Moving From Self-Care to Collective Care

Teach Better TeamBlog, Connect Better, Engage Better, Innovate Better, Lead Better, Manage Better, Self Care Better

TL;DR: While self-care is important, it has become a way of shifting the responsibility, whilst putting more work on the shoulders of already overwhelmed educators. Mutual aid is collective coordination to meet each other’s needs. Collective care removes the responsibility from the shoulders of individual teachers and shifts the onus to the school, district, and educators as a collective group. … Read More

Breaking Down Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice

Teach Better TeamBlog, Connect Better, Lead Better

TL;DR:  Diversity, equity, and inclusion must also include justice. Schools are smaller microcosms of our world, and include power dynamics that communities need to make sense of in order to shift from diversity and inclusion to equity and justice.  This past week’s Daily Drop In theme was equity and inclusion. This is a topic close to my heart and even … Read More

Teaching and Remembering 9/11 Twenty Years Later

Teach Better TeamBlog, Lesson Plan Better, Teach Further

TL;DR: Never Forget: Teaching 9/11 twenty years later. This post shares ideas on how to include September 11th in your classroom through a trauma-informed lens. Remembering September 11, 2001 Almost everyone I grew up with has a story related to the attacks of September 11th. Some of the kids I went to school with or grew up with lost relatives, … Read More

Episode #122: Being an Advocate and Champion for Equity with Traci Browder

Barbara BrayRethinking Learning Podcast

Episode #122- Being an Advocate and Champion for Equity with Traci Browder

 Traci Browder, M.Ed. is a trailblazer in education inspiring and mentoring teachers and changing the lives of children for more than 17 years. Traci is known best for her innovative, out-of-the-box teaching style with a mixture of Montessori, gifted/talented, and special services all rolled into one classroom environment. Her Kindergarten classroom is a live learning lab in which teachers … Read More

What Are Book Deserts?

Teach Better TeamBlog, Connect Better, Engage Better

TL;DR: A book desert is defined as a “geographic area with limited access to age-appropriate books, print materials and reading culture.”  Reading requires time and access to materials. Students have a right to quality, diverse, and robust selections of books. Consider representation in reading materials. Readers who can see themselves in books are more likely to pick up more books. What is … Read More