Creating Intentionally Designed Villages

We are thrilled to share with you that we are continuing our Leading by Learning series facilitated by Traci Browder and Dawn Harris in our weekly #LeadLAP chats.  Our time together is focused on taking steps to eliminate systemic racism and oppression in our classrooms and schools. 

Last week, our focus centered around creating your OWN #GritCrewEdu because doing the work of eliminating systemic racism in our classrooms and schools is not a trend; it is a commitment! In the words of Traci and Dawn, It’s a commitment of vulnerability, transformation, and accountability to understand and improve how we think about, talk about, and design instruction with an anti-racism mindset.” You can find a full archive of last week’s chat on #GritCrewEdu HERE.

GRIT: G-Growth R-Relationships I-Introspection T-Tirelessness

CREW: C-Communication R-Retrospection E-Equality W-Work

(Traci’s has a phenomenal podcast on the topic of a GRIT CREW.)

In our work this week, Traci and Dawn will take us through the process of designing intentionally designed learning villages.

Educating ourselves is only one part of the work,

Forming our #GritCrewEDU is one part,

Educating our students is at the core of what it is we seek to do.

As we work to create an antiracist curriculum for our students and schools, we must consider the voices we allow students to engage with in our classrooms.

How do we bring in diverse voices when we may not actually live or teach in diverse communities or schools?

The idea of “intentionally designed villages” will be important as we bring challenging topics surrounding racism and social injustice into our classrooms and our content each day. We don’t have to do the work alone.

There’s an old African proverb that most of us are very familiar with: “It takes a village to raise a child,” meaning an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. We wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of this beautiful proverb, but with one minor revision: that the village MUST be INTENTIONALLY designed.

As educators, administrators, and other education professionals, we must seek ways to bring diverse voices into our classrooms–and not just from the students’ seats, but from the front of the room. Inclusive classrooms should involve diverse teaching voices, too. 

Some questions we want to address this week are 

1. How can all stakeholders, regardless of race, contribute as diverse voices students hear in the classroom?
2. How can we build relationships while simultaneously building bridges?
3. What kind of planning do I need to engage in with others to prepare to open discussions in my own classroom about anti-racism?

We encourage you to take a few moments to watch this video as we prepare to join together again this weekend:

We want you to know that we are committed to doing this work. We are in it for the long haul. We hope you will make the commitment to join us. Thank you for being a part of this journey and a big shout out of appreciation to Traci and Dawn for their continued leadership.

With love – Beth and Shelley