been changed) along with two co-teachers and a classroom paraprofessional. Rashid voiced his opinion often, and just like any other fifth grader, he was curious about the topics my co-teachers and I introduced and asked lots of questions. Unlike many other kids in our school, he was the only African American student in the class, alongside our majority Latinx and East Asian student body.

Also unlike most other students in the school, during the first month of the school year, he was called the n-word by a Mexican classmate, resulting in a physical altercation that took place in front of the whole class. I didn't witness the fight, but even now, years later, I think about the racial trauma induced by that incident and how it must have deeply influenced Rashid's ability to be fully present and participate in our community.

There wasn't a lot of "before" in the school year when I think about the incident; what we all experienced was the "after," so that's what I'll describe.

Rashid spent A LOT of time at his desk engaging in a variety of activities, including sitting at it, sleeping on it, standing on top of it, and using it as a percussive tool. Periodically, he threw books across the room, refused to take assessments, shouted at all the grown-ups (and sometimes his peers), and attempted to leave the classroom. Although Rashid and talked often, his peers did not like to spend time with him, and his presence had the ability to send the whole class over the edge. Parents scheduled meetings, requesting their child not be seated next to Rashid.

We tried numerous "interventions" to support and include Rashid, including developing passion projects with him, creating an individualized adaptive schedule, fostering peer supports, and providing a school aide who worked with him 1:1. We even tried in-school therapy for Rashid and implemented whole-class group therapy with our team of guidance counselors. We were in constant contact with his family. Even so, nothing seemed to make a difference in how Rashid felt, performed, or participated, and by the end of the year, everyone involved was frustrated.

Like so many other young Black boys, Rashid was recommended by the team of adults who worked with him, including myself, to be evaluated for special education services. I remember one of our school leaders scheduling a meeting with me and my co-teacher, imploring us to reconsider the recommendation, saying that Rashid would be at great risk for being pummeled into the school-to-prison pipeline if he was given an IEP. Yet we insisted that he would not survive his sixth-grade year if he did not receive special education supports.

We ultimately fought for the evaluation, and it happened. He was classified with the "emotionally disturbed" disability label shortly after his psychological evaluation, a label that he will carry with him throughout his life in school, a label wherein Black students are more heavily represented than any other category. A label that will inform how much time he will spend in general education classes and that will inform the likelihood that he will be both victim and perpetrator of bullying (Samuels 2018). A disability label that in and of itself is not a condition but rather a federal manifestation of IDEA to describe a number of specific and general behaviors students demonstrate, including anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders, in addition to showing learning difficulties, hyperactivity, and aggression (Council for Exceptional Children 2018).

That was just one of the times with a student I am not proud of.

As I looked upon the very still and very quiet student teachers who sat around me in our restorative circle - many of whom were white like myself, most of whom will inevitably teach students similar to Rashid - in the spirit of restoration and mindfulness, I thought about what I could tell them that would have the most positive impact on their future students.

1. All behavior is a form of communication, and everything a child shows us in a classroom, whether it be reading quietly for forty-five minutes or jumping on top of a desk, can tell us what's going on in a child's body and mind and inform the decisions we make for them and with them. In retrospect, I think about how Rashid's behavior was indicative of a forcefield he had to create when everyone around him treated him like a challenge rather than a full human being who had a range of smartness and emotions. The racial trauma induced by one of his peers calling him the n-word at the beginning of the year created an unsafe space in his own classroom, where he was forced to spend most of his time. Even when adults try to help students, the protective layers created by a child to bar further hurt and pain are immense. Reducing the cognitive load and lots of patience can do wonders for sensitive student-teacher relationships.

2. If you are white, and your students identify as persons of color, be aware of that dynamic. I am white, and this is a thing, and it affects the interactions I have with all types of people, both positively and negatively. For white educators, this can especially affect the interactions we have with our young Black boys who come to school to learn and are instead treated as a "challenge" or a "problem" when they do not follow directions and color within the lines. When Black boys are responding to white educators in ways that schools have perceived as negative, know that those responses are typically symptomatic of how whiteness has responded to Black boys' general presence in society.

3. Restorative circles, other mindfulness work, and many other positive behavior management practices we create won't always go well at first. One general rule of thumb when thinking about teaching and learning is that for something to become a habit, it takes practice. Lots and lots of practice. Additionally, restorative work is more impactful when done proactively as opposed to reactively. I remember starting circles after Rashid's class was feeling super frustrated midyear. They were mildly effective, but I can only imagine how they might have gone if they were a practice we had initiated at the beginning of the year, how Rashid might have felt if we had honored his feelings in a better way.

Many of the students I support are children of color. Many of the teachers I support are white. Most of the students of color have ability labels defined as "emotionally disturbed" or "learning disabled" on their IEPs. The teachers and I work to create a number of positive behavior management practices in their classrooms, including restorative practices and other relational kinds of work to support their learners. I exclaim a number of times and in many different ways how we can think about a child's behavior as a form of communication, how we can examine the behaviors to inform our next steps. The teachers respond to me with simultaneous doubt and enthusiasm and agree to reflect on how it all went during my next visit.

I will tell educators all those things. We will have a vibrant discussion. And maybe something changes. Maybe there are some things we all know.

As a self-described critically conscious, inclusive educator who examines everything in the context of race, equity, and inclusion, I do know some things. I won't deny myself the body of knowledge I've built. But I continue to ask myself the questions that hover around critical humility: How much do I know? How much do I not know? and How can we break this loop of white educator, good intentions, Black child, IEP?

Perhaps the most salient piece of advice I could have given those young educators sitting in the restorative circle around me is this: You can read and research race, equity, and inclusion, and talk and recommend and try, but no matter how much one reads, experiences, participates in, and explores with, the mishaps made will be immeasurable unless we accept what we do know, and more importantly, what we do not.

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As a white educator who works to build inclusive spaces with many teachers, students, parents, and shool leaders, I grapple with the concept of critical humility: the paradox of knowing and not knowing at the same time (European-American Collaborative Challenging Whiteness 2005).